Noah Kekai Mina was lost on the West Maui Mountains in Hawaii
The body of a missing hiker in Hawaii was found just days after the rescue of another hiker lost in a Hawaiian forest.
A helicopter rescue team saw the body of Noah Kekai Mina in the early hours Wednesday morning about 300 feet below the summit of Mauna Kahalawai, a volcano also known as West Maui Mountains. The same helicopter company that found Mina was also involved in the search for Amanda Eller, who was found after she'd been missing for 16 days.
But the search for 35-year-old Mina ended differently.
"We brought our son, brother and friend home today, just not the way we would have wanted and prayed for," Mina's father Vincent wrote in a post on Facebook.
"We are so very sorry that Kekai has passed from this realm, he meant the world to us as a son, brother and friend," his family said in a statement on a page dedicated to search updates. "We find solace that he was found."
The search for Eller, a 35-year-old physical therapist and yoga instructor who headed into a Maui forest earlier this month, ended Friday. What was meant to be a short hike turned into more than two weeks in the Makawao Forest Reserve, and she was found after eating plants there and finding shelter one night in a wild boar's den.
At a news conference on Tuesday, she said she hoped for a safe rescue for Mina.
Mina's family called on "all those that extended their hearts and love to Kekai and to us, that you pause, and take a moment to love and hold those that are dear to you a moment longer than you would normally do."
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