COURTESY PHOTO Torey Newlin, 23, shown in this recent family photo, was last seen Feb. 14 at Wahikuli State Wayside Park on Maui.

Missing man’s family
hopes banner aids search

Torey Newlin, 23, disappeared Feb. 14
when he walked off after a rock concert

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

Family members of Torey Newlin say someone on Maui must have seen him before he disappeared Feb. 14.

And to help jog people's memories, the Newlin family is putting up a vinyl banner with Torey's picture on it, asking that anyone with any information about the missing 23-year-old call Maui police.

"We've basically gone through the worst week of (our) entire lives," said Tiffany Newlin, Torey's older sister. "We wake up every day just trying to focus on trying to find Torey and not on how upset we are and how devastated we are."

Tiffany Newlin said her family plans to place the 3-by-10-foot banner along Honoapiilani Highway today in front of Wahikuli State Wayside Park, where Torey was reported last seen, sitting on a park bench.

The banner will have a picture of Newlin, a Maui Police Department number to call if anyone has any information about his whereabouts, and the offer of a $5,000 reward if such information leads to him being found.

Newlin's friends said he was at a String Cheese Incident concert at the Lahaina Civic Center, located across the highway from Wahikuli Park, when he walked off after taking LSD.

Newlin was last seen wearing white shorts and a white puka-shell necklace and had no identification or money.

Newlin's father, who recently returned home to Texas after helping search for his son on Maui since last Tuesday, said he did not know that Torey had ever taken any hallucinogenic drugs. Still, he urges that all parents use his situation as an excuse to talk to their children about the dangers of drug use.

"If you have a suspicion, it doesn't matter if your kid is 5 or 30.

"You don't want to go (through) what we're going through right now," Charles Newlin said.

"Please tell kids it only takes one mistake. ... And to the kids that say, 'Hey, I'm doing this; this doesn't affect you,' just know that you are wrong.

"Because it's not just them; everybody in this family is suffering," he said.

"Now we've got victims all over the place."