Eller apologizes for ‘irresponsible’ planning

Hiker revisits details of first day in video post by KEHAULANI CERIZO  kcerizo@mauinews.com

Amanda Eller, who has made national headlines after surviving 17 days in a northeast Maui forest, apologized Friday for her “irresponsible” planning of the initial run/hike and clarifying some of her previous statements.

There has been praise and criticism of Eller in social media since a helicopter located her May 24. Friday’s statement via her official Facebook search page comes on the heels of a national news conference Tuesday at Maui Memorial Medical Center,

“I wanted to stay out of the limelight, but feel I need to make a statement to clear up some misunderstandings that have been brought to my attention recently,” Eller said in the video.

The Haiku resident revisited details of May 8, the day she went missing, and apologized for her “irresponsible” planning and leaving her cellphone in the car. Eller emphasized that her goal for the day was a 3-mile run and hike, not a “spiritual journey,” and that she was not on any mind-altering substances. The physical therapist and yoga instructor said she hopes her story will help inform others about the risks of exploring Maui.

“This situation is hopefully making other people very aware of the preparation that they need when they choose to explore Maui in different ways,” she said. “I understand that my comments earlier on about this being a spiritual journey may have bypassed the details of what really happened, I would like to clarify that.

Haiku resident Amanda Eller (second from left) is all smiles after being found by searchers Javier Cantellops (from left), Troy Helmer and Chris Berquist above the Kailua reservoir in East Maui on May 25. In a video posted Friday, Eller said she was sorry for not planning her hike well. TROY HELMER photo

“I did, at the end of this experience of mine, find the silver lining in the bigger picture as to what was happening. But this was never intentional, and I did not set out that day on a spiritual journey. I set out that day to go through a simple hike through the woods.”

Eller also thanked volunteers and said it was never her intention to put “anybody in harm’s way.”

“I now understand how many people dropped their lives and what was important to them to help me and the dangers they were maybe put in to help find me,” she said. “I’m relieved there were no injuries and no serious consequences to that.”

Eller, 35, who was lost for 17 days in the dense jungle of northeast Maui, has drawn widespread attention. Eller’s search was the largest volunteer community search in recent history, drawing approximately 100 searchers daily and amassing $77,000 in GoFundMe donations. It also involved a police investigation and FindAmanda Facebook notices on possible foul play that worried some residents.

About a week before Eller was found, police held a news conference to declare that no signs of foul play had emerged in the case at that point.

Eller’s first-person account, released to The New York Times last Saturday, discussed a harrowing experience of living off stream water, strawberry guavas and sleeping in a boar’s den before she was spotted by a search helicopter.

Eller, who started at Makawao Forest Reserve’s “Hunter’s Trail,” was airlifted from the forest about 5 miles northeast of the trailhead on a stream bed in Kailua.

Since the news broke, supporters around the nation have called her a hero, survivor and warrior. After Tuesday’s news conference, though, many have taken to social media to question her story.

During the news conference, she referred to her ordeal in spiritual terms. For example, in describing the night after her 20-foot-fall and a flash flood, she said: “Spirit’s been like, ‘You’ve been asking for this, we’re just going to strip all of these layers back,’ I felt my wide open heart penetrate every single cell of my being and any kind of dark spots that were in my body, energetically, however you want to think about it, were just lit up and I felt myself starting to glow as I’m shaking in a foot of water, sitting on a rock in the middle of a flash flood.

“That was a dark but bright moment; that was one for the record books.”

* Kehaulani Cerizo can be reached at kcerizo@mauinews.com.