Parents of Boy Missing 20 Years Charged With His Murder

Peter Kema Jr. disappeared at age 6
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 29, 2016 4:44 PM CDT
Parents of Boy Missing 20 Years Charged With His Murder
In this April 27, 1998 file photo, Peter Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema, parents of missing Hawaii boy Peter Kema, known as "Peter Boy," speak in Honolulu.   (Jeff Widener/The Honolulu Advertiser via AP, File)

The parents of a Hawaii boy who has been missing for nearly 20 years have been charged with murder after authorities reopened the case and re-evaluated the evidence, the AP reports. The boy's parents have long been suspects in the 1997 disappearance of then 6-year-old Peter Kema Jr., known as "Peter Boy," but prosecutors said there hadn't been enough evidence to charge them until now. A grand jury indicted Peter and Jaylin Kema, who have denied any wrongdoing, on second-degree murder charges Wednesday. The young boy in the late 1990s and early 2000s became the face of a campaign for missing and abused children. Posters and bumper stickers asked, "Where's Peter Boy?" His father, Peter Kema Sr., told authorities he took the child to Oahu and gave him to a longtime family friend known as "Aunty Rose Makuakane" in an informal adoption.

Police could not find a woman as described by Kema or airline records indicating he had flown there. In 2005, then-state Human Services Director Lillian Koller released more than 2,000 pages of heavily redacted documents, with details of abuse allegedly suffered by Peter Boy and his siblings at the hands of their father. The youngest, Devalynn, told a psychologist in 1998 that she saw Peter Boy dead in a box, but the then-5-year-old girl also told the psychologist her brother was alive in Honolulu. The psychologist noted the girl's understanding of death was consistent with her age and could lead her to believe a person could become alive again after death. The girl, now an adult and known as Lina Acol, also told the psychologist that Peter Sr. gave both Peter Boy and her mother "dirty lickins," which she described as punching, hitting, and slapping, and that Peter Boy was tied up with chains and ropes. (More child murder stories.)

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