Tresa Lupton has spent the past several days trying to piece together how her sister fell 24 floors at one of Waikiki’s largest resorts — and getting almost nothing back. Her sister, 50-year-old Southwest Airlines flight attendant Jenny Lupton of Moore, Oklahoma, was discovered dead shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday, August 20, 2026, based on what relatives say they have been told about how the body was found.
“We just want to know what happened,” Tresa Lupton, Jenny Lupton’s sister, told News 9. The family does not believe her sister deliberately harmed herself, she said, and Tresa Lupton told Fox News Digital that “the timeline doesn’t make sense, and we are afraid that maybe there was foul play.” Police have made no such finding.
Honolulu police are treating the case as an unattended death investigation and have offered no details beyond acknowledging that one is underway. Jenny Lupton had flown to Hawaii for work, relatives told KOCO 5, which they also notified of her death. How she spent the hours leading up to the morning she was found has not been publicly accounted for.
What the Family Says It Was Told
The one substantive piece of information the family says it has came from the medical examiner’s office: Jenny Lupton appeared to have gone off the balcony of her room on the 24th floor at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort, the enormous beachfront complex at the far western end of Waikiki. A worker at the hotel is said to have come across her body beside a dumpster.
Everything else is blank. Relatives say they have no idea whether anyone witnessed the fall, or what any recordings might show. Hotel security did tell them one thing: upwards of 70 cameras watch that part of the property, and detectives are going through the video.
Adding to the frustration, the family said its only contact so far has been with the medical examiner’s office — not a single conversation with police, they told KOCO 5. That leaves them thousands of miles of distance and a jurisdiction none of them has ever dealt with between them and any explanation.
Even the date of the discovery is murky. While her relatives put it at Thursday morning, August 20, another account has her found the next day, on Friday, August 21. Authorities have not sorted out the discrepancy publicly.
A Sister Pushes for Answers
Tresa Lupton, who has become the relative speaking for the family, said her sister “just went out with one of her flight attendant friends, and they danced and had a good time,” and had gotten a tattoo while in Hawaii. Neither detail has been tied by investigators to what happened at the resort, and no official narrative of that night exists. What gnaws at the family is the emptiness of the record — a fatal fall from a high floor of a building they were told is blanketed by more than 70 cameras, and still no answer as to how it happened.
Hawaii, like other states, opens an unattended death case any time someone dies with no witness present or outside a doctor’s care. It is a procedural designation, not a conclusion — it doesn’t suggest investigators suspect a crime, nor does it rule one out. Such investigations typically stay open until autopsy and toxicology results come back, a process that can stretch on for weeks. No cause or manner of death has been determined in Lupton’s case.
A 29-Year Career With Southwest
Lupton had worked the cabin for Southwest for 29 years, essentially her entire adult working life. She grew up in Moore, the suburb just south of Oklahoma City, and finished high school there at Moore High School. She leaves behind a 15-year-old son.
Crews consider a Honolulu turn one of the better draws on the board — long-haul flying that generally goes to senior flight attendants. Lupton had the seniority for it. The rhythm of such trips is familiar: check into the hotel, kill a stretch of open hours, then work the leg back.
The airline acknowledged her death in a written statement. “The Southwest Airlines family is deeply saddened by the passing of our colleague during a layover in Hawaii,” the company said. Southwest said it had reached out with condolences and support for her relatives and fellow employees, and that it was cooperating with local investigators.
For now, the medical examiner holds the next move. Until that office rules, the official file says only that this was an unattended death with cause and manner pending. The Luptons are left with a math problem that doesn’t add up: dozens of lenses pointed at the resort, a body discovered by a dumpster at dawn, and a phone in Oklahoma that no investigator has called.