Lt. Roy Asher said detectives yesterday were interviewing "persons of interest" and were seeking other people for questioning, but had made no arrests.

He said it does not appear Jerves' killing is related to two unsolved murders and a nearly fatal attack in 2000 that occurred farther down the island's west coast. In all three cases, women were beaten, stabbed and sexually assaulted.

"We have no reason to believe or suspect that this homicide may be linked to any previous homicide," he said.

"She became a really good paddler, a strong paddler, but she had a problem with asthma. Sometimes she would just sit on the beach and watch the canoes. She would rather be in a canoe than on land," said Barbara Prigge, her former coach in Kaiola Canoe Club's Na 'Opio program.

Friends of the 18-year-old Hanama'ulu woman remember her sweet temperament.

"She was a nice girl. A good girl," said a woman at Hanama'ulu Beach Park, who asked not to be identified. "We're trying to figure out what happened."

A little over a year ago, Jerves had a baby. Prigge remembers seeing her with the child at a party.

"She was really gentle and sweet and really good as a young mother. She was very attentive. You could see the love in her for that child," she said.

Then something happened. "She dropped out of everything suddenly," she said.

Friends at the beach said Jerves came there daily and sometimes spent the night. They said she was friendly and well-liked. They said her mother had become primary caregiver for Jerves' child, but that she picked up her baby regularly.

An anonymous phone tip at 7 a.m. Thursday led police to her body on a dirt roadway between an ocean bluff and the Port Allen-'Eel'ele Cemetery. The spot is secluded, though just a stone's throw from the popular Glass Beach at the base of the Port Allen electric plant.

Asher said that investigators did not find evidence of drugs where the body was found.

Asher said authorities are continuing to try to piece together how and with whom Jerves went from the beach at Hanama'ulu, a suburb of Lihu'e, to the rocky coast at Port Allen, nearly 20 miles away.

An autopsy was conducted yesterday, but police have not revealed the cause of death or other details "in order to maintain the integrity of the investigation," he said.