Two women stabbed and burned in Kailua
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
KAILUA — Police opened an attempted-murder investigation while searching for a man after his mother and aunt suffered serious burns and stab wounds in a fire that destroyed a house yesterday afternoon.
Joanne Zehngraff • Special to The Advertiser Susan Benay • Special to The Advertiser Susan Benay • Special to The Advertiser Susan Benay • Special to The Advertiser
The two women, in their 40s and 50s, were sisters-in-law, police homicide Lt. David Kamai said. Kamai said he did not know what led to the stabbing or fire.
Witnesses helped the victims of yesterday's fire. Both suffered burns and stab wounds to the chest and neck.
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire that engulfed a Kailua home. A neighbor saw a little smoke, and then "the whole house was in flames." Two women at the house were stabbed and burned.
Firefighters yesterday battled a fire that destroyed a Kailua home and severely damaged a neighboring house.
The house at 1214 Kainui Drive suffered an estimated $60,000 in damage to building and contents.
He described the suspect as in his early 20s and a resident of the house.
Flames and thick black smoke filled the sky over the house at 1214 Kainui Drive, a scenic residential boulevard with a coconut tree-lined median not far from Kalaheo High School.
An adjacent house was heavily damaged.
Both women were taken in critical condition to The Queen's Medical Center, Kamai said.
According to ambulance personnel, one woman suffered burns over 80 percent of her body and the other over 60 percent of her body. Both women also suffered stab wounds to the upper chest and neck, emergency medical personnel said.
Area resident Alyssa Erickson, 16, said she was walking in the neighborhood when she saw a woman running from the house at about 5:30 p.m. She said the woman's back was on fire.
"She was trying to roll in the puddles to get it out," Erickson said. Erickson said the woman also was holding her throat, which was bloody.
A man who said he lives at the house that burned said the victims were his mother, who lives at the house, and an aunt visiting from the North Shore. The man, who is not the suspect, did not want to give his name.
He said he saw the smoke as he was driving home. As he drew nearer he saw it was his house.
He said he saw ambulance personnel treating the women, whom he briefly spoke to before they were taken to the hospital.
"They told me my little brother was at baseball and he wasn't inside, and we got our 'I love you's' in," he said.
"My biggest concern is my family," he said. "It's the only thing that matters."
The man also thanked the many people who helped the two women. He said some may have been injured as they dragged the two women who were on fire to a grassy area across the street.
Seven people lived in the one-story house that burned — three men, three women and an 11-year-old boy, fire department spokesman Capt. Kenison Tejada said. The cause of the fire was under investigation, and damage to the building and its contents was estimated at $310,000, Tejada said.
The fire spread very quickly, Tejada said. Many passersby, including a doctor from Marine Corps Base Hawai'i at Kane'ohe, stopped to give aid, said Joanne Zehngraff, who lives across the street from the house that burned.
Neighbor Matt Sargent said he was in his backyard when he saw "a little smoke."
"Not even 30 seconds later it was just a ball of black smoke. The whole house was in flames," Sargent said.
A couple and their child lived in the house next door, which suffered an estimated $60,000 in damage to building and contents.
Most of Kainui Drive was closed to traffic last night as fire investigators and the police arson and bomb detail conducted their investigation. Kamai said the road would likely be closed until this morning.
Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8025.
