Title: Honolulu Serial Strangler

Dates: 1985 - 1986

Overview: Paradise was not so good for five women.

Status: Cold Case.

Honolulu Serial Strangler

It was perhaps inevitable that Americas vacation paradise should ultimately share the notoriety of other states where random killers have made headlines, claiming one innocent victim after another while police stand baffled on the sidelines. Still, Hawaii avoided the plague longer than most stated, perhaps due in part to its geographic isolation from the mainland. Unfortunately, unlike their fictional counterparts on Hawaii five-o, detectives in Honolulu have yet to identify the slayer in their midst, nearly two decades later.

Twenty five year old Vicky Purdy was the first to die. A twice married housewife, employed at a local video shop, she was kidnapped and strangled by persons unknown on May 29, 1985. When found, Purdy still wore her jumpsuit and jewelry, with no indications of robbery or sexual assault.

On January 15, 1986, 17 year old Regina Sakamoto vanished on her way to school, moments after phoning her boyfriend to say she had just missed her bus. Strangled and raped, her partially nude body was fished out of Keehi Lagoon a month later.

Denise Hughes, a 32 year old navy wife, failed to report for her regular job on January 30, 1986. Listed as a missing person, she was found in a drainage canal on February 1, strangled to death, hands bound behind her, her body wrapped in a blue plastic tarp.

Two months later, on March 26, the killer claimed 25 year old Louise Medeiros, a single mother three months pregnant at the time she died. Ambushed en route to her boy friends apartment, Medeiros was found dead on April 2, hands tied behind her back, wearing only a blouse. Authorities have not released the cause of death.

Linda Pesce, age 36, was last seen alive on April 29, 1986, reported missing by her roommate the following day. On May 3 her body was found at Sand Island, arms bound behind her back, the cause of death once more remaining secret at the wish of homicide investigators who insist one killer is responsible for all five murders.

A profile of the unknown slayer, prepared by FBI agents, describes him as a white man in his late thirties or early forties, driving a light colored cargo van. Six days after Linda Pesces body was found, Honolulu officers detained a 43 year old suspect for questioning, by the was released without charges after 10 hours of interrogation. The case remains open, with no arrest in sight.

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