Cash reward reaches $50,000

The reward money just got bigger, with Bridge Capital, LLC chipping in an additional $16,500 to the pot yesterday to bring the total cash reward to $50,000 for information on the whereabouts of missing sisters Faloma and Maleina Luhk.

This came even as tracking dog Pohaku put in a full-day search yesterday—from 7am to 3pm—but still failed to find the girls.

Richard A. Pipes, vice president and chief legal officer for Bridge Capital LLC, said in a news briefing that they hope this increased reward will lead to new information coming forward—perhaps giving more people a bigger incentive to discuss the case with the FBI and the police.

Pipes said he and Bridge Capital chair John K. Baldwin have been talking about the missing girls’ case for several weeks now.

“We decided that this is the time for us to jump in and see if there is any we can do to help,” Pipes said.

Even though currently in Asia, Baldwin has been closely following news reports of the missing sisters for the past weeks, Pipes said, and hopes that increasing the reward amount may cause new information to be developed, leading to the safe return of the girls.

What is most disconcerting about this incident, Pipes said, is that someone on the island knows something about this abduction—whether somebody saw a car leaving the scene or saw some suspicious activity at a house or maybe one of the accomplices. In his opinion, there is probably more than one perpetrator.

“These people may have a small involvement in the crime. I think that this reward can be set up so that even accomplices can take advantage of the reward,” he said.

Pipes urged anyone having information to come forward and provide tips to authorities. “I want to emphasize we want the safe return of the girls. That’s what this is all about,” he said.

In a statement, Baldwin stated that it is hard to believe that the islands like the CNMI, which are so rich in natural beauty and culture, at times experience these types of problems normally associated with much more populated areas.

“However, there must be someone out there that knows something about how these girls disappeared and I am hoping that by increasing the reward fund, it will spur that person or persons to come forward and contact the [Department of Public Safety] or the FBI. I reach out with all my heart to the family of the missing girls as we all pray for their safe return,” Baldwin said.

Bridge Capital, LLC is an international investment banking and asset management company focusing on the United States, Micronesia, and Asia.

The other cash rewards were earlier offered by the FBI ($10,000), Pacific Amusement Inc. ($10,000), Elbert Quitugua’s family and an anonymous donor ($10,000), the NMI Crime Stoppers Program ($1,000), IT&E ($1,000), Sorensen Media Group ($1,000), and Rabby Syed’s Saipan City Association ($500).

FBI special agent Tom Simon told Saipan Tribune yesterday that they are impressed with the outpouring of support from Saipan’s business community in this troubling case. He hopes that the enhanced reward will generate tips that will help solve the mystery.

Simon said that they are getting down to only a few more locations that Pohaku need to search.

Although there has been no recovery of the Luhk sisters yet, Simon said they don’t regard this as “necessarily a bad thing” because they were able to eliminate huge parts of the island that they knew would have contained the girls.

As for the man with a distinctive facial birthmark that the FBI is seeking, Simon said they have a couple of last-minute individuals to speak to and photograph.

“The last few that we spoke today deny being in the As Teo neighborhood on May 6 and deny having any information regarding the girls’ disappearance,” he said.

Now that they have photographed all of the individuals with significant birthmarks, Simon said they intend to review those photographs with the witness who spoke to the “birthmark man.”

Simon, who is the FBI Honolulu media relations coordinator, is expected to hold his last news briefing on Saipan today, Tuesday, as he is going back to Hawaii. Simon has been providing daily updates of the search operations to the media since he arrived on Saipan a couple of weeks ago.