Inset: Trisha Almazan and Michelle Katrina Noelani Comer (GoFundMe). Background: The banyan tree that collapsed and killed the two women (KITV).
The families of two Hawaii women who died beneath a massive fallen banyan tree are heading toward a jury trial after suing the state, county and several companies. The wrongful-death lawsuit alleges the defendants failed to properly inspect, trim and maintain the state-owned tree.
Savana Moore, the sister of 35-year-old Trisha Jaye Almazan, said relatives spent days urging police to search the tree for Almazan and her partner, 48-year-old Michelle Katrina Noelani Comer. According to Moore, the family was alarmed by a “foul smell” coming from the area, but authorities allegedly declined to investigate.
“Not long after the falling of the tree my other sister Jessica reached out saying that the two had not been located and a missing person report was made,” Moore wrote in a GoFundMe fundraiser. “She was insistent that they check the tree but unfortunately at the time police said there was nothing they could do because it was private property and would not conduct a search at the tree even though a foul smell came from it.”
As the days passed, Moore said, the family received no assistance from local police. “My sister and family decided take matters into their own hands feeling in their hearts that Trisha and Michelle were under this tree and on Sunday July 20 my sister found a body and called authorities,” she wrote.
Almazan and Comer were under the banyan in a state-owned parking lot near Wailoa Pond in Hilo when the tree uprooted and fell on July 12, 2025, police said. Their remains were discovered eight days later.
“Finally they [Almazan’s family] got the police to investigate and discovered the remains of both Michelle and Trisha,” the fundraiser states. “We are very hurt that it took so long to get the help we needed to find them.”
A jury trial in the families’ wrongful-death case was scheduled for September 2027, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported last week. An amended complaint filed in late July by Honolulu firm Leavitt, Yamane & Soldner and obtained by the newspaper identifies the state, county, Hawaii Electric, Hawaiian Telcom, Imua Landscaping and Tree Works as defendants.
The deaths were classified as accidental. Autopsies performed July 22, 2025, found that both women died from mechanical asphyxiation, a condition in which an outside force or object blocks the airway or prevents the chest from moving normally.
The lawsuit claims the defendants acted negligently and with gross negligence in managing the banyan tree. The families argue that the alleged failure to care for the tree represented “a reflection of callous disregard and/or callous indifference to the rights and safety of others.”
The complaint says the state owned the tree on “unencumbered state land” near the Wailoa River State Recreation Area. It alleges that the defendants were responsible for inspecting, trimming and maintaining the tree but failed to adequately examine the area, keep the tree safe or warn the public about the danger.
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The filing also highlights the tree’s proximity to utility lines and the roadway, according to the Star-Advertiser.
“The subject banyan’s canopy extended over the adjacent utility lines and more than halfway across Kilauea Avenue,” the complaint states. It alleges that the tree “presented a potential hazard to the public … as a result of the defendants’ failure to maintain it in a reasonably safe condition.”
The lawsuit further references a joint-pole agreement between the county, Hawaiian Electric and Hawaiian Telcom. Under that alleged agreement, the parties shared responsibility for utility-pole maintenance and routine trimming to keep vegetation away from power and telecommunications lines, consistent with Public Utilities Commission standards and other regulations.
The families are seeking compensation for the women’s alleged suffering before their deaths, along with damages for the emotional devastation caused by their loss.
According to the complaint, Comer and Almazan experienced “extreme pain, suffering, anguish, fear of impending death, anxiety, emotional distress and conscious pain and suffering” before they died.
Their surviving relatives continue to endure “serious emotional distress and mental anguish, grief, sorrow” after losing the women’s “love, companionship, counsel, affection, society, and comfort,” the complaint alleges.
The tree also severely damaged a building owned by Kamehameha Schools and leased to Calvary Chapel Hilo. The church did not reopen at the site, which remains closed.
The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources previously told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that Kamehameha Schools also shared responsibility for the tree. The county had designated the banyan an exceptional tree in 1999, but Kamehameha Schools is not listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Several defendants have brought cross-claims against each other. The parties are scheduled to attend a formal settlement conference in July 2027, two months before the expected September jury trial.
The post Family followed a “foul smell” to find two missing women beneath a fallen tree after police allegedly refused to search; lawsuit filed and trial scheduled first appeared on Law & Crime.
