The cash-strapped CNMI government has already incurred some $500,000 in overtime pay as the search and investigation continue.
“So who took Faloma and Maleina? Who took away our girls?” Anicia Q. Tomokane, the missing girls’ grand-aunt, asked Variety.
Expressing gratitude to all federal and local authorities as well as volunteers, Tomokane appealed to the public “to continue keeping the case alive.”
“We remain hopeful that information filed with FBI and DPS will allow authorities to locate our missing girls,” Tomokane said.
FBI Honolulu media relations coordinator and special agent Tom Simon told reporters: “I want to stress that the FBI is not leaving this case behind. We have just reached a point where the investigation can be handled by our local offices working with your local police.”
Simon conducted a media conference yesterday with Department of Public Safety Commissioner Ramon C. Mafnas and Press Secretary Angel Demapan at the FBI Saipan office.
“Despite the perpetually enhanced reward, leads on this case have slowed down to such an extent that the FBI will be consolidating its investigators on the case to FBI staff permanently stationed in Guam and Saipan,” Simon said.
Between today and June 30, Simon said, “FBI staff from Honolulu will be returning to our jobs in Hawaii, leaving the field work in the good hands of the local FBI offices from Saipan and Guam along with the Saipan police.”
He added, “If at any point, additional FBI resources are needed, we can flood this island with an army of FBI agents ready to help.”
FBI supervisory senior resident agent for Guam and the NMI Steve L. Moore is the contact person for the case, Simon said.
He said nine FBI agents from Guam and six from Saipan will continue the investigation.
Simon said the neighbor who interacted with the birth-marked man seen in Sta. Lourdes, Asteo on May 6 “didn’t recognize any of the photos shown to him as being the man he spoke to in the white car.”
“Like a lot of things in this case, it remains a mystery. However, we do not believe that the ultimate success or failure of this investigation hinges on locating the man with the birthmark. He’s just another person in this complex case that we hoped to interview,” Simon said.
He admitted the lack of physical evidence and no crime scene to process are hindering the investigation.
“The kids vanished in thin air,” Simon said.
He thanked the Hawaii’s civil defense agency for lending Pohaku and his handlers.
“After canvassing every targeted area on island identified by the FBI and police, [Pohaku] has been unable to locate the scent of the missing girls,” Simon said.
“On behalf of all the agents who traveled here from Hawaii to investigate this matter, we’d like to thank the police, fire division and all island residents for their hospitality, professionalism, and compassion in this difficult and troubling situation. We have not given up hope, and neither should you,” Simon said.
“Now is the time to provide information,” he told reporters, adding that “leads [have] dried up.”
Mafnas said police personnel involved in the search and investigation have been returning, starting yesterday, to their regular shifts.
The DPS operations center at the Kagman Community Center will be transferred to the DPS headquarters in Susupe.
Mafnas estimated that overtime pay has reached half a million dollars and can still increase. This amount does not include the cost of logistics and other resources used in the search and investigation.
“We want to be productive and prudent with our resources,” Mafnas said. “But our efforts will remain intense.”
Investigators were interviewing several persons of interests or potential witnesses yesterday, he added.
Mafnas assured that the working relationship with the FBI continues as he thanked them.
He said overtime incurred by DPS personnel “will be paid over several pay periods.”
“They will be paid,” Demapan assured, adding that the administration “will be coming out with a decision on how to pay” the DPS personnel.
The total reward money for any information leading to the recovery of the sisters or prosecution of person or persons behind their disappearance is now $50,000.
Call 911, the FBI at 322-6934, the girls’ family hotline at 285-4048 or the Crime Stoppers at 234-7272.
