Posted on: Tuesday, September 3, 2002

Second escapee caught; eight girls remain at large

Advertiser staff and News Services

The second of 10 teenage girls who escaped from the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua on Saturday was captured last night.

The 16-year-old was arrested in the Honolulu area, police said. Details were not available.

On Sunday, a 15-year-old was caught near Pahia Road and Kamehameha Highway in Kane'ohe.

The other eight were still at large last night.

The escapees were among 17 girls housed in a privately managed cottage at the facility.

A woman who knows the 10 girls says they're "very sweet."

"But yet you have to be very careful," Marge Degroot said. "If there's any time that they know they can escape ... they will."

Degroot said she got to know the girls as a member of the Olomana Community Association, which provides schooling at the youth facility.

"I get along very well with them, and they're very sweet," she said Sunday, after the girls, ranging in age from 14 to 17, broke out.

Their names were not released because they are minors. All were wearing blue prison uniforms when they escaped.