Honolulu Fire Department search and recovery divers continued Friday to explore a canal on Bellows Air Force Station after the discovery of a garbage bag containing items possibly connected to the disappearance of a missing 6-year-old girl whose home is a few miles away.
Honolulu Police Department homicide Lt. Deena Thoemmes declined to say what items were found in the bag, when she shared the information at a news conference Friday afternoon, explaining that it was “too premature to say whether the items are related to this investigation.”
She said the discovery was made Thursday afternoon at the canal, which is up to 10 feet deep in places.
A massive community and interagency search for Isabella Kalua ensued and continues following a report Monday that she was missing, her parents saying she was last seen asleep at 9 p.m. Sunday in her Puha Street home.
But many in the community and on social media questioned why the girl’s adoptive parents have remained silent, sat in their house or garage, not far from the police command post, and failed to join the hundreds of volunteers in the search organized by her biological family.
Also, an HPD written statement Thursday said some some family members and acquaintances “have yet to come forward to be interviewed,” and that Thoemmes hopes this “will change in the near future.” That led some in the media to conclude the Kalua family had not been cooperative.
When asked about this, Thoemmes said she did not say they were not cooperative. Rather, some individuals could not be reached by police.
“Since then, their family attorney has reached out and made some arrangements for some of their family to meet with us to give us a statement,” Thoemmes said Friday.
The parents “have been totally cooperative” with
police, says friend and well-known Honolulu criminal defense lawyer William Harrison, adding he is acting as their counselor to help them navigate the situation since “people are pointing their fingers at them.”
He said the couple will meet soon with police “to give a recorded statement.”
Harrison says he has been friends for about 10 years with Sonny Kalua, 52, and wife Lehua, 43, because they share the same Christian values, and that they are loving parents of missing Isabella and her three sisters, who have been in their foster care.
He did not know the status of the three others girls as to whether they had been adopted or were fostered.
He advised the Kaluas not to speak to the media, not to go on social media and not to participate in the search for fear of having their words twisted or being attacked since the couple has received anonymous death threats by phone and on social media.
He said the Kaluas’ family and friends have organized their own search party, keeping it low-key.
While Sonny Kalua is an entertainer, he also had been working 16-hour days at a regular job, and Lehua Kalua is a stay-at-home mom, Harrison said.
Harrison said he takes
issue with questions about whether Child Welfare Services properly vetted Sonny Kalua, aka Isaac K. Kalua III, who was convicted of violent crimes, and allowed him to foster four girls.
Kalua pleaded guilty to two counts of felony assault, attempted assault and felony terroristic threatening.
“We all make mistakes in our lives,” he said. “If we paid our debt to society, why are we branded with a scarlet letter? Something done 20 years ago should not affect your life now. … We have laws you cannot discriminate against someone.”
“He’s had a checkered past and he’s gotten over that,” Harrison said. “He’s always been a good person, a good provider for his family. … They’re devastated, and I’m upset to see how they’re being attacked by everybody.”
But he admitted not knowing the laws or rules governing Child Welfare Services.
The Department of Human Services, which includes Child Welfare Services, has declined to answer numerous questions from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
An expert in the area, Steve Lane, who has served as a court-appointed special master in the high-profile abuse case of Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr., says CWS should be vetting foster parents, and questions how a family member with a violent criminal past could be allowed to qualify as a foster parent.
Police said Thursday it has not ruled out foul play, but Thoemmes did not elaborate Friday.
When asked whether the couple thinks Isabella simply wandered off or was
abducted, Harrison said, “They don’t know. They’re not blaming anybody. The birth mom knows where they live at, but we’re not casting aspersions.”
Waimanalo resident Melanie Joseph, 33, Isabella’s biological mother, said she saw bruises on her daughter about a year ago, which was the last time she saw her on a scheduled visit.
Joseph said she has seen her other children on other visits, but for some reason Isabella was not present.
Joseph and former boyfriend Adam Sellers had been living with relatives in Waimanalo but, due to their drug abuse, had the children taken away and became homeless. Sellers is now at a rehab facility.
When asked whether the Kaluas’ surveillance video showed Isabella outside their Waimanalo house, Harrison said, “We don’t even know what the video showed.”
“They called police right after they found the child missing” at 6 a.m. and didn’t check the video, he said.
They consented to having police search the house the entire day Monday, allowing them to recover the electronic equipment, he said.
Harrison said the police have not contacted the Kaluas to identify the contents of the garbage bag and haven’t asked about any of the other items found, including an album of photos. Thoemmes declined to say who was pictured in the photos.
The Kaluas adopted Isabella, who was born Ariel Sellers, within the past year and changed her name. She was a kindergartner at Waimanalo Elementary School, via distance learning, but her parents signed paperwork in June to have her withdrawn from the public school in order to be home-schooled instead.
Harrison said the fact that she was learning remotely and is now being home-schooled was not done to cover up any wrongdoing, as some suggest.
“Whether remotely or at school, they’ve been at home,” Harrison said, adding they chose to continue that in a parental situation versus the school.
Harrison confirmed that Child Welfare Services removed Isabella’s three other siblings living in the Kalua home. He said the agency has been the recipient of lawsuits and that it did it so “nobody could claim they did something wrong.”
He said there is a Family Court hearing Monday on the matter and that both parents have counsel (not Harrison).
Harrison said he is not serving as their defense attorney since “they’re not suspects at all.”
He hopes the meeting with police will clear things up.
