Casefile True Crime - Case 62: The Honolulu Strangler

Episode Date: October 7, 2017

Between 1985 and 1986, five young women went missing on the Hawaiian island of Honolulu. The victims – Vicki Purdy, Regina Sakamoto, Denise Hughes, Louise Medeiros and Linda Pesce – were each found strangled to death with their hands bound behind their backs. ---  Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Anna Priestland For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-62-honolulu-strangler

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local Crisis Centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Since the tourism boom of the 1950s, the Hawaiian islands have been enticing tourists into their relaxed laid-back lifestyle. From the early days, honeymooners and holiday makers would arrive in droves, welcomed by smiling hula dancers with floral legs. Hawaii is made up of 132 islands with a total area of 6,500 square miles. The island of Oahu is home to the state's

capital Honolulu and the famous Waikiki beach. It has a large port, army and naval bases, and is home to Pearl Harbour. In 1985, Oahu saw a huge influx of young adults migrate, often for the army or navy, and also due to the huge boom in telecommunications companies that had expanded into Hawaii. The central years of that decade were an unusual period between the early 80s recession and the stock market crash of 87 and the dark years that followed. Like the mainland and much of the developed world, Hawaii was hit with high unemployment and financial stress in the early 80s. Many hotels couldn't survive, and some of the largest travel companies were forced to close. But during the mid-80s,

the economy shifted. During this small window, there was a temporary period of new growth. Although there had been a significant decline in tourism since the boom of the 50s and 60s, in the years 1985 and 1986, 10.5 million people visited the islands of Hawaii. This boom period brought in huge Japanese investment, and money started rolling in. The grand old hotels of the 50s and 60s were renovated and redeveloped, and prime land was subdivided for Gulf resorts. In 1986 alone, Japanese investors spent between $1 and $2 billion on property. At the time, the Bank of Hawaii considered the offshore investment tremendous, as it was pouring in much needed dollars and was creating new hope for their island

paradise. The resort development boom of the mid-80s helped slow the unemployment rate, which had sparked a few years earlier. But unemployment wasn't the only thing that had sparked. During this period, Hawaii also saw an increase in violent crime, rape and murder in particular. The Aloha State, with its swaying palm trees and mysterious rich volcanic landscape, was about to change. The laid-back paradise was about to experience a time of fear. A time no one was prepared for. At age 25, Vicky Gale Purdy had settled into life in Mililani, a small city in the central part of Oahu, half an hour's drive northwest of Honolulu. Vicky's husband Gary was an army officer and

helicopter pilot, and Mililani was close to Wheeler Army Airfield, so it was an easy choice to live there. They'd been married five years, but had only been living in Hawaii for 16 months. Vicky was born in North Carolina, but by high school she was living in Georgia. Vicky and Gary were 16 years old when they met. They met when Vicky married Gary's cousin, but that marriage didn't work out, and by high school graduation, Vicky and Gary were an item. They married at age 20, right as Gary was entering the army. They had a trouble patch early on in their marriage, but they were able to work through it. Everyone who knew Vicky would say that although she was only five foot five and 130 pounds, she was fasty and tough. During one argument, Gary said that

she knocked the shit out of him. He felt they had an adventurous and sometimes tumultuous marriage, but they were happy in Hawaii. Vicky had always dreamt of living on the islands, and when the opportunity came up for Gary to work there, there was no hesitation. Their problems were behind them, and they looked forward to their new life together. But it turns out, island life wasn't what Vicky thought it would be. Vicky was outgoing and liked life on the go, and she struggled to adjust to the more laid-back lifestyle. But she managed to settle in, and in mid-1985, she was working at Wahiwa Adult Video Store, which had an adjoining adult bookstore and an adjoining family video store.

