Man may be cleared
in death of wife

The exact cause of her death
in a Kunia van fire is not known

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Star-Bulletin staff

Police have not ruled out homicide in the death of 40-year-old Dawn Ubando, whose body was found in a burned-out van in a Kunia farm lot on New Year's Eve.

But the man who police identified as her common-law husband appears to be cleared of suspicion.

"The husband passed a polygraph, and there is no evidence of an accelerant used to start the fire," said Lt. Bill Kato, Honolulu police homicide detail.

The Honolulu Fire Department has not determined the cause of the fire, and the Honolulu medical examiner has yet to determine what caused Ubando's death. However the autopsy revealed that Ubando was alive when the fire started because there was fire damage to her lungs, Kato said.

The husband, a 41-year-old Haleiwa man, is an employee of Garst Seed Co. at 94-880 Kunia Road, where the van burned.

A pickup truck and an old school bus that were parked next to the van also burned in the 6 a.m. fire.

The husband called in the fire alarm and told police he was at another part of the farm when it started.

Police arrested him for an outstanding traffic warrant, then released him.