DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Divers from the Honolulu Police Department's Specialized Services Division jumped into Halawa Stream yesterday, at the area where suspect Christopher Clayburn Aki claimed he dumped the pipe he used to beat Kahealani Indreginal to death.
Murder weapon Honolulu Police Department divers said they found cables, tree branches and lots of shopping cart wagons yesterday while searching for the weapon police believe was used to kill 11-year-old Kahealani Indreginal.
is still missing
A search fails to find the pipe believed
Services planned for Indreginal
used in Kahealani Indreginal’s slaying
By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.comHowever, the metal pipe they were looking for -- described as a black or dark-colored pipe about 1 to 2 feet long -- was not found.
Christopher Clayburn Aki, the man charged with murder in Indreginal's death, told police that he threw the pipe into Halawa Stream, where it empties out into Pearl Harbor, after he killed her Dec. 10.
"We're basing our search on information that might be credible (or) might not be credible," said HPD Capt. Ray Ancheta, "so we have to do the best we can with the information that we have."
Divers searched the stream area makai of the Kamehameha Highway bridge and within 50 yards of the ferry launch for the USS Arizona Memorial.
For several hours two teams of divers took turns searching brown, murky water in an area estimated to be 120 to 150 square feet. Ancheta said that while underwater the divers could barely see 6 inches in front of them.
"Way less than that," said one diver who did not want to be identified. "I couldn't see my finger until I touched my face with it."
Although Ancheta said the water was only waist-high, divers said a foot and a half of that was all mud and that they had to search the bottom of the stream by hand.
The search-and-recovery operation started at about 11:30 a.m. and was called off by 3:15 p.m.
"We haven't received any word that we're going to be searching here again," Ancheta said. "It is possible."
Witnesses last saw Indreginal alive Dec. 10 near her Puuwai Momi Housing complex home.
Her body was found three days later off a trail at Keaiwa Heiau State Park in Aiea.
Police also had no luck with a search of Pearl City pawnshops Wednesday, looking for any sign that someone had sold or tried to sell Indreginal's gold bracelets, which were not on her body when she was found last Friday.
Aki told police he took the bracelets off Indreginal when he attacked her but later put them in a brown paper bag and threw them in the trash.
Police have not said whether they were looking for the bracelets at pawnshops because they do not believe Aki or if they believe someone else may have the bracelets and may have attempted to sell them.
Asked if not finding the metal pipe yesterday gave less credibility to Aki's story, investigators said that at this point, they just do not know.
"We're not sure," said HPD investigator Joe Self, who handled the investigation when Indreginal was first reported missing.
"I would just say we just haven't found it yet."
Aki is being held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center in lieu of $5 million bail.
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Services for Kahealani Indreginal, 11, will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Borthwick Mortuary. Call after 4 p.m. Services planned for Indreginal
She is survived by parents Vincent Indreginal and Lehua Tumbaga; brothers Kawika Mamala-Tumbaga, Alika Tumbaga, Keola Tumbaga, Keahi Mamala-Indreginal and Keneki Indreginal; sisters Tanya Mamala-Tumbaga and Kuini Indreginal; and grandmother Segondina Indreginal.
Aloha attire.
