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Car plunges off Laie PointMedical Examiner rules case a suicide City and County lifeguards rush a then-unknown woman to an ambulance
waiting at nearby Clissold's Beach in Laie on July 13. Earlier, the woman's car plunged off the Hauula-side of Laie Point, near where local kids jump in. The woman was later pronounced dead at Kahuku Medical Center. — Story and photos by Mike Foley ©2009 About 4 p.m. on Monday, July 13, I received a phone call from former Laie-Hauula resident and professional news photographer and videographer Barry Markowitz, who now lives in Hawaii Kai: He told me to grab my camera and go up to Laie Point because he had just heard over a police and emergency scanner that a woman had just driven her car off the end of Laie Point. Ironically, I was at Laie Shopping Center getting ready to drive home, and moments earlier had watched several police and emergency vehicles dash by with sirens blaring.
Normally, Kaleo: Koolauloa News is more oriented to "featurey" stories, leaving breaking news to the big-time media…but in this case Barry assured me I would be the first news person on the spot. So, just minutes later I was approaching the accident scene near the end of Laie Point.
 Honolulu Police officers had already taped off the Hauula-side of the Point (pictured above) and were blocking access to all but emergency personnel, who were peering over the edge at the car, which had dropped about 25 feet off the Point and sunk in about 15 feet of water. Several Kahuku Fire Department rescue workers had already descended the cliff-like edge of the Point to check on the driver.
I could not see much from my road-side vantage, so noticing Choon James and some of her family and friends watching the action from her nearby second-floor balcony, I wandered over there, and she invited me up.
 We still couldn't see the car from there, but we definitely had a better viewpoint than the small crowd that was gathering on Naupaka Street. For example, I could see a dark blouse and a plastic coat hanger floating in the water, which I assumed might have come from the car.The police were not saying anything, and at that point, no one knew for sure what had happened: Some said a woman in a white car had tried to commit suicide by driving off the Hauula side of Laie Point. Others gave it a more positive spin and thought perhaps she might have blacked out for some reason, and accidentally gone over the edge.
In any case, the City's Rescue One helicopter soon approached the site, with a basket lowered, to assist with the extraction. It became apparent, however, that other tools were needed…and before long City and County Lifeguards launched a jet-powered watercraft from nearby Clissold's Beach (at the base of Laie Point on the Hauula side) and scrambled out to the submerged car.
The Kahuku Firefighters, who reportedly pulled the woman from the car within about 15 minutes of responding, and the lifeguards placed her on the tow-behind sled, and the watercraft raced back to Clissold's Beach (pictured at the top), where an Emergency Medical Services ambulance was waiting
Before I took off for Clissold's Beach, I asked one of the emergency responders how the woman was, and was told she was "not good." A few minutes later, after I had climbed down the stairs to the beach, several lifeguards near the ambulance told me the woman was being worked on, but it "didn't look good." Minutes later the ambulance drove her to Kahuku Medical Center where she was soon pronounced dead.
At one point it was felt that there might have been another passenger, so the small watercraft returned to the sunken car (pictured below); but no other victims were found.
 I quickly returned to my home office and transmitted my photos via email to Markowitz, who had already arranged for them to be published by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and KITV, with the former arranging a 48-hour license before my publishing them elsewhere — hence part of the reason for my delay in posting this account to Kaleo online. KITV used them on their 10 o'clock news that evening, and the July 14 Honolulu Star-Bulletin ran the photo on the top of this article as a front-page lead-in to their story, as well as several other photos inside. Over the years I've had a number of front-cover photos, but it's always a thrill for a photographer to get another one…even if it was of a sad occasion.
On February 14 the City Department of the Medical Examiner also identified the victim as Sherry Ann Wood "of no local address," and ruled her death a suicide by drowning.
In a final twist, a number of people who saw the victim the afternoon of July 13 mistakenly believed she was a Laie resident, who apparently was quite surprised when the first of several concerned friends and later Honolulu Police officers called to check on her.
Several Laie Point residents also said they were aware of other cars previously going over the edge there, but this was the first such accident that resulted in a fatality.
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Mike
Mahalo nui for the pix.
We are close friends of Dianna Hoppe. Our son, Kekoa, phoned us shortly after the accident to tell us that it was NOT Dianna who had gone off the cliff–even though there were apparently two or three positive IDs that the person really was Dianna. He was concerned that someone would call us about the accident. He had alreday talked with Dianna to confirm that she really was not the person who died.
Marge called Dianna and was talking to her to find out what was going on when the police came by her home to notify the “next of kin” that Dianna had died. They were really confused and somewhat doubtful that the “next of kin” person they were talking to really was, indeed, Dianna. She had to show them some documents with her picture ID on it to convince them that she was not the person who has been in the water.
Max
Thanks for the information, Mike. I was on the mainland when this happened. Diana had called me to tell me about the happening when the police arrived at her door that evening to confirm the identity of the drowning victim. She was quite shocked about the mis-identification.