The parents of a 6-year-old Hawaii boy who went missing almost two decades ago have been charged with his murder after new evidence came to light which implicated them in his disappearance.
Peter Kema Jr. vanished in 1997. According to KHON2, family members claimed the boy and his siblings were abused by his parents. The youngest child allegedly told a psychologist in 1998 that he saw his brother dead in a box. But being five at the time, she believed her brother was alive in Honolulu.
On Wednesday, Peter Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema were indicted on second-degree murder charges.“It is a day we’ve been waiting for a long time, and we’re happy to bring justice to the family,” Hawaii County prosecutor Mitch Roth commented. “On Sunday, May 1, Peter Boy Jr. would have had his 25th birthday, so it’s been a long time coming.”
Originally, the boy’s father claimed he had given his son to an “Aunty Rose Makuakane” in Oahu during an informal adoption. However, police were never able to track down the woman, the New York Daily News reports. As an adult, the youngest child revealed that her brother had been tied up in chains.
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“We assigned a team of ‘blind mules’ to plow the ground,” deputy prosecutor Ricky Roy Dammerville told the news station. “[They] looked at everything all over again, didn’t assume anything, just went and looked at everything that had been done and we decided now’s the time.”
Peter Kema Sr. is being held on $500,000 bail while Jaylin Kema’s bail is set at $150,000 because she is considered an accomplice.
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KHON2