‘Peter Boy’ siblings
contradict each other
The inconsistencies could raise
questions during a criminal trial
HILO » Transcripts of videotaped interviews with the brother and sisters of missing Big Island child "Peter Boy" Kema Jr. show inconsistencies that raise questions about possible testimony by the children if criminal charges are ever filed in the case.
For example, Peter Boy's half sister gave police an extensive account in 1998 of taking pictures of Peter Boy with family members on the day he was last seen.
But Peter Boy's half brother told the officer that months before Peter Boy disappeared, his sister broke the camera she claimed was used.
Lillian Koller, head of the state Department of Human Services, which released the 248 pages yesterday, said the transcripts still have value in seeking justice for Peter Boy and in prompting continuing reforms in her department. The transcripts are the last of more than 2,000 pages of documents released by Koller's department.
The son of Peter Sr. and Jaylin Kema, Peter Boy was last seen some time during the summer of 1997 when he was 6.
His parents did not make a missing-person report until January 1998, and then only under pressure from police and state social workers. The boy's father said he had flown with the boy from the Big Island to Oahu, where he left the child in the care of a distant relative, Auntie Rose Makuakane.
Police were never able to confirm the existence of the woman nor find any record that the father and son had made a flight to Honolulu that summer.
Police have said the case is being investigated as a homicide. No arrests have been made.
The names of Peter Boy's older half brother and half sister, as well as the name of his younger sister, are all blacked out in the documents released yesterday. In many cases the context allows a reader to figure out which of the children is speaking.
The most surprising story is the half sister's account of the family taking pictures with Peter Boy. It apparently would have occurred in June 1997, after the family moved out of a house in the Puna District, but went back to clean it up.
"Was -- was Peter Boy there or was -- he gone already?" Detective Glenn Nojiri asked.
"He was there just to take pictures with the family," the half sister answered. First she said her mother took the pictures, but then she said her auntie did it.
When Nojiri asked the aunt's name, she said, "Rose, I think."
"Where did you hear the name Rose? From somebody else?" Nojiri asked. "No, from the newspaper," she answered. Nojiri said he did not want to know what she read in a newspaper.
She said her family nickname was Daintsy or Dinsy because "I always forget things."
Peter Boy's younger sister, who was 5 when interviewed in 1998, said she saw Peter Boy driven away from the Puna home in a purple and green car.
But when shown a box with pens of various colors, she said they were all the same color. When asked to pick pens the same color as the car she saw, she picked a brown one and a black one.
At other times, Peter Boy's half brother said he and the half sister were sent into the back yard, they heard some noises in the house, a car drove away and Peter Boy was never seen again.
But the boy did not say that in the 1998 interviews, answering "I forget" to many questions.
The half brother and half sister casually commented that Peter Boy was "down the road," previous documents revealed. In the latest documents, police questioned Kema's half brother about what he meant.
"Down the road. ... Pau kahana," the transcript quotes him.
University of Hawaii-Hilo Hawaiian language professor Kalena Silva said the phrase should be written, "Pau ka hana," meaning, "Work is done."
Any number of meanings could be read into it, Silva said.
The half brother said he did not know what it meant, but his stepfather, Peter Sr., used it when he sold a dog.
Hearing the statements of the children, former Big Island Prosecutor and Circuit Judge Paul de Silva said he did not think the children would be allowed to testify if charges are ever filed.
"I really doubt this would ever come into evidence. If I was the judge, I would not let them testify," he said. The children show too many contradictions among themselves and from one of their own statements to the next, he said.
Koller discounted the contradictions.
"There clearly, clearly will be inconsistencies in the accounts of what occurred, but that is true in every single case," she said.
"The whole intention again is to make sure that finally we have all the information out and justice can be given to Peter Boy Kema's case," said, Henry Oliva, deputy director of the department.
But Harry Eliason, attorney for Peter boy's mother, Jaylin Kema, saw a different motive.
"They're getting heat from the Legislature, and they have to put the heat off of them and onto other people," he said.
Koller said just the opposite happened.
State Sen. Dennis Arakaki (D, Alewa Heights-Kalihi) tried to get the department to change, but the Legislature had no effect. Under Koller's direction the department made changes.
Koller said the department will hold a series of meeting throughout the summer to take public comment on proposals for more changes.
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