MEDIA RELEASE

Big Island police have initiated a coroner’s inquest case in connection with a Texas woman who died after snorkeling along the Kohala Coast on Sunday.

South Kohala patrol officers responded to North Hawaiʻi Community Hospital Sunday evening in response to an 8 p.m. call reporting the death of 71-year-old Sokoon Yu of Flour Mound, Texas.

Yu had been snorkeling with a tour group in waters fronting a resort on the 74-5000 block of Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway when she became unresponsive at approximately 10 a.m. Sunday. Workers from the tour group pulled her from the water, performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, and took her to shore. Fire Department personnel continued CPR and transported her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death.