LIHU‘E — Police on Tuesday continued to investigate the death of a man whose decomposing body was discovered Sunday in his sleeping bag in Kalalau Valley. Authorities had not positively identified him by press time Tuesday, but Nolan Ahn is
LIHU‘E — Police on Tuesday continued to investigate the death of a man whose decomposing body was discovered Sunday in his sleeping bag in Kalalau Valley.
Authorities had not positively identified him by press time Tuesday, but Nolan Ahn is certain the deceased is his only brother, Rodney Ahn, who had lived in the remote North Shore valley for years.
“That’s him,” Ahn said Tuesday, adding that authorities told him they’re “90 percent sure” the body discovered by one of Rodney Ahn’s girl friends Sunday is Rodney Ahn.
County officials said an autopsy was performed Tuesday, but a cause of death is pending the receipt of a toxicology report.
Kaua‘i Police Department investigators confirmed the person found is male, according to Mary Daubert, county public information officer.
Ahn said dental records should confirm the man found is Rodney Ahn, a lifelong Kaua‘i resident who had been a waiter and surfer on the South Shore before heading north.
When the brothers saw each other last month, Ahn said his brother looked tired, and they had a conversation about what might happen if Rodney Ahn got sick alone in Kalalau.
Ahn said his brother told him, “‘That’s where I wanna be and that’s where I want to end up.’ So I guess he was happy.
“He got all the choices he wanted. Maybe we should all get that lucky,” said Ahn, who lives and works in Lihu‘e.
Ahn said he met one of his brother’s girl friends last month as well, but did not want to identify her. That woman hiked in to look for Rodney Ahn after his scheduled exit from the valley didn’t happen on the agreed-upon date, Ahn said.
His brother complained of a cough, so asked the woman to bring him cough syrup, he said.
She knows his various valley campsites, and found him dead in a sleeping bag at one of those hidden sites, said Ahn.
Kathleen Ho, whose family hosted Rodney Ahn at their Kalaheo home at New Year’s, said the last time they went to the rim of Kalalau Valley they didn’t see Ahn.
Their way of saying “hi to Uncle Rodney” was to blow conch at the valley’s rim, said Kathleen Ho, adding that in a way her photo of her family blowing conch with Ahn’s beloved Kalalau Valley in the background was a way of spiritually sending him off.
Also on Tuesday, Ken D’Attilio of Inter-Island Helicopters was at KPD headquarters with his helicopter parked on the north Vidinha soccer fields. He said he was there to pick up KPD investigators to return to Kalalau to continue their investigation.
