MEDIA RELEASE

A female visitor died while scuba diving off the Kailua Pier on December 28.

On December 28 at about 2:30 p.m., police and fire department personnel responded to a call of a female scuba diver off the Kailua Pier who was receiving CPR. The woman was diving with other divers approximately 100 yards off the pier when she became unresponsive. She was transported by a commercial vessel to the Kailua pier and then transported to Kona Community hospital by ambulance.

She was pronounced dead at the hospital and identified as 48-year-old Catherine Hires of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate that the death was from natural causes and not from drowning.