It was located just north of Mililani, and it was right near Wheeler Army Airfield. Vicky enjoyed visiting the famous Waikiki beach to go clubbing with friends. She often caught the bus, but on the evening of Wednesday, May 29th, 1985, she decided to drive. She kissed Gary goodbye at 6pm and walked out of the house wearing a yellow jumpsuit with a red belt. Gary thought she was planning to return home about 9pm. Vicky drove to a busy Waikiki hotel, The Shorebird, and parked her car in the hotel's garage. Her exact movements after that are unknown. She was supposed to meet up with friends, and she called them around 10pm to confirm, but she never ended up meeting with them. A taxi driver in Waikiki drove Vicky back

to the Shorebird Hotel to collect her car at the end of the night. He dropped her off there around midnight. Around this time, Gary was at home worried about Vicky, and he called her pager over and over. When she didn't return home, Gary was frantic. The next morning, he went to Waikiki to search for her. He found her car still parked in the garage of the Shorebird Hotel. There was a new dent in the car, but there was no sign of Vicky. Later that morning, Vicky's body was found on an embankment at the Kihi Lagoon, a lagoon and boat harbour which sits right along the eastern side of Honolulu Airport. The road that hugs the lagoon at this location goes towards the runway known as Reef Runway, because it runs straight into the water. Vicky was lying on the shoreline near

the mouth of Moanalua Stream, still dressed in her yellow jumpsuit. Her hands were bound behind her back. A post-mortem revealed she had been raped and strangled. As part of their investigation, police looked into her place of employment at the adult video store. The reason why this was of interest to them is because there had been a double homicide six months earlier, just before Vicky started working there. On December 16th, 1984, the store's owner Carol Drake and the manager Terry Lee were stabbed to death in the back office. With money stolen, cash receipts missing and another envelope of cash dropped in the store, police ascertained it was a robbery homicide. Blood spatter indicated that they were nearly or sitting close to the floor when they

were killed and the bloodied knife was left at the scene. No one in the adjoining family video store or the adult bookstore heard anything that afternoon. That case was still unsolved, and with Vicky now being found murdered after taking up employment in the video store, it didn't seem that far-fetched to think the murders could be related. Police closely examined both cases and tried to establish a link, but when it came down to it, they were unable to find enough similarities. No other woman killed in the video store was sexually assaulted, they weren't bound and they weren't strangled. Both were attacked inside the workplace and both were killed with one stab wound each. A totally different MO to Vicky's murder.

Vicky's husband Gary still worried there could be a link to the video store, but police felt the two cases were nothing more than a coincidence. The investigation continued, but months went by without any leads or advances. By that time, Gary had left Oahu, saying he would only return if someone was brought to justice. He felt he had no reason to stay without Vicky. By the beginning of 1986, Honolulu had seen no other signs that there was any danger in the community. The murder of Vicky Purdy was put down to a random act of violence. The investigation was still open, but police were no closer to catching the killer.

Seventeen-year-old Regina Sakamoto was a senior at Lailahua High School and was planning to attend Hawaii Pacific University later that year. She was shy but confident amongst those she knew, described as smart, fun-loving, and everybody's friend. Regina was born in Kansas but moved to Hawaii after her mom remarried. By 1986, Regina's mother and her stepdad had separated, and so she lived with her mom and brother in Waipahu, 15 minutes south of Mililani, where Vicky lived. She was very close to her mother and her little brother Omar, who was only 10 at the time. On the morning of January 14th, 1986, Regina was late for school. She called her boyfriend at quarter past seven in the morning from a phone booth and

told him she was going to be late because she missed her bus. She was seen by a witness at the phone booth near her bus stop in front of Diners Diner in Waipahu. But that was the last time anyone saw or heard from her. Her family raised the alarm when she didn't return home from school that day. They weren't aware at the time, but she never actually made it to school. At 10 am the following morning, a fisherman found Regina's body floating near the diamond head end of the reef runway at Honolulu Airport, less than one mile from where Vicky Purdy was found seven months earlier. Regina was naked from the waist down. One of the investigators immediately noticed the similarities in the deaths of both Regina and Vicky.

