Hawai‘i Island police have forwarded a 2020 Puna murder investigation to the Hawai‘i County Prosecutor’s office for their review. The victim is identified as 35-year-old Albert Aukai Manners, who was known to frequent the Hilo and Puna areas.
Manners was initially reported as a missing person on December 1, 2020, after family members reported not seeing or hearing from him since the middle of November 2020.
During the course of this investigation, detectives with the Area I Criminal Investigation Section conducted countless witness interviews and follow-ups. The scene was identified and processed, and items of evidence were recovered and sent to a laboratory for forensic testing. This ultimately led to this case being reclassified from a missing person investigation to second-degree murder, and the identification of two suspects.
The suspects in Manners’ murder are identified as 44-year-old Kiha Rodney Stone Kaahu, of Leilani Estates, Pahoa, and 42-year-old Olomana Pacad Black, of Ainaloa, in Kurtistown.
Police ask anyone with information about this case to contact Area I Criminal Investigation Section Detective Blaine Morishita at (808) 961-2385 or email him at Blaine.Morishita@hawaiicounty.gov.