Father charged in girl's shooting
By Rod Ohira and Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Staff Writers
NA'ALEHU, Hawai'i — Big Island police today charged a Ka'u man with the shooting death of his 8-year-old daughter and with attempting to murder a teenage boy.
Douglas John Fathke, 44, will be arraigned tomorrow at Hilo District Court on murder, attempted murder and terroristic threatening charges. Fathke is being held in lieu of $550,000 bail.
He is accused of murdering his daughter, Kelsie Fathke, whose body was found Sunday in a bedroom at Becky's Bed & Breakfast in Na'alehu. An autopsy performed yesterday determined the girl died of a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
A .30-caliber rifle was recovered at the bed-and-breakfast, Kona police said.
Law-enforcement officials also said that Fathke tried to strangle the boy, who was a guest at the bed-and-breakfast.
Police said today that the motive for the shooting and attack is unclear. There was no apparent relationship between the two victims, police said.
People who knew the family were stunned by the events at Becky's Bed & Breakfast, which Fathke ran.
Fathke would walk Kelsie the three blocks to and from school every day, stopping at Na'alehu Fruit Stand each afternoon for a snack on their way home.
His bed-and-breakfast business seemed to be doing well enough, and friends and neighbors said Fathke never seemed stressed or violent. He drank beer, but didn't seem to have a drug or drinking problem.
Kelsie's mother, Memarie Dhillon, said Kelsie was a bright child with spirit, the sort to make a funny face when people were trying to take a photo.
Dhillon said violence was far out of character for Douglas Fathke. Kelsie's parents had joint custody, with Kelsie spending part of her time in Tacoma, Wash., with her mother.
"Kelsie just thought the world of him," Dhillon said. "And I thought he felt the same about her. I just can't see how a father can kill his own daughter like that, cold-blooded."
Police responded Sunday to an 11:46 a.m. report of gunshots at the bed-and-breakfast and found Kelsie in a bedroom.
People in the community were saying yesterday that the 16-year-old boy heard the shots, ran to the scene and was attacked. Those reports could not be confirmed.
Don Harris, who lives in the building directly across Mamalahoa Highway from the bed-and-breakfast, said he heard a "bang" Sunday morning that was so loud he thought there had been a car crash.
Harris looked out his window to see a boy running from the bed-and-breakfast across the highway to a gas station next door, holding his throat and calling for help.
Police arrived and removed Fathke from the house. Fathke appeared to be "crazed," jerking his head from side to side as police led him to a car, Harris said. Police had to pressure him to get into the police car as Fathke resisted, apparently reluctant to leave the house.
"It's a shocker, brah," said Roland Gulfan, owner of Na'alehu Fruit Stand. Rumors that Fathke was using drugs immediately circulated in Na'alehu, but Gulfan dismissed those stories as speculation.
Gulfan and Fathke worked a block apart, and both arrived in Na'alehu about two years before to run their businesses.
The men kept up with each others' progress, and Fathke would sometimes leave Kelsie with Gulfan's three children when he had things to do elsewhere.
They also did business together, and Gulfan said Fathke was honest. Fathke, a skilled woodworker, would trade his carvings for goods at Gulfan's store, where Fathke kept a charge account.
"From our standpoint, he took care of his girl. He would walk her every morning to school, and he was a really nice individual," Gulfan said. He assumed Fathke was coping with the usual struggles of raising a child as a single parent but saw no sign of unusual stress on the family.
Neighbors said Fathke and his sister Debie took control of Becky's about two years ago. The bed-and-breakfast was founded by Douglas Fathke's mother, who lives on the Mainland, neighbors said.
Gulfan said Debie abruptly quit the business and left some time ago, taking some of the money from the operation, but that Fathke seemed to be recovering from the setback.
Logan Oliveira, 13, would often visit Kelsie's house to watch TV, play video games or play on the computer. She said Douglas Fathke had always been friendly, but noticed a change when he took the girls on a trip to a South Point beach over the weekend.
"I don't know, he turned mean or something," Oliveira said. "We went to the beach with him on Saturday, and he was acting really weird. He wasn't himself. Usually he's all cheerful and stuff, but that day he was really weird, like grumpy."
Douglas was drinking beer and snapping at his daughter in a way that wasn't like him, Oliveira said. She said she had seen him drink occasionally before, but said the alcohol usually made him more cheerful.
Oliveira remembered Kelsie as an upbeat girl who was always ready to get up and go somewhere, but said Kelsie had few friends.
Neighbors said some of the older girls in Na'alehu teased Kelsie about her size and weight, but she seemed to take it in stride. Despite the teasing she was sociable, not shy, and sometimes played with the neighborhood boys.
Dan Duffy, Kelsie's second-grade teacher, remembers her kneeling on the playground to play at eye-level with fellow second-graders. Kelsie towered over her classmates — at 8 years old she was as big as the sixth- and seventh-graders — and she felt out of place in a classroom full of much smaller students, Duffy said.
He recalls Douglas Fathke as a decent and caring father. Douglas Fathke popped fireworks with the neighborhood kids on New Year's Eve, accompanied his daughter's class on a field trip, and was always at school on time to walk his daughter home.
"I don't know what the hell happened," Duffy said.
