Police investigate two suspicious deaths on Pāhoa road within 18 hours
Two elderly men were found dead on Papaya Farms Road in Pāhoa less than 18 hours apart, and police are treating both deaths as suspicious.
Papaya Farms Road in Pāhoa became the focus of two separate homicide-style investigations in less than a day, a rare overlap that has unsettled Puna because both dead men were elderly and both scenes raised immediate suspicion. Hawaii Island police have not said the cases are connected, but detectives are treating each death as active and unexplained.
The first call came shortly before 9 p.m. Monday, May 25, when Puna Patrol officers were sent to a residence in the 14-000 block of Papaya Farms Road after a dead elderly man was reported. Officers saw suspicious circumstances at the scene, and detectives from the Area I Criminal Investigation Section were dispatched. Just after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, police returned to the same road, this time to the 14-300 block, where they found another dead elderly man. Police said that second victim also had suspicious injuries, prompting another detective response.
As of Wednesday, May 27, the men had not been publicly identified because positive identification was still pending. Autopsies were scheduled for Wednesday to determine the exact causes of death. Police have not announced any arrests or charges, and they have not said whether the two deaths are linked. For now, the overlap in time and geography, two elderly men on the same Pāhoa road about 18 hours apart, is what makes the case stand out across the district.
Investigators are asking for help from the public. The Hawaii Police Department says its greatest resource in solving homicide cases is information from witnesses, family, friends and the island community. Tips can be passed to Detective Daniel Tam, Detective Joseph Picadura, Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300, or the department’s Unsolved Homicides Division at (808) 961-2326.
The road has drawn police attention before. In February 2024, officers responded to an active domestic incident on Papaya Farms Road involving Gonsalves Canizo and his grandparents. In recent weeks, the department also has been building senior-focused outreach in Puna through Puna Kūpuna Watch, with meetings at the Pāhoa Senior Center on April 9 and the Mountain View Senior Center on May 14. Against that backdrop, the two deaths on Papaya Farms Road have turned one residential corridor into an urgent criminal inquiry, with investigators still working to determine whether the cases share a cause, a suspect or nothing more than an unsettling coincidence.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
