Eight years after a 46-year-old Maui woman vanished — her body never to be found — a Maui Circuit Court jury will finally decide whether ex-boyfriend Bernard Brown is guilty of murdering her.

Brown, the last known person to see Moreira Monsalve alive Jan. 12, 2014, at his Wailuku apartment, immediately drew the suspicion of her family and friends.

“Moreira Monsalve was with the defendant when she drew her last breath,” Deputy Prosecutor Jerry Hupp began his closing statement Wednesday. “Was it because he was drinking and argumentative, jealous she had a drink with another man, or because she didn’t have time for him? Or did he realize she was really breaking up with him, and it was final?

“Only he knows, but he chose to cover it up, get rid of the body, and ‘did a good job’ because her body was never found despite massive searches over a period of time, and use of police cadaver dogs,” he said.

Brown also cleaned out his vehicle and home before moving out at the end of January 2014, leaving no trace of blood or DNA evidence, Hupp said.

“But he made mistakes, and those mistakes are why the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt” he murdered her, he said, adding that Brown used “distractions and diversions” to draw attention away from himself.

Brown was not indicted until Sept. 20, 2019. An FBI task force and Sacramento police arrested him in California, and he was extradited to Maui.

Brown’s defense lawyer, Randy Hironaka, called the case “a witch hunt,” citing a lack of blood, fingerprint, hair or biological evidence that he killed her.

“What the law requires is not suspicion, not probabilities but proof of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” he told jurors.

The lengthy trial, which began July 25, involved more than 30 witnesses for the state.

Monsalve, a mother of three who lived in Kihei, dropped by shortly after 5 p.m. Jan. 12, 2014, to Brown’s apartment. He used the excuse she wanted him to drop her car off at the shop, and oddly said he found her keys in his car’s cup holder, and that her son was going to pick her up, but her son said he did not pick her up, Hupp said.

Hupp relates the testimony of Brown’s old girlfriend in California, that he called in a panic Jan. 13, 2014, asking her about getting a burner phone for him when he gets to San Jose and a week later leaving a message asking how to clear a hard drive.

The defense questioned why she didn’t mention the hard drive message to police until five months later.

The state used FBI analysis to determine activity on Monsalve’s cellphone after her disappearance, attributing it to Brown’s use of her cellphone, which was later recovered in pieces, to book a flight early the next morning to San Jose.

A dumpster diver found her purse, her phone in pieces and sacks of bank statements and car titles at a park in Upcountry Maui.

“In March 2014, no one knew if any information would come off her phone,” Hupp said. Police sent it to the FBI’s lab, and Brown thought he had destroyed the evidence of his plan to leave the islands two days after her disappearance, Hupp said.

But Brown could see the calls coming in to her phone in the following two days, so he changed his plans, he said.

Hupp said an FBI agent testified the phone was being used in the vicinity of Brown’s residence, and that searches he made to find flights and banks could be connected to his IP address.

A police detective testified one of Brown’s last browser activities was 2:35 a.m. Jan. 13, 2014, making plane reservations for the next day under Brown’s name, Deputy Prosecutor Mike Kagami said, adding the FBI reconstructed a page that showed his attempt to make airline reservations.

Brown also created a false alibi by sending an email of a four-second voicemail to her friends, that a witness said is “proof of life,” that Brown called a “purse call,” Hupp said, but added, “you can’t even tell if it’s real voices.”

Hupp said even though Monsalve had been missing for two days, Brown didn’t appear concerned, telling police, “All I know is she left my place just fine,” using the same phrase when talking with others.

Hironaka tried to discredit the state’s witnesses, saying there were contradictory statements and some lied, like the dumpster diver and his girlfriend, who may have had a motive since they took her credit cards.

He said Brown didn’t lie when he said Monsalve’s son was going to pick her up, but he was sleepy when she left and never saw the son pick her up.

Hironaka said Brown’s report of harassment by her friends and family was real, not a diversion, citing a witness who questioned him, saying, “What’s the matter, Bernard? You’re not coming to help us look?”