A California couple visiting Hawaii have revealed terrifying details of the incident in which a masked gunman stole their car and “traced” them into a volcano.
Alex and Justina Lucero were visiting Maui for work and decided to explore the massive active volcano, Haleakala, on June 4, but were forced to run and hide for their lives, KHON 2 report.
View from the summit Haleakala Smoke billows from the crater of Maui’s volcano in Hawaii’s Haleakala National Park on June 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)
The Luceros recounted how they were driving a silver Ford Mustang they rented from their kaupo in Haleakala when they spotted a road closure sign on the side of the road.
“We didn’t doubt it because locals had told us earlier in the day, ‘Yes, you can go all the way. It was closed before but it’s OK now,'” Justina, 29, told media in Honolulu.
“And we were taught that locals use the same roads, so if they come up behind you, move aside and let them pass, because they don’t have the same view as you.”
So the Luceros kept going. Soon they noticed a truck pulling up behind them and they waved it past.
As the couple rounded a blind bend and looked back, they noticed a truck coming towards them at high speed.
Within a split second, the aggressive driver blocked their path and got out of the car.
“[The driver] “A man jumped out, came towards us with a gun and stopped us in the middle of the road,” Justina recalled.
The man, wearing a mask and hooded sweatshirt, ordered the terrified tourists to leave all their valuables and keys in their car and “start walking towards them right now,” said Alex, 31.
When they did as they were told, the Luceros heard a car start to move behind them and realized the carjacker wasn’t going to get away.
“Now he’s coming towards us, so we went from walking at a brisk pace to sprinting up this ravine really quickly,” Alex said.
The Luceros family decided to take a risk and run up the volcano to find a place to hide, as the armed man shouted threats.
“He was yelling at us to show ourselves, ‘Yes we will find him, we will find him,’ and at one point he started counting down from 10. You could hear him start counting down from 5, and then finally he fired the gun,” Alex said.
At that point, “we knew it was serious. We knew he was serious,” Justina recalled.
From their hiding place on higher ground, the couple saw another driver in a white van marked as a taxi meet up with the gunman.
“They met up. They had some interaction with this car and our rental car. At that point we knew this guy was helping us find them,” Alex told KHON2.
The couple then noticed a third vehicle prowling the area, and the driver got out of the vehicle holding a flashlight and a drone.
According to Justina, they “felt completely overwhelmed and had no idea what to do, what they wanted, or who to help.”
Unable to escape or call for help, the Lucero family was forced to camp out on top of the volcano overnight, having to drink from a small waterfall to stay hydrated.
The next morning, they still weren’t sure whether they could trust the people calling for help, because they had seen two men on horseback who also may have been in cahoots with the carjacker.
About 24 hours later, after a tourist helicopter flew overhead without noticing them, the confused pair were spotted by a park ranger.
“at this point, [the park ranger] “We had a suspect in mind who fit the profile and fit the heinous acts because that person is such a threat,” Alex said.
Four days later, Maui police arrested suspect Christopher Helmer in connection with a separate kidnapping and terroristic threat case that took place in May.
“At the time of his arrest, Helmer was driving a stolen Mustang and had a loaded firearm. Following his arrest, further investigation uncovered additional evidence linking him to the robbery and the Tacoma, which was determined to be stolen, was also recovered,” Maui police said. SaidAccording to Hawaii News Now.
A grand jury indicted Helmer on charges of first-degree robbery, firearm and drug offenses and operating a stolen vehicle on June 21. Bail was set at $500,000 and he remains in police custody.
“We almost never made it home and our lives have been changed forever by what happened,” Justina told KHON 2. “We were lucky to get through it together, but this situation could have been different in so many ways.”
