Autopsy set VOLCANO, Hawaii >> A woman whose body was found Tuesday morning on a lava field at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has been identified as Jacqueline Gast, 45, of Fort Myers, Fla.
in volcano death
The victim has been identified as
a Florida resident on vacationBy Peter Serafin
Special to the Star-BulletinA hiker found the body about 50 yards from an active lava flow and about a half-mile north of the station at the end of Chain of Craters Road, and notified park rangers.
Gast had been on a cruise of the Hawaiian Islands aboard the Norwegian Star with her husband, John.
After the ship docked in Hilo, she was part of a tour group bused to the lava field in the national park on Monday morning.
It is not known whether John Gast accompanied his wife to the lava flow.
He boarded the ship and reported her missing after it left Hilo Monday afternoon.
According to park spokeswoman Mardie Lane, the tour driver instructed group members to return to the bus in time for an 11:30 a.m. departure to Hilo.
Gast did not return with the others, who had been hiking various routes across the flow, Lane said.
The driver notified a national park staffer and departed with the other passengers as scheduled.
"It's not an uncommon occurrence for tourists not to get back to the bus on time," Lane said. "They find their own way back."
Steve Hirano, a Honolulu-based spokesman for the cruise line, said a port agent filed a missing-person's report with the Hawaii County Police Department after the ship was under way for Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati south of Hawaii.
The ship is scheduled to return to Lahaina tomorrow. Hirano says the cruise line will then fly John Gast from there to Hilo.
The cause of death is unknown; an autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.