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Hikers claim they heard a horrifying scream around the same time a teenager went missing shortly after taking pictures of a ‘shadow man’.
Daylenn Pua was reportedly 17 or 18 years old when he was last seen hiking the Haʻikū Stairs, also known as the Stairway to Heaven, on 27 February, 2015.
The steep steel structure was developed in 1942 to provide access to former US Navy communication facilities on O’ahu island.
The pathway which consists of over 3,000 steps and although it is not open to the public, it has been used as a hiking trail at various times.
Pua, who was a high school student from Hawaii Island, had embarked on a solo trip up the stairs during a trip to O’ahu to visit his grandmother.
He shared his excitement in a Facebook post the day before he went missing, saying: “Stairway to Heaven. Hiking this insane hike tomorrow. Wish me luck.”
The teen shared pictures of his journey along the way to his grandmother, and some claim one of the last photos he sent before vanishing appears to show a mysterious figure, which has been dubbed a ‘shadow man’.
The picture was posted on Reddit and even garnered attention on the news website Hawaii News Now after Pua’s family issued a plea for information about the man.
The same publication reported that rescuers had focused their search on a narrow ridge based on a cry for help heard by two hikers. A Reddit user who claimed to be one of the hikers, who posted at the time as ‘Dclandry’, wrote: “I could never explain to you the feeling I felt when you hear a cry like that. The hiker did not trust pass and go up the stairs. By the looks of the photographs, he didn't even make it to the stairs.”
They added: “The wind died just a tad and we heard 'I'm down here!' My friend and I both stopped in our tracks and started screaming for him. It was not the rescuers. The voice was different than The calls from the rescuers. I immediately called 911 again.
“We stayed up there for about another hour without moving to try and listen for him again. The wind was so bad and the clouds are starting to roll in so it was hard to hear anything.”
In the days following Pua’s disappearance, both the Navy and the Honolulu Fire Department searched as well as volunteer groups.
In 2021 it was decided that the stairs would be dismantled and removed, a process which began this year.
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English (US) ·