A 29-year-old mother-of-two from Hawaii drowned after she slipped and fell from the top of a cliff in front of her shocked boyfriend before being swept into the sea.
Kalaiokealaula Ashley Nicole Reyes Kanekoa was watching the waves on a cliff near Hawaiian Paradise Park with her boyfriend, Dylan Gapp, 31, around 2 a.m. Sunday when she slipped and fell into the raging currents near the Puna coast.
Her frantic boyfriend said he had to listen to her “suffering and screaming for help” during the agonizing wait for emergency services, which he said lasted for hours. Hawaii News Now reported.
He said that when police and firefighters finally arrived, they were not equipped with the life-saving equipment they needed to save his girlfriend.
During the harrowing ordeal, he tried to throw her a flotation device, but tragically the young woman was pulled out by the ocean current.
Traumatized by the unimaginable event, Gapp said his girlfriend survived the dive but did not survive the long wait for help, claiming rescuers should have done more to save her, the news source said.
Kalaiokealaula Ashley Nicole Reyes Kanekoa, 29, slipped and fell off a cliff and then drowned early Sunday morning near Hawaiian Paradise Park
Boyfriend Dylan Gapp, 31, said he had to listen to her ‘suffering and screaming for help’ during the agonizing wait for emergency services to arrive
Reyes Kanekoa was described by her boyfriend as a loving, devoted mother who would do anything for her children
‘I had to take a raft to her. They had no flotation device. I brought the raft to her and said, ‘Okay, let’s get a rope to her so she doesn’t float away,’ and they said, ‘Oh, we don’t have a rope,'” Gapp said. Hawaii News Now.
“To sit there and watch this girl suffer for 45 minutes to an hour and scream for help and then say boats will come eventually.”
Hawaii County police and firefighters responded within seven minutes of the 911 call.
Officials said the fire truck was not required to carry ocean equipment, and dangerous conditions resulting from a large northerly swell made it too dark and dangerous for first responders to enter the water.
Hawaii County Police Captain Todd Pataray told the news station that they “requested assistance from the fire department for a rescue boat, attempted to call a fire department helicopter and called the Coast Guard.”
Gapp said he tried to save his girlfriend alone and swam to where she was clinging to a raft after waiting an hour for the helicopter and rescue boat to surface. see her longer.
The devastated boyfriend detailed the painful and heartbreaking ordeal.
‘That she was on that raft and screaming for help. ‘What should I do now? What should I do now?’ And I told her they’re going to get you, and they’re going to get you. And they never came for her,” Gapp recalled, Hawaii News Now reported.
The Hawaii Fire Department told Hawaii News Now that conditions were too windy for the helicopter to fly, and said the rescue boat had to come from Hilo about 15 miles offshore, arriving at 4 a.m.
According to police, the fire brigade and coast guard searched for the missing woman until the early morning hours, and at 8 a.m., almost six hours after the tragic fall, the young woman’s body was found about four miles away near the coast near Found Honolulu. Pahoa.
She was transported to Hilo Medical Center, where she was pronounced deceased at 10:58 a.m., according to a police statement.
An autopsy determined that her conduct and cause of death was an accidental drowning. According to the police, there is no foul play People reported.
Hawaiian authorities told the news station that an investigation is underway and they are awaiting toxicology reports.
The site where Reyes fell on the Puna coast of Hawaiian Island
A monument was erected on the cliff near the spot where the young mother tragically died early Sunday morning
Gapp called his love “a loving, caring person.”
“She loved her children more than anything. She had a lot of fun. Lots of joy in life. “She was always giggling and laughing,” he said.
a GoFundMe was founded to raise money for Keankekoa’s funeral. As of Friday afternoon, more than $3,400 has been raised toward their goal of $8,000.
Friends and loved ones expressed their grief on social media, sharing how much Reyes Kanekoa touched their lives.
“My dear sweet beautiful friend, you were the first girlfriend I ever had. Fly high with the angels, rest assured, my beautiful friend.”
Another friend wrote: “She will always remain in the hearts of all of us who loved and cherished her deeply. Kala’i was a light and shared that light with everyone.’
“I thank all the powers that be for my ability to have known her during my lifetime. May she rest in the same light and love she gave to others.”