A 70-year-old hiker vanished inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, and a police dog named Trina found him two miles from his rental car, lying off the trail and barely able to move.
Story Snapshot
- David Arai, 70, went missing in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and triggered a search lasting roughly 24 hours.
- Hawaiʻi Police Department K-9 Trina, handled by Officer Christopher Ross, located him about two miles from his rental vehicle.
- Officer Ross found Arai slightly off the trail in the bushes, lying on his back, around 7:30 p.m. on October 19, 2026.
- Arai was carried out and taken to Hilo Benioff Medical Center for dehydration and exposure.
- Multiple outlets, including Fox News and Big Island Video News, confirm the same core sequence of events.
What Happened on the Trail
David Arai set out to hike inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and never returned to his rental car. When he failed to show up, family or fellow travelers raised the alarm, setting off a search that stretched close to a full day across rugged volcanic terrain. Park land in Hawaiʻi mixes dense brush, sharp lava rock, and shifting weather, conditions that turn a missed turn into a life-threatening situation fast.
Search crews from the Hawaiʻi Police Department, National Park Service, and Hawaiʻi Fire Department joined the effort, reportedly backed by a helicopter sweeping the area from above. Ground teams worked the trails on foot while aircraft scanned terrain too rough or remote to cover quickly by walking. Still, after many hours, Arai had not been found, and the search leaned harder on specialized tracking resources to close the gap.
How K-9 Trina Found Him
That resource arrived in the form of Trina, a Hawaiʻi Police Department human-tracking dog, paired with her handler, Officer Christopher Ross of the Area II Juvenile Aid Section. Around 7:30 p.m. on October 19, 2026, Trina located Arai on a trail roughly two miles from where his rental vehicle sat parked, according to the Hawaiʻi Police Department account reported by Big Island Video News.
Officer Ross described the conditions to KHON2 as difficult, noting Arai was slightly off the trail in the bushes, lying on his back when found. That detail matters because it explains why ground searchers on foot may have passed close by without spotting him. Dense Hawaiian brush can hide a person just a few feet from a marked path, which is exactly the kind of gap trained scent dogs are built to close.
Medical Response and Recovery
Rescuers carried Arai back to the trailhead before transporting him to Hilo Benioff Medical Center, where he was treated for dehydration and exposure. Those conditions track closely with what emergency medicine experts expect after a prolonged, unplanned night outdoors without shelter, food, or steady water. The fact that Arai was found alive after roughly a day missing speaks well of the response time from every agency involved.
Why the Dog’s Role Deserves Real Credit
Search dogs do not guarantee a find every time, but research backs up why agencies rely on them. A peer-reviewed study of ten dog-handler teams across 25 search experiments found dogs located hidden targets 76.4 percent of the time, with overall search effectiveness near 63 percent once false alerts were factored in. Dogs also covered ground far faster and farther than their human handlers during those same trials, which lines up with Trina’s two-mile find.
National Park Service data shows search and rescue missions are common nationwide, not a Hawaiʻi oddity. Between 1992 and 2007, the agency launched more than 65,000 search and rescue missions for nearly 78,500 people, and officials credit those operations with saving more than 13,000 lives that otherwise likely would have been lost. Arai’s rescue fits squarely into that larger pattern of coordinated response work paying off.
A Team Effort Behind One Dog’s Success
Trina deserves the spotlight she is getting, and so does Officer Ross for working alongside her in tough brush and fading light. But the full operation included police personnel, park staff, fire crews, and likely a helicopter team, all coordinating to narrow the search area before the dog ever got the call to track. That kind of multi-agency teamwork is the backbone of American search and rescue, and it worked exactly as intended here.
Arai’s case ended the way every missing-hiker story should end: found alive, treated, and reunited with the people worried about him. It also stands as a reminder that national parks, however beautiful, demand respect and preparation. A charged phone, a told itinerary, and basic trail awareness can be the difference between a scary afternoon and a 24-hour emergency search.
Sources:
people.com, bigislandvideonews.com, ground.news, us.headtopics.com
