A 46-year-old man arrested by Honolulu police Thursday has been charged with the murder of his wife, whose skeletal remains were found seven years ago near San Diego.
Officers arrested Anthony Simoneau, who lives on Makaloa Street, at 4 p.m. Thursday at 24 Sand Island Access Road on an extradition warrant issued by San Diego District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis.
Simoneau was charged Friday by Dumanis’ office in San Diego with one count of murder. He faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
The extradition request will be heard at 10:30 a.m. Monday in Circuit Court.
The cold case has generated intense media interest in Japan since the victim, Fumiko Ogawa, 41, was a Japanese national.
Her remains were found on Jan. 20, 2007, by a couple traveling on a desert road to the Bow Willow campground in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Park rangers and the sheriff’s department investigated, authorities said; however, her body was not identified until 2011. Officials used DNA from her family in Japan.
The Ogawa family had filed a missing person’s report in November 2007, but at that time no Ogawa family DNA sample was taken.
By then, Simoneau had moved to Hawaii.
Ogawa was last seen near the home she shared with Simoneau in Point Loma about Jan. 4, 2007, authorities said.
According to a San Diego police affidavit, Simoneau, a former Navy dental assistant, married Ogawa in 1996. He filed for divorce in 2002, but the divorce was delayed after his wife inherited a significant amount of money from relatives in Japan.
San Diego investigators said Simoneau then went on a shopping spree, buying four Land Rovers, a Hummer, four boats, a motorcycle and two other vehicles.
Simoneau never reported his wife missing, according to authorities.
The police statement said Simoneau told people that his wife was back in Japan caring for a relative. He told others she was in Hawaii working on their new home.
However, San Diego police said they always considered Simoneau a suspect in the cold case.
Authorities in California, using DNA evidence, identified the decomposed body of his wife in 2011.
San Diego detectives flew to Honolulu in 2011 to interview Simoneau, who was in jail after being arrested for theft.
Japanese media also came to Hawaii after Honolulu police arrested Simoneau in May 2011 for allegedly stealing a $395 piece of luggage from Nordstrom. Simoneau was scheduled for trial on the theft charge in August 2011 but then entered a guilty plea. He was sentenced in October 2011 to five years’ probation.
The Japanese media also converged outside a Honolulu courtroom in 2012 to cover his fourth request for deferral of his guilty plea, which would have removed the charge from his record if he stayed out of trouble for a specified period. The request was denied.
On Aug. 12, acting Circuit Judge Paul B.K. Wong set aside Simoneau’s guilty plea and granted him a three-year period of deferral. If Simoneau stays out of trouble for the three years, the court will set aside the guilty plea. If he gets into trouble, the court will accept the plea and resentence Simoneau for second-degree theft.
