The family of a 39-year-old single mother of three young boys who vanished on Mother’s Day says her disappearance is uncharacteristic because she is dependable.
“We are very much worried,” said Junior Gabon, brother of the missing woman, Loida Gabon Wideman. “She’s very responsible for everything.”
Police are calling the disappearance suspicious because no cellphone, credit card or airline flight activity has been detected, and police failed to locate her using the GPS on her cellphone.
“We’re at a dead end,” said Sgt. Kim Buffett, Honolulu CrimeStoppers coordinator, who put out a bulletin Tuesday afternoon asking for the public’s help in finding Wideman.
Buffett called the case a “really strange situation,” where a responsible person disappears. She said the last time Honolulu police had a similar case was in 2008 when Kimberley Jacobs, whose husband was the last to see her, disappeared, never to be found again.
Wideman, a certified nurse’s assistant, left her Waipahu home at 9:30 p.m. Sunday for work at a Kapolei nursing home.
When she failed to return home at 6:30 a.m. Monday, her mother, who lives with her, was extremely concerned and called Gabon.
“My mom was worried because every time she’s supposed to be home by 6:30,” Gabon said.
Wideman usually returns home to take her children, ages 5, 8 and 11, to school and an adult foster care patient to a day care facility.
Wideman failed to show up at work Sunday night, something uncharacteristic for her, her family said.
On Monday morning Gabon frantically searched the roadways to see whether she may have been involved in a car accident.
He also stopped to see whether she may have been at her former home in Kapolei, where her ex-husband lives, but did not see her car there.
Buffett said police have interviewed her ex-husband, who has cooperated. He is not considered a suspect, she said.
Along with her mother, Wideman’s ex-husband is now staying with their children at their Waipahu house, Gabon said.
“My mom, she’s very worried,” Gabon said. “Every (person) she talks to, she cries. She couldn’t sleep because it’s very unusual for my sister.”
“She’s (Wideman) a very nice person,” Gabon said. “We are so worried. She’s very responsible to us, to everybody.”
A neighbor who is a classmate of Wideman’s eldest son said, “She is a good mom. I see her picking up her kids from school.”
Wideman is described as Filipino, 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 134 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
She was driving a gold 2003 Saturn Ion, license plate NBN 186.
Anyone with information concerning Wideman or her car is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, *CRIME on a cellphone, or text “CS808” plus your message to 274637 or CRIMES.
