Missing Kauai
girl latest in series
of Internet lures

Kaylee Ruiz-Taira may have traveled
to Oahu to meet an online contact

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

Kauai police said there have been four cases of teenage girls being lured from home by way of the Internet since last year.

The latest case involves a 15-year-old Kauai High School student who is believed to have run away from home a month ago and has not been heard from since. Police said Kaylee Ruiz-Taira of Omao is believed to have traveled to Oahu to meet someone whom she first encountered on the Internet.

"The mom said she had been making contact with someone on the Internet," said Kauai police investigator Claire Ueno. "And we've had several tips through CrimeStoppers that she bought a ticket and went to Oahu."

"There's no evidence that she was forced to go ... but we're concerned about her welfare, what she's doing and who she's with."

Ueno said Ruiz-Taira had run away to Oahu to "meet someone at the shopping center" earlier this year but was caught by Honolulu police and returned to Kauai. In a similar case in February, San Diego law enforcement officials caught two other teenage girls from Kauai who were attempting to meet a person they had met over the Internet.

Officials from the state Attorney General's Office said though the girls said they were going to meet the male who claimed to be 17, he was actually 22.

Ueno also said that last year, another 15-year-old girl from Kauai caught a plane to Oahu to meet someone she had met over the Internet. Ueno said she does not know the date because the girl eventually went back home, and the case did not get officially reported to police.

"That one, she actually contacted her parents, and they told her to come home and she did," Ueno said. "We have no idea why this is happening."

Ueno said in all four cases, the only similarities between the girls were that they were all teenage females from Kauai.

Police describe Ruiz-Taira as 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing 170 pounds, with long black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with any information about the Ruiz-Taira case is asked to call the Missing Child Center-Hawaii at 753-9797 or 586-1449. Calls may also be made to investigator Ueno by way of the Kauai Police Department at 808-241-6739.