ONE night last year, during the early a.m. hours of serious snoozing, I was awakened by the loud cursing of an obviously stoned or drunken man in the next apartment complex. Then came a woman's hysterical voice, followed by the thumping of running footsteps and some thrashing around in the bushes. Wahiawa woman’s
murder is wake-up callIrritated, I just lay in bed -- listening to the drama outside, unable to sleep because of the ruckus but too tired to get up and dial 911 to complain. Eventually, quiet reigned and I blissfully returned to la-la land.
The next morning came the revelation of an attempted rape in the nearby building, a spirited police chase and apprehension of the suspect just a few feet outside my door.
While initially unnerving, I never thought about that incident again -- until last week's mysterious disappearance of Bongak "Jackie" Koja.
Around 2-3 a.m. last Monday, as she did daily, the 59-year-old Wahiawa Heights woman set out for a four-mile exercise walk, mostly along California Avenue. When she didn't come home, her worried husband, James, called police.
Investigators found her glasses, earphones and pepper spray canister on the grounds of Leilehua High School. That's not all they found.
They learned that school janitors had seen a big pool of blood at the Leilehua campus but, labeling it a student prank, had cleaned it all up.
Officers also talked to nearby residents, some of whom had heard a woman yelling for help around 4 o'clock Monday morning, before they went back to sleep.
Went back to sleep -- just like I had done after that attempted rape and foot chase in my neighborhood. Luckily for that woman, however, someone had called the cops, who caught the suspect and carted him away.
Jackie Koja wasn't as lucky. On Saturday, a 34-year-old Wahiawa resident was arrested after he reportedly confessed to her murder. He told police that, while high on drugs, he had killed Koja and thrown her body into a Leilehua trash bin, which had been emptied before it could be checked.
This guy, from society's viewpoint, was a real loser. He had been arrested 42 times and was incarcerated for sexual assault, police said. Wahiawa residents expressed shock that such a heinous crime could have been committed in their quiet town.
I was shocked, too -- but for different reasons.
If Leilehua custodians had immediately called HPD on finding the blood, officers could have searched the school's dumpsters before their contents were transported and burned at a plant in Campbell Industrial Park.
If sleep-dazed residents had called 911 on first hearing a woman's screams at 4 a.m., patrol cars could have zoomed up California Avenue and might even have interrupted the beating in progress.
Jeez, don't people know that the police can't be everywhere? We've got to help them out by being their eyes and ears, for goodness sake!
I should talk. Remember my own reaction to that early morning disturbance, when I simply rolled over and covered my ears with a pillow instead of picking up the phone and punching three little numbers? Next time will be different.
The haunting image of James Koja -- waiting a week to find out what happened to his wife, then finally having his worst fears come true -- is highly motivating.