Identity of suspect compounds family's anguish

By Mike Gordon and Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writers

Hours after a hiker discovered the body of a girl thought to be his daughter, Vincent Indreginal got a second, sickening jolt: His step-daughter's fiancé may have been involved.

Kahealani, front left, on her fifth birthday, with cousin Tiara Cacatian directly next to her. Kahealani's mother, Lehua Tumbaga, is behind; stepsister Tanya Mamala-Tumbaga is at left of the mother. Photo courtesy of Indreginal family

Kahealani was last seen alive Tuesday afternoon outside her Pu'uwai Momi housing complex in Makalapa. On Friday, a body believed to be Kahealani's was found along the 'Aiea Loop Trail. Police say the motive was robbery.

Indreginal found his mood swinging yesterday from sadness to anger.

He didn't know the whole story, what Aki had or had not done. But Indreginal knew that the family had trusted him.

This was someone who had been a part of their lives for years, the longtime boyfriend of the family's oldest child, 18-year-old Tanya Mamala-Tumbaga.

And this was the father of Indreginal's grandchild, a smiling little boy who turns 1 this month.

"Whenever we look at our grandson, we will see (Aki)," Indreginal said. "You wouldn't expect this. Anybody you accept into your family, you wouldn't expect this."

No matter how much hurt he was feeling, it was 10 times worse for his stepdaughter, the oldest of Kahealani's siblings, Indreginal said.

"I just told her — I know she's hurting — I told her, 'You're not to blame,' " he said. "It's something we all have to work through."

Aki grew up in unit 3-E, the apartment just below the Indreginal family home, and was raised alongside the eight Indreginal brothers and sisters.

He has dated Tanya since intermediate school. Their names, "Tanya + Chris," are etched in the wall of the staircase just outside the family's doorstep.

A relative plans to remove the etching.

Aki was among the family members who gathered Thursday morning outside the complex to plead for Kahealani's safe return. He held her picture and stared at the ground as his girlfriend asked for Kahealani's abductor to bring her home.

As the investigation deepened that day and Friday, the family started hearing rumors of Aki's involvement.

"We had a suspicion, but we didn't want to believe those things," said Kahealani's aunt, Karen Garo. "We had hoped it was a mistaken identity."

Without the whole story, she could not pass judgment or second-guess. That was for a higher authority.

"We're just trusting that God will reveal everything," she said. "We don't have the full story so we have to wait and see."

Still, one thing was obvious. Whoever was involved in Kahealani's abduction "didn't plan for it to have such a drastic outcome," Garo said. "Unfortunately, Kahealani paid the price."

Garo said she knew Aki as "a good kid."

"There were times I questioned changes in his behavior, but never to this extent," she said.

Kahealani's mother, Lehua Tumbaga, said she is trying not to think about the fact that someone close to the family is a suspect. "I let him into my family," she said.

Tumbaga says only that God will take care of the people responsible. "Do I look like God?" she asked. "The police said to be patient, to hold on."

Instead, she is focusing on the aloha that friends and strangers have shown her family. Kahealani's classmates sent letters and paper cranes earlier in the week. People are bringing teddy bears, candles and flowers to a roadside memorial.

She talks about how Kahealani played chess, loved to read and always brought home the thickest books from the library. Her mother never had to tell her to clean her room or do her homework; when she would peek into her daughter's bedroom, Kahealani usually had her nose in a book.

Tumbaga held a Hawaiian quilt Kahealani had started stitching and flipped through a book that belonged to her daughter, "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul." In response to one poem, called "Terrified Tears," Kahealani wrote, "To: All who's gone I will like to say so long and I mis you. P.S. When I go up there I hope to see you there."

"Kahealani would want me to be happy, to be strong, to be there for the children," Lehua Tumbaga said. "I'll fall apart later. I've got seven kids to take care of."

Her daughter's full name, Kahealani Nawai Leleiwi Ame Kealoha 'o Na Lima, means "from the rushing waters into the hands of love." They chose the name because Lehua's labor came suddenly. Her water broke and her husband, Vincent, caught the newborn Kahealani before they had time to leave for the hospital.

"I know she's OK. I felt her this morning," Tumbaga said.

She heard the jangle of her daughter's bracelets in the early hours of the morning, a noise she always identified with her daughter's being safe at home after school. "I heard her this morning and I said, 'Kahea, you came home.' I went right to sleep."

It was the first time she had slept since her daughter disappeared week.