Both women had their hands bound behind their backs, and both were raped. Both had ligature marks on their necks, suggesting a rope or binding had been used and then removed. Both also had particular hemorrhaging on their eyes and eyelids, which are tiny red pinprick-sized marks left behind after the pressure of strangulation. Despite these similarities, and despite the fact their bodies were found less than one mile from each other, there were police who dismissed a connection to Vicky Purdy's murder. They felt it was nothing more than a coincidence. Vicky was a 25-year-old woman who had been out late clubbing, and Regina was a 17-year-old on her way to school. That was enough for some investigators

to dismiss a connection, but it didn't take long for them to change their minds. 21-year-old Denise Renee Hughes had lived in Hawaii for five months. She was originally from Everett in Washington State, just north of Seattle. Denise had gone on vacation to Hawaii and met a young sailor stationed at Pearl Harbor named Charles. They fell in love, got married in Seattle, and straight after the wedding moved to Pearl City, Oahu, close to where Charles was stationed on board a ship in Pearl Harbor. Pearl City is only a 15-minute drive north from Honolulu Airport. Denise had studied business back in Everett, and she found a job in Hawaii relatively easily.

She'd been working as a secretary for three months at a telephone company long-distance USA Incorporated. In the short time she was there, she was highly valued. She always had a smile on her face no matter what, and she had already earned a raise. She quickly made friends who she played sports and went shopping with. She was also part of a close-knit Christian group. Denise's mum worried that she was too young to get married and move away. She also worried that Pearl City, where the couple lived, was too remote. Denise got the bus to and from work every day, and her mother encouraged her to walk to the bus stop, leaving only just enough time for its arrival. That way, Denise wouldn't be waiting around too long.

On January 29th, 1986, Denise and Charles spent the evening together, going out for a nice meal. The next morning, Denise got ready for work, putting on a blue dress. Charles was already at work, so she left home and headed for the bus stop as per her usual routine. Only that day, January 30th, she didn't show up for work. Two days later, on February 1st, three teenagers were crabbing along a drainage canal off Moana Lua Stream. They came across something wrapped in blue plastic sheeting floating near the shore. It appeared to have been rolled down the embankment through the mud. It was the body of Denise Hughes, wearing the blue dress she had put on to go to work

the day she disappeared. A combination of water and the elements meant that her body had begun the stages of decomposition. Her hands were bound behind her back, and she too had been raped and strangled. Although Denise was found slightly upstream from the Kayihi Lagoon, there was no doubt that the three women had been killed by the same person. All three women had been found south of their homes, in an area close to Honolulu Airport along the water. This time, there could be no doubt. The Honolulu Police Department admitted that a serial killer was operating. The head of the Honolulu Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division, Major Chester Hughes, announced that he had formed a task force to examine and investigate the three murders.

Hawaii was facing its first-ever serial killer, who the media called the Honolulu Strangler. The police were aware that the public was becoming anxious, but there was a fine line between warning them and setting off a panic alarm. There was evidence collected from the crime scenes and forensic evidence taken from the victims, but at the time, there wasn't much that could be done with it. DNA profiling was still over a year away, so the main test that could be done was blood type, but this was often of little value as determining the blood type usually just narrowed down a pool of suspects that you already had. It didn't generate new suspects, and matching blood type alone gave you no basis for an arrest. In this case, they didn't have any suspects.

There had been a seven-month break after the first murder of Vicky Purdy, but then Regina Sakamoto and Denise Hughes were killed within a very short space of time. It was difficult to determine when the killer would strike next, but the police task force did everything they could to be ready. Seven weeks went by without anything suspicious happening. On March 26, 1986, 25-year-old Louise Maderos caught a plane from Honolulu to the island of Kauai where she grew up and where her family still lived. The trip was an important one. She'd had some misunderstandings with her mother over the years who had just passed away. Louise travelled back to her home island to be with family for the reading of her mother's will.

She was three months pregnant at the time, and she left her two young sons with her boyfriend's family while she made the trip. Louise had rebelled as a teenager and to left home at 16, moving to Oahu. She got into some trouble with the law before settling down. She had a daughter who had been put into foster care and she was working hard to get her back. Louise had grown estranged to her family over the years but was able to bond with them that day. When Louise was preparing to head home after the reading of the will, her sister suggested she wait until the following day to fly back to Oahu so she wasn't getting the bus home to her apartment at night.

