Murder suspect will Former Kaneohe Marine Delmar J. Edmonds "vehemently denies" responsibility for the murder of a 13-year-old Kailua girl 26 years ago, his attorney, Marcel Pratt, said today.
fight extradition
A former Marine 'vehemently
denies' killing a 13-year-old
girl 26 years agoBy Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comEdmonds, 46, said during a court appearance this morning in Indianapolis that he will fight extradition.
Pratt said Edmonds and his family are "flabbergasted" that he has been arrested for the murder.
"It's very shocking to them. For the past 26 years he has been living a family life and all of a sudden this pops back up," Pratt said. "He's a strong religious man, he's actually a deacon of a church."
Edmonds, 46, is being held in the Marion County Jail in lieu of $500,00 bail pending the outcome of an extradition hearing scheduled for next Tuesday.
Detectives from the Honolulu Police Department and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrested Edmonds in Indianapolis Tuesday on a warrant for the 1975 murder of 13-year-old Dawn "Dede" Bustamante.
Bustamante was abducted, raped, then shot in the head on a secluded Kailua road on March 14, 1975.
Dawn "Dede" Bustamante: 13-year-old girl was raped and shot to death in Kailua in 1975
Another 13-year-old girl who was abducted with Bustamante escaped.
Police twice questioned Edmonds who was assigned to the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station at the time but did not arrest him. Pratt said Edmonds denied he was responsible for the murder then and continues to deny he was involved.
The detectives assigned to the case in 1975 had identified Edmonds as a suspect, but they did not forward the case for prosecution because the surviving victim could not positively identify her attacker or his car.
"We weren't sure it was him," said former Honolulu police detective Jeffery Yamashita. "The hard part is it wasn't conclusive. Sometimes you know it's the guy and you can't prove it."
Yamashita retired from the HPD in 1986.
Former Detective William Ornellas, who retired in 1988, added: "Sometimes in cases like this, evidence will develop over time. Somebody will come forward, new technology becomes available."
Sherie McArthur, Bustamante's sister, credits persistence and a fortuitous romance for the arrest of Edmonds.
The case remained unsolved and the investigation inactive until McArthur said her younger sister started dating an investigator for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service assigned to Pearl Harbor two years ago.
"If my sister hadn't met her husband, this would still be sitting in the HPD unsolved file," McArthur said.
McArthur said she asked her now-brother-in-law to look at all the newspaper clippings she collected on the case to see what he could find out.
On Jan. 31, 2000, another NCIS agent sent a letter to Honolulu Police asking them to join a joint task force to investigate Bustamante's death, according to an affidavit police filed in state court.
On Feb. 5, 2000, the case was assigned to HPD's Homicide Detail to renew the investigation.
Then in May 2000, detectives got a break in the case when another Marine assigned to the same company as Edmonds at the time of the killing sent an unsolicited e-mail to CrimeStoppers indicating he had information about a 25-year-old slaying.
Detectives interviewed Michael Ryback in Las Vegas on May 22, 2000, where he "stated this information has bothered him for the last 25 years," according to the police affidavit.
Ryback said Edmonds asked him and other Marines to lie about his whereabouts at the time of the slaying and that Edmonds had a handgun similar to the one described by the surviving victim, according to the affidavit.
Two other former Kaneohe Marines interviewed by NCIS agents last November and December also told investigators that Edmonds asked them to lie about his whereabouts and that he had a handgun similar to the one described by the surviving victim, according to the affidavit.
On July 14, Steve T. Parker told an NCIS agent Edmonds admitted to him and another Kaneohe Marine that he killed a female on the night of the slaying, according to the affidavit.
Parker said he believed Edmonds was responsible for the March 14, 1975, slaying, but he "said Edmonds was crazy and he was going to stay away from him."
DNA samples were recovered during the original investigation but DNA testing was not a factor leading to Edmonds' arrest, said deputy city prosecutor Rom Trader.
"I really have to give credit to HPD and NCIS investigators for interviewing people, re-interviewing people and getting new leads," Trader said.
