HONOLULU — A shocking murder-suicide that left a husband, wife and their three young children dead has devastated this island community, the police said on Sunday.
The five family members were discovered on Sunday morning in their home in Honolulu after the police received an anonymous call about a disturbance at the residence, officials said.
When officers arrived around 8:30 a.m., the front door was locked and they were unable to enter. After getting a second call an hour later, the police returned, forced their way inside and made the grim discovery.
Lt. Deena Thoemmes of the Honolulu Police Department said the early evidence pointed to the husband stabbing his wife and three children, ages 10, 12 and 17, in an act of horrific violence. The man was also found dead, though his cause of death remained under investigation, Lieutenant Thoemmes said.
The identities of the victims were not immediately released. Neighbors said they were a loving, involved family who had recently returned from a trip to Disneyland.
“They were the last people you’d think of something like this happening to,” said Kamala Ortiz, 32, who lives next door. “The kids were always out playing, and the parents seemed perfectly normal.”
There had been no previous calls regarding domestic disturbances at the home, Lieutenant Thoemmes said, leaving investigators struggling to determine what potentially drove the father to such a horrific act.
Joe Logan, the chief of police in Honolulu, called the deaths “the worst case of mass homicides our state has seen” since 1999, when a Xerox employee opened fire and killed seven co-workers.
News of the murders shook residents of the tight-knit neighborhood of single-family homes near Pearl Harbor. “You hear about these things in other cities, but not here,” said Michael Polenski, 54. “I can’t comprehend what those poor kids went through.”
While murder-suicides remain relatively rare in Hawaii and nationwide, researchers say the biggest risk factors include male perpetrators with a history of domestic violence and access to firearms. The police did not disclose any details about what type of weapon may have been involved in the Hawaii case.
As a somber community mourns, faith leaders organized a vigil on Sunday evening to honor the lives lost. “In times of such darkness, we must come together and shine light into the void,” said Pastor Carol Yim of New Hope Christian Fellowship.
The motive may never be fully understood, but the tragic outcome has left an indelible mark on Honolulu and serves as another sorrowful example of the scourge of domestic violence.
