Rechercheuse

Thanks Green Achers, we appreciate it!! Rechercheuse The friend who wrote the above summary also wanted to add the following: P.S. In fairness to Husband, he has offered an explanation for why he wasn't too concerned when Kimberly failed to come home that night, and he reportedly has cooperated with the police investigation.

Thank you ferventkids!! Here is a recollection of what we know so far. Written by the friend, who reported her missing. This is posted here with his consent. Please ,if you have photos of that day from the area or have seen anything, contact the local police (number, see post above). Mahalo! No news to report. Kimberly vanished sometime during the late afternoon or evening of Thursday, August 21. Her husband says Kim was home around 5pm. He later went downstairs to a board meeting. When he returned, around 8pm, Kimberly was gone. The door to the apartment was unlocked. Everything a woman would take with her (purse, I.D., keys, cell phone, money, credit cards) was still in the apartment. The only thing he believed she had taken was her swim goggles. Their apartment is right on the ocean, and she often went swimming.(He later said he was mistaken, and has since found the goggles in their apartment). Husband says Kim never returned home that night. The next morning, he just went to his office. He says he didn't notice if her vehicle was still parked at their apartment, and wasn't concerned she had failed to return home. When I learned Kim was missing-- and swim goggles were the only item she appeared to have with her -- I asked husband if he had launched a search. He responded, "I wouldn't know what to do with her if I found her." I asked him to check if her vehicle was still parked at their apartment. He refused, and chastised me for interrupting his business meeting by inquiring about his missing wife. I immediately called the police and reported Kimberly missing. I spoke to Husband again on Saturday night, Aug. 23 (two nights after Kim vanished). He told me there are two locked gates between the apartment and the water. A key is required to access those gates. Husband was adamant that both keys to the gates (his and her's) were still in their apartment Saturday night. He insisted Kimberly could not have reached the ocean, and must have left the apartment via the street. The next morning (Sunday), Husband said her key to those gates was not in the apartment after all. Later Sunday, he reportedly discovered Kimberly's key by the water. Why no one saw the key there the previous two days, or why he insisted both keys were still in the apartment Saturday night, has not been explained to me. Maybe that was an innocent mistake. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe she had an accident while swimming. Maybe she didn't. Her friends and family are left wondering what happened. That no body has been recovered, after six weeks, merely adds to the mystery. No one believes Kim ran away. Identification is required to board a plane or ferry or register at a hotel. All her I.D. was still in the apartment. Her vehicle was there. She could not walk far, and there is no evidence anyone drove her. Nor would Kimberly disappear and leave her daughter. She's too responsible a mother. Clearly, something very bad happened to Kimberly in the late afternoon or evening of August 21. The question is what happened and why. We won't find Kimberly (or the answer to this puzzle) by searching shopping malls, despite the PR efforts a certain person has been conducting to improve his image. Rather, we need witnesses to tell the police anything heard or observed around the day Kimberly disappeared (or the preceding weeks and months, or even afterwards) that may shed light on this mystery. In addition, if anyone was near the water at Diamond Head Ambassador (DHA) apartments in the days right after Kimberly vanished (between late afternoon on Thursday, Aug. 21 through Sunday, Aug. 24) tell the police if you saw--or did not see--a key near the water or gate closest to the ocean, when, and where. Any photographs taken on those days, showing the water side of DHA (and perhaps the presence or absence of a key), are also very helpful.(That includes any pictures taken by visitors). Let me emphasize: Nothing I have said in this post should be construed as accusing anyone of wrongdoing. At this point, it is a missing persons investigation, nothing more. Still, after six weeks, the family has more questions than answers. The more people can tell us (and the police) about the situation, the better the chances of our eventually getting some satisfactory answers. Thank you all for your assistance, and your love for Kimberly.

