Search crews scoured the Magens Bay area for a second day Friday, looking for Kevin Highfield, a 61-year-old eco-tour guide last heard from Wednesday morning.
Highfield had reportedly planned to meet up with a hiking tour through the palm grove and into the five-acre Magens Bay Arboretum on Wednesday morning but has not been heard from since.
H.L. Freyn, who owns the eco-tour business Walk on Water, was leading the excursion and said Highfield left him a voicemail that morning and then texted him at 10:50 a.m. to say he was at the gate to Magens Bay and would catch up with the group. He never did. Freyn noticed his friend’s truck parked on the grass at the south side of the park when the hike ended around 12:30 p.m. but didn’t think much of it since Highfield was scheduled to lead a snorkel tour of the bay at 2 p.m.
When Freyn learned the next day that Highfield hadn’t shown up for the snorkel tour, and that nobody had seen or heard from him, he returned to Magens Bay and found the truck — a silver Toyota Tacoma — parked in the same spot with the doors unlocked and Highfield’s phone, shoes and wallet inside, but not the keys. He and some friends searched the area thoroughly, yelling out for Highfield, but turned up nothing.
The police were notified soon after.
Barbara Petersen, chair of the Magens Bay Authority, said park officials have a record of the truck arriving at the beach Wednesday morning, parking just across the bridge on the bay’s south side where the tour started, but what happened next remains a mystery. V.I. Police Department officers were reviewing that surveillance video on Friday.
St. Thomas Rescue learned of Highfield’s disappearance on Thursday about 5 p.m. and began plotting a grid for the search that began at 7 a.m. Friday and included about 15 volunteers, said public information officer Chris Watson.
They repeatedly searched the grounds of Magens Bay and the steep trail that leads up the mountain to Drake’s Seat, 10 times, while divers covered the bay from the shore to the point on both sides, he said. Thermal-imaging drones with Defense Department technology that St. Thomas Rescue acquired through a grant were also deployed over the entire area, to no avail.
“I wish I could give you a straight answer,” Watson said from the scene at Shed 3 of Magens Bay late on Friday afternoon, as the search was wrapping up for the day. “The simple answer is that we don’t know what is going on right now. I hate to say that. The problem that we have is that there is too much information that is not adding up. … There is a full 24-hour-plus gap here that we can’t account for” Highfield’s whereabouts, he said.
Moreover, it’s unlikely that Highfield, who reportedly has asthma and was recovering from knee surgery, would have ventured off the beaten path, particularly at a time when the trail is muddy, slippery and dense with bush, both Watson and Freyn said.
If something happened, if he was injured or worse, someone would likely have seen or heard that — somebody yelling for help can be heard for a good distance at the park — and “what’s worse, to be blunt, you would smell it. We know exactly what we’re smelling, there’s no mistaking that. We’re not getting any of that,” said Watson.
If Highfield had a mishap in the water, the body would very likely have turned up Friday afternoon, according to the Coast Guard’s calculations, based on the current and wind conditions, said Watson.
The Coast Guard also conducted a marine search, even though there is no hard evidence that Highfield went into the water, said public information officer Ricardo Castrodad. He said the search would resume if more evidence was found.
“This is important and hopefully this man is able to be found,” Castrodad said.
Watson said he was assisting the VIPD with its investigation, and that they went to a secondary location on Friday and recovered some evidence, but he could not divulge more. “That’s really where we are at right now. The only attachment to Magens Bay that we have is the fact that his truck was here.”
The VIPD issued a missing person alert for Highfield on Thursday night, describing him as 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He has a light-brown complexion and brown eyes and dark hair.
In a statement late Friday afternoon, the VIPD said that it “obtained clothing from Mr. Highfield’s home so that cadaver dogs could track his scent on the trails. The search is ongoing, and we will keep the public updated on the progress. Acting Commissioner Mario Brooks and the V.I.P.D. family continue to keep Mr. Highfield’s family and friends in our thoughts and prayers.”
Highfield is the son of the late Virgin Islands historian Arnold Highfield and Shirley de Chabert Highfield, of St. Croix. His family was reportedly planning to come to St. Thomas on Saturday.
Sybille Sorrentino, CEO of Virgin Islands Ecotours, said hers was one of several companies that employed Highfield, who was in high demand due to his intelligence and affability.
“He’s an amazing swimmer,” Sorrentino said. “He’s just a very talented, highly educated, well-travelled man from St. Croix.”
A graduate in Marine Science from the University of the Virgin Islands, he managed the Jacques Cousteau marine program for youth at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas, and owned a kayak tour operation in Hawaii, she said.
“In addition to his work with us, Kevin has been giving swimming lessons to local children at Magens Bay and the Red Hook swimming pool. He is also a lead guide for our night kayak tours at Virgin Islands Ecotours,” said Sorrentino, who added that he lives in the area near Sib’s Restaurant and often spends time there with fellow UVI alumni.
Anyone with any information about Highfield’s disappearance should contact the VIPD at 340-774-2211 or the Criminal Investigation Unit’s Major Crimes Division at 340-642-8449. You can also contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
