Posted on: Friday, June 14, 2002

Beating, stabbing killed 2 women

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Pearl Harbor sailor David Allen DeArmond's wife was beaten to death and his mother-in-law fatally stabbed, the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office said yesterday.

DeArmond, 32, a petty officer second class with 13 years in the Navy, remained in the Ford Island brig, a suspect but not yet charged in the two deaths.

Victims Zaleha DeArmond, 31, and her mother, Saniah Binte Abdul Ghani, 66, a citizen of Singapore, were found in DeArmond's quarters Monday after DeArmond reported an "emergency" there.

Zaleha DeArmond died of "cranial cerebral injuries due to assaultive blunt force to the head," the coroner's report said.

Ghani's death was caused by "injuries to chest and abdominal organs due to stab wounds to chest and abdomen," the report said.

Ghani had planned to return to her home in Singapore on Tuesday, a family member there told the Singapore Straits Times.

Ghani and her 90-year-old husband came to Hawai'i to visit their daughter in December.

But the husband found the weather here too cold and returned in January to Singapore.

Zaleha, a temporary worker who loved to travel, met her husband-to-be in the United States, the Straits Times reported.

DeArmond walked into a Navy security office at about 11 a.m. Monday and told officers to go to his home in the Hokulani subdivision just outside Pearl Harbor.

Navy Region Hawai'i spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell said last night that DeArmond had not been charged, and that the investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is continuing.

DeArmond could face court-martial and receive the death penalty if convicted, she said.

The couple's three children — two boys ages 2 and 5 and a 3-year-old girl— were not injured. They were transferred to the state's Child Protective Services.

Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.