“We feel so blessed,” Laureen Debina, Mikella Lani Debina’s aunt, told Big Island Now. “Excited. We are so thankful for the community that helped bring it back. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Mikella Lani Debina was allegedly abducted by a masked assailant with a knife on Friday between 1.30am and 2.30pm from Anaeho’omalu Bay near Lava Lava Beach Club. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENTARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT Dozens of people gathered Saturday to help search for the missing girl when news of her rescue broke. The kidnapped girl had convinced her captor to take her out to eat. When he took her to Cafe Pesto, she got out of the car. A passerby observed an ensuing fight and intervened. See the family’s reaction here. Debina is currently with the Hilo Police Department. Tom Haslinger Tom Hasslinger is a journalist living in Kailua-Kona. Before joining Big Island Now, he worked as managing editor for West Hawaii Today and associate editor at The Garden Island newspaper in Kauai. He worked for more than 15 years as a reporter for the Civil Beat News Agency based in Oahu, as well as in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and Douglas Wyoming. Read full bio
