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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 4:31 p.m., Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Punahou teacher drowned, autopsy shows

Advertiser Staff

WAILUKU, Maui — An autopsy has determined that Punahou School science teacher Jeremiah Johnson, 36, drowned while on an oceanography expedition with students over the weekend.

Maui County medical examiner Dr. Anthony Manoukian, who performed the autopsy today, said there was no sign of natural disease that might have contributed to Johnson's death Sunday off Kaunolu Bay on the southern coast of Lana'i.

Preliminary tests also indicate no alcohol or drugs in his system, he said.

Johnson, an experienced diver, was accompanying a group of 98 Punahou students on a weekend voyage aboard the 145-foot charter vessel Rapture.

He was diving with only a swim mask in about 40 feet of water when he apparently ran out of breath, Manoukian said.