The slaying of Catherine Walker in the corner house on the small lane where she lived on the Aliamanu Military Reservation has shocked neighbors, who also find it disconcerting that a military police car is parked 24/7 in front.
"It’s reassuring, but it’s discomforting because we don’t know why," said one woman who recently moved to the neighborhood from Georgia. "Maybe they should protect the whole neighborhood. It’s just a shock. We just moved here in July."
On Tuesday the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office identified Walker, 38, and said she was stabbed in the neck and torso. The manner of death was ruled a homicide. Autopsy results are pending.
The Army’s public affairs officer in Quantico, Va., said in an email the soldier’s wife was found dead in her home at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
Special agents from the Army Criminal Investigation Command are investigating the death as a homicide, but the Army did not say whether any arrest has been made. The killing has been described as "an undetermined death."
"No further information will be released at this time to protect the integrity of the investigative process," the Army said Monday.
Although the MP car was parked in front of the Walkers’ Morishige Lane townhouse, there are no guards at the nearest AMR gate.
Neighbors said they did not know whether the woman’s husband was still living in the home, and that the couple had no children.
Police "come and ask us questions but don’t tell us anything," said a man who lives near the Walkers. "They say we’re safe in our house and outside; nothing’s changed."
Another neighbor said Catherine Walker was "very nice" and would always greet them with a "Hi! How’re you doing?" and would often ask, "You need help carrying something?"
Camille Fleming, a member of the Aliamanu Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Walker "has a heart of gold, and she is loved by all."
"She really would do just anything for anybody. She just was so full of love and never had a bad thing to say to anyone. She was always reaching out with love."
Walker served as the ward’s young women’s president for girls ages 12 to 18.
"She treated those girls like her own," Fleming said. "If the girls’ parents went on a trip, she would take them in. She was kind of like a second mother."
Even in her work selling essential oils, Walker did it to help people feel better, she said.
"With the military, you move around so much," Fleming said. "I feel like Cathy found a home in service … in helping people."
Another neighbor said the Walkers were a "good couple" who were "really quiet."
