Tracking expert dog Pohaku begins search

Hawaii State Civil Defense’s tracking expert dog, Pohaku, arrived on Saipan Wednesday night and yesterday began his tough mission—searching for sisters Faloma and Maleina Luhk who have been missing since May 25.

As of press time, Pohaku and FBI and Department of Public Safety search teams have failed to locate 10-year-old Faloma and 9-year-old Maleina Luhk.

FBI special agent Tom Simon said Pohaku’s search yesterday ended at 4pm. He refused to disclose the areas covered by the search.

Before the search began, Simon presented Pohaku to the media yesterday morning outside the FBI’s office in Puerto Rico.

Pohaku, which means stone or rock in Hawaii, was accompanied by two handlers—Shay Walden and Kuma Davis.

Pohaku is a 2-year-old male black Labrador that has been successful in many search missions in Hawaii and other countries.

Pohaku is from the State Hawaii State Civil Defense’s Urban Search and Rescue Canine Unit.

Special agent Simon said the dog will be on Saipan for an open ended engagement, meaning he will be here as long as he is needed at targeted areas.

Simon said Pohaku’s length of search depends on the weather and humidity.

The special agent said during the search, Pohaku will be accompanied by handlers Walden and Davis, two FBI agents, and two police officers.

He said the targeted areas will be jungles, abandoned buildings, and houses.

Walden said she has been handling Pohaku since he was only 8 months old.

Walden said Pohaku is not only trained to find missing persons, but also to search for victims of disasters as well as collapsed structures.

“He’s a great dog. A well tempered dog,” said Walden, who is the search element leader for the Hawaii Urban Search and Rescue Canine Unit and works as a police officer with the Honolulu Police Department.

Asked how long can the dog work, Walden said it depends on the humidity, heat, or weather.

“We’re lucky to have Pohaku on board and hopefully this will provide us some leads in the case,” Simon said.

He said they are hoping that with Pohaku there will be leads and answers in this very troubling case.

“We also thank the State of Hawaii for providing this very valuable asset for our search on Saipan,” he said.

Simon said if they should find something in the search, they will generate a quick crime scene and the other agents, the evidence response team, will get there to actually process the scene to find exactly what is found.

He said in the search of an individual’s house they need a consent from the owner or a search warrant.

“We’ve not at this time seeking any search warrant. People have been very friendly in allowing to search their house for evidence. That’s great, we appreciate that,” he said.

Simon urged people that if Pohaku and the agents show up at their door, to allow them to come in, let the dog sniff around and move on.

“We are not doing this randomly,” he said.

On the information the FBI sought on a man with a distinctive facial birthmark, Simon said they got a ton of calls since Wednesday night and yesterday morning from the public identifying individuals with large birthmarks on their face.

He said they will be sending agents and police officers to talk to those people who have information about the man they are looking for and also those who fit the descriptions.

The special agent earlier emphasized that the person is not a suspect or a person of interest in the investigation, but who may help on a potential lead.

Simon said at this point their investigation is focused on Saipan considering that one of the first things they did was checking the airlines.

“The girls do not have passports, so international flights will be out of question. All domestic flights have already been checked,” he pointed out.