John Elwin, the handsome Hawaii based polo player, had up and vanished somewhere in the vast crowded reaches of southeast Asia.

And now, the friends frantically searching for him had made a disturbing discovery: a sometimes business partner named Hank Jacinto had control of seemingly all of Elwin's earthly possessions, including his car, money and land.

It was as if Elwin had been, simply, erased.

Had his business partner Hank Jacinto robbed Elwin, defrauded a good friend? Seemed like it, and yet it just didn't make sense.

Why in the world would Jacinto, by all accounts a multi-millionaire head of an international high-tech firm swindle a small-time business partner for what amounted to just a few hundred thousand dollars?

Luis Soltren: This guy was like a Donald Trump to John Elwin.

But rich as Jacinto appeared, Luis Soltren, a building contractor with a high school education, felt the time had come to personally confront the powerful mogul head on.

Luis Soltren: I go "Let me go see this guy. This guy makes $63 million a year. He must have a hell of an office."

Soltren flew from the island of Kauai to Honolulu and went straight to Jacinto's corporate office in the skyscraper at 1750 Kalakaua Avenue, suite 3659.

"I find a mailbox drop," says Luis. Post office box 659. It was the full extent of Jacinto's U.S. corporate headquarters.

Maybe, thought Soltren, he'd find Jacinto's true headquarters at his estate in the hills overlooking Honolulu.

As distrustful as they were of Hank Jacinto, Elwin's friends were still hoping there was some reasonable explanation. That it would turn out the mogul was actually helping Elwin out of some jam, and that when it was all over he would come home with a smile on his face and stories to tell.

That hope died right here when Soltren looked through this gate and saw the derelict house, the guard dogs, and the body of old cars half-covered in leaves.

Luis Soltren: That guy's a con man, that's all he is.

A con who had, they were sure, committed a terrible crime.

The three friends of Elwin arranged to meet with Honolulu detectives and with prosecutor Chris Van Marter.

Luis Soltren: And we went there. And we presented our case.

But remember, Soltren and the others were investigative amateurs. They didn't have a "case" really -- not in the legal sense. They only had information they collected and a storyline that was hard to believe.

Luis Soltren: Got grilled by Van Marter. He wanted to pull our story apart.

But the attitude in the room slowly changed as Elwin's friends presented phone records, credit card bills, bank statements and the forged deed.

Luis Soltren: They say, "We need to make copies of all this stuff." And I said to them, "No. These are your copies. We figured save you time."

And that was it. The prosecutor bought the story. Detectives were dispatched and tracked Jacinto down at the polo club. They charged him with theft and forgery and took him to jail.

That's when the mysterious life of Mr. Hank Jacinto began to lift, like a rock, to reveal the sordid and sinister detail crawling beneath.

Michael Young: I think the property is probably worth a million, million and a half, easily by now.

Like the story told by Michael young. This house, the supposed Jacinto estate overlooking Honolulu?

Because of its location, it's worth a small fortune. At one time it belonged to Young's father Arthur until a very strange event back in 1990.

Michael discovered that's when his father had supposedly put the family home up as collateral on a loan involving Hank Jacinto.

Michael Young: Well, as soon as I found out that Hank had control over my family property, I went to go see if I could get it back somehow.

Young: I didn't know how to get a hold of him, or how to reach him, or where his whereabouts were.

There was, of course, one other person who could say whether or not this transaction was legitimate: Michael's dad Arthur.

But here's the other strange thing: Michael couldn't find him, either.

He had disappeared. And is still missing.

Michael Young: My father went to the Philippines with Mr. Jacinto and never returned with him.

Very suspicious. But there was more.

There was another bizarre event involving a close friend of Jacinto's in Hawaii, a man named Doug Ho.

They were so close Doug Ho opened up a mailbox just a few feet from Jacinto's and he's even listed as a vice president of Jacinto's Philippine Mission Foundation.

According to these legal papers, Doug Ho used this family home on the shores of Oahu as collateral in a business deal with Jacinto, just as Arthur Young had done.

And like Young, Doug Ho also went to the Philippines with Hank Jacinto, in 2004, and never returned.

But Jacinto wasn't charged with any crimes connected with Young or Ho.

There was no proof that either man was dead. And there was no proof that any of the legal documents were forgeries.

And so this is what was left: with Elwin simply missing, Jacinto was only charged with financial crimes -- and only against Elwin.

That's when Soltren said he had another one of his "visions."

Luis Soltren: I had a terrible dream one night. And I woke up and I told my wife that, I think I've been visited by John. And in the dream he was really dirty and he asked me if he could bathe. And I told him, "Yeah, go ahead and bathe, John." He said to me, "You know, he killed me." And, you know, he did it with his driver and another guy. And he said, "They beat me up and they shot me." And he said … "You know what to do, and I love you." And then he disappeared.

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