Hawai‘i Island police have identified the body discovered buried in the Ka‘ū District in late July 2022 as 36-year-old George Edward Dodge, of Mountain View.  Dodge was reported missing on July 7, 2022, after not being seen or heard from for weeks.  Due to the condition of his body, Dodge had to be identified by means of DNA comparison.

Detectives with the Area I Criminal Investigation Section were alerted to the location of a partially buried body on a remote side road off of Highway 11, south of the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park boundary.  The badly decomposed body was exhumed and transported to the Hilo Medical Center for official pronouncement of death.

The forensic pathologist ruled the manner of death as a homicide during an autopsy, however the exact cause is still under investigation and the final autopsy results are pending.

Area I Criminal Investigation Section detectives are continuing this investigation and ask anyone who may have information relative to this case to call the police department’s non-emergency number at (808) 935-3311, or Detective Jeremy Kubojiri at (808) 961-2378 or via email at Jeremy.Kubojiri@hawaiicounty.gov.