Missing Big Isle
hiker found alive

HILO » A Texas man missing since Sunday night in the Big Island's lava flow area was found safe late yesterday, Hawaii County fire Capt. Darren Osorio said.

Gilbert Dewey Gaedcke III, 41, of Houston was taken to Hilo Hospital in apparently dehydrated condition after spending six days in the open, said his sister Tracy, also from Houston.

She got the call near sundown from a Hawaii Volcanoes National Park ranger saying her brother was OK.

"I thought it was a prank call," she said. "I was begging them not to tease me. My family can't take it."

Dewey Gaedcke had gone hiking in the flow area about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, leaving his car locked at the end of a rough gravel road that approaches the flows from the side opposite Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. He was reported missing the next day.

A tour helicopter spotted Gaedcke yesterday in an area about four miles from where he left his car, Osorio said. The site, called "Lava Trees," with mixed lava rock and brush, is near the 1,500-foot elevation, well inland and upland from the coastal road.

Gaedcke told rescuers that he reached a viewing spot on Sunday night but became lost and unable to find his car on the return hike. He eventually decided to remain in one spot and created a makeshift camp.

Gaedcke's rental car had been towed from the area on Tuesday because leaving it at the end of the road would have exposed it to vandalism, police Lt. Dexter Chaves said.

The Fire Department conducted a helicopter and ground search for Gaedcke, but in a slightly different area, Osorio said.

Police said all along that there was no indication of foul play. But Gaedcke's sister interrupted a vacation in Colorado Wednesday and flew to the Big Island after a nonprofit Texas-based group called EquuSearch told her they could not rule out foul play.

His parents also were to arrive in Hawaii today, cutting short a vacation in Turkey.

The sister had been suspicious because her brother brought $2,000 in cash to the Big Island but only $140 was in his wallet, found in the locked car. There was no immediate explanation of what happened to the rest of the money.

"It's always good when somebody survives," Osorio said.