Body of man found in Koko Crater garden

Preliminary findings indicate that a middle-age man whose body was found in Koko Crater Botanical Garden Friday morning did not die in suspicious circumstances, police said.

The case has been classified as an unattended death, pending an autopsy by the city Medical Examiner’s Office. His identity is also being withheld until then. The man is not believed to have been a Hawaii resident, police said.

The Honolulu Fire Department had been searching the area since Thursday afternoon for the occupant of a car that was parked for more than 24 hours at the city park at the end of Kokonani Street; the department’s helicopter found the body Friday morning, said Capt. Terry Seelig, HFD spokesman.

No alcohol or drugs involved in fatal crash

Toxicology results showed the 18-year-old woman who died last week when the SUV she was driving crashed did not have alcohol or drugs in her system, the city Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.

Medical examiners said Tayler Nanea Pangan-Fergerstrom, a Kapiolani Community College student who lived with her grandparents in Kuliouou, died directly as a result of injuries she sustained in the one-vehicle crash on Kilauea Avenue fronting Kaimuki Middle School on Oct. 27. Three passengers were injured in the crash, two critically.

While witnesses said they saw beer containers at the scene, Pangan-Fergerstrom’s family insisted that the teenager did not normally drink.

Blaze ruins office behind Maui store

Fire destroyed an office behind Morihara Store in Kula, Maui, Friday morning.

Firefighters responding to an alarm at 3:09 a.m. found the 700-square-foot office on 4581 Lower Kula Road behind the store ablaze. Firefighters brought the blaze under control 30 minutes later and extinguished it by 6:50 a.m. Damage is estimated at $147,000 to the building, $12,000 to its contents and $1,000 to the wall of Morihara Store.