Search for Missing Boiling Pots Swimmer Continues

It is day three and the search continues for a missing 62-year-old woman who disappeared Monday evening while swimming at Boiling Pots, located along the Wailuku River in Hilo.

Hawai’i County Fire Department rescue teams are continuing their search along the river banks and via the air with helicopters searching for potential signs of the missing woman.

“We will normally continue the search for five days,” Captain Charles Spain told Big Island Now Thursday, noting that no signs of the woman have been located outside of the inflatable tube and noodle she was floating with before going missing.

Captain Spain says that dive operations have not been possible due to rushing river conditions, but crews have worked to rake through the river’s banks since Monday evening.

“The swimmers were floating on tubes in an area of calm before they were pulled into an area of rapids,” said Captain Spain. “The woman fell off her tube and was unable to get out.”

A man was swimming with the woman, but he was able to get himself to the edge of the river bank and pull himself out.