Slain girl’s jewelry Honolulu police are investigating whether there may have been another person involved in the murder of 11-year-old Kahealani Indreginal.
still sought
Cops believe finding the jewelry
could yield a murder accompliceBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.comPolice said information that they received pointed to several individuals who allegedly either had possession of Kahealani's gold bracelets, knew where the bracelets were or were actually at the murder scene when Indreginal was killed.
Investigators have questioned these individuals but said they found nothing to connect them to the case.
"We are doing our best to check the names which have come up ... but nothing has panned out," said Lt. Bill Kato. "Right now it's more to exclude than to include suspects.
"We don't want anyone saying, 'If you had information about this individual, why didn't you check them out?' during trial."
Kato said there is no evidence to point to anyone besides Christopher Clayburn Aki as having killed Kahealani. Aki told police that he beat Kahealani with a metal pipe on Dec. 10 and left her in the brush near Keaiwa Heiau State Park, where she was found 72 hours later.
Kato said the two men who were initially arrested along with Aki were not among those questioned recently.
Aki had told police that he, an 18-year-old acquaintance and a 31-year-old homeless man had killed Indreginal to rob her, but then later recanted his original statement, saying instead that he acted alone.
Kato also said police searched three Waipahu residences while looking for Indreginal's gold bracelets last week. That makes a total of seven residences that police searched last month while looking for the missing jewelry.
Aki told police he threw the bracelets away in the trash after taking them off Indreginal, which means the jewelry would likely have been incinerated at the city's HPOWER plant by now.
Kato said while there is no evidence to disbelieve Aki's story, investigators still need to check on tips they have been receiving about the possible whereabouts of the bracelets.
"The information we've received all seems to be pointing to different people, and the credibility doesn't seem to be there," said Kato. "Everyone we've talked to has been happy to cooperate, and they all have credible alibis which check out."
Besides the bracelets, police have also been unable to locate the murder weapon, described as a metal pipe. Aki said he threw it into the mouth of Halawa Stream, where it empties into the waters of Pearl Harbor.
Police divers searched the area for a day last month but have not been back since.
Kato said that police would continue to search for the metal pipe but that they would not return to Halawa Stream.