![]() Gumm’s hometown friends, who hacked into the computer he left behind, say his last Google searches indicate that he had been researching how to forage wild plants and find drinking water. Police say this appears to be the case with Gumm, who severed his personal relationships before he arrived on the island. Other disappearances have led detectives to believe that the person reported missing does not wish to be found. Some are likely to remain open indefinitely, as they include people who were last seen swimming in the ocean moments before they vanished in a rip current. There are 86 unsolved missing person’s cases on Kauai, which has a population of 72,000. Others bolt to the islands to escape punishment for their crimes. There are people who travel to Hawaii seeking a final-destination spot to end their life, a phenomenon known as suicide tourism. The story of his disappearance is part of a larger pattern of people going missing in Hawaii - sometimes intentionally in a bid to escape the hyperconnectivity of the modern world and other times for reasons more sinister. Gumm was 25 years old when he simultaneously arrived on Kauai and vanished from public record, a feat not easily accomplished in the digital age. Then he vanished, never using his cell phone or bank account again. In the morning, he called for a taxi that never arrived. He spent his first night on the island at a Kapaa hostel, sleeping on an open-air lanai draped in humidity and overlooking the sea. ![]() ![]() In the months before he went missing, Gumm’s friends and family say his behavior grew increasingly erratic as his yearning for a higher purpose intensified. Alex Gumm disappeared the day after he arrived on Kauai in 2018 as he embarked on a solitary spiritual pilgrimage. 22, 2018 on a solitary spiritual quest, seeking something he couldn’t find in the aging New England mill town he called home. With only a backpack in tow, Gumm landed at Lihue Airport on Feb. Gumm had recently shaved his head and taken a vow of silence, all but shunning the world outside his mind. He didn’t even say goodbye when his parents dropped him off at a bus depot in Maine to begin his enigmatic journey. KILAUEA, Kauai - A willowy, young guitarist with a radical spiritual practice, Alex Gumm didn’t tell anyone he was going to Kauai. Editor’s note: This story is based on interviews with three members of Alex Gumm’s family, five of Gumm’s closest friends, Kauai police officers who tried to solve Gumm’s missing person case and the private investigator hired by Gumm’s family to chase leads.
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