A yoga instructor who went missing in a Hawaiian forest more than two weeks ago has been found safe and sound.
Amanda Eller has miraculously been found alive and unhurt after disappearing on May 8 while out on a hike in the Makawao Forest Reserve on Maui. After mass efforts by rescue workers and volunteers to find the 35-year-old, Amanda was found at around 5pm local time on Friday. She was located by a search helicopter between two waterfalls deep in a ravine near Twin Falls, which Amanda was able to flag down.
Amanda Eller has miraculously been found alive and unhurt after disappearing on May 8 while out on a hike in the Makawao Forest Reserve on Maui. After mass efforts by rescue workers and volunteers to find the 35-year-old, Amanda was found at around 5pm local time on Friday. She was located by a search helicopter between two waterfalls deep in a ravine near Twin Falls, which Amanda was able to flag down.
As soon as she was retrieved, she called her father to reassure her family she was alive."She was very alert, she knew her father's phone number, she knew who she was, where she was, knew exactly how long she had been out there - very surprised to see us," friend Chris Berquist, who was in the helicopter, said. He added: "I've never felt something quite that overpowering."The instructor, who had been living on water and plants and lost her shoes a couple of days into her disappearance, was then taken to Maui Memorial Hospital. Amanda, who had gone hiking with no phone, had was reported missing by her boyfriend on May 9 after failing to return from the forest. Her SUV was found not long after that with the key underneath the tire on the driver's side. At the time of her disappearance, Amanda's distraught mother Julia Eller said: 'This a mother's worst nightmare and it has been an emotional roller-coaster."She is an inspiration to me, particularly since I've been on my own personal journey lately.' The reward for finding Amanda, originally from North Carolina, had increased to $50,000 from the original $10,000 just hours before she was found. Her boyfriend Benjamin Konkol said he always believed his "soulmate" wasn't gone forever and that he had never suspected foul play.