A massive search underway in Hawaii for a 6-year-old girl whose adoptive parents say they last saw her in her bedroom Sunday night, according to new reports.
First grader Isabella Kalua — named Ariel Sellers at birth — was last seen at 9 p.m. Sunday at home on Puha Street in Waimanalo, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
A post on social media indicated that home video surveillance shows Isabella leaving the home at 1 a.m., but the paper could not verify that.
Investigators “haven’t determined or we don’t have sufficient evidence to show that the child was abducted,” Interim Police Chief Rade Vanic told the Honolulu Police Commission on Wednesday, according to Hawaii News Now.
“We are hoping she isn’t in immediate danger,” he added.
Her biological mother, Melanie Joseph, 33, told the paper she last saw her daughter on a scheduled visit about a year ago, and alleged that there were signs of physical abuse.
She said she doesn’t think her daughter is the type to wander off.
“She stuck to me,” Joseph told the outlet. “I think something happened.”
The Kaluas had custody of four of Joseph’s five daughters for four years — and a fifth, a 5-year-old, is staying with a relative, according to the report.
After Isabella’s disappearance, Child Welfare Services took custody of the three other siblings, ages 1, 3 and 12, the outlet reported.
Sonny Kalua, also known as Isaac K. Kalua III, the named lessee on the home where Isabella was last seen, has a violent crime history, according to the report.
Back in 2001, he pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree terroristic threatening, two counts of second-degree assault and one count of attempted second-degree assault, the outlet reported.
A friend at the Kalua home told the paper that the family had been advised not to talk.
“We don’t want to jeopardize the case,” she said.
Hundreds of volunteers and members of Isabella’s biological family gathered at Waimanalo District Park to coordinate the search effort Wednesday, according to Hawaii News Now.
“I’m thankful everyone is here to help,” the girl’s biological mother said. “I just want whoever has her to bring my baby back home.”
“I’m very candid. I don’t sugarcoat nothing,” one of Isabella’s biological aunts, Alena Kaeo, told the outlet. “Regardless of what the outcome is, we just want to bring her home for some kind of closure.”