Who was Theresa Cook? 72-year-old identified as first tourist victim of Maui fires 

A 72-year-old woman named Theresa Cook, based out of El Dorado County in Northern California, was identified as one of the first tourist victims of the Maui wildfire, after Hawaii state officials released the confirmed names of eight victims on August 23.

As of Wednesday, the death toll of the wildfire stands at 115, a number that is expected to go up as search and rescue personnel recover more missing bodies. So far, more than 850 people are still unaccounted for, many of them children.

Hawaii authorities urged the relatives of those missing in the aftermath of the devastating fire to come forward and provide DNA samples to speed up the process of identification of the confirmed victims. Theresa Cook’s daughter was among the first to do so, following which the elderly victim was identified.

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Theresa Cook was a tourist in Maui last seen near the famous Banyan Tree

Theresa Cook was a 72-year-old widow vacationing alone in Maui when the island was hit by one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history.

According to her Sacramento-based daughter Melissa Cook’s post in the Facebook group named “Maui Friends” (built as a community to help people find their missing families and friends in Maui), she was missing for nearly two weeks, before Maui officials confirmed that she succumbed to the fire.

A resident of Pollock Vine in El Dorado County, Northern California, Theresa Cook was staying at Maui’s Best Western Pioneer Inn and was last seen walking near Lahaina’s Wharf Street where the famous Banyan tree is located. She was last spotted at approximately 5:30 pm on August 8, around the time the fire started raging through the island. She was wearing a bright-colored sarong.

Theresa Cook was supposed to return to Sacramento a day after the disaster.

Her identity was confirmed from her charred corpse only after her daughter submitted her DNA sample to help identify her mother’s remains. She was among the first eight victims whose identities were confirmed and released by Maui officials on Wednesday.

It was her daughter’s effort to connect with multiple agencies such as the Maui Police Department, U.S. Coast Guard, Red Cross, the FBI, and several local shelters that ultimately helped in finding her remains.

A netizen reporting the death news of Theresa Cook. (Image via Facebook/Terrie Robertson Kitchen)

Besides Theresa Cook, the seven other victims whose names were confirmed are all Lahaina locals. As reported by ABC, they are Clyde Wakida (74), Todd Yamafuji (68), Antonia Molina (64), Freeman Tam Lung (59), Joseph Schilling (67), Narciso Baylosis Jr. (67) and Vanessa Baylosis (67).

20 other names have also been identified, although not confirmed. All of them are, however, presumed to be natives of Lahaina, Maui and their next of kin have been notified as of August 22.

Some of the names, according to The Mountain Democrat, include Robert Dyckman (74), Buddy Jantoc (79), Melva Benjamin (71), Virginia Dofa (90), Alfredo Galinato (79), Danilo Sagudang (55), and Juan Deleon (45). The last name is the youngest victim identified so far.

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The FBI is working in association with Maui officials to quickly identify the deceased

It was the FBI’s decision to ask relatives of those missing in the wake of the Maui wildfire to ask for more and more DNA samples in an effort to quickly identify the remains of the discovered corpses from the ravaged island.

In fact, Special Agent in Charge, Steven Merrill, based out of Honolulu, told ABC on Wednesday:

“If we're able to capture DNA from a victim, capture the DNA from a family member we can 100% say that that person was related to the person we collected DNA from.”

The initiative comes as a part of the FBI’s evidence response team, which consists of agents and forensic professionals who are working at the morgue to try and allocate more information and evidence from the dead remains of the victims that have already been recovered. Although as per Hawaii’s state officials, the missing person toll stands at just over 850, the FBI reportedly still has over a 1000 names in an unconfirmed list of people missing.

So far, 104 families have come forward and submitted DNA samples, and the authorities are hopeful that this will speed up the process of identification through DNA analysis.

As of Wednesday, all single-story buildings and residential properties in Maui had been searched and the search and recovery teams were moving on to combing multi-story properties, both residences and businesses.