LIHUE — The family of a Kekaha man missing for over a year remains vigilant in the search to find him. Richard Paul Agor, 35, was last seen by family in Eleele on June 8, 2013. He suffers from schizophrenia,
LIHUE — The family of a Kekaha man missing for over a year remains vigilant in the search to find him.
Richard Paul Agor, 35, was last seen by family in Eleele on June 8, 2013. He suffers from schizophrenia, according to his family, and the disappearance is out of character but possible if he is in a manic state. Family members say he is not dangerous to others but could possibly harm himself.
Agor’s sister, Nicolann Miller, said that technical difficulties kept Agor’s profile off of the Kauai Police Department’s missing persons webpage until recently. She is concerned that the internal networking issue prevented any postings on the site from getting to investigators.
“I discovered this when talking to federal parks law enforcement,” Miller said. “When they went to verify that my brother was missing with the Kapaa district, they found the information never got out from the precinct until the information was located on a separate system.”
The last tip the family received on Agor was on late November, when someone responded to a missing persons posting left at Kee Beach. The caller said someone fitting Agor’s description was seen in the Kalalau valley.
“My greatest fear now are rumors that he was murdered around the time we began looking for him,” Miller said. “These tips are naming people in the rumors, and we have passed this information on to police. They are not people that I know but supposedly my brother knew one of them.”
For the first year it was frustrating to get a tip about a siting a week prior to the call. There was never a same day reporting where the family could get on the scene quickly and search for him.
The earliest sightings reported Agor at Isenberg Ball Park and Kalapaki Beach in the months following his disappearance. More recently, the family reports tips putting him in the Hanapepe valley, Kokee and at Kee Beach.
Miller said she thought it odd that Agor would disappear into the wilderness without his backpack, fishing pole, and other survival gear.
The police tell her that such reports regarding murder without any substantial information from strangers is difficult to trust, she said. The officers tell her she may be taking information out of proportion.
“But all we have left are the rumors that he was murdered,” Miller said.
Agor stopped working in 2011 after he was diagnosed. He was staying at his grandmother’s home in Kekaha. He was to move to North Carolina and stay with his sister.
“The family is struggling a lot and his kids are really missing him a lot,” Miller said. “His mom and dad are really struggling with the very difficult rumors going around that he was murdered.”
Agor’s mother, Matilda Inouye, said the time since he went missing has been hard. Whenever they go out with his kids, they ask if they are looking for their daddy.
“We miss him and the children miss him,” she said. “They ask ‘Where is my dad? Where is he lost?’”
What is most difficult is when people talk about the murder rumors in front of the children, she said.
Agor is 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighs 165 pounds, is of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent, with brown eyes, black hair, a tan complexion and a medium build. He may or may not have a beard, and has tattoos including “Jamie’s Boy” on his right arm, a Tao symbol on his left arm, and an image of the Hawaiian Islands on the small of his back.
The family is planning a vigil around the time of Agor’s Birthday on Sept. 2.
Contact KPD Dispatch with information at 241-1711. Contact Miller at 631-6709, Nicolann.Miller@gmail.com