Hawaiʻi Police Department news release
on February 21, 2024

Hawai‘i Island police have identified the woman who drowned early Sunday morning after reportedly falling into the ocean along the shoreline cliffs in the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision in Kea‘au as 29-year-old Kala‘iokealaula Ashley Nicole Reyes Kanekoa of Kea‘au.

On Sunday, February 18, 2024, at 1:59 a.m., Puna patrol officers, along with Hawai‘i Fire Department personnel, responded to the sea cliff area off of Beach Road and Paradise Drive after a 31-year-old Kea‘au man reported a woman had slipped and fallen into the ocean. He attempted to rescue Kanekoa by throwing out a flotation device, however was unsuccessful as she was pulled out by the ocean’s currents.

Hawai‘i Fire Department and Coast Guard personnel conducted an aerial search for Kanekoa throughout the morning, and at 8:00 a.m., discovered her unresponsive body four miles down shore near Honolulu Landing in Pāhoa. She was transported to the Hilo Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at 10:58 a.m.

After performing an autopsy on Tuesday, February 20, the forensic pathologist ruled that Kanekoa died of an accidental drowning.

Police ask anyone who may have information relative to this case, to call the police department’s non-emergency number at (808) 935-3311, or Detective Paul Mangus of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section at (808) 961-2383 or email Paul.Mangus@hawaiicounty.gov.