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

The Kaimuki Kasha House is one of the most famous Hawaii ghost stories ever told—a haunted Honolulu legend tied to Glen Grant, old police reports, disputed addresses, and decades of local folklore. In this episode, we follow the reported incidents, the later retellings, and the storyteller who understood that in Hawaii, a ghost story is never just about fear. It is about place, memory, belief, and...

Nancy Anderson murder, Waikiki cold case, Hawaii true crime, Tudor Chirila, DNA evidence, and genetic genealogy all come together in this revisited episode of Beneath the Palms. In 1971, 19-year-old Nancy Elaine Anderson left the mainland for Honolulu because, as her family later put it, she simply wanted to see what life in Hawaii was like. She was a John Glenn High School graduate from Bay City,...

Jonathan Fraser disappearance, Michael Miske case, Hawaii Kai missing person, Honolulu organized crime, FBI reward, Miske Enterprise—this revisited episode of Beneath the Palms goes back through one of the most haunting and complicated cases in modern Hawaii history. Jonathan Fraser was 21 when he vanished from Hawaii Kai in July 2016. What began as a missing-person case eventually became one of t...

The Honolulu Exorcism Story explores a whispered 1970s Kalihi case in Honolulu, Hawaii—an alleged possession story at the crossroads of Catholic exorcism, Native Hawaiian spiritual beliefs, oral history, and local ghost lore. This episode follows what can be documented, separates fact from legend, and asks what really happened when a young woman’s private suffering became part of Hawaii’s darker f...

Janine Meyer murder in Waikiki, Hawaii. In this revisited Episode 16 of Beneath the Palms, we return to the 2013 killing of a Honolulu woman who told family she was afraid before she was found dead in a dumpster behind the Hawaiian Colony in Waikiki. When this podcast first launched, I told Janine’s story without all of the factual detail that became clearer later. This retelling comes back with a...

The Oda family murders in Manoa, Hawaii left Honolulu reeling. In this revisited Episode 12 of Beneath the Palms, we follow the verified record behind the killings of Naoko Oda, Sakurako Oda, Orion Oda, and Nana Oda, the financial collapse investigators said came before the violence, and the grief that spread through Manoa after the family was lost. This is a fact-based retelling built from police...

Jason Nam murder case. In this revisited Hawaii true crime episode, we examine the unsolved 2006 killing of 31-year-old Jason Nam, who was shot in broad daylight while washing his car outside his South Beretania Street apartment in Honolulu. Nearly two decades later, the case remains open, the suspects have never been publicly identified, and Jason’s family is still waiting for answers. This episo...

Michael Miske Jr. looked, on the surface, like a Honolulu businessman with reach, money, and influence. In this revisited episode of Beneath the Palms , we go back through the rise of the Miske Enterprise, the disappearance of Johnathan Fraser, the federal racketeering case, the 99-day trial, the July 2024 guilty verdict, Miske’s death in custody, and the legal aftermath that left the story resolv...

Honolulu Strangler. Hawaii true crime. Unsolved serial killer. The murders of Vicki Purdy, Regina Sakamoto, Denise Hughes, Louise Medeiros, and Linda Pesce remain one of the darkest unresolved cases in Honolulu history. In this revisited episode of Beneath the Palms, we return to the Honolulu Strangler case, a series of unsolved murders that shook Oahu between 1985 and 1986. Five women disappeared...

Before Hawaii watched the shotgun taped to Tom McNeil’s head, Sherry Lynn Holmes was already missing. This fully revisited episode of Beneath the Palms returns to the 1996 Sand Island hostage crisis in Honolulu, Hawaii, when John Miranda entered his former workplace, Seal Masters of Hawaii, armed with a shotgun, shot company vice president Guy George, held workers hostage, and forced Tom McNeil in...

Dawn Momohara murder. McKinley High School murder. Honolulu cold case. Hawaii true crime. In this Beneath the Palms episode, we revisit the 1977 killing of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara, found dead on campus at McKinley High School on March 21, 1977. Nearly 48 years later, advances in DNA testing helped investigators arrest former McKinley student Gideon Castro in Utah. Then the case shifted again, le...

In this revisited episode, we return to one of Hawaii’s most haunting unsolved maritime mysteries: the 1979 disappearance of the Sarah Joe and the five Hana men who never came home. What began as a calm-day fishing trip out of Hana Bay became a story of violent weather, a massive search, years of silence, and a discovery on remote Taongi Atoll that raised as many questions as it answered. This epi...

The Diane Suzuki disappearance remains one of Hawaii’s most haunting cold cases. In July 1985, 19-year-old University of Hawaii student, Rainbow dancer, and part-time dance instructor Diane Suzuki vanished in broad daylight after finishing class at the Rosalie Woodson Dance Academy in Aiea, Hawaii. Her purse, keys, and car were left behind, and her body has never been found. This episode revisits...

In this episode of Beneath the Palms, we revisit the unsolved murder of Leilani Castro Kim, a 44-year-old mother of three who had recently moved from Hilo to Kona and just started a new job at the Kona Hilton, now the Royal Kona Resort. On August 1, 1978, she was found murdered in her hotel room bathtub in Kailua-Kona. More than four decades later, the case remains unsolved. This is a fact-based r...

Lisa Au murder. Hawaii cold case. Oahu, January 1982. A 19-year-old Kailua hairdresser disappears in a storm after leaving Makiki, her car turns up in Maunawili, and 10 days later her body is found off Tantalus Drive. In this Beneath the Palms episode, we revisit the unsolved Lisa Au case and the investigation that may have gone wrong from the very beginning. This episode follows the verified time...