Local expert testifies in suspected abuse of child

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Although she could not say specifically what led to a Palolo girl's death in 1994, the medical examiner testified in Circuit Court yesterday that she believed 2-year-old Natasha Faufata was a victim of child abuse.

Dr. Kanthi von Guenthner acknowledged that after performing an autopsy on the toddler she listed the official cause of death as "indeterminable."

But von Guenthner, called as a witness for the defense, said she was suspicious when she saw what appeared to be cigarette burns on Natasha and urged police to continue investigating her death as a possible homicide.

"I was highly suspicious of child abuse, but there was no objective evidence on the body" that would cause her to establish that as the cause of the girl's death, von Guenthner testified.

The girl's parents, Dorothy-Marie Faufata and David Martinez are standing trial on second-degree murder charges before Circuit Judge Michael Town.

The parents told doctors at the Kapi'olani Medical Center that Natasha was fine earlier in the day and that they rushed her to a fire station and then to the hospital after she choked on food.

Von Guenthner testified that based on blood tests done on the girl, a "traumatic event" that resulted in oxygen being cut off from the girl's brain occurred two to 18 hours before the test was done.

A Minnesota doctor and expert on child deaths testified earlier in the case that she believes Natasha was deliberately suffocated.

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect title for Dr. Kanthi von Guenthner.