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Human remains identified (update No. 2) 03-13-14

Hawaiʻi Police Department
Criminal Investigations Section, Area II
Lieutenant Gerald Wike
Phone: 326-4646, Ext. 266
Report No. C14006656

 

Media Release (update No. 2)

The human remains found in South Kohala on Monday have been identified through dental records as 37-year-old Robert Keawe Lopaka Ryder of Kailua-Kona, who had been reported missing.

Ryder’s family reported on January 17 that they had not heard from him since Thanksgiving 2013.

During an autopsy conducted on Wednesday (March 12), the medical examiner determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and that the manner of death was homicide.

Detectives from the Area II Criminal Investigations Section are investigating the case as a murder.

Detectives located the human remains at approximately 5:30 p.m. Monday (March 10) on vacant land between Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway and Puakō Beach Drive.