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A woman who asked to remain anonymous has donated $10,000 to the $1,000 Honolulu CrimeStoppers reward for information leading to the person responsible for the disappearance of 6-year-old
Isabella Kalua of Waimanalo or her recovery.
“She just wants to do her part,” said CrimeStoppers coordinator Chris Kim. “She is just a member of the community and doesn’t know the family.”
He said that the donation was her way of contributing, but she wants to remain anonymous. “If it’s going to help Isabella come home, then she’s going to do it,” he said.
The adopted child, whose birth name is Ariel Sellers, was reported missing Sept. 13. Her adoptive parents, Isaac and Lehua Kalua, said she was last seen 9 p.m. Sept. 12 in her bedroom.
It was the first of two offers to donate $10,000 that Kim received last week.
Kim spoke to the anonymous donor a week ago and received the check Thursday.
“It is definitely substantial,” he said. “We live on an island. Someone has to know what happened to Isabella. We understand sometimes people are afraid of retaliation, retribution that they told on someone.”
But he reminds the public CrimeStoppers is set up to keep tipsters safe and anonymous.
“Money shouldn’t be a motivating factor, but I truly believe that this $10,000 is going to help,” Kim said.
Isabella has been missing for more than a month now, and the public has grown frustrated with police “that we’ve forgotten Isabella,” but Kim said investigators are continuing to actively work on the case.
He said rather than sharing things on social media, people need to come forward and funnel it through CrimeStoppers so it gets to police.
Her biological family and groups on social media, some dedicated to her recovery, have kept her cause alive despite the lack of any new developments reported by police.
Kim said he received a call from another woman also interested in donating $10,000 but told her that another donation already had been proposed and approved.
The second potential donor, who also wants to remain anonymous, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser,
“I told him thank you. All I wanted was to have a reward out there.”
She was willing to front the $10,000 out of her savings for a 900-member Facebook group dedicated to finding Isabella. “That’s all I got, but I was willing to do it just to get things going. I just want her found.”
The group was going to raise funds and reimburse her, but the organizer later opposed the idea.
Biological family member Taryn Napoleon said, “I hope this money might motivate someone to speak up, especially if they need the money.” She has learned some businesses “want to donate to bring up the reward higher to help in the efforts to bring Ariel home.”
The anonymous tips can be made to CrimeStoppers at 808-955-8300, or web tips can be sent to honolulucrimestoppers.org or via the P3 Tips app.
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