FOUND

A wallet card inscribed with the prayer "My Rock" leads rescuers to a hiker missing for five rainy days

PRAYER led Barbara Whaley into the mountains of Hauula on Thanksgiving Day -- and her prayer card helped lead rescuers to the 58-year-old former missionary yesterday.

"Something we learned after all this is prayer does really work," said Jimmy Boyce, Whaley's son-in-law. "God must have ... been watching over her every single day.

"It's a godsend she survived this long."

Whaley had spent a rainy five days and four nights in the Hauula mountains before rescuers airlifted her from a stream bed. They took her by ambulance to the Queen's Medical Center in stable condition with some bruises, police and fire officials said.

Boyce said he and his wife, Maria, Whaley's daughter, had quarreled on Thanksgiving, which upset Whaley, so she decided to go up to the mountain to pray.

"I wish we hadn't, 'cause none of this would have happened," he said. "When I see her, I will say how sorry I am that this happened."

Fire and police personnel and seven police dogs were searching for Whaley yesterday afternoon when someone spotted slide marks off the ridge trail just after noon. Fire rescue workers followed the marks 50 feet below the ridge and discovered a card with the prayer titled "My Rock" along with some of Whaley's medication.

Down another 500 feet, Whaley was found lying in a stream bed, partially submerged in water, fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said. She had slid roughly 600 feet off the side of the ridge about 1.5 miles in from the trail head, he said.

After hearing the police helicopter, she moved her arm, said police missing-persons investigator Phil Camero. "That's how they knew she was alive."

Whaley was crying when rescuers found her, he said.

Camero said Whaley suffers from heart ailments, diabetes, high blood pressure and bipolar disorder, has had reconstructive surgeries on both knees and takes 20 medications.

"That's what makes this amazing," he said of her survival after five days and four nights.

WHALEY moved to Oahu from Oregon in September with her daughter, two granddaughters, ages 4 and 7, Boyce and his mother.

Boyce said jobs fell through and the six were homeless. After camping at various Windward beaches, they met the Kaaihue family at North Windward Baptist Church, where they had gone for clothes and a hot meal. Nina and Danny Kaaihue, who have three children, "adopted" the family of six, Boyce said.

Whaley and her late husband had done missionary work in various places, including the Big Island, years ago, Boyce said, adding that the family tried for about 20 years to return to live in Hawaii.

On Thursday, Whaley had borrowed Nina Kaaihue's cell phone and told her she was going up to the mountain to pray. Whaley called Nina to let her know she was on Hauula Loop Trail, had found a nice place to sit under a tree and was going to take a nap.

Hikers reported encountering Whaley along the trail at 11:15 a.m. Thursday and saw her an hour later snoring under a tree, Camero said.

Boyce said he, Maria and their two daughters had gone up Thanksgiving night to the trail head, screamed her name and decided to return the next morning.

Friday morning, a group of 12 family and friends began searching for Whaley. It was not until one of the group got attacked by bees and screamed that a resident called 911, which is how police and fire rescue crews got involved in the search.

Boyce said the family had planned to call police if they could not find her Friday.

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