Police seek public help to find missing Big Island teen

Hawaii Island police are asking for help finding 15-year-old Jazzielle Nathaniel, who was last seen in the Hawaiian Acres subdivision and is known to frequent the Hilo and Puna areas. Police say she is 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds, has a dark complexion, curly long brown hair and brown eyes.

Nathaniel was last seen on April 14, 2026, at 6 p.m. wearing a black sweater, ripped jeans and white Crocs. Anyone with information is asked to call the Hawaii Police Department non-emergency line at 808-935-3311 or contact Acting Detective Corey Kaneko at 808-961-8843 or corey.kaneko@hawaiipolice.gov.

The alert comes after Nathaniel was also reported missing in 2025, when police said the then-14-year-old was last seen in Hawaiian Acres on June 26, 2025, at 8:20 a.m. In that earlier runaway report, police listed the case as report number 25-057643 and described her as wearing black sweat pants, a black hoodie, white shoes and a black backpack.

Hawaiian Acres sits in the heart of Puna, where long roads, scattered homes and heavy traffic between the subdivision and Hilo can make sightings hard to pin down quickly. That is why police are pressing the public now: a teenager known to move between those communities could be seen anywhere along the Puna corridor or in Hilo town.

Runaway cases are treated as safety concerns because missing youth can face homelessness, exploitation and other risks almost immediately. The National Runaway Safeline says 4 million young people ages 13 to 25 experience some form of homelessness each year in the United States, and nearly 20,000 youth were described as being in a state of crisis when they contacted the organization in 2025.

Hawaii’s Missing Child Center serves as the state’s missing-children clearinghouse and a resource center for law enforcement, social services and families. State officials have also pointed to Operation Shine the Light, a multi-agency effort launched in 2020 to recover endangered missing children and youth and connect them with services; officials said 10 endangered missing children and youth were safely recovered on Oahu in October 2025.