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Generous Maui
man beaten to
death in condo

The retired Navy doctor,
83, described by Kihei
neighbors as 'giving person,'
was beaten on the head

---

By Gary Kubota
Maui correspondent

WAILUKU -- Maui police are trying to figure out who killed a retired Navy doctor in his Kihei apartment over the weekend.

Police Lt. Glenn Cuomo said detectives have classified the death of 83-year-old Edward Bird as a homicide, following an autopsy yesterday.

"Preliminary findings indicate that he suffered head trauma. He was beaten about the head," Cuomo said.

Press release
Maui police are investigating the death of
retired Navy doctor Edward W. Bird, 83.
He was found Sunday, beaten to death.

Cuomo said detectives had no suspects and were investigating the motive for the killing.

Cuomo said the body was found about 9 a.m. Sunday and Bird was last seen at about 7 p.m. Saturday.

A 10-year-old boy discovered the body in Bird's Pacific Shores condominium, said neighbor Sandra Knapp.

Knapp said the boy sometimes visited Bird while his mother was working and ran to her condominium unit tell her that Bird's head was bleeding.

"He obviously was dead and had been for several hours," she said. "My sense is someone probably came in and robbed him. I think he was asleep and it obviously was in the middle of the night."

Knapp, who had known Bird for six years, said he was a generous man whose health was deteriorating but whose mind was still sharp.

She said if a robber had just asked for money, Bird would have given it

He donated money to the Philippines -- contributions used to build a basketball gym, 10 houses, and scholarships for some 20 students, Knapp said.

"He just was a giving person," she said. "He would give anybody anything."

Knapp said Bird was too trusting and allowed people to use his bathroom and let them go into the bedroom to use the telephone.

Knapp said Bird had lost personal property twice this year -- once his wallet and credit cards and the second time, his check book.

Bird used a scooter to travel on the sidewalk to the grocery and drug store about two miles away.

Knapp described the community as a working-class neighborhood, where children dropped by "Doc's" apartment to sample his baked cookies and residents picked up and emptied his trash can, which he left outside his door.

Stan Moorman, who knew Bird for 30 years while living in Ventura County, Calif., remembered him as a man who was always nice to neighborhood kids.

"He was about as nice a human being you want," Moorman said. "If you asked, he'd give it to you. You didn't need to kill him."