GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM A boulder rolled down from the hill behind a home at 2527A Henry St. in Nuuanu this morning and crushed a 26-year-old female resident in her room as she lay sleeping. A neighbor, above, left the home following the freak accident.

1 dead after
boulder smashes
Nuuanu home

The 26-year-old female victim
is pronounced dead at the scene

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By Leila Fujimori and Gregg Kakesako
lfujimori@starbulletin.com gkakesako@starbulletin.com

A 26-year-old Nuuanu woman was killed in her sleep early this morning when a six-ton boulder tumbled down a steep hillside and slammed into her bedroom.

The boulder, a 5-by-5-foot cube, broke through the roof and landed in her bed in her second-floor bedroom, fire officials said. The boulder, along with the woman and her bed, then went through the floor and fell to the family room on the first floor.

Neighbors identified the woman as Dara Onishi, who lived at 2527A Henry St. with her parents, Patrick and Gail Onishi, and a 20-year-old brother. They were home but were not injured.

Onishi was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body was moved to the family garage for her parents to grieve privately before her body was taken away.

Fire Capt. Richard Soo said the boulder struck the eaves on the back of the house and left a 30- to 40-yard path down the hillside. There did not appear to be danger of more falling boulders, he said.

Neighbors said they were shocked and saddened by news of Onishi's death. They described her as an intelligent, pretty and nice woman who graduated from Yale University, where she majored in Asian studies.

Onishi worked for three years in Japan and was working in Honolulu, neighbors said. The family had lived at the home for 30 years, they said.

Onishi's father served as Mayor Jeremy Harris' planning director.

Harris, who has known the Onishi family for more than 30 years, described the 1994 Punahou School graduate as a "wonderful, wonderful girl who was full of life and so full of promise."

Onishi had worked for City Managing Director Ben Lee while she prepared to attend Columbia University this fall.

Neighbors described the Onishis as very quiet, private people. The family asked for their privacy and did not speak to the news media.

Neighbors who spoke to the Star-Bulletin did not express any fear living about living at the foot of a steep mountainside.

"That's totally a freak accident," said Lynn Hirashima, who lives next door. But she said her father had always warned the family not to "fuss with the back (yard)."

Hirashima said she awoke to a sound she thought was something that had fallen in the neighbors' house. She described the sound as a rustling and thought it was robbers.

"It didn't sound like a thud. I was shocked when I heard on the news it was a boulder," Hirashima said.

Hirashima's mother, Elaine, said a few years ago a much smaller boulder fell onto her washing machine.

Her husband, Shigeo, built their home 53 years ago.

"Most of the stones, they took them away before they built, all the big kind," Shigeo Hirashima said.

Falling boulders, especially after heavy rains, have always been a problem on Oahu.

However, fire department officials weren't aware of any immediate problems in the Nuuanu Valley-Pacific Heights area.

City Councilman Jon Yoshimura, whose council district includes Nuuanu Valley, said his office receives "all kinds of complaints," and besides those dealing with "occasionally rolling rocks, I have never heard of something so catastrophic," he said.

The Onishis' home was built in 1967 on a steep lot. The first floor was constructed of hollow tile and the second floor was built with wood.