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Luhk sisters vanished 11 years ago
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Posted on May 25 2022
Photo taken yesterday shows the makeshift shrine that the family of sisters Maleina and Faloma Luhk had built on the spot on Santa Lourdes Road corner As Teo Drive in As Teo, where the sisters were last seen as they waited for a school bus in the morning of May 25, 2011. The family will offer personal prayers at the shrine today, Wednesday, which marks the 11th year of the sisters’ disappearance. (Ferdie De La Torre)
It’s been 11 years already, yet there remains no trace of the whereabouts of sisters Maleina and Faloma Luhk.
Today, Wednesday, marks the 11th year since the Luhk sisters mysteriously vanished near their house in As Teo in the early morning of May 25, 2011, while waiting for a school bus.
Maleina and Faloma would have been 20 and 21 years old now as they had just their birthdays last February.
Maleina was 9 years old, while Faloma was 10 when they disappeared while waiting for the school bus at a bus shelter along As Teo Drive in the corner of Santa Lourdes Road.
Their disappearance triggered an islandwide search for a month by federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and drew many volunteers in the community.
Saipan Tribune visited yesterday afternoon the residence of the Luhk sisters’ grandfather, Elbert Quitugua, who had been taking care of the sisters in his house at that time. He was not home yesterday; it was learned that he had gone fishing. Quitugua’s wife said they will offer personal prayers today, Wednesday, at a makeshift shrine that their family had built on the spot where the children were last seen.
She said there is no development yet in the investigation as far as she knows.
As of press time yesterday, Saipan Tribune was still waiting for comments from the FBI.
FBI Honolulu Division special agent-in-charge Steven Merrill stated last year that they have been working with the CNMI Department of Public Safety for the past decade to find the missing girls.
Merrill said the FBI still considers the case an open investigation and remains steadfast in its commitment to finding the girls and exacting justice.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information regarding the sisters’ whereabouts.
