Missing Kamuela man found safe after brief police search

Lance Harris James Volpa was found in good health hours after Hawaii Island police asked the public to help locate the 39-year-old Kamuela man. Police said Volpa had last been seen around 1:30 p.m. June 27 in Kamuela, in South Kohala, and described him as Native Hawaiian, about 6 feet tall, roughly 200 pounds, with tattoos on both arms.

The public-help request went out June 29 as an endangered-missing case, the kind of alert the Hawaii Police Department uses when an adult is believed to be at risk and officers need fast help from the community. Police asked anyone with information to call the non-emergency line or 911, relying on a clear last-seen time, place and physical description to widen the search across Hawaii Island’s long road network and mix of remote and populated areas.

By 5:15 p.m. June 29, the report was updated to say Volpa had been located in good health, and the page was updated again at 8:17 p.m. PDT. Nothing in the update suggested crime or foul play, and the quick resolution closed a case that had become a countywide safety concern as soon as the alert was issued.

The department’s missing-person pages show that this follow-up is standard practice. Hawaii Island police routinely post locate-in-good-health notices and thank the public for assistance when an endangered missing person is found, turning a brief, urgent alert into a same-day ending. For families and neighbors, the lesson is practical: report a disappearance right away, give police the person’s name, age, last-known location and time seen, and share any visible marks or identifying details that could help narrow the search. In Volpa’s case, the details that mattered were exact and local, from the June 27 sighting in Kamuela to the tattoos on both arms.