Maui fire rescue personnel recovered the body of a 70-year-old Lahaina woman from waters off Baby Beach hours after her two young grandchildren who accompanied her to the beach returned to her nearby home without her.
According to fire officials, the woman was last seen at the beach at around 5 p.m. Friday with her 9-year-old grandson and 3-year-old granddaughter. The woman’s family called 911 when the children later returned home alone.
Firefighters met the family at the beach access on Kai Pali Place, found the woman’s personal items on the beach and initiated land and ocean searches.
At 9:21 p.m. firefighters found the woman’s body about 150 yards offshore, several hundred yards south of Baby Beach. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.
Seattle couple survives 40-foot fall in a rental car
Two tourists from Seattle survived a 40-foot plunge in their rental car along a rugged, remote coast of Maui.
The incident happened just before 3 p.m. Friday on the Wailuku side of Makamakaole Gulch in Kahakuloa, the Maui Fire Department said by email.
The tourists, a 62-year-old man and a 57-year-old woman, had stopped their car along the narrow road and were backing up to make room for a school bus, fire officials said. The car went over the cliff and landed on its side.
A tree stopped the vehicle from tumbling another 20 feet to the bottom of the ravine.
Children who live in the area led firefighters down a trail to the bottom of the gulch, but crews were unable to reach the vehicle from below. Firefighters were able to call to the couple, who were uninjured but unable to get out of the car.
Fire crews rigged up a rope system and rappelled down a 20-foot vertical section and another 20 feet of near-vertical incline to reach the car. Rescue personnel got the couple out and hoisted them up to the roadway at 4:55 p.m.
