Teenager was never seen again after sending mysterious photo of ‘shadow man’ to family
In February 2015, a young hiker took one last picture of something strange which he sent to his family, and that was the last they ever heard of him as he was never seen again.
18-year-old Daylenn Pua had been hiking the Haʻikū Stairs in Hawaii, a closed trail which had been built in the 1940s during the Second World War to provide access to a radio station which would communicate with American warships in the Pacific Ocean.
The stairs had been shut to the public since 1987, but people still tried to climb them, and on the day he disappeared, the teenager became the latest to attempt the stairs, which had become known as the 'Stairway to Heaven'.
Pua had been visiting his grandmother, who told him not to hike the trail, but he decided he'd give it a go despite her misgivings and texted pictures he took of himself walking the trail.
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One of the last pictures he sent out appeared to show a figure lurking in the undergrowth who would end up being dubbed the 'shadow man', but the truth behind what exactly it was and Daylenn's disappearance remains a mystery.
Pua had posted on social media to announce he was setting off for his hike on 26 February, with his last communication coming at around 11am local time that day, after not hearing from him for 24 hours, his grandma declared him missing.
Search efforts were launched for the teenager, with his father being taken on board a helicopter to shout his son's name in the hopes he would respond.
Some hikers claimed they'd heard cries for help after Pua went missing, but on 3 March, official search efforts were called off having found no trace of him.
Unofficial efforts involved hundreds of volunteers, with people rappelling down drops in the hopes of finding the teen, but they too found nothing.
The family raised concerns about the 'shadow man' in one of his final pictures, but whether it was a person following the teen or something else entirely was never established, and there was little authorities could do to follow it up.
As for the stairs, they remain closed to the public and there are fines of $1,000 against people caught breaking onto the trail to hike it.
A hiker who has walked the trail said that at the start of 2025, security had tightened significantly as it was a 'high-risk hike' and 'illegal' to try it.
People are arrested for trying to get onto the trail and plans are in place for the steps themselves to be demolished.
Unfortunately for the case of Daylenn Pua, it's possible that he will never be found and the truth about what happened to him will likely never be known.
Joe Harker