Steven White, a 58-year-old male from North Carolina, was last seen on June 12, 2011, in Makena, Hawaii, an area on Maui’s southern coast near Wailea-Makena and the waters around La Perouse Bay. Public case records identify him as a White/Caucasian man, approximately 5 feet 11 inches tall and 180 pounds, with gray or partially gray hair and blue eyes.
His disappearance began as what appears to have been a personal outdoor trip: before he vanished, Steven had emailed his daughter and told her he planned to spend several days kayaking and solo diving off Maui. That message became one of the clearest known windows into his intentions before contact with him was lost.
The circumstances that brought concern were deeply unsettling. Steven’s backpack was later found floating in the ocean near La Perouse Bay, a coastal area known for rugged lava shoreline and open ocean conditions. The discovery of the backpack did not answer what had happened to him; instead, it raised urgent questions about whether he had encountered trouble while kayaking, diving, or moving through the coastal area. Public summaries of the case state that Steven also failed to return for his scheduled flight back to North Carolina, an absence that would have made clear to those who knew and loved him that something was wrong.
The available public information does not describe a confirmed sequence after Steven began his planned time on the water. What is known is spare but significant: he had communicated a plan to be alone outdoors for a few days, his belongings surfaced in the ocean, and he did not make it home. For his family, especially his daughter who received that final email, the disappearance would have shifted from a planned Maui excursion into a painful unknown. The details suggest a man who expected to return, expected to travel back to North Carolina, and gave his family enough information to know where he intended to be, but not enough for anyone to later reconstruct exactly what happened.
Steven’s case is listed in NamUs as Missing Person case MP56623, and the Maui County Police Department is identified in public records as the investigating agency, with Maui Police case number 11-027017 also appearing in public case summaries. NamUs describes itself as a national clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases, which means Steven’s case remains part of a broader public system intended to preserve information, support investigators, and keep missing persons from being forgotten.
At its heart, Steven White’s case is the story of a North Carolina man who traveled to Maui, told his daughter he would be kayaking and solo diving, and then vanished after being last seen in Makena on June 12, 2011. The discovery of his backpack floating near La Perouse Bay and his failure to board his return flight are the central known events, but public sources do not provide a confirmed explanation for what happened after he set out. The overview of the case is that Steven White was a 58-year-old male last known to be in Makena, Hawaii, during a planned solo coastal outing, his backpack was found in the ocean near La Perouse Bay, he never returned for his flight to North Carolina, and the Maui County Police Department has been identified as the investigating agency in a case defined by a small number of facts, a vast ocean setting, and the enduring absence left behind for those who loved him.Last Seen: Jun 12, 2011