For those of you who would like to help, there will be another search for Kim today. I wish I could join, but I am not on the islands anymore. Unfortunately. Mahalo for reading Rechercheuse Here's the info from Kim's family: We are going to do another search for Kimberly Jacobs on Sunday near Ala Moana Center, Wal-Mart, the Prince Hotel, the Tradewinds condo, and the boat harbor. We would love to have as many people as possible join us. Please ask friends, family, and co-workers to join us. At 5:30 PM let's meet in Ala Moana Shopping Center's parking lot at the corner of Ala Moana Blvd and Atkinson as close to the stop light as possible. We would need to enter from Atkinson across from Yacht Harbor Tower. We will also try to get some press coverage- if you can help with that wonderful. Mahalo, Stan

Dear Hawaii fellow geocachers, my very dear friend Kimberly from Waikiki has been missing since 21st August. Her family and friends are very concerned and worried and desperate for any information that could shed some light on her disappearance. I know there are a few caches in the area where she lives. We even found one together (her GC nick is warmestaloha). Maybe some of you were out that day and did see something or maybe you can watch out for her when you are out hiking, you never know.... We just don't know anymore where she could be. Here are some links to her story in the local media with photos of her: http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/9282/79/ http://starbulletin.com/2008/08/27/news/story06.html http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=8906215 http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=8906215 http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/9318/40 http://www.kitv.com/news/17306181/detail.html Here is a photo of her: Missing Person: JACOBS, Kimberly Day Age: 47 Height: 5'04" Weight: 130 lbs Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Race: Caucasian Clothing: Unknown Distinguishing Characteristics: She walks with a distinct limp. Any help is appreciated Please, if you have seen her or have any information, do contact: HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT @ 911 MISSING PERSONS DETAIL @ ph# 529-3115 I am not a member of the local Hawaii Geocaching group , but if you have a seperate forum or mailing list, could a Kamaaina please be so kind and post it there as well? Mahalo Rechercheuse

Wendybirdy and vulture19, thanks for all your feedback. vulture19 That cache sounds great, but I guess it will be too long of a hike for the hubby, especially in the summer heat. We usually do a few rather easy caches on our way from A-B to break up the trip and once we are at our destination we usually head out for a day of caching and go for the harder one's. We are still toying with attending one or two events (Berlin Campout and/or Sax Man's Campout), but have some issues with the gear we would need (limited baggage allowance). On the other hand, I'd love to camp at Arches and Mesa Verde, rather than staying at a Lodge. So we might pick up some cheap gear once we're there and donate it to goodwill or some other charity when we leave.. Will let you know the outcome, once our planning is finalized. Some caches on my radar are these: Grantsville Orizaba If you know similar caches you can recommend along our route, please let us know. Thanks again for all your suggestions, keep 'em comin. Rechercheuse

Hi thanks for your feedback and great suggestions! Yeah, I agree, those NP's are awesome! We have been to the region 10+ times and have been to most of the parks you mention in southern Utah and Northern Nevada, some places we have even been to a couple of times. Haven't seen much of CO yet and have been wanting to to to NM for ages. Thanks for taking the time to look into that, that would be really great! I have checked out the Event you suggested, but we had not planned on dragging our camping gear around this time...Still thinking about it though, as I love to camp in the NP's. The event we attended during our last trip was great, we had a blast. Our baggage allowance is a littler lower than normally as we got a really good deal on the tickets... Here's what we've come up with so far regarding our itinary: Vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Mesa Verde, Arches, Salt LAke City, back down along I15 to Vegas Any suggestions, recommendations along that route? Thanks again to both of you. Cache Safely Rechercheuse

Hi, thanks for that suggestion. Any particular reason for choosing this itinery over the other one? Any caches you could recommend along those routes? Thanks again Rechercheuse

Dear fellow cachers, I posted a similar thread at the Nevada board, but I thought I might get some help over here as well. We will travelling to Nevada and possibly Utah and/or New Mexico in June/July and are considering our travel options. I need your help to take decisions and plan our trip... a ) Route 1 Vegas to Reno to Salt Lake City and back to Vegas (or the other way round) b ) Route 2 Vegas to Albuquerque to Salt LAke city and back to Vegas (or the other way round) From a caching and interesting things to do and see point of view, which is the nicer route, which one has more interesting spots? Any suggestion is appreciated! We will fly into Vegas on 22nd June and leave from Vegas on 11th July. We are planning to rent a high clearance vehicle, we don't mind moderate hiking (but as I suppose it will be very hot that time of the year, hence we will avoid rather long hikes). We like lost places, like ghost towns, ruins, old mines etc. We've done quite a bit of caching in Red Rock Canyon, In and around Vegas, in and around Beatty and inbetween those places during our last two visits, but by fare have not seen everything. We are not so much into urban caches and multis. Night caching is not something we would do by ourselves, but we would join another group for such activities. We love meeting other cachers in general, so if there are any event caches planned, or just a get together for a drink or two we will try to arrange our travel plans accordingly. From the above mentioned constraints, can anybody please suggest some interesting caches along those routes? Looking forward to your advice and suggestions and to hopefully meeting some of you again in June. Thanks in advance Rechercheuse

