Missing Molokai
man suffers
from dementia

His family says that he hears
voices that tell him to go places

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

Molokai resident Hattie Silva told her 72-year-old husband, Wally, to put his clothes and bag in the family vehicle for a visit to her sister's home.

"She went to lock the house and came back," said the Silvas' daughter Heli. "His bag was in the car, but he wasn't."

Wallace J. Silva, who has dementia after suffering several strokes, has been missing since he wandered away from the vehicle at the family's residence in central Molokai at 6 p.m. last Saturday.

Molokai firemen and some 30 relatives and friends have been searching daily over miles of gullies, dry streambeds and mangroves.

Heli Silva said some have searched further than six miles away from the home, but the search can be difficult in hilly terrain and steep ravines with caves.

"We pretty much covered the area, but we need to check it thoroughly," she said.

She said fire officials flew over the area for about an hour on Monday, and the family would like to see more time spent on a helicopter search, especially over dry stream beds and coffee fields.

Wallace Silva was raised in Nuuanu before his family moved to Kauai. He came to Molokai in 1958 and worked as a foreman in the dredging of water tunnels.

He later was employed as a houseman at Pioneer Inn until his retirement in 1991.

On weekends he enjoys fishing and spearing squid on the miles of reef fronting the family's home at Kalamaula.

Silva is able to walk far but unable to carry a conversation. He hears voices in his head that tell him to go places, Heli Silva said.

Silva has wandered away from his home in the past. But family members were able to find him, sometimes inside nearby churches.

Heli Silva said friends and merchants have helped to support the family by providing food for the searchers.

"We're so very fortunate to have people like this in our community, and we thank them for all their time and effort and all their pains and all their support," she said.

She said the family's hanai daughter 10-year-old Ka'uionalani Dela Cruz has helped to care for him since he had the strokes about three years ago. Now she is also helping in the search, and rides with Heli in a vehicle over hillside terrain.

"She's right there on it," Heli Silva said. "She says, 'Come on, Heli. Honk the horn. Call Daddy. Bring him home.'"