Posted at 2:49 p.m., Monday, January 30, 2006
Man killed by boulder identified
Advertiser Staff
KIPAHULU, Maui — A 25-year-old man killed Saturday when he was crushed by a boulder while hiking in an East Maui stream was identified today as Matthew Boatitti.Boatitti was with three friends when he tried to climb the bank of Lelekea Stream and grabbed onto a boulder, pulling it loose, said Mark Tanaka-Sanders, chief ranger at Haleakala National Park's Kipahulu District.
Boatitti fell backward and the boulder, measuring 3 feet by 4 feet, pinned him in the stream bed. His companions managed to hold his head above water and to roll the rock off his body, Tanaka-Sanders said. Rescuers evacuated the man but he died from his injuries.
He said Boatitti was originally from New Jersey, and had moved to Maui only recently, staying at Laulima Farm in East Maui.