I finally got my sig items made and received them a couple days ago. They are - a Compass with Chinese Characters (I also have Chinese Characters in my Avatar) that you can attach to a lanyard or a keychain, I plan to add a card explaining the characters - an expandable keychain that has a clip on the back, the key chain part can be pulled out (similar to a tape measure) on a wire Both have my Nick and an adapted round GC Logo on them. I was hesitant for a long time, as I was not sure if these were useful at all to other cachers. Also they were much more expensive than other (not personalised) items I could find, but I really wanted something personalised. I have a bag full of non personalized items and I trade very rarely, but I often leave something, without taking anything. I also had some additional stickers made, in case at a later point in time I come across other suitable items I could use those stickers to personalize them. I especially wanted to have those items to put something as little "thank you for this cache" in caches I find on vacations. As in my home area I can give back to the community by placing caches (although with expectations shifting to a higher level this has become much harder lately) but in other countries I can't do that. Anybody interested in one of these items, watch out for them in caches in Nevada in October! Happy Caching! Rechercheuse

Hello, does anybody have any experience in using both TOPO AND Metroguide at the same time? I own a GPSMAP76 and several Metroguide products and have made good experience with this software both in Europe and in the US. Now I am thinking about getting TOPO as well. When checking files sizes I realized I could fit all of my Metroguide for Hawaii plus the Topo software on my GPSMAP76. Garmin says TOPO works with my unit. But I cannot find any info on what would happen if I upload both. Does anybody know if this is possible? What is the advantage/disadvantage of having both. Would it slow down the unit significantly? Would I be able to switch between the two kinds of maps? Would there be an overlap, making it harder to read the maps? Anybody ever tried this? Thanks for any suggestions and feedback. Rechercheuse

Hi there, try this one: Bug House But there are a few more meeting your criteria along I-15, just check "nearby caches" when you are on the site. Enjoy Vegas. Take Care Rechercheuse

@imr thanks for the info on the software. I actually managed to find it in a store in Osaka, but the Sales guy insisted it would not work with my European version and I thus decided I would not take the risk to buy it, as the price was quite high too. Too bad. I'm still looking for Asian software for either my Merigold or my GPSMAP76. Now my major concern in China though. It's frustrating to work with the basemap only, I left my GPS at home the last couple of times.

Hi, thanks a lot for this hint. I usually don't download software just like that for security reasons, but with this one I could not resist. It is in deed much more detailed and helps quite a bit, so thanks! Still I wish Garmin or Magellan would come up with something that show large cities down to street level, as they do in the States...Especially in Japan this could be sooo useful. Rechercheuse

Hi there, we will be travelling to Japan this September and besides for Geocaching we would also like to use our GPSRs for orientation. We have a GPSMAP 76 and a Meridian, both are equipped to used extra Mapping Software. To my knowledge there is very little Software awailable both on Mapsend and Mapsource. I only know of the Worldwide Basemaps both of them have. These are not so detailed as we need them. I travel to Asia often and have that problem all the time. What do you use throught Asia? Any recommendations? Thanks in advance Rechercheuse

Hi there, we will be travelling to Japan this September and hope to find a couple of caches, so thanks to those of you who have placed some so far. As we will be on the JR Pass we might have a hard time to get to caches in remote areas. Any suggestions for caches in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Nagoya that are close to places where we "as tourists" would go anyway? Or caches that can easily be reached on Public transport and are worthwhile a visit? I have checked the database and have downloaded a few waypoints, but it is always better to get some insight from locals who have visited those caches already. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance Take Care Rechercheuse

I really liked this one, I was very surprised when he was logged into my virtual cache, but I think its a really cool idea: Virtual Victor Happy Caching Rechercheuse

I'm one of those who might be benefitting from your efforts during one of my next trips to Asia! Feichang ganxie and manman zou while caching! Rechercheuse