Suspected serial
killer served here

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

A New York man suspected of being a serial killer was a serviceman in Hawaii during the early 1990s.

Kendall Francois, 27, was charged Sept. 2 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with the strangulation death of Catina Newmaster.

Since then, police have recovered the bodies of seven other missing women from Francois' home.

All were known drug users, according to authorities.

Francois was stationed in Hawaii while in the Army, and Poughkeepsie investigators contacted Honolulu police earlier this week inquiring about unsolved homicide cases from 1989-1991 involving female victims.

"We have two cases, but there does not appear to be a connection," homicide Lt. Allen Napoleon said of the inquiry.

The local unsolved homicides occurred in July 1989 and January 1990, and both victims, an 81-year-old Pawaa woman and 24-year-old visitor from Zambia, were strangled.

The suspect description released by police in the 1989 case -- a short man with a slim build -- does not match the 6-foot-4-inch tall Francois, who has always been heavy and currently weighs more than 300 pounds.

In the 1990 case, the victim was last seen in the company of a man who also does not match Francois.

Poughkeepsie police discovered the remains of a horse attendant, nurse's aide and homemaker, ages 51, 31 and 30, at Francois' home on Sept. 2, after he was charged for murder. More remains were found the following day.

A task force directed by Dutchess County District Attorney William Grady is gathering evidence to indict Francois for other murders.

Honolulu's last serial-killing investigation occurred in 1986, when five women were murdered between January and May. A suspect was arrested but never charged. The murders stopped when the man left the state.