WAI'ANAE — Theresa Kapaona said she sensed that something was terribly wrong as she passed the Wai'anae Market on Friday evening on her way home from work.

"But, I couldn't place it," said Kapaona. "So I went home and got comfortable — and then the phone rang. It was my son's girlfriend, Terri, who told me, 'Come to the hospital.' "

She rushed to the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center only to learn that her son, Roger Haudenshild, 46, had been beaten to death just before 6:30 p.m. in the store's parking lot.

"They were trying to get his heart to beat," Kapaona said yesterday. "But, they couldn't get anything. His face was all bruised and punched in. Oh, it was awful. He was unrecognizable."

Police were still searching yesterday for three men suspected in the beating. They said it may have been triggered by a traffic altercation that turned to ugly rage.

The altercation apparently began at the Wai'anae McDonald's sometime after 6 p.m. when Haudenshild, who was riding a white mountain bike, became involved in a traffic dispute, police said.

Theresa "Terri" Tucay, Haudenshild's girlfriend, said the two of them were by McDonald's that night and Haudenshild was on a bicycle. A man in a sports car cut him off and words were exchanged, she said.

Tucay said the next thing she knew, Haudenshild and the driver were throwing punches.

After the fistfight, the man said he was going to get his friends.

Tucay said she got Haudenshild to leave with her, telling him that it wasn't worth fighting over, and they went to the market. She said they did not take the man's threat to return seriously.

But while they were in the parking lot of the Wai'anae Market, a Ford sedan pulled up and three men leaped out. They knocked her down and started beating Haudenshild, Tucay said.

"I just ran into the store, asked someone to call for help, call the authorities that my boyfriend was getting mobbed outside.

"By the time I came out they were just kicking, stomping and punching him. Then they stopped and they all got in the car. One guy stood there and said, 'If anybody says anything they're gonna get it.'"

Then they sped away, she said.

Tucay, who said that she was not badly injured, described the man who was in the sports car as 5 feet 6 or 5 feet 7, 250 pounds, short hair, in his late 20s or early 30s. She said she had never seen him or the other men before.

A witness, who asked that her name not be used because she was fearful, said the three men swore at Tucay after jumping from their car, threw her to the ground, and then began savagely beating Haudenshild.

The witness said the men kicked and stomped on Haudenshild, who was unconscious, for five minutes while a fourth man watched from the car.

Police said Friday they had a description of the car and that they thought they might know the identity of one of the suspects, a man in his 20s.

Albert Kia'aina, 43, who rode his mountain bike into the Wai'anae Market parking lot in the morning, said he knew Haudenshild well. He described him as easygoing and friendly.

"I've known Roger four or five years," he said. "He was a mellow kind of guy. A quiet person. He always got along with everyone. He was never in your face. He was the kind of guy who just minded his own business."

Others expressed outrage.

"This is shocking to the people of Wai'anae," said a Makaha resident who didn't give his name because of the violent nature of the crime.

"This is just murder, cold-blooded. Three guys doing that to someone — that's messed up."

At the 7-Eleven store at the corner of Farrington Highway and Lualualei Homestead Road, where Tucay used to work, clerk Colleen Seqin said the killing was on her customers' minds.

"People are talking about it," she said. "Mainly, they're talking about how senseless it was."

According to Haudenshild's mother, her son had been living with her on Ala Hema Street. Haudenshild, who was the child of Kapaona and her first husband, the late James Haudenshild Sr., was on welfare and getting food stamps, she said.

Haudenshild was a familiar face at Poka'i Bay. Gary Mara, who lives across the road from the bay, said he was stunned when he heard the name of the victim.

"Roger Haudenshild? He was the one? We were classmates in school at Wai'anae High. I was just talking to him. He and his girlfriend passed by here every day. Roger was a good guy. Ex-football player, baseball player, basketball, track — all kinds of sports.

"Why would someone do that to him? He never bothered anyone."

That was the question on many minds, especially Haudenshild's mother's.

"It is sad," said the 68-year-old woman. "Sad because when I passed by the market there was a lot of cars. There was so many people coming in and out of the store. But nobody was there to help him because they were afraid. Terri told me, 'Nobody helped.'

"And they just kept stomping on his face."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.