But Louise insisted she'd be okay and she wanted to get back home to her kids. She boarded the 7.40pm mid-Pacific flight back to Honolulu airport. But she never made it home. The belief was that Louise was abducted from the bus stop at Honolulu airport. Police didn't have high hopes of finding her. They knew what they were facing. Three other women had been found raped and strangled near the airport already, and two of those three had disappeared from local bus stops. They felt the odds of finding Louise alive were remote.

A week later, on April 2nd 1986, road workers found the decomposing body of Louise Maderos. She was wearing the same white blouse with red flowers that she'd been wearing when she was on kawaii with her family. Her lower body was unclothed. Louise had been raped, strangled, and her hands were bound behind her back. She was lying beneath a freeway overpass, which crosses over a stream feeding into the north end of the Kayihi Lagoon. There is a link to a map of the lagoon in the show notes.

On the bottom far left of the map, you have the airport and the reef runway, where the second victim, Regina Sakamoto's body, was found. Halfway up on the left side of the lagoon is where Vicky Purdy was found. At the top end of the lagoon, there are two streams. The stream heading northwest is where Denise Hughes was found. And now the fourth victim, Louise Maderos, was found at an overpass covering the stream heading in the same direction Denise Hughes was found. The horseshoe shape of the lagoon continues around towards a separate small island,

known as Sand Island, in the direction of downtown Honolulu and Waikiki Beach. There's a road build over the lagoon which takes you to Sand Island. It's mainly used for industrial purposes, with the island's water treatment plant located there. But it has some recreational space and is well known for its good fishing spots. The four women had all been found at fairly similar distances from each other in the lagoon, but no one had been found in the lower southeast part of the lagoon near Sand Island. Yet. Denise Hughes' mother Linda flew from Washington State to Hawaii looking for answers.

Shortly after arriving in Hawaii, someone stole Linda's wallet which held her most precious photos of Denise. The wallet also held photos of her other daughter, Dory, who died two years earlier in a car accident. She was only 16 years old. So in less than two years, Linda had lost both her daughters. Relatives and friends of Denise and Linda got together and came up with $7,000 as a reward for anyone who brought forth information that could lead to the conviction of the murderer. Linda plastered the posters all around Oahu. The task force intensified after the murder of Louise Maderos. There was now no doubt that

Hawaii's first known serial killer was in their midst. As they had zero experience with serial killers, the Honolulu Police Department requested outside assistance. They brought in an FBI profiler and they also sought the help of Seattle's Green River Task Force, a group which had been formed two years earlier to investigate the Green River Killer. Major Louise Sousa was a signed head of the task force going forward. They found no link between the four victims, none of them knew each other. Their only connection was that they were killed by the same person. The term serial killer was so new to the people of Hawaii that the press actually gave explanations for its meanings in their papers. According to Will Hoover, a journalist with the Honolulu Star

Advertiser, a source close to the investigation said, this is what detectives have feared for a long time in Hawaii. Hawaii lags behind the mainland, so we knew the weird stuff was on the way. Major Chester Hughes gave a press conference where he confirmed there were no suspects. He said investigators believed that two or more of the victims may have accepted a ride with the killer at a bus stop, and he warned the women of Oahu to be on high alert. But many people on the island had no other form of transportation, so they were forced to wait at bus stops in order to get to work, school or the shops. The public warning stated, don't accept rides with strangers. If possible, traveling groups,

there is safety in numbers. Wear the type of clothes and shoes that give you freedom of movement. Don't burden yourself with too many packages. If stopped by someone in a car asking directions or questions, give your answers from a safe distance. Never get too close to the car. If your instinct tells you that you're being followed, trust your instinct. As part of their operation, the task force set up an undercover sting using police women who posed as commuters around Keiihi Lagoon and Honolulu Airport. But no suspects were identified from this. On April 29th, 1986, just over a month after the body of Louise Maderos was discovered, 36-year-old Linda Pesci got into her light blue 1976 Toyota to drive home from work.

It was a good day for her, as she just got word she had been promoted. She was a sales rep at McCourt Telepage, a telecom company located on the southeastern side of Keiihi Lagoon, between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki Beach. Just like Denise Hughes, Linda had only worked at that particular telecom company for a matter of months. Linda was from a working-class background and grew up in Marin County in Northern California. In her early 20s, after studying psychology at the College of Marin, she hitchhiked across the country alone. She was known as streetwise and tough. Some would say a fighter. She moved to Hawaii to work as a dancer and then moved to Guam to do the same.

