NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Yard worker found dead at cliff base

WAILUA, Kauai » County officials found the body of a 49-year-old Kapaa man Sunday in a valley behind a Lihau Street home, the victim of an apparent accident.

County officials received a missing-person call at about 11:04 p.m. Sunday after Melvin Kneip, a yard worker, did not return home from work.

Firefighters searched the Wailua property where he was working Sunday, following the path taken by a riding lawn mower.

They found Kneip at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff behind the home.

Police are conducting an investigation of the incident, but they do not suspect foul play.

Missing diver rescued off Lanai

WAILUKU » The Coast Guard rescued a man who was reported missing yesterday by three friends while free-diving four miles off Manele Bay, Lanai.

Bruno Amby, 52, of Lanai was found swimming along a rocky shoreline and was hoisted aboard a Coast Guard helicopter at about 11:35 a.m., nearly two hours after being reported missing.

Amby was taken to Manele Bay, where he was transferred to an ambulance.

A Coast Guard crew aboard a 47-foot motor lifeboat took the divers' Boston whaler in tow to Manele Bay. The vessel had lost power offshore.

WINDWARD OAHU

Driver, 69, dies from crash injuries

The Medical Examiner's Office said a 69-year-old Kailua man died Sunday due to complications from blunt-force injuries he received Wednesday in a car crash in Enchanted Lake.

The office said the driver, Michael Machado, blacked out prior to the accident and had some underlying medical conditions.

Machado was driving a 2004 Ford Taurus heading east on Keolu Drive, 100 feet west of Kanapuu Drive, when he sideswiped a Toyota 4Runner, then continued on, crossing a grassy edge and hitting a utility pole, police said.

Police said Machado was initially in good condition with knee and groin pain and was taken to Castle Medical Center. He died Sunday.

This was the eighth traffic fatality on Oahu for this year.

LEEWARD OAHU

Man is accused in rape of girl, 4

Police arrested a 35-year-old Waipahu man Sunday for allegedly raping a 4-year-old girl.

Officers arrested the man after the toddler said he raped her at about 2 p.m. Jan. 19.

The man was arrested on

suspicion of first-degree sexual

assault.

Further details were not available.

HONOLULU

1 suspect caught in restaurant heist

Police arrested one of two men who allegedly robbed a restaurant in the Ward Avenue area Sunday night.

Just before 10 p.m., police said, two men entered the restaurant after it had closed.

One man allegedly had a knife and demanded money from a female employee, who was tallying the sales for the day. The other man acted as a lookout, police said.

The suspects fled but were followed by a bystander who saw them leave, police said.

The bystander followed the man who acted as the lookout, police said.

Officers arrested the man who allegedly acted as the lookout on suspicion of first-degree robbery. He is 42 and has no local address, police said.

Police were searching for the other suspect.

Alzheimer's patient missing for 2 days

Florence Maehara

Police and CrimeStoppers are asking for help from the public in finding an 80-year-old Kapahulu woman with Alzheimer's disease.

Police said Florence Maehara was last seen leaving her Kapahulu home at about 8 a.m. Sunday.

She has been known to catch the bus to Waikiki, police said.

Maehara is of Japanese ethnicity, stands 4 feet 10 inches tall, weighs about 110 pounds and has brown eyes and salt-and-pepper-colored hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cell phone. Cell calls are free on AT&T, Nextel Hawaii, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless Hawaii.