Police suspect foul play after finding a badly decomposed body Saturday in a remote area in lower Puna.
Police suspect foul play after finding a badly decomposed body Saturday in a remote area in lower Puna.
The remains were found near Beach Road off Makuu Drive in Hawaiian Paradise Park.
Because of the advanced state of decomposition, neither an identity nor a gender could be readily determined, but Lt. Greg Esteban of the Hawaii Police Department’s Hilo Criminal Investigation Section said Monday there are “suspicious injuries on the body that are indicative of foul play.”
An autopsy is scheduled for today to determine the exact cause of death.
Police have not said whether they think the body is that of Barton Bumatay, a 59-year-old HPP man who has been missing since New Year’s Eve, and whom police say disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
“He normally maintains contact with regularity with his family,” Esteban said. “When the communication stopped and a family member provided information to us about some missing items from (his residence), that raised a lot of suspicions.”
Detectives on Friday served a search warrant on the warehouse-type structure where Bumatay lived, and officers were still at the scene early Saturday morning.
“In this case, with a missing person who disappeared under suspicious circumstances, it was a necessity to go to the property and process it for evidence,” Esteban said.
One thing missing is a black 2007 Chevy Colorado pickup truck with license plate number HLX 461. In a missing person bulletin issued Jan. 14, police said Bumatay might be driving the vehicle.
“We’re still looking for that black Chevy Colorado. We believe the (license) plates may have been changed,” Esteban said.
Bumatay made news in July 2003 for a standoff with police in HPP.
An officer who attempted to arrest Bumatay for domestic abuse was threatened with a machete. Bumatay reportedly taunted police and told them to shoot him.
After officers calmed Bumatay down and took him into custody, a sweep of the property turned up several homemade explosive devices that were placed near the driveway entrance.
Bumatay was to have made a court appearance the day he disappeared for driving without a license and failure to appear. Records indicate court personnel received phone calls Dec. 31 from Bumatay’s daughter and Bumatay himself saying he was sick and unable to come to court.
Esteban said police are “actively pursuing leads on persons of interest” in Bumatay’s disappearance.
Anyone with information about Bumatay or the pickup truck is asked to contact either Detective Sandor Finkey at 961-2384 or sandor.finkey@hawaiicounty.gov or Detective Wendall Carter at 961-2378 wendall.carter@hawaiicounty.gov.
Those who prefer anonymity can call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300 and could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.