Posted on: Saturday, December 22, 2001

Teen indicted in slaying of college student

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — An O'ahu teenager has been indicted for the Feb. 18 slaying of a Japanese college student.

Michael Frank Verece, now 17, is charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping and second-degree robbery in the death of Tetsuya Takahashi, 20, of Fuchu City, Japan.

The victim, who had taken a semester off from studying marine science at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, was working for a Hilo ocean sports center and was scheduled to attend a Honolulu scuba repair workshop the day after his death. Police said Takahashi was killed by a blow to the head.

Verece, who also uses the aliases Robert Draback and Michael Jardine, was 16 at the time of the killing, but will be tried as an adult.

He is also charged with two unrelated counts of second-degree robbery.

Verece was being held by juvenile correctional authorities for undisclosed crimes when he escaped from the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, where he had been taken for treatment. He fled to the Big Island, where his mother reportedly lives, and was arrested Feb. 19 — the day after Takahashi's death — at Hilo Airport while waiting to take a flight back to Honolulu.