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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, May 8, 2006

Search halted for 9-year-old

Advertiser Staff

Kaua'i County yesterday suspended the search for a 9-year-old Colorado boy swept out by rip currents at Anahola Saturday, but will resume the search today for a Kapa'a High School student lost in rough surf off Kawailoa.

Kaua'i Fire Department Battalion Chief Shawn Hosaka said searches yesterday found no trace of a 17-year-old Kapa'a High School student, identified by witnesses as John Dacuycuy, nor of the 9-year-old boy from Colorado.

A county spokeswoman reported that unidentified remains were found washed ashore at Kawailoa shortly before noon yesterday, but it was not immediately known if they were of a human or an animal.

Lab tests were being conducted yesterday on the remains, which were believed to be internal organs. They were taken to Wilcox Hospital, county spokeswoman Mary Daubert said.

The search for Dacuycuy will resume at 8 a.m. today. If ocean conditions improve, divers will join the search, Daubert said. Officials would renew the search at Anahola if new evidence is found, she said.

Searches were hampered yesterday by less-than-ideal conditions, Hosaka said.

"When it's windy, the waters get rough and choppy and there are waves at Marine Camp (Kawailoa) every 15 to 20 yards," Hosaka said. "Plus the water is dirty. We had a Water Safety diver go in but he said there was only one-foot visibility."

Firefighters and the Coast Guard, which used a plane and a helicopter in addition to a zodiac boat, searched until noon yesterday at Anahola. A firefighter team that had searched Saturday gave up a scheduled day off to participate in yesterday's search, Hosaka said.

The Colorado boy's 32-year-old mother, who tried to rescue him when he got caught in the rip currents, remained in critical condition at Wilcox Hospital.

Witnesses said the missing boy and his brother, 8, were swimming about noon near the foundations of the old Anahola Pier when they ran into trouble with the strong current. The boys' mother was able to bring her younger son to shore but ran into trouble when she went back into the water for her other son. A witness brought the unconscious woman to shore, but the 9-year-old disappeared.

Water safety workers who arrived from Kealia Beach performed CPR on the woman.

The Colorado family is renting a home near Anahola Beach. The missing boy's father and two of his children are being cared for by Kaua'i Hospice, Daubert said.

At Kawailoa, between the Kaua'i Beach Resort and Wailua Golf Course, friends of the missing teen told police they were swimming and noticed Dacuycuy had stopped moving.

When they tried to bring him to shore, he was pulled into the waves and wrenched from their grasp.