Valerie Ann Warshay was 26 years old when she arrived on the Big Island for a solo vacation in March 1978. She was living in El Granada near Half Moon Bay and working for California State Parks when she decided to take an extended hiking trip to Hawaii.
"She was a crazy fanatic hiker, a very physical sort of person," her boyfriend told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald at the time."We hiked the entire coast from where we are in Santa Cruz and god knows how many miles through the mountains." Warshay, a social butterfly, soon made many friends as she journeyed around Hilo. During the day, she would take hikes up Mauna Loa and other beauty spots, and at night she would return to her campsite at Harry K. Brown Park in Kalapana; park rangers noted she was always careful to have the proper permits.
On the night of April 22, Warshay spent the evening with some newfound friends at Kamoamoa, where they partook in a"jam session for music lovers," as the Tribune-Herald put it. Around 10 p.m., she headed back to her campsite. In the morning, a young girl picnicking with her family discovered Warshay's unclothed body at her coconut grove campsite. Warshay was dead from severe blows to the head; her belongings were found nearby, suggesting robbery was not the motive.
In 1980, Hawaii media reported police were"certain" they'd solved the murder."Police feel certain they know who killed Warshay," the Tribune-Herald reported."Their suspect has since been convicted in another murder of a young woman and is serving a life sentence in Oahu Prison."