Former Marine arrested in 26-year-old murder case

By Mike Gordon and David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writers

Several Kane'ohe Marines suspected that their friend had murdered a 13-year-old Kailua girl but said nothing right after the 1975 killing out of fear of retaliation, according to an affidavit filed in Honolulu district court to support an arrest.

Dawn "Dede" Bustamante was abducted on March 14, 1975, then shot to death.

Delmar J. Edmonds, a former Marine stationed in Kane'ohe in 1975, was arrested yesterday in Indianapolis after a warrant was issued in Honolulu charging him with the murder of Dawn "Dede" Bustamante.

The girl was abducted, along with a friend, on March 14, 1975, and found shot to death. The friend escaped.

Although several former Marines were interviewed, the most damaging statements came Saturday during a police interview with one of the former Marines. According to the affidavit, the Marine told police that Edmonds said Bustamante "made me mad, so I shot her." He said that Edmonds later said that because Bustamante got blood all over the seat of his car he had to kill her.

The Marine said that he and another Marine rode in Edmonds' car and saw women's clothing on the floorboards. Both Marines thought Edmonds had killed the girl but felt he was unstable and decided to stay away from him.

Honolulu police first heard from one of the Marines via an email last year to Crimestoppers. The Marine told police in the email that he had information "that bothered him for the last 25 years."

The Marine who sent the email was interviewed in May 2000 by Honolulu police and an FBI agent. He told them Edmonds had come back to the barracks at the Kane'ohe Marine base the night of the murder and appeared shaken. He said Edmonds told them to tell people he had been in the barracks all night.

When he learned of the murder, the Marine said he said nothing because he feared retaliation.

Edmonds is a custodian in Indiana and is in his mid- to late-40s.

City Deputy Prosecutor Rom Trader said Edmonds is being held in Indianapolis awaiting extradition to Hawai'i. Bail was set at $500,000.

The time that passed between the crime and the arrest is one of the longest, if not the longest, ever in a murder case in Hawai'i.

Trader credited the arrest to "good, old-fashioned police work."

He said police investigators "followed up on leads" and "obtained new information in the case." But he said DNA testing and other recent, high-tech crime-solving techniques were not used.

The Bustamante murder was one of three murders of teenage girls on O'ahu that year. Although one of the murders was later found to be unrelated, the randomness and violence of the crimes held the island in the grip of fear for months.

Bustamante and another girl, also 13, were waiting for a ride near Kalaheo Avenue and Kailua Road when a car pulled up alongside them. The driver, who had a gun, ordered the girls to get in the car.

The man drove around with the girls for about an hour and ended up in a deserted area behind the Pali Golf Course near the intersection of Kionaole and Auloa roads under the Pali Highway.

The gunman ordered the two girls out of the car and told them both to undress, at which point the girls ran in opposite directions. One of them made it safely to a house down the road, where the police and her family were called.

The girl told investigators she heard a shot or shots while running and later searched with police for the missing girl. Bustamante's body was found at about 10:30 p.m. in bushes off the side of the road where the two girls had split up and fled.

Yesterday, Trader said the girl who survived the ordeal "is alive and well." But prosecuting the case is fraught with a number of problems, he said, including locating other witnesses and getting them to testify.

"People move, some have passed away and even those you can find — their memories today may not be what they were 25 years ago," Trader said.

Edmonds "was known" to police who investigated the case immediately after the slaying, Trader said.

Edmonds has been charged with a single count of murder under the section of Hawai'i law that was on the books at the time, Trader said. If convicted, he would face life in prison with the possibility of parole or a 20-year term, with the sentencing judge having the discretion as to which sentence to impose.

While the Bustamante case may have involved other crimes, such as kidnapping, sexual assault or weapons violations, the statute of limitations prevents those charges from being brought against Edmonds, Trader said.

There is no statute of limitations on murder.

The two other teenage girls murdered in 1975 were Margaret Hauanio, 17, and Barbara Seibel, 16. Hauanio's bound and severely beaten body was found in an abandoned Waipahu pineapple field. No one was ever charged in her death. Seibel, 16, was stabbed to death and found in a carport about half a mile from her Hawai'i Kai home. Her killer was acquitted by reason of insanity and remains at the Hawai'i State Hospital.

Trader said yesterday that Edmonds is not a suspect in any other Hawai'i homicide cases.

David Waite can be reached at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8030.