Information sought after fatal house fire

Hawaii island police have initiated a coroner’s inquest case in connection with a fatal fire Monday night in Kau.

In response to a 9:09 p.m. report of a structure fire on Bamboo Lane in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates subdivision, Kau patrol officers arrived to find firefighters extinguishing a fire that destroyed a small house. After putting out the flames, firefighters found the remains of an unidentified man inside.

An autopsy has been scheduled for today to determine the cause of death and to attempt to identify the deceased. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Police ask anyone with information about this case to contact Detective Sean Smith at 326-4646, ext. 262, or ssmith@co.hawaii.hi.us.

AWOL female inmate is apprehended

Deputy sheriffs recaptured a 40-year-old inmate who failed to return from a pass from the Women’s Community Correctional Center on Friday.

Jennifer Garcia was located at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday by deputy sheriffs in the University of Hawaii-Manoa area and taken back to the women’s prison in Kailua. She will be charged with second-degree escape.

Garcia, serving time for third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and second-degree robbery, left the prison Friday on a resocialization pass to meet with her support group and was supposed to return by 9 p.m. She was in a transitional program called bridge — a halfway house within the prison.