Beneath the Palms: Hawaii's True Crime, Mysteries & Untold History

Eugene Walter Barrett was not a warning sign Hawaii missed once. He was a man whose name appeared again and again in Honolulu court records, parole history, old newspaper archives, and finally in the memories of families left behind after three women were gone. This episode of Beneath the Palms follows the case of Eugene Walter Barrett, a Honolulu killer connected to the deaths of Annie Phillips i...

The Murder at the Moana Hotel | Jane Stanford’s Unsolved Poisoning in Honolulu In 1905, Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, arrived in Honolulu and checked into the Moana Hotel in Waikiki. She was one of the most powerful women in America, a widow, a grieving mother, and the woman who had fought to keep Stanford University alive after the deaths of her husband and only child. Then, o...

The Pier 24 Execution: David Walden’s Unsolved Murder On April 16, 1994, David Larry Walden went to Honolulu Harbor for work. He was waiting near Pier 24 for a production vehicle coming from Maui when two helmeted men arrived on a motorcycle. Within seconds, David, a husband, father of four, Navy veteran, and working man, was shot to death in a public parking lot near 711 North Nimitz Highway. Thi...

Owen Hamada was found beaten to death inside the women’s restroom at Waikele Community Park on March 21, 2005. More than twenty years later, his murder remains unsolved. Owen was originally from Hilo, worked in construction and roofing, and was a familiar face around Waikele Shopping Center. Police said he regularly slept overnight in the park restroom and was last seen alive the previous evening...

Kalaupapa forced exile on Molokai remains one of the darkest and most important stories in Hawaii history. In 1866, the Hawaiian Kingdom began sending people diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, then commonly called leprosy, to the remote Kalaupapa peninsula, separating families and turning illness into exile. Over the next century, nearly 8,000 people were sent there. This episode follows the law, th...

Allen Patrick Francisco was 21 years old when he was found dead in the trunk of his own car at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu. He had been bound, gagged, blindfolded, and left in one of the busiest places in Hawaii. But Allen was more than the way he was found. He was Lico and Solidad Francisco’s son, a brother to seven sisters, a fiancé to Colleen Lincoln, and a young man from North Kukui Street an...

A mother traveled to Honolulu to be close to her only son. By the end of February 23, 1994, Toako “Kototome” Fujita and Goro Fujita were dead, two fires had been set, and a Hawaii murder case was beginning to stretch across the Pacific. This episode of Beneath the Palms revisits the Fujita murders, the killing of a famous Japanese fortune teller and her son, the $20,000 cash request that raised al...

Vesna Young vanished from Miloli'i on Hawaii Island on March 16, 2025, after she was last reported seen near Umi Avenue and her vehicle was later found unattended near Kai Avenue. But this is not just a story about a missing-person bulletin. Before Vesna became a name in a police release, public traces of her life show a woman rooted in family, bodywork, yoga, music, Alaska, mountains, weather, an...

Elmer Lee Stevens was one of the last people still listed as unaccounted for after the August 8, 2023 Lahaina fire. In this Beneath the Palms episode, we follow the verified record: the shrinking missing list, the search for Elmer, the loss of Tau Tala Tala Ponali, and the court process that followed when his family was left without remains or a final physical answer. This is a fact-based Hawaii t...

Jacquelyn Glenn missing in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii: This episode examines the disappearance of 82-year-old Jacquelyn “Jackie” Glenn, last seen on December 5, 2025, on Nani Kailua Drive in Kona after reportedly mentioning a trip toward Hilo. The official record is spare. The silence around it is not. In this episode of Beneath the Palms, we stay with the verified timeline first, then carefully separate...

On this episode of Beneath the Palms: the McCully murder and Kapolei stabbing case, the Hawaii work furlough controversy, and the charges against John Nihipali Sr. after police say Georgia Ann Kapana was killed on Fern Street and his estranged wife was stabbed hours later on Oahu. This story is built from police releases, court reporting, and local coverage. It follows the March 5, 2026 attacks, t...

Shanice Ogata-Staudinger disappeared in Pahoa on Hawaii Island on July 9, 2023, after going opihi picking near Hau Bush with a relative. She never returned to their prearranged meeting spot, and years later she still has not been found. In this episode, we stay close to the verified record and to the silence around it. The public story begins with one stretch of coastline near Kahakai Boulevard an...

In 1893, on Kauai, Ko ʻ olau refused forced exile to Molokai after officials moved to separate him from Piilani and their son, Kaleimanu. What followed in Kalalau Valley became one of Hawaii’s most haunting historical cases: the killing of Deputy Sheriff Louis Stolz, martial law, a government expedition, and a lasting fight over whether this story is best understood as resistance, tragedy, or both...

In 1834, Scottish botanist David Douglas crossed Hawaii Island, climbed into the shadow of Mauna Kea, and died in a cattle pit beside a trapped bull. Officially, it was ruled an accident. But almost immediately, doubts formed around the scene, the injuries, the missing money, and the man who saw him last. This episode follows Douglas’s final days on the Big Island, the recovery of his body, the ex...

In 1978 on Oahu, public reporting describes Arthur K. Baker as a government informant. On November 13, 1978, reporting later describes him being taken from a Waikiki cocktail lounge on Kalakaua Avenue, driven west, and buried alive in the sand at Maili. Years later, the case is repeatedly summarized in news retrospectives because it wasn’t only a killing—it was a warning delivered through fear. Th...

Maunalua Bay Beach Park Marines double murder (Hawaii Kai, Oahu): two young Marines—Rodney “Rocky” Padilla and Lawrence “Larry” Martens—were found beaten and shot beside a car in September 1980, and the case remains unsolved. Investigators have acknowledged writing in the sand near the scene but have never publicly revealed what it said. This episode sticks to documented reporting and official NCI...

This is a facts-first story about two victims, a courtroom outcome that detonated public trust, and a later-reported claim that tried to explain the unexplainable word that followed: bribery. Where the record is limited, unclear, or conflicting, I say that plainly—and I do not fill in gaps. A clearly labeled Speculation Lane appears later and is kept separate from the verified timeline. Key timeli...

Larry Kuriyama assassination (Oct. 23, 1970) — Hawaii State Senator Larry Kuriyama is shot and killed outside his Aiea Heights home on Oahu after returning from a political rally. He’s hit multiple times at close range late at night, with his family inside the house. This episode reconstructs the verified timeline from documented reporting and contemporaneous records, then separates out what remai...

Linda Sue Hannon murder—Kahana Bay, Oahu (Feb 25, 2007). She was found dead near the Huilua Fishpond in a case that remains unsolved. This episode centers the verified timeline, the known facts, and Linda’s humanity—before the violence. A clearly labeled Speculation Lane appears later, separate from the verified record. Linda was known along this stretch of Kamehameha Highway—often seen on a Huffy...

Walter Robert “Fig” Mitchell murder in Wailua, Kauai — June 10, 2002. Fig was a familiar Kauai sports voice: a youth-sports coach, a radio sportscaster, and a former sports editor tied to local games and local routine. He was found dead at home, and the case remains unsolved. Early reporting said police found injuries but did not suspect foul play while awaiting autopsy findings. Days later, repor...

John Reverio Oahu cold case homicide: a young man connected to Makaha was found burned near Keaau Beach Park in May 2002—an unsolved case where fire may have been used to erase the truth. On Oahu’s Leeward Coast, John Reverio vanished inside a narrow window of days. What’s publicly known is stark: he was reported last seen in early May 2002, and on May 14, 2002, a burned body was located near the...

Michael Robert Scheidt was shot and killed at Kahe Point Beach Park in Waianae, Oahu on Dec. 20, 2002—an unsolved Honolulu cold case that still haunts the shoreline. Scheidt was 38 years old. He lived in Makakilo, was born in Kailua, and was a father. In the early morning hours, he was with friends at a beach parking lot when—without warning—a single shot fired from a distance struck him in the ch...

Samuel Joseph Martinez was 23 years old when he flew from Nebraska to Kauai for a solo hiking and camping trip in May 2021. He was a University of Nebraska-Lincoln microbiology student, a son, a brother, and a young man who came to the island to read, think, and explore. This revisited episode of Beneath the Palms follows Samuel’s disappearance after arriving on Kauai on May 12, 2021, his last kno...

Khiara Henry vanished on Maui in July 2019 after renting a car and heading toward Waianapanapa State Park near Hana. In this revisited Beneath the Palms episode, the story is rebuilt with clearer sourcing, deeper care, and a firm line between verified facts and public speculation. Khiara was 23, from San Diego, and had come to Maui with a return flight, a suitcase, and plans that pointed toward go...

Richard “Kalani” Vierra Jr., 15, vanished from Waianae, Oahu on July 5, 2014 after leaving for a solo morning hike in the Kamaileuna, also reported as Kamaileunu, Ridge area near his home. He was an 11th-grader at Kamaile Academy Public Charter School, a Boy Scout, a church kid, a jiu-jitsu student, and Dolly Vierra’s only child. Early that Saturday morning, Kalani left home around 6:30 a.m. for a...