“His family misses him,” Samantha Higbee said about her husband, Kainalu Higbee. “We love him very much and we’ll continue to look for him.”
Kainalu Higbee was last seen in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, on May 7, 2022. His wife Samantha told Dateline the 41-year-old was at his mother’s house. “He gave her his cell phone and he told her happy Mother's Day and he left,” Samantha said.
He hasn’t been seen since.
Kainalu, also known as Kai, was born in Maui. Samantha told Dateline her husband’s parents met there. “His mom is pure Hawaiian,” Samantha said. “His dad is straight Caucasian, from California.” Kai’s parents have three children together: Kai, his twin brother, Ka’unalu, and his younger sister, Kanani.
Samantha said Kai’s parents divorced when he was around 7 years old. After that, Kai and his siblings moved to California with their father.
The Higbees had family in California, like Kai’s younger cousin, Sean Higbee. “I grew up with Kai, spending every Christmas and Thanksgiving together, until he was an adult,” Sean told Dateline. Sean said his family lived in Long Beach and his cousins were only 30 minutes away in Huntington Beach.
Sean told Dateline the two Higbee families were “very, very close,” and would often get together to explore sunny California. “We would go to the mountains, go surfing, go to the beach,” Sean recalled. “Lots of good childhood memories.”
When Kai was a teenager, he moved back to Hawaii, but remained close with his family in California. Sean said he even visited Kai last year in Hawaii and had a wonderful time. “I was telling Kai how lucky he was,” Sean said. “His kids were all having a beautiful day at the beach. He has a beautiful wife, a family, and a job,” Sean added. “Everything seemed great.”
Kai’s wife, Samantha, told Dateline she met Kai in 2003 in Maui when she was just 20 years old. She said it all began with a single $5 bill. “He was like, ‘You dropped this,’” Samantha recalled. “We hung out that whole day and night.” Samantha said she was instantly smitten with Kai, who was 22 at the time, because of his “laid back, local boy” spirit. “He was really sweet and overprotective,” she said. “He was just a really fun guy.”
They began dating and two years later in 2005, they got married. Kai and Samantha have three children together. The family of five settled in Pāʻia, Maui, which Samantha described as a small town where “everyone kind of takes care of each other.” She said Kai works in landscaping and would often work on local properties. “They adored him,” Samantha said, of the property residents.
Samantha told Dateline that Kai is extremely close with his kids and loves hanging out with them. “He really is a family man,” she said. Sean also recalled witnessing his cousin Kai’s special relationship with his children. "He takes his kids out spearfishing, hiking, hunting," Sean said. "He loves his family."
Samantha said Kai was excited to see his oldest son graduate high school on May 19. “We couldn’t wait for his graduation,” Samantha said. “I mean, you know, he wouldn’t have missed it.”
But Kai did miss his son’s graduation.
According to Samantha, Kai had struggled with substance abuse. “This last run, he was clean for about three months just working, you know, being good,” Samantha said. She told Dateline that on Friday, May 6, Kai had fallen off the wagon. “I told him to leave,” Samantha said. She added that she didn’t want her kids to see their father in that condition.
Samantha told Dateline that typically when Kai was using, he would often go to his mother’s house in Lahaina or a separate residence he rented nearby, to sober up.
On Saturday, May 7, Kai was at his mother’s house in Lahaina, which is about 45 minutes away from Pāʻia. It was the day before Mother’s Day. Earlier in the day, Samantha said Kai “was kind of doing his own thing.” But later on that night, Kai’s mother told Samantha that he gave her his phone, a hug, told her, “Happy Mother’s Day,” and left the house.
That was the last time anyone saw Kai.
“On the 12th I called Kai in as a missing person,” Samantha said. “I got really scared.” She told Dateline Kai’s white Toyota Tacoma was found abandoned in a Sunset Café parking garage near the Lahaina Harbor on Monday, May 12. She said his truck was unlocked and “his wallet was sitting on the seat, his driver's license, debit cards, credit cards, everything.” Which to Samantha, was all “really strange” and “not like him at all.”
Samantha said that Kai loved his truck. “He worked really hard for that truck,” she said. “He wouldn’t leave it like that.”
Samantha admitted Kai would sometimes leave for a few days, but she emphasized he’s never been gone this long. “He stays away until he sobers up,” Samantha told Dateline. “That’s, like, the most -- three days.”
It’s now been more than a month.
The Maui Police Department is investigating Kai’s disappearance. On May 17, they posted on their Facebook Page that Kai “was last seen at a Lahaina residence on Saturday, May 7, 2022, at approximately 11:30 p.m.” It goes on to say that the “preliminary investigation reveals Mr. Higbee’s vehicle was towed on May 12, 2022, after it was observed unattended at a Front Street residence between May 8 and May 12, 2022.” There have been no further posts on Kai’s case.
Samantha told Dateline she is extremely frustrated with how the investigation into her husband’s disappearance is going. “I feel like they brushed me off,” Samantha said. She added that investigating officers told her that Kai was probably just out doing “tons and tons of drugs.”
“It was upsetting,” Samantha said. “He’s a Hawaiian. He’s a dad.” She believes the comments made by police have been “heartless.”
Samantha said that Kai has had a few run-ins with the law, and she thinks because of his criminal past, investigators are treating the case with disregard. “Something happened to him,” Samantha said. “He made bad choices, but he’s a good person.”
Dateline has reached out to the Maui Police Department, but has not yet received a response to their requested email about the case.
Samantha told Dateline she and the family are continuing the search on their own. They have put up missing persons posters around Maui, and Samantha says she is trying to hire a private investigator to help bring her husband -- her children’s father -- home. “My oldest one, he doesn’t even want to sleep in his own room,” Samantha said. “He has a little set up in the living room waiting for his dad to come home.”
Kai is 6’0,” 185 lbs., and has brown hair and brown eyes. He has a significant number of traditional Hawaiian tattoos on his legs, arm, chest and back, as well as his wife's name "Sammie" tattooed on his stomach. According to Kai’s cousin Sean, Kai is "tall, dark, and handsome." It’s also important to note that Kai and his twin, Ka’unalu, are identical, so the brothers are often mistaken for one another. Kai was last seen wearing dark-colored board shorts and a white shirt.
Anyone with information regarding Kainalu Higbee is asked to contact the Maui Police Department’s non-emergency number at (808) 244-6400.