HILO >> A woman whose son has been missing since 1997 is scheduled to appear in court today to face charges that she took $17,000 in welfare benefits that she was not entitled to receive.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports Jaylin Kema, 45, will be arraigned Monday on a second-degree theft charge.

The 1997 disappearance of “Peter Boy” Kema, then 6, was initially a missing-person case, but in 2000 police reclassified it to a homicide. No one was ever arrested in that case, and it remains one of the state’s most high-profile unsolved crimes.

Peter Kema Sr. told police in 1997 that while he was looking for a job on Oahu, he gave “Peter Boy” to a family friend on Oahu by the name of Auntie Rose Makuakane, but her existence could not be verified.

On Friday, Jaylin Kema appeared in District Court in a wheelchair for her initial appearance on the theft charge.

Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville would not say the theft case is unrelated to an ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Peter Boy Kema. Damerville said much like in this case charges are pursued for possible crimes discovered during the course of another investigation.

Kema’s court-appointed attorney Justin Haspe objected to court photography, saying the nature of the charges are not related to anything the media would be interested in.

Peter Kema Sr., also 45, was released Friday pending investigation into the alleged drug and firearm offenses, and Jaylin Kema was also technically released on those offenses. Because police did not have enough evidence to charge the Kemas within 48 hours of their arrest, they were required to release them.