LIHUE — Authorities used DNA research and tips from the public to identify the remains of a man found last year along a mountain trail on Kauai.
The Kauai Police Department identified the remains as Harry Higashi Jr., The Garden Island reported Sunday.
Higashi’s remains were found June 11, 2019, by a group of people cutting trees for firewood about 25 yards from the paved trail.
The case was classified as an unattended death and no foul play is suspected.
Higashi was not reported as a missing person and was believed to have been affiliated with a former camp near the area where his remains were discovered, authorities said.
Higashi’s family members provided Kauai police investigators with DNA samples for comparison.
Kauai police made the identification using a DNA technology system made by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts.
Bryson Ponce, Kauai police assistant chief in charge of the department’s Investigative Services Bureau, said the search for Higashi’s identity was assisted by numerous phone calls and anonymous tips submitted through the Crime Stoppers Kauai P3 Tips app.
“This individual wasn’t connected to a missing-person case, but we haven’t forgotten the individuals who, to this day, remain missing,” Ponce said.