Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Firemen, police and medical examiner staff carry out the
decomposed body at the Maunawili Lookout
on Pali Highway yesterday.

Decomposed body
found off Pali Highway
at steep slope

---

Star-Bulletin staff

Two pig hunters found a badly decomposed body near St. Stephen's Diocesan Center yesterday after their five hunting dogs sniffed it out.

Police Sgt. Larry Santos Jr. said the body was lying face down in a small stream about 100 yards off the Kailua-bound lanes of Pali Highway.

The man, probably a hiker, may have fallen off Maunawili Trail about 20 or 30 feet down a very steep slope into the stream, Santos said.

Although it was unknown if foul play was involved, it did not appear to be the case, Santos said. No firearm or other type weapon was found nearby, he said.

The body was clad in shorts. A shirt was hanging in a tree up by the trail, and a key chain with a name on it was hanging on a branch, Santos said. A check was being made to see if anyone by that name was reported missing, he added.

Santos emphasized the slope off the trail and down to the stream was steep.

"That's why we needed the rescue crew to bring him up to the trail," he said. Firefighters assisted in the recovery.

Police were called shortly after 3 p.m., and the body later was brought up to the St. Stephen's Diocesan Center Lookout at 6341 Pali Highway. The scene was cleared about 6 p.m.