Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
Bongak Koja
Koja, date, approximate 1997; Frank Janto in 1998; Janto, date, approximate 2008
Date Missing 06/09/1997
Missing From
Oahu, Hawaii
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
Asian
Date of Birth 06/09/1938 (84)
Age 59 years old
Height and Weight 5'2, 100 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A long-sleeved shirt, long pants, white sneakers and a floppy white hat.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Asian female. Black hair, brown eyes. Koja wears eyeglasses and dentures. Her nickname is Jackie. She was born in South Korea and moved to the United States in 1962.
Details of Disappearance Koja was last seen in Oahu, Hawaii on June 9, 1997, which was her birthday. She left her home on Mie Place to take her usual early morning walk at 3:00 a.m. She typically walked to California Avenue and a mile past Leilehua High School to the Wahiawa Hongwanji Mission before turning back.
She never returned from her walk and has never been heard from again. Koja left behind her four dogs and her husband, who needed her assistance with most daily tasks because he had arthritis.
Neighbors heard screams in the area at about 4:00 a.m., but they thought it was just rowdy teenagers and did not investigate. At 7:10 a.m., a janitor at Leilehua High School found a substantial amount of blood on a concrete walkway outside a classroom. He believed it was a prank and hosed down the walkway.
A witness who saw him cleaning up called the police after hearing Koja was missing, and police searched the area. They found a trail of blood leading to a dumpster behind the school.
Koja's headphones and pepper spray can were in a trash can at the school bus stop. A school employee said he found them on the grounds and threw them away. A piece of Koja's dental bridgework was in front of the school, and broken parts of eyeglasses matching Koja's prescription were recovered also.
On June 12, Frank Janto voluntarily went to the police and said he wanted to discuss Koja's . He has a substantial prior criminal record, beginning as a juvenile, for offenses such as car theft, child molestation, disorderly conduct and assault. One of his convictions was for beating a 65-year-old Vietnamese woman while she was walking in Honolulu; she was seriously injured and had to be rescued by the police.
Photographs of Janto are posted with this summary. He confessed to attacking Koja while under the influence of cocaine and crystal methamphetamine. He said he ambushed her while she was walking, beat her to death and dragged her body to the trash bin.
Janto, accompanied by law enforcement officers, went to Leilehua High School and he told them how the murder had taken place. By then, the trash bin had been emptied and its contents had been hauled away and incinerated.
Janto was convicted of second-degree murder in Koja's in April 1998. He was sentenced to a minimum of 75 years in prison, which is believed to be the longest minimum sentence the state parole board has ever handed down.
In 2008, Janto was charged in the 1987 death of Rose Chiquita, who was beaten and stabbed to death at a Hilo, Hawaii service station. Both Chiquita and Koja were older women who were attacked while walking alone early in the morning. Authorities noticed similarities in their s after Janto's conviction in Koja's presumed death. Janto pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Chiquita's in October 2008 and sentenced to life in prison.
Koja's remains have never been found and are believed to be unrecoverable. Foul play is suspected in her due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Oahu Police Department
808-529-3115
Other
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The Honolulu Advertiser
Hawaii Police Department
FindLaw
Missing Person Photos
A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe.
By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends.
A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.
Resources for Missing Persons
According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day.
Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends.
Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.
Missing Person Photos
