LIHU’E – Amfac worker Davis Cortez, Jr., who has been missing for over two months, did not fall into machinery at the Lihu’e Plantation’s cane cleaning plant and die on April 15. That’s the conclusion of a six-week Hawai’i state
LIHU’E – Amfac worker Davis Cortez, Jr., who has been missing for over two months, did not fall into machinery at the Lihu’e Plantation’s cane cleaning plant and die on April 15.
That’s the conclusion of a six-week Hawai’i state Occupational Safety and Health Division (HIOSH) accident investigation. A HIOSH report of the investigation was released this week.
Family members of the 27-year-old cane cleaner utility repair worker, however, have not come to the same conclusion.
His mother Carolyn Cortez feels that her son “went through (the cane-crushing machinery), but now there’s not enough evidence to prove it.” Additionally, she suspects his disappearance may not have been an accident.
“I think there might be foul play. I might be wrong, but that’s how I feel when I put things together,” Carolyn Cortez says.
The report found no evidence of an accident or any safety violations on the part of Amfac after an investigator spent a number of days at the plant inspecting the site and interviewing employees.
For one, the investigator wrote that Cortez wasn’t anywhere near the potentially deadly equipment at the time of his disappearance.
“Facts indicate that there was no reason for Cortez to be in an area of cane cleaner or other equipment capable of causing his disappearance,” the report says.
Cortez, a cane cleaner utility repair worker, was not engaged in repair or maintenance activity before he was reported missing, the report adds.
Cortez was last seen in the plant’s break room at 12:30 a.m., April 15, by his shift supervisor, Laureano Santiago.
A half an hour later, when Cortez was buzzed at his station, there was no response.
“It is possible he left his work area between (those times),” the report said.
Secondly, the investigator gave the factory area a passing grade on safety.
“Some of the hazards Cortez may be exposed to were falls and unguarded pinch points,” the report stated.
“None of these hazards were observed during inspection.” During the walkaround inspection of the cane cleaning plant, all elevated working levels were observed guarded by guardrails, and all pinch points were enclosed and guarded, the report stated.
Even though HIOSH has finished its investigation, many questions have been left unanswered.
Here are a few:
• How did he leave? If Cortez left the work area, he did so without his car, car keys, and street clothes. These items were all found at the plant.
• Why wasn’t the mill processing stopped earlier? Carolyn and Davis Cortez, Sr. wonder why mill operations were not immediately shut down when Cortez, Jr. went missing.
When the factory was shut down and searched for a half an hour at 2 p.m. on April 15 and then again on April 17, “there was no evidence of (Cortez’s) body found within machinery, in end product, or anywhere on the site,” the report said.
But because the mill wasn’t turned off until over 12 hours had passed, definitive evidence, if present, would have been completely wiped clean, the Cortezes say.
“They can’t find any evidence because of the hot water, because of the grinding. That they can’t answer,” Davis Cortez, Sr. says.
• What about the boot and shirt? Searching for his son the day after the disappearance, Davis Cortez, Sr. and found a work boot tangled around the slats about a mile from the cane cleaning plant. The boot was a size 9, the same size his son wore.
“I stuck my head inside the boots to see any flesh. The boots were all ripped up, (but there was nothing there)—just bagasse,” Cortez, Sr. says. The boot and a mangled green shirt found April 16 were turned in and sent to the crime laboratory in Honolulu for testing. No evidence of blood was found which could link the items to Cortez, the report says. But if they weren’t Cortez’s, how did they get there? Jim Boersma, an Amfac spokesman, says the company has done a thorough check of the area, and has continued to support the police effort to find Cortez.
“Regardless of what the report says, our concern is still for the family and for our missing worker,” says Boersma.
The Kaua’i Police Department is still conducting an on-going investigation, tracking down rumored sightings of Cortez in different places on the island. No leads have come up with anything solid, however. Cortez’s father says he still has hope.
“If he’s a missing person, he could be anyplace. He could be off-island, some place in the hills. Nobody knows, so we just have to wait patiently.” He adds that Davis, Jr. is a good worker, but depression and grief from losing his infant son last year may have changed his life around. But his parents add that Cortez was not the type to stay away from his family for too long.
“He’s a family man. He misses the family all the time,” says Davis Cortez, Sr.
