Amanda Eller Update: Search Scaled Back For Missing Woman, Family Offers Reward

The search for Amanda Eller, the woman who went missing while on a hike at the Kahakapao Loop Trail of the Makawao Forest Reserve in Hawaii on Wednesday, was scaled back Sunday evening after very little evidence on her whereabouts was found.

Eller, 35, was reported missing Thursday after she failed to return home. The area was searched on foot and by air by the first responders Thursday morning and her car was seen in a parking lot at the forest reserve.

Maui police on Sunday morning said they were no longer actively involved in the search operation. They, however, added officials would follow-up on potential leads. Volunteers said they would continue the effort.

“Amanda could live many weeks out there because it is moist and water forms, also if she were to have fallen she might be near a creek or water source -it is a wet area,” a volunteer said, the Maui Now reported.

Eller’s family, who was on a vacation when the woman disappeared, was flying back to assist with the search. The family was also offering a $10,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to Eller's whereabouts.

Eller was a yoga instructor and a physical therapist who made the island of Maui her home. In her personal website, Eller wrote, "Living on this island has also inspired extraordinary changes, including the completion my yoga teacher training. I have found yoga asana to be one of the most powerful injury prevention and rehabilitation practices, and I'm thrilled to now offer private sessions to my clients."

Eller’s friends have now asked experienced rappellers and hunters to help them in the search.

“This vegan girl is calling out to the pig hunters and to people who know this forest inside and out, who will not get lost or harmed and who are in a group and can search the more difficult areas. We are putting a call out to people, we need serious, trained, athletic searchers,” Sarah Haynes, Eller’s friend, said.

“It’s not out of the ordinary for her to go there, not out of the ordinary for her to leave her belongings in her car, including her cell phone. She likes to unplug. It appears to us at this point that she is either way off the trail -- you know having gotten injured, or fallen maybe -- or somebody interrupted her between her car and her run,” Haynes added, the Hawaii News Now reported.