She later returned to Honolulu, where she settled down, had a daughter and married. She was happy and carefree. A close friend of Linda's said, whatever her past was was her past. Everything changed with her daughter. After eight years, Linda separated from her husband amicably, and she and her daughter moved in with one of Linda's friends. It was 6.30pm on April 29th when Linda got in her car at work and headed for the H1 freeway to get home. Only Linda didn't make it home. The next morning, her housemate realized she wasn't there and raised the alarm. Police put an alert out across the radio that a woman had gone missing,

and a description of Linda and her car was broadcast. Linda's housemate was alarmed that she hadn't returned home. She said she would never go anywhere without her young daughter. But police didn't immediately fear the worst. It wasn't the first missing person report that had been filed since the murders started. Previous reports had been made of missing women, with fears they had fallen prey to the Honolulu Strangler, only for them to turn up safe and well. The fact Linda was driving her own car and not taking a bus gave them hope that maybe the worst hadn't happened. They remained vigilant and treated the report seriously, but they were initially hopeful. That was, until later that morning, when they found Linda's car pulled off to the side of the road

on the Nimitz Highway, leading to the H1 freeway. 15 minutes drive from Linda's work. The location of Linda's car filled many of the investigators with a sense of dread. It was found right at the north-eastern end of the Kiehi Lagoon. They realized Linda's car had most likely broken down, as she recently had car trouble. Her wallet and keys were missing from the vehicle, and there was a bus stop less than half a mile away. There was a very real chance Linda had set off on foot to get the bus home. This theory was further cemented when they set up a roadblock at the site Linda's car was found, stopping all murderers to ask if they had seen Linda or her vehicle. It was reported by more than one person that they saw Linda's car shortly after 7pm

the night she went missing, about 30 minutes after she left work. Witnesses saw her car pulled over with its hazard lights on in the exact spot police found it. Police called an immediate press conference and pleaded for the public's assistance. Major Chester Hughes said, From what we have developed so far, we suspect foul play. We have a missing person that we don't feel right about, and due to the past cases, we're gearing up immediately on this one. He confirmed that it was their belief Linda attempted to walk to a nearby service station or to the nearby bus stop. There were actually two bus stops close by, both only half a mile walk in either direction. Further warnings also went out to the community.

Criminologists, Med Lind, urged people to be aware of their environment, to look out for friends and neighbors, and to call the police immediately if they saw a stalled car. She suggested that if a woman was having car trouble, quote, put up the hood, take the tie iron out of the trunk, get back into the car, lock it and roll up the windows. If someone approaches to help, you should ask them to call the police. The key thing is to not leave the car. She continued, We have lost our innocence as a community. Obviously the women's community is very upset. The whole community is very upset. It involves everybody's wives,

everybody's girlfriends, and everybody's daughters. Four days after Linda went missing, May 3, 1986, a 43-year-old mechanic from Ever Beach on the southwest coast of the island, walked into Honolulu Police Department, and said that a psychic had told him where to find Linda's body. This was completely unexpected and out of the blue. The mechanic had never been spoken to until now. He said he had followed the directions given to him by the psychic and went to Sand Island. After looking around for a while, he saw some bones or a body. He then told police he knew of Linda Pesci, as she had tried to sell him a pager. When police checked Linda's work notebook,

they discovered his details inside. It appeared Linda had written his name down the day she disappeared. After giving police his story, the mechanic took them to Sand Island. He showed them all over, but stayed away from one particular spot. Police moved their search to the spot where the mechanic was avoiding, and it was there that they found the body of Linda Pesci. She was faced down, covered with dirt, and a concrete block had been placed on top of her. She was just off a dirt road, in what they referred to as an unimproved area, one that didn't get much foot traffic. She'd been raped and strangled.

