Suspected child molester caught after 16-year hunt

A fugitive wanted on child molestation and other charges was captured by the U.S. Marshals Service Task Force in Hawaii on Tuesday, ending a 16-year search.

U.S. Marshals Service officials said that from August 1992 to March 1993 in San Diego, Peter Bitner was a baby sitter and molested a 4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy who are step-siblings. San Diego police obtained a confession, and Bitner wrote letters of apology to the victims' parents, blaming the girl's “;genital curiosity”; and her “;aggressive”; sexual behavior, the Marshals Service said. He later disappeared.

After his arrest on Keeaumoku Street, Bitner, 64, is was being held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, where he is awaiting extradition to San Diego. He was wanted on a federal warrant issued on July 12, 1993, for offenses that include child molestation, oral copulation of a minor and penetration with a foreign object. The San Diego District Attorney requested his bail to be set at $500,000.

On Wednesday, Bitner appeared in Circuit Court and waived extradition.

Bitner is currently employed at the Hawaii Medical Service Association. Officials at the association could not be reached for comment.

James Propotnick, deputy director of the Department of Public Safety and head of the Law Enforcement Division, said, “;It was a good bust. He was considered a high-value arrest.”;

The state is part of the U.S. Marshals Service Task Force.

Visitor drowns after current carries him away on Kauai

A 60-year-old man visiting from Poland drowned yesterday morning at Larsen's Beach on Kauai, a Kauai County news release said.

The man and his son were snorkeling in the reef at Moloaa when a rip current pulled them out just before noon.

The son swam to shore to get a rescue tube but got caught in the rip current.

A lifeguard on a Jet Ski brought the son safely to shore. The father was pulled farther out to sea and could not be found in a preliminary search.

Navy personnel on a helicopter mission spotted the father and directed the lifeguard to him. The lifeguard brought the man to shore.

Firefighters performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until medics arrived. He was taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

American Samoan man, 19, is arrested in sexual assault

Police arrested a 19-year-old man from American Samoa who allegedly sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl at 9:30 a.m. yesterday at a hotel near the airport.

Police said the man allegedly assaulted the girl in the stairwell of the Ohana Honolulu Airport Hotel, located at 3401 N. Nimitz Highway.

She called police, and the suspect was found at the scene, identified and arrested for investigation of first-degree sexual assault at the scene.

Charges are pending a sexual assault treatment center exam and an interview, police said.

Police investigate attack on woman at apartment

Police are investigating the sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman by a man in his 50s.

Police said the woman befriended the man at a bar and agreed to go to his Kapiolani area apartment. While there, the man allegedly sexually assaulted her.

Police had not made an arrest as of yesterday. The alleged incident took place sometime between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and 2:43 a.m. yesterday.