Nola Fujitani -- Missing Since June 18th, 1992 from Honolulu, Hawaii

Missing Person: Nola Fujitani (NamUs #MP127540)

July 25th, 1992. Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Details from a government source (might be paraphrased): 

Nola was last seen dropping her son off at her parent's residence on University Avenue on 6-18-1992, at about 1600 hours. On 6-19-1992, at about 0200 hours, Nola's vehicle was located in the parking lot of the Halona Blow Hole. On 6-19-1992, Nola's parents received a suicide-type letter in the afternoon mail in Nola's handwriting. On 6-21-1992, Nola's sandals were found in a cave at the same location, and the Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) conducted a search of the area. Nola was declared deceased in June of 1997.

Last contact: June 18th, 1992 at 4PM

Last seen location: Parent's residence on University Avenue in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Age when Nola Fujitani disappeared: 38

Sex: Female

Height in inches: 64

Weight in pounds (lbs): 150-180; NamUs said she was 180 pounds but journalism said she was 150 pounds. The differences are significant for body type by BMI.

Ethnicity: Asian

Hair color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Scar or distinctive characteristic: None.

Clothing: reportedly turquoise blouse and beige shorts.

Vehicle: 1988 Honda Prelude (CRW 621) 

• Her shoes were found inside her car.
• Also, a suicide note was found inside the car. My interpretation was that this was additional to the suicide letter that her parents received.

Not her actual vehicle. Nola's vehicle may have been a different color and had Hawaiian plates. But this is what a 1988 Honda Prelude looked like.
 DestinationFearFan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 

      

Link to government source: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/127540?nav

BMI means body mass index. It is meant to describe someone's healthy body weight relative to their height. It is food for thought as to how someone may have looked. However, it is meant as a guide only and does not account for all body types.

Nola Fujitani had a BMI of 30.89 if you go by NamUs and their data for her weight. This would make Nola Fujitani obese by BMI standards at the time of her disappearance. However, if you use 150 pounds (her reported weight in journalism) she would have been 25.74 for BMI and in the overweight category.

Commentary and Research

By: Shane Lambert 

Has Nola Fujitani been found? 

July 25th, 1992. Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Nola Fujitani has not been found. This is a missing person's case where there is some insight as to what may have happened to her. The "suicide type letter" would suggest self harm. Furthermore, it was reported that she threatened suicide in the time frame before her disappearance. Lastly, there were reports that a suicide note was found in her car. Nonetheless, I did wonder after researching this case if she might have voluntarily disappeared herself and ran off.

Her husband was the one who reported her missing, according to journalism in the weeks after she disappeared. He reported her missing at 2AM on June 19th, 1992, according to the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Here are some bullet points of interest for this missing person's case.

• The Halona Blow Hole is at 21.282165894752787, -157.6767576345056 for Google Maps. Searches feared that she might have jumped from the seaside cliffs at this area.
• She was a teacher at a school where another teacher, Carl Akio Asaeda (b. September 13th, 1948), had gone missing just shortly before she disappeared.
• The disappearance of the two teachers appeared together in journalism.

July 14th, 1992. Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

• In some journalism, it is stated that she left home the night of her disappearance "after threatening suicide".

June 27th, 1992. Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

• Carl Akio Asaeda does not have a NamUs profile at the time of writing. Sometimes cases like this are in the backlog of cases to be entered. He was described as a missing person in a classified advertisement in the legal notices section of the May 15, 2006 Honolulu Star Advertiser. Also, similar classifieds appeared in 2009. I do not know if Carl Akio Asaeda is a missing person, at the time of writing.

I think with this case, there is a question as to whether the two cases are connected. Is it just a coincidence that two teachers at the same school disappeared within 3-4 days of one another, not to turn up again in all the years that have since past? I did find this missing person case a little odd because two people that worked together disappeared so quickly and neither's body was found. Furthermore, Captain Louis Souza's comment stuck with me. As presented in the article snipped above, it's not clear whether the Captain was talking about Asaeda, Fujitani, or both.

I decided to look at Carl Akio Asaeda under the assumption that any information on his fate might pertain to Nola Fujitani. I found that his name appeared in some of those websites that offer to provide information on people. 

Have a look at the following snippet from https://www.fastbackgroundcheck.com which I took on January 11th, 2025.

Importantly, the middle address of 98-1449 Hoohonua Street does match the address of the same Carl Akio Asaeda who went missing in Honolulu. If this profile is, in fact, for only one person (ie. it's not erroneously combining two different people with the same name) then it suggests that Carl Akio Asaeda resided in Washington and Oregon after disappearing in 1992. That is the potential importance of the clipping above. 

Meanwhile, the clippings below, which pertain to the missing person's case, show the address matches to the website snipping above.

June 16th, 1992. Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

I do NOT fully trust websites that offer background information on people. I think that these kinds of websites can combine profiles of people with the same name. But the birthdate of September 1948 in the website snipping above would be about right for the Carl Akio Asaeda that went missing in 1992, as he was 43 in June 1992. I think it's an interesting lead but solid documentary evidence (ie. signature matches) would be better.

From my research, it's clear the Carl Akio Asaeda, Nola Fujitani's coworker, was a missing person in 2006. Whether he remains one, isn't clear but I found nothing to suggest the mystery of his disappearance was resolved.

Of course, if the missing person's cases of the two disappeared teachers from the same school are connected, then any lead on Carl Asaeda's whereabouts might be a lead on Nola Fujitani's whereabouts or fate. I would say that there is work to be done on this case to validate the website information. I hope it's a lead as opposed to a red herring.

On that matter, there are a lot of hits on the name, some of which report a similar birthdate. I do plan to email the police contact regarding this and may post an update. 

From Voterrecords.com: