IS THE HONOLULU STRANGLER STILL ON THE LOOSE OR DID HE DIE?

The Honolulu Strangler was Hawaii’s first noted serial killer, and although they've never caught him, they believe he's the killer of at least 5 women during the 1980's. Leaving his victims bound with their hands behind their backs, raped and evidence of assault before death, the killer ended their lives through strangulation.

His victims were from all walks of life making it difficult to pinpoint where he might strike next.

His first victim was twenty-five year old Vicki Gail Purdy, a military wife who was out with friends. The last to see her was the cab driver who dropped her at the Shorebird hotel at midnight to get her car, but she never returned home. After being reported missing, her car was still parked in the parking lot of the hotel; her body on an embankment at Keehi Lagoon. With her hands bound behind her back, she'd been raped and strangled.  Her picture was not found on the Internet, but this photograph of the lagoon was where she'd been found.

 
 

 

 

The second victim was seventeen year old college student, Regina Sakamoto who'd called her boyfriend to say she had missed her bus home. That was the last anyone had heard or seen her, only to find her body in the area of the terminal. The same MO as the Purdy woman. This is when the police suspected they had a serial killer on their hands.

 

Victim number three was twenty-one year old Denise Hughes, a secretary for a mobile phone company who commuted by bus. When she did not show up for work, a search began and three days later her body was found by a stream by a local fisherman. Her decomposing, naked body was covered with a tarp.

Three murders later, police formed a taskforce.

The fourth victim was  twenty-five year old Louise Medeiros. She was in Waikele for her mother's funeral. On March 26, Medeiros took a red-eye flight back to Oahu and told her relatives she would get home the rest of the way by public transportation. After disembarking the plane, she never made the bus. Later, her body was found by the Department of Transportation.

 

 

 

At their wits end, police planted an undercover female officer at the airport which turned out to be a waste of time because the killer would not kill again for another month when thirty-six year old, Linda Pesce's body was found and no killer in sight. 

 

 

 

On May 9th, police received a strange tip. All through my research, the man's name was never identified and the only description available was him being a white man who'd informed the police a psychic told him a dead body was at Sand Island. Although the informant took the police to a precise location, Linda's body was not there, but a thorough search of the area was conducted and her body was found nearby.

 

Suspicious, the detective handling the case took the informant into custody as their primary suspect based on testimony from his ex-wife who said he had a fetish for engaging in bondage activities. Further testimony from his girlfriend stated the same incriminating information. The girlfriend also reported that every time they'd had an argument during that time period, the informant would leave her apartment--the dead bodies appearing on every one of those corresponding dates.

 

Another strange thing about this case is, the man in this picture was the detective of record. Why can't I find his name? 

 

The suspect was interrogated and even polygraphed. He failed those tests. Despite police believing they had their killer, the evidence was only circumstantial and he was released. It would be a short while later that he would leave Hawaii and move to California where he later died in 2005.

 

What I find extremely difficult to believe with this case is since they knew the women were raped, why wasn't the suspect's DNA checked? This process was available since 1951. What do you think?