COURTESY OF CRIMESTOPPERS Owner Becky Rhodes and her horse Mulligan appear in this undated photo. Mulligan and another horse died Nov. 27 in a stable fire presumed to be maliciously set.

Suspects sought
in arson at stables

The death of 2 horses in Maunawili
weighs heavily on the owners

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By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Honolulu police are asking for the public's help in finding the person or people responsible for starting a fire at a Maunawili stable last month that killed two thoroughbred horses.

The horses -- an 8-year-old named Mulligan and a 12-year-old named Gentleman Joe -- were show horses trained for riding competitions, their owners said.

Police have classified the case as criminal property damage and cruelty to animals.

"It's the absolute worst case of premeditated cruelty," said Becky Rhodes, Mulligan's owner. Rhodes said she raised Mulligan from when he was a foal.

Rhodes and Sheri Schnack, who with her husband, Mike, bought Gentleman Joe three years ago for their teenage daughter, Nicole, both said the horses were personable and great with kids.

"I felt violated. It's just a horrible feeling," Schnack said. "What kind of vicious person would do this?"

She said Nicole has been distraught since both horses died in the Nov. 27 fire that also wiped out the four-stall stable the Schnacks built four years ago at Maunawili Farm at 1015 Auloa Rd.

Neither the stable nor the horses were insured.

Rhodes and Schnack said they have no clue as to why anyone would kill the horses.

However, police said they are looking into whether Rhodes' outspoken advocacy of euthanasia, as a method of keeping unwanted pet populations in check, might have been a motive.