Coroner’s inquest opened after decomposed body found in Waimea
South Kohala officers found a decomposed body in a Waimea stream Tuesday morning, and police say foul play is not suspected as the coroner’s inquest begins.
South Kohala patrol officers found a decomposed body in a shallow stream near Kawaihae Road and Hawaii Belt Road in Waimea at 9:29 a.m. Tuesday, July 1, 2026, and Hawaii Island police opened a coroner’s inquest into the death. The case has been turned over to the West Hawaii Criminal Investigation Section.
The body was in an advanced state of decomposition, making identification and determining a cause of death more difficult until additional steps are completed. Investigators do not currently suspect foul play, placing the case in the category of an unexplained death rather than a homicide investigation.
A coroner’s inquest is a formal death investigation used to establish basic facts that may not be immediately clear at the scene. In Hawaii Island cases, those findings can include the identity of the decedent, the sex of the body and the medical cause of death after an autopsy is completed. These cases commonly remain open until both autopsy results and identification are finished.
Waimea sits in South Kohala, within Hawaii Police Department’s Area II Operations Bureau, which covers 2,234 square miles of West Hawaii and includes North Kohala, South Kohala, Kona and Kaū. Police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Cacique Melendez of the Area II Criminal Investigation Section at (808) 326-4646, ext. 281.
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