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Kauai’s unsolved
slayings have police
on the defensive

The possibility of a serial killer in
their community keeps detectives on edge

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By Anthony Sommer
Kauai correspondent

LIHUE -- "It's been two months and I still cringe when the telephone rings at 2 a.m. I'm thinking: 'I hope it's not another victim,' " said Lt. Bill Ching, chief of detectives at the Kauai Police Department. "Happily, so far, it's not."

On Aug. 30, the body of Daren Singer, 42, was discovered at a remote campsite at Pakala Point Beach near Waimea. She had been raped, stabbed, and her face severely beaten. On May 22, a 52-year-old woman was stabbed and badly beaten and left for dead in a foiled sexual assault in a remote area of Kekaha. On April 7, the body of Lisa Bissell, 38, was found in a ditch near Polihale State Park. She had been raped, stabbed and beaten.

"One of my biggest concerns when I took this job was the possibility of a serial criminal, a murderer or a rapist, and whether we were equipped to deal with that," said Ching, who has spent 29 years on the Kauai Police Department. Ching is second generation KPD: his father served 30 years before he retired. "I've seen the resources and manpower serial crimes require and the record-keeping alone is a gigantic task."

Ching has a force of only 10 detectives. There is no "homicide bureau" because until this year there hadn't been a slaying on Kauai for two and a half years. So far in 2000, there have been five. Three have been solved.

The two unsolved killings and the assault on the West Side, all so similar they may have been the work of the same man, are unique in the memory of detectives on the force. Kauai has had its share if murders and even has a list of unsolved killings, but most involved drug dealers or domestic disputes. None has involved brutal attacks on random victims like these.

"We would like to solve them if for no other reason than just to stop the rumors and emotions from running wild," Ching said.

West Side women still come into his Lihue office and yell at him for not solving the crimes, he said. Others call and ask when it will be safe to take walks alone again.

The plantation culture still thrives in the tightly knit communities of West Side Kauai and violent crime is virtually unknown. The disappointment of the residents in their police department has been both obvious and acute and, as a result, detectives on the case are taking it very personally.

"It's hard to step back when some of the people involved are people you've known all your life," Ching said.

The detectives initially worked themselves to states of near exhaustion, and many couldn't sleep when they did go home. The pressure has eased a bit, but only a bit.

"I was born and raised on the West Side," Ching said. "My mom had 17 brothers and sisters, so I have a lot of relatives holding me accountable for what we're doing. And I have a lot of the detectives who are from the West Side. It's very stressful."

Facing the community

Last spring, after the first two crimes, Kauai police met with West Side women in Waimea. Police Chief George Freitas suggested Ching not attend because of his deep roots on that side of the island.

"I told him I didn't want anyone else to have to answer the questions that I was supposed to answer and I went," Ching said.

"Those community meetings are hard. I reminded people this is real life, not a television series, and nothing is going to be solved in the next hour. I had to exercise a lot of control so I didn't give any indication I believed the case is going to be solved in the next day or two or any indication I believed the case is never going to be solved."

For similar reasons, Ching said, he has taken to avoiding friends who are not police officers because they invariably ask him about the investigation.

"It's really hard because I can't say anything."

Ching said his detectives have the same stresses and he has adopted some techniques he hopes have helped to sustain morale.

Emotional overload

When he was a detective, Ching said, he often operated under the "if you want it done right, do it yourself" theory and the result of being a lone wolf was he frequently had to take time off to deal with the stress he placed on himself.

Now that he's the boss, he insists on teamwork and following protocols in which each detective has an assigned function: at a crime scene one takes photographs, another bags evidence, another writes the evidence tags. Interviews are scheduled and assigned.

And a lot of venting is encouraged.

"Usually after a major case I sit down with everyone involved -- I try to include the patrol officers if I can -- and we do a debriefing to discuss what we did well and what we could have done better," he said.

"The first thing I do is let them expose their emotions -- good feelings, negative feelings -- I let them get it all out. Then we debrief the case itself.

"With these cases I keep reminding them we did everything right. We did everything we were supposed to do. But the waiting for a break is stressful. I have two young kids, both in elementary school, and I have to make sure I don't go home and take out my frustration on them or my wife."

Being able to quickly solve two subsequent murders -- both accused killers confessed -- has been "good for confidence among the detectives," Ching said. "Burnout is not a problem."

"Everybody now is pretty much on the same level and everyone is still eager to get this resolved," he added. "Everyone is always asking what there is that we haven't done or haven't tried."

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There is a $10,000 reward being offered in the case. The Kauai CrimeStoppers phone number is 241-6787.