A young mother of two from Hawaii died after she fell off a slippery cliff while spending time with her boyfriend. Dylan Gapp, 31, reportedly attempted to save his girlfriend, Kala‘iokealaula Ashley Nicole Reyes Kanekoa, 29, but could not rescue her. The couple was said to be watching the waves around 2 a.m. when the tragic accident occurred.
The Hawaii Police Department identified Kanekoa in a news release posted on Facebook. They found her body the following day about four miles from where she and Gapp were last together. Loved ones have publicly questioned the accident and believe there may be more to it than just a fall.
Kanekoa and Gapp were reportedly enjoying a late evening together.
Gapp told Hawaii News Now he and Kanekoa were watching the waves while on a cliff near Hawaiian Paradise Park when she slipped and fell into the ocean. According to her boyfriend, she survived the fall but died due to a struggle in the water. He accused police of not having the proper gear for a water rescue.
“I had to get a raft to her. They didn’t have a flotation device. I got the raft out to her, and I said, OK, let’s get a rope to her so she doesn’t drift away, and they said, ‘Oh, we don’t have any rope.’ To sit there and watch this girl suffer for 45 minutes to an hour suffer and scream for help and them to say boats were coming eventually,” Gapp told the news outlet.
Police said they arrived at the scene within minutes.
Hawaii County Police Captain Todd Pataray told Hawaii News Now that police and fire crews were at the scene of the accident within seven minutes, but the fire truck was not required to carry ocean rescue equipment and it was too dark and dangerous to do anything in the middle of the night.
“We requested services from the fire department for a rescue boat. We attempted to call a fire department helicopter. We also called the Coast Guard,” Pataray said.
Gapp said he watched his girlfriend struggle in the ocean and eventually disappear.
He recalled to Hawaii News Now that he will never forget watching her fear, and he said when the boat hadn’t arrived after an hour, he went to get fins himself to rescue her. But by the time he returned, first responders had lost sight of her.
“Her sitting on that raft screaming for help. ‘What do I do now? What do I do now?’ And me telling her they are going to get you, and they are going to get you. And they never came to get her,” he told the news outlet.
The Hawaii Fire Department told Hawaii News Now that weather conditions were too dangerous to fly a helicopter that night, and the rescue boat had to come from Hilo about 15 miles up the coast. It reportedly arrived around 4 a.m.
Some of Kanekoa’s family does not believe Gapp’s story.
Her sister, Reina Kanakaole, has been very vocal on social media, sharing that she believes Gapp may have hurt her sister. She alleged witnesses heard the pair arguing and said the woman appeared to be screaming in “fear.”
She warned Gapp on Facebook, writing, “Dummeh tryna JUSTIFY HIMSELF on Big Island Thieves! PEOPLE ARE SPEAKING UP DYLAN GAPP! Mark my words DUMMEH…. YOU WILL GET WHAT IS COMING FOR YOU!”
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The fall is under investigation.
Although Gapp claims he tried to help his girlfriend, some are unsure. According to police, a forensic pathologist ruled Kanekoa died from accidental drowning.
Police want anyone with information to call the department’s nonemergency number at (808) 935-3311 or contact Detective Paul Mangus of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section at (808) 961-2383 or via email, [email protected].
