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Body of woman found in ocean

The Maui News

Firefighters went about 150 yards offshore in West Maui on Friday night to retrieve the body of a 70-year-old Lahaina woman whose grandchildren reported her missing more than an hour earlier, Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto said.

The woman was last seen around 5 p.m. at Baby Beach south of the Lahaina Jodo Mission with her grandchildren, a 9-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, he said.

The woman lived nearby on Front Street, and the grandchildren came home to tell family members their grandmother was missing, he said. Family members looked for the woman, and called emergency dispatchers at 8:01 p.m.

Lahaina firefighters were at the scene near Kai Pali Place at 8:10 p.m. They searched the shoreline first, finding the woman’s belongings on the beach, he said. Then they searched the ocean with a kayak and surfboard.

The woman was found unresponsive at 9:20 p.m. inside a reef break several hundred yards south toward Lahaina Harbor, Taomoto said.

She was brought to shore at 9:25 p.m. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene at 9:47 p.m., he said.

An autopsy will be done to determine the cause of death.

The Maui Police Department will identify the woman, he said.

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