April 21, 1998

Big Island police won’t explain why it took them seven months to launch a formal investigation into the whereabouts of 6-year-old Peter Kema Jr., a child-abuse victim who has been missing since last summer.

Child Protective Services representatives told police in June that Peter was missing from his family’s Hilo home, but it wasn’t until January that an official inquiry was begun.

What caused the delay is unclear; police yesterday declined to explain what happened between June and January.

Relatives fear that Peter, the subject of a Child Protective Services investigation that began a week after he was born, may not be alive.

The boy’s father, Peter Kema Sr., told police that he traveled to Honolulu last year and took Peter along. He said at some point he handed the boy over to a woman named Auntie Rose Makuakane, who agreed to take care of him.

Police have been unable to confirm the father’s story and have found no evidence that an Auntie Rose exists. Neither of the parents would discuss details of the case when reached by The Advertiser last week.

According to court documents, Child Protective Services had investigated the Kemas following injuries to Peter that included a spiral fracture to his left leg by the time he was 4 months old.

State Human Services Director Susan Chandler said her department monitored the boy for three years. According to family members, Peter and his two siblings were removed from their parents and placed in the care of maternal grandparents for some period of time. But because no other indications of abuse or neglect emerged, the parents regained custody and the case was closed in late October 1995.

In April 1997, Child Protective Services received a report from a 15-year-old girl who said she believed Peter had a broken arm because he wore long-sleeved shirts. There was no collaborating report from a doctor or a teacher.

“So that wasn’t considered a high-risk report that we should go out on,” Chandler said.

But in June, in a routine follow-up, a social worker visited the Kema family and found Peter was gone. That is when Child Protective Services called police.

“At that point it becomes a police issue,” Chandler said.

Big Island police declined to say what then transpired. Capt. Morton Carter, commander of the criminal investigation division, said because the case involves a juvenile protected by Family Court, there is little the police can say unless cleared by Judge Ben Gaddis, who is presiding over the case.

“We want to make sure he clears us to give statements about the case,” Carter said.

Gaddis said he can control what happens in his courtroom and the cases before him, but as for police, they “do whatever they want.”

Last week, at the request of The Advertiser, Gaddis released some details of Peter’s case out of a deepening concern for the boy’s safety. He said such concerns outweighed the privacy considerations that generally keep Family Court records closed.

Since The Advertiser’s report about the case was published Sunday, no one has called Big Island police Detective Glenn Nojiri with information about Peter’s whereabouts.

“We’re still keeping our fingers crossed,” Nojiri said.

Peter is described as Filipino and Hawaiian, about 4 feet tall, weighing 50 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair. Anyone with information about his location is asked to call Nojiri at (808) 961-2327 or CrimeStoppers in Hilo at (808) 961-8300.

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