Posted on: Tuesday, April 15, 2003

North Kona man arrested in death near Keahole

Advertiser Staff

KEALAKEHE, Hawai'i — Kona police yesterday arrested a 28-year-old man for investigation of murder in the death of a man whose body was found Thursday along the road to Makalawena Beach near Keahole.

The dead man, identified as Michael Rhett Hackmeyer, 39, of Kailua, Kona, had been missing since April 1. His family had been looking for him since his disappearance and filed a missing-persons report just hours before his body was found, police Lt. Henry Hickman said.

The suspect, a man with a Kona Highlands address in North Kona, was arrested at 6:30 a.m. and was expected to remain in police custody overnight. Police would not discuss a possible motive for the killing.

Hackmeyer's partially decomposed body was discovered along Makalawena Beach Road about 5:30 p.m. Thursday by a family who called police. There was no identification near the body, and Hackmeyer was identified through fingerprints, Hickman said.

An autopsy determined Hackmeyer died of severe head injuries, and police reclassified the case from a coroner's inquest to murder.

Big Island detectives and members of the FBI's Evidence Response Team are continuing to investigate.