Hawaii Police Dog Trina Found a Missing 70-Year-Old Man, Then Greeted Him With a Lick on the Hand
K9 Trina's big moment came in a small, unmistakable gesture. In Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the 3-year-old Labrador retriever reached a missing 70-year-old man who had been gone for more than 24 hours and, according to her handler, licked his hand.
By the time Trina found David Arai, the search for him had already stretched across a large swath of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.
Officer Christopher Ross said Arai was on his back in bushes just off a trail when the dog located him. Arai, a 70-year-old man from O'ahu, had been missing long enough for police to classify him as endangered. The setting was vast, the daylight was moving on, and the search had pulled in multiple agencies. Then the dog made contact.
That detail, simple as it is, gives the rescue its shape. Arai was not discovered by chance. He was found by a dog trained for exactly this kind of call, one that begins with uncertainty and a location that is only partly known. Trina, a Labrador retriever from Sweden, had been brought in to do the work she is trained to do: follow human scent and locate living people.
Her assignment in this case started after Puna patrol officers received a report at 12:16 p.m. that a man had gone missing in the Volcano area. He had not been seen for more than 24 hours. Based on his age and information gathered during the investigation, police treated the case as one involving an endangered missing person.
Arai's son said his father knew the area's trails and often hiked by himself. That familiarity may help explain why the case was not framed as a simple matter of someone taking a wrong turn close to a parking area. Searchers had to account for a man who knew the terrain, had been gone for more than a day, and was somewhere in or around a national park big enough to demand a broad response.
The first important clue was not Arai himself, but his vehicle. Officers found his rental car, empty, inside Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. From there, the search focused on the surrounding area.
A search by ground and air
Once the rental car was located, the effort grew quickly. Hawai'i Police Department personnel and National Park staff searched on the ground, and a Hawai'i Fire Department helicopter assisted from above.
Those details matter because they show how seriously the disappearance was taken. Police had already determined that Arai was endangered, and the response reflected that. People were covering the park on foot while the helicopter worked overhead, looking for any sign that could narrow the search.
Ross, who is assigned to the Area II Juvenile Aid Section, brought Trina into that effort. The dog is described by police as a scent-discriminating canine and a live-find human tracking dog. In everyday terms, that means she is trained to pick up a person's scent and help searchers reach someone who is still alive.
For dog lovers, Trina's role is easy to picture, even without embellishment. In a case full of moving pieces, she was the specialist brought in for the final, most delicate task: turning a missing-person investigation into a location. Police said she joined the search in the park and, at about 7:30 p.m., found Arai on a trail about two miles from where his rental vehicle had been discovered.
Ross later gave a more precise image of what that looked like. Arai was not standing on the trail waiting to be seen. He was in bushes just off it, lying on his back. That helps explain why a trained dog could make the difference in a search that had already involved officers, park personnel and aerial support.
When Trina got to him, Ross said, she licked his hand. For a story built around a missing person case, it is a strikingly gentle detail. The search had begun with worry, widened into a multi-agency operation and ended with a dog making the kind of contact only a dog would make.
What happened after Trina found him
After Arai was located, he was carried back to the trailhead. From there, he was taken to Hilo Benioff Medical Center for treatment. Police said he was suffering from dehydration and exposure.
That outcome underlines why the endangered designation mattered from the start. Arai had been missing for more than 24 hours, and when searchers reached him, he needed medical care. The search was not only about finding where he had gone. It was about finding him in time to get him out and get him treated.
For Trina, the rescue also added to an already notable run. Police said this was the second time in two months that she had located a missing person. Last month, she was credited with finding an endangered teenager in Waikoloa.
She is only 3 years old, but her responsibilities are broad. Police say she helps with searches for missing children and endangered adults across Hawai'i Island. In this case, those responsibilities brought her into one of the state's best-known natural landscapes, where a man from O'ahu had vanished and search teams were trying to close the gap between his parked vehicle and his whereabouts.
The facts of the rescue are straightforward. A missing man was reported in the Volcano area. His empty rental car was found in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Police, park personnel and a fire department helicopter searched. Trina joined with Ross. At about 7:30 p.m., she located David Arai roughly two miles from the vehicle, lying just off a trail. He was carried out and taken for treatment for dehydration and exposure.
But the reason the story is likely to stick with dog lovers is the same reason it stands out even among search-and-rescue accounts. The crucial turn did not come with a loud signal or a dramatic piece of equipment. It came with a Labrador retriever trained to find people, a man hidden just off the trail, and a quick lick on the hand that marked the end of the search.
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