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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, January 14, 2005

Woman, 18, found dead on Kaua'i

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The death of an 18-year-old Kaua'i woman found yesterday morning in a coastal 'Ele'ele graveyard near Port Allen is being investigated as a homicide, police said.

Police believe that the woman was killed sometime between 10 p.m. and midnight Wednesday, but they have not disclosed the nature of her injuries.

Investigators were led to the the body through an anonymous telephone call at 7 a.m. yesterday. They found the body at the end of an unimproved rock-and-dirt roadway, within view of the Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative's main power generation facility at 'Ele'ele.

Two murders and an assault on Kaua'i in 2000, with women as victims, all took place west of Port Allen, the nearest of them about five miles away at a beachfront campsite at Pakala. The three cases remain unsolved and one individual was believed to have attacked all of the women.

Nancy Peterson, director of family violence programs for the YWCA of Kaua'i, said this week's homicide "just makes my heart sink. It will definitely raise flags for people, because those previous murders were not solved."

Police seek public's help

Kaua'i police are asking anyone with information about activity Wednesday night near Glass Beach at Port Allen to call Lt. Roy Asher or detectives Sam Sheldon or Marvin Rivera at (808) 241-1711.

The island usually sees only one or two homicides a year.

Investigators believe they know the victim's identity, but would not release it until a positive identification is established and they can notify her family. An autopsy is planned for this morning.

Authorities would not reveal other information about the case.

"As to what she was doing up there, they are still investigating. It's definitely a homicide case, but additional details are not being released," said county public information officer Cyndi Ozaki.

The graveyard where the body was found is alongside the old Port Allen dump and near a place called Glass Beach. Erosion moves broken glass from the abandoned dumpsite into the sea, and some of that glass washes back to shore at Glass Beach, with sharp edges worn off by wave action. Kaua'i residents sometimes go to the beach to collect the colored glass for craft projects.

Daren Singer, 43, of Maui, was killed Sept. 13, 2000, at a beachfront campsite at Pakala. She had been camping alone in the area, collecting shells for jewelry.

The body of Lisa Bissell, 38, was found April 7, 2000, in a ditch in the Mana area, roughly a dozen miles west of Port Allen. She was last seen in Kekaha.

On May 22, 2000, a 52-year-old woman was severely beaten during daylight at a beachfront home in Kekaha where she worked and was alone. She survived the attack, but reportedly has been unable to identify her assailant. Kekaha is about 10 miles from Port Allen.

In each of those cases, the victim was beaten and stabbed, and there was some element of sexual assault.

"Whether this was linked to those cases, they're not ready to make that determination," Ozaki said.

As in the 2000 cases, the latest victim was a woman, and her body was found in an isolated spot near the shore on the west side of the island. Unlike the other attacks, however, she was only 18.

In the months after the 2000 cases, police advised women against jogging alone after dark, being alone on remote beaches, or being in unfamiliar company after dark. The YWCA's Peterson said Kaua'i is a safe place, but she fears that might lead people to engage in risky behavior.

"I think this is a very safe community and, in some ways, that feeds the denial. Nobody talks about those cases anymore. I have seen women at night, hitchhiking. That can't be safe," she said.

Shortly after taking office in September, Kaua'i Police Chief K.C. Lum said solving the case of the three attacks remained a priority for the department. He also said there were no new leads.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.