'I just want justice' says daughter of missing Maui woman one year after disappearance

WAILUKU, MAUI (HawaiiNewsNow) - Each day is a struggle for the family of a Maui mother who disappeared nearly a year ago.

Tomorrow marks one year since Moreira "Mo" Monsalve was last seen. The case is still unsolved, but those close to Monsalve continue to work tirelessly to make sure she is not forgotten.

"When the stores have the missing person's posters up, of course it's thank you, thank you for remembering her and remembering that she's still missing," said Monsalve's daughter, Alexis Felicilda.

Felicilda remembers the day her mother went missing very vividly. But she's afraid some people are beginning to forget.

"They're like, 'Whatever happened to that lady that went missing?' And for us, it's a thought every day, it's not just what happened to that person," Felicilda said.

Felicilda is the oldest of Monsalve's three kids. She says the past year has been a blur.

It's rare that something like this happens and it's somebody that's so outgoing and you have no trace of anything that happened," she said.

The 46-year-old was last seen on January 12th, 2014 at her ex-boyfriend Bernard Brown's home in Wailuku.  Her purse and her other belongings were later found in a dumpster.

"I have an idea of what happened and I don't think it was an accident and I do think that something bad did happen to her," said Felicilda.

Monsalve's friends and family say Brown was abusive. Police still consider him a person of interest in the case but not a suspect. He has since moved to the mainland. Felicilda says there is no way her mother would just leave her and her two brothers behind.

"I just want justice and I want to find her and I want to get closure and I want to the person that did this to her to be locked up and put away so he can't do it to anybody else," Felicilda said.

Felicilda says although her mother has vanished without a trace, they are still actively searching for her and the Maui Police Department is too, and she is asking the public to not give up.

"There's days when I want to crawl under a rock and tell everybody to leave me alone and just mourn in my own spot.  But then there's always that fighter in me that's like no, I have to get to the bottom of this and I have to figure out what happened…solve the puzzle, solve the mystery," she said.

A rally for justice will be held for Monsalve on Monday, January 12, 2015 on the corner of Kanaloa Ave. and W. Kaahumanu Ave. next to the Maui Police Department in Wailuku. It starts at 4:30 p.m. Felicilda is asking the community to bring signs and wear lavender or pink.

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