Teen found drowned in underwater cavern

A 13-year-old Hawaii island boy who drowned after jumping off a sea cliff was remembered Thursday as fun-loving and mischievous.

Hawaii island police said an autopsy Thursday determined that Gwyneth Agustin Borromeo, also known as Jayson, drowned. His body was recovered Wednesday from an underwater cave near Hapuna Beach Park.

"Gwyneth was in my homeroom since the middle of sixth grade and was in my seventh-grade English class," recalled Cindy Bergsma Manoske, one of his former teachers at Waikoloa Elementary and Middle School, through an online message to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. "His humor has always been such an inspiration to me. He made clever one-liners all the time. You couldn’t help but laugh.

"This year, Jayson came into our classroom almost every morning before school to finish his homework. He would also pop in my room between classes just to say ‘Hi.’ … He loved my stool and would come in on his way to another class, sit on it, take a spin, say ‘Hi,’ and then leave with a ‘Bye!’"

Once, as a prank, he hijacked Manoske’s stool and took it to the class next door.

"I followed him in and he was just cracking up. I was, too. He loved to have fun. I miss him so much. Every night this week, I have come home and shed tears over his loss. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all took some of Jayson’s humor and love-of-fun to our own lives? Jayson will always have a place in my heart, and he will always be remembered. Always."

Search and rescue crews had been searching for the missing Waikoloa teen since Sunday, when he jumped into the ocean from a 15-foot cliff on the south end of the bay near the park.

Hawaii County Fire Department Capt. Patrick Kaipo Parish, acting battalion chief, said firefighters recovered the body in an underwater cavern about 60 feet east of the cliff.

Family friends who had been searching for the boy detected an odor from a crevice Wednesday. A rescue diver recovered the body at about 1:30 p.m.

Crews initially searched the area earlier this week but rough waves hampered their efforts.

"That Sunday, the waves were really large," Parish said.