Police started to keep a very close eye on the mechanic. With five women dead at the hands of the Honolulu Strangler, and no indication it was going to stop, the entire state of Hawaii was nervous. In Oahu, self-defense classes were full, and stores were selling out of guns. Two days after Linda's body was discovered, Honolulu police held a community safety meeting for women. Officer Christine Gaylord held the first meeting at Waipahu Library, and others were set to be held around the island. Christine opened the meeting by asking, what are you really afraid of? The answers that flew back were being killed, dying, and death.

The task force which by then had over 20 members working around the clock received hundreds of calls offering all sorts of tips and theories. They followed up every lead regardless of how insignificant it seemed. The community were reminded of past murders which had also gone unsolved. None of them were believed to have any connection to the current serial killings, but they stirred up emotions nonetheless. The most recent of these other unsolved murders was July 6th 1985, a month after Vicky Purdy, the first known victim of the Honolulu Strangler, was murdered. 19-year-old dance teacher Diane Suzuki disappeared from out the front of the

dance studio she worked at. This is one of the other unsolved cases that many people in the community thought was linked to the Honolulu Strangler, but police were confident it was unrelated. The person who abducted Diane Suzuki did not fit the profile or method they were looking at for the Honolulu Strangler. They firmly believed Diane Suzuki was stalked in the lead up to her disappearance. They were so adamant of this that they used evidence from the still unsolved case to help overhaul Hawaii's harassment laws, which resulted in stalking and violations of restraining orders being made Class C felonies, which carried a five-year maximum jail term. On May 6th, police held another press conference where they released further information to the

public. Witnesses who were stopped at the roadblock where they found Linda's car reported seeing an unknown male person and a van parked nearby. The night she disappeared, the van was described as light-colored, possibly a cargo carrying vehicle, with lettering on its rear windows. An American-made model of the late 70s or early 80s, an artist's sketch of the van was released and the van was described as Caucasian or mixed ancestry. The FBI profile of the Honolulu Strangler was also released at this press conference. The profile was a Caucasian man in his late 30s or early 40s. He may live or work in the area between Sand Island and Waipahu and targeted women near to where he lived or worked. He was an opportunist, attacking women in vulnerable

situations rather than stalking his victims. He was unlikely to already have a criminal record. He would be familiar with the area where the crimes were committed and again may live or work in the vicinity. He may possibly be experiencing marital or relationship difficulties. Douglas Gibb, the Honolulu police chief at the time, went on to say at this press conference that physical evidence had been recovered and was currently being tested. But he refused to confirm what that evidence was. The 43-year-old mechanic, who approached police out of the blue and led them to Linda Pesci's body after claiming a psychic told him where to find her, was still being closely watched around the clock. The public were told that there were no

suspects, but the mechanic fit the killer's profile in more than one instance. He was 43 years old, Caucasian. He lived at Ever Beach, which was right in the vicinity they suspected the killer lived based on the geography of where the bodies were found. He worked at an air cargo company near the airport on Lagoon Drive, the road that runs along the edge of Kihi Lagoon. He inserted himself in the investigation out of the blue, claiming a psychic told him information. He took police to the body of Linda Pesci and had prior contact with her. The mechanic also owned a van that fit the description of the one seen near Linda's car. After police released the description of the van to the public, specifically mentioning it had

lettering on its rear window, undercover police watched the mechanic scratch the company logo flying tigers from the rear of his van. He was shaping as a firm suspect and he was taken in for questioning on May 9th, 1986, six days after leading police to the body of Linda Pesci. He attended the police station voluntarily. He agreed to be photographed and agreed to take part in a polygraph test, which he failed. He was questioned for seven hours between 8pm and 3am, during which time he barely moved. He sat with his arms folded and head down. Police were confident they had the Honolulu Strangler, but there was no hard evidence. It was an entirely circumstantial case. They had physical evidence. Seaman had been sent for

forensic testing, but the results didn't amount to anything that could be used to prove it was him. Testing showed that the seaman had few or no sperm, which was possibly the result of a vasectomy. As there was no DNA testing at the time, all they could do was test for blood type, which they did. But it was only useful in eliminating suspects. It wasn't useful in this investigation. It was the most common blood type in the world, so it didn't mean much that he matched it. It just meant he couldn't be eliminated. At the conclusion of the interview, Major Louise Souza confronted the mechanic directly, asking him if he murdered Linda Pesci. He put his head down and said he didn't do it. Souza felt they had enough on the mechanic to place him under

