No leads turn up
in cemetery case
The vandals who marred
By Rod Ohira
seven cemeteries a year ago might
never be punished
Star-BulletinAlmost a year after shocked residents discovered the desecration of seven Oahu cemeteries, the vandals remain at large. Some $35,000 in donated reward money has been returned. Investigators still have no leads.
"There's no eyewitness accounts or hard evidence so unless someone talks, it won't get solved," said Capt. Doug Miller of the Honolulu Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division.
"Grave sites were targeted because they wanted the message to have a dramatic impact, knowing it would hurt a lot of people. It was done for impact."
But Gene Castagnetti, director of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, one of the defaced sites, says the plan failed.
National Cemetery of the Pacific
It cost more than $13,000 and took three weeks to clean
up the 10 court walls and 22 columbaria that were spray-painted
with hate messages last year at the National Memorial
Cemetery of the Pacific.
"The community rallied together and crushed the message of racism, bias and prejudice from the graffiti bandits by their actions," he said. "The message Hawaii sent to them was, 'You lose.'"Over that April 19-20 weekend, obscenities were spray-painted on grave markers. Messages such as "Hate your guts Hawaii. You make me sick" despoiled columbarium walls at the Punchbowl cemetery. More hate messages were found at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe, Valley of the Temples, Hawaiian Memorial Park, Oahu Cemetery, Nuuanu Memorial Park and Honolulu Memorial Park.
All that spurred an outraged community to band together.
Veterans groups, businesses and volunteers donated money and materials to clean the vandalism.
The state and city offered equipment and expertise, while local companies donated paint removers and technically skilled personnel. Local police and federal investigators joined to look for the culprits. Congress created a law to make stiffer penalties.
Investigators estimate that six to 10 cans of enamel and lacquer spray paint were used by vandals, but no cans were ever recovered.
Castagnetti said it cost more than $13,000 and three weeks to clean up 10 court walls and 22 columbaria at Punchbowl. That cost was borne by donations from veterans' service organizations, including $20,000 from the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
But a $35,000 reward pledged by private donors didn't attract any tips, and the fund is no longer active, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. Most of the money was in the form of pledges, which were not collected, while cash donations were returned, she said.
Bank of Hawaii spokeswoman Linda Chinn said of the $13,000 collected for "the cemetery vandalism fund," $5,000 will be given to HPD's CrimeStoppers program while $8,000 will go to the Punchbowl cemetery's gift fund.
That the reward failed to produce tips indicates an "extremely tight-knit group" was responsible for the desecretion, Miller said.
"It's very likely the people who did this are gone," he added. "There's definitely a mainland connection based on the language used."
Racism was the dominant theme of the messages, which also indicated disenchantment with police investigations and the court system.
"It's definitely people upset with a verdict who feel they did not get the best investigation," Miller said.
Investigators reviewed incidents where visitors were victims and also checked cases involving the military.
"It's not likely that a victimized tourist would come back here to do this," Miller said, adding the greater probability would be someone who was leaving the state.
The incident prompted Castagnetti to put in 24-hour security at Punchbowl.
"It wasn't an act of vandalism," said Castagnetti, a former Marine with anti-terrorism training.
"No windows were broken and they left the map galleries alone.
"This was a well-planned thing by people who I feel were already on an airplane flight out by the time the desecretion was discovered.
"They exposed Hawaii to hate and viciousness and used the cemeteries to create a feeling of helplessness that we couldn't protect hallowed ground.
"But the people of Hawaii overcame it and became a model for the nation by showing there was no bias here."
Star-Bulletin reporter June Watanabe contributed to this report.