arrest, and he instructed his detectives to do so, certain they would be able to break him. But after the arrest, an attorney called the station and asked to speak to the mechanic. She was organised by his girlfriend, and she instructed him to stop talking to the police immediately. And he did. From that point on, he never said another word. Because he stopped talking, Souza and the detectives were forced to go to the prosecutor with what they had, hoping they would be given approval to charge the mechanic with murder. But they weren't. The prosecutor advised there was insufficient evidence. If it went to trial, they feared there was a good chance the mechanic would be acquitted, meaning they could never

prosecute him again for those charges. The mechanic was allowed to walk out the front door. When he left the police department around 2pm that afternoon, the mechanic covered his face and head with his t-shirt. Local press were waiting for him. He said the following as he was escorted into a waiting car. The police have released me, that's all I know. They've got plenty of good cause. They're doing their job. Someone asked if he knew Linda Pesci to which he replied. I haven't talked to. He then stopped himself before continuing. I don't even know what's really going on here. I'll comment some other time. Police continued to follow the mechanic and keep him under close surveillance

while they tried to gather more evidence. The mechanic was divorced with a child, but he had a new girlfriend. He had moved to Honolulu from Alaska 4 years earlier in the early 80s. He had no prior criminal record in Alaska or Hawaii. The mechanic's neighbours described him as a helpful, friendly gentleman who was kind and outgoing, always willing to help people out if they needed anything. Police looked further into Linda Pesci and why she had written the mechanic's name down in her diary. They found out she was responsible for pitching her company's services to businesses in the airport area. The same area where Flying Tigers was located, the company the mechanic worked for.

Detectives interviewed the mechanic's girlfriend as well as his ex-wife. They both described him as a smooth talker who often turned a conversation onto the topic of sex. Both women stated they had engaged in sexual activities with the mechanic where they had their hands tied behind their backs. The informant's girlfriend also revealed something new to investigators. She explained that they'd had some arguments lately. She told police that each of the murders had corresponded with the night they had argued and he had left the house. But it still wasn't hard evidence and the prosecutors felt the same way. They couldn't charge him. A couple of months later a woman came forward who said she had seen

a man standing with one of the victims on the night she was murdered. It hasn't been released publicly which victim the witness saw the man with. She successfully picked the mechanic from a photo lineup as the man she saw with the victim but she declined to testify. She was worried the mechanic had seen her and that he might come after her next. The island of Oahu and the state of Hawaii didn't have a single case linked to the Honolulu Shrangler again. The task force continued to tail the mechanic day and night no matter where he went. After a while the mechanic left Hawaii and moved to the midwest on the mainland. The task force called the local police department where he moved to and they continued to watch him but he never did anything adverse

while under surveillance. The mechanic was even followed to Europe twice by the FBI. He was also followed from the midwest to the east coast and back to the midwest when he resettled there but they never got anything. He was never linked to any crime again and no charges were ever laid for the murders of Vicky Purdy, Regina Sakamoto, Denise Hughes, Louise Medeiros or Linda Peche. The mechanic died in 2003 due to illness. An autopsy may have provided information regarding his DNA but it's unknown if one was conducted. There is no information to say whether his DNA was collected prior to his death. There is no information to say whether the forensic evidence gathered from 1986 is available for retesting today. But in 2016 the Honolulu police department

told the local Hawaiian TV station KHON2 that they were stepping up their efforts in reviewing cold cases. The full statement released by the Honolulu police department in 2016 read, earlier this year homicide detectives stepped up their efforts to review unsolved murder cases looking for untested evidence and any evidence that should be retested using updated DNA technology. Honolulu police department also created a database with information that thoroughly documents which items of evidence have been tested and which items should be retested when new technology becomes available. The database will serve as a resource for both current and future investigators. We can't comment on open cases however because there is no statute of

limitations for homicide a case will remain open until a suspect has been identified. We will pursue all leads whether it's from someone who has new information or a new form of DNA testing. We are committed to getting justice for victims and their families no matter how long it takes. you