April 22, 1998

Social workers with the state’s Child Protective Services are seeking custody of three children still living with the parents of Peter Kema Jr., a child abuse victim missing under mysterious circumstances for about a year.

Susan Chandler, director of the state Department of Human Services, yesterday confirmed the custody request, which was to be made no later than today in Big Island Family Court. The move indicates a widening investigation into the case of the missing child, whom relatives fondly call Peter Boy.

Chandler would not comment on what state social workers based the request, citing confidentiality laws. Such requests usually require reasonable cause to believe that the children face potential harm.

Big Island police, meanwhile, issued a statement yesterday on their involvement in the investigation, which was officially classified as a missing persons case in January. Contrary to what Chandler said Monday, police say they were not told the boy was missing until Jan. 8. Upon hearing that, Chandler again said police were notified seven months earlier.

“I’ve been told by my staff that we reported the boy missing in June,” Chandler reiterated after the police statement was issued. “I guess we read reports differently.”

Peter, a 6-year-old from Hilo, was the subject of a child abuse investigation that began Aug. 12, 1991 — three months after he was born — and lasted until the case was closed in October 1995, Chandler said. Family Court documents note that Peter’s doctors found a spiral fracture of his left leg and other healed fractures that suggested repeated abuse.

Peter Kema Sr. and his wife, Jaylin Kema, regained custody of Peter and two older siblings when the case was closed. They now have a fourth child.

But the boy’s father told police he has not seen Peter since September, when the two of them traveled to Honolulu. The elder Kema also told police he gave Peter to a family friend — Auntie Rose Makuakane — whom he said was a lauhala weaver who agreed to care for the child.

That arrangement was an improvement over where they were living, in a tent in Aala Park, he told police.

But police have no evidence that Auntie Rose exists. Relatives, many of whom never believed the story about Auntie Rose, fear the boy is dead.

Now, the parents are not talking to police.

At issue yesterday was when police were told that Peter was missing, and whether the investigation was pursued promptly.

Big Island police Capt. Morton Carter said his officers received a report from a social worker last June 17 that an investigation was under way, but it did not mention the child may be missing. Assistance was not requested at the time, he said.

He also said that Child Protective Services social workers never called police during 1997.

Carter said the case surfaced again Jan. 8, when a social worker asked for a police escort to the Kemas’ home. No one was there, so the social worker returned the next day with more officers.

It was then that the social worker persuaded Jaylin Kema to file a missing persons report, Carter said. “Those are the first contacts we had that this child may be missing,” he said.

Police have actively pursued the investigation ever since, Carter said. The FBI also has opened a preliminary kidnapping investigation.

Chandler defended her department’s actions. “We did what should have been done,” Chandler said. “I don’t presume the police aren’t doing a good job. I just know the kid is missing.”

Peter’s case is listed with the state’s Missing Child Center and is featured on its Web site (www.hgea.org/HSC/).

“This case definitely fell through the cracks,” said Anne Clarkin, director of the center that acts as a clearinghouse for information on missing children.

Under state law, police are required to contact the center whenever a child is reported missing, she said. That didn’t happen in Peter’s case. She said her agency first learned about Peter after police issued a short plea for help that was printed in The Advertiser in February.

“We got it when we read the paper,” she said. “And that should never happen.”

Clarkin, whose office currently has 67 open cases, fears the worst for Peter.

“There has to be some accountability in this,” she said. “You just don’t lose children.”

And yet, Peter seems to have vanished. Despite publicity, no one has called police with information about Peter’s whereabouts. “That is the unfortunate thing,’’ said Big Island Detective Glenn Nojiri. ‘‘We’re still waiting.”

April 23, 1998

For seven months social workers tried to investigate the whereabouts of Peter Kema Jr. before contacting police, according to a confidential Family Court report that describes the boy’s mysterious disappearance.

As the investigation of the case intensified, Big Island police and Department of Human Services officials were at odds over the response time to complaints by relatives that the Hilo 6-year-old, known as Peter Boy, had not been seen in months.

Police have defended their role, saying that they were not told until January of this year that the boy, described in state documents as a child abuse victim, was missing. That conflicts with comments from Human Services Director Susan Chandler, who said police were notified last June that Peter was missing.

But Peter’s grandparents have problems with both statements. They say they called police in June to report the boy missing but were told they could not file a missing-person report because the parents said they knew his whereabouts.

Yolanda and James Acol, the grandparents, say they passed this information on to a social worker. They don’t know if Child Protective Services ever told police that Peter was missing.

Accounts vary, but some relatives say they have not seen Peter for up to 18 months. His father, Peter Kema Sr., told police he traveled to Oahu in August to find employment and, while living in Aala Park, gave the boy away to a family friend.

Police have been unable to confirm the existence of the woman who is supposed to have Peter — Auntie Rose Makuakane, a lauhala weaver from Halawa.

Yesterday, Child Protective Services took Peter’s siblings and placed them in foster care. On Tuesday, Chandler said the department planned to file a petition in Family Court seeking custody of the children.

Three of the children, including Peter, were the subject of a previous protective order. From 1991 to 1995, they spent time in a foster home and later in the care of the Acols, and then were returned to their parents.

In the detailed court report, social workers say a therapist called them in April 1997 to report that Peter may have suffered a broken arm. The therapist had received the information from a family member.

The report indicates that no action was taken until June 18, when a social worker went to the Kema home in Nanawale to check on Peter. There was no sign that anyone lived in the house.

By June 25, social workers located the family in the Kaumana area and spoke to the boy’s father. No other family members were present, and the social worker asked Peter Kema Sr. to bring the entire family for a 9 a.m. appointment the next day.

But Kema and his wife, Jaylin, canceled that appointment and the next one, too. On July 7, the family arrived at the department offices without Peter.

Jaylin Kema told the social worker that Peter was “on vacation,” staying with a relative. She would not provide the name or location of the relative.

The social worker returned to the Kaumana home on Aug. 19 and found no one there. She left a message on the answering machine.

In October, the social worker interviewed Peter’s older siblings and called his maternal grandparents, the Acols. The grandparents reiterated that Peter had not been seen since a family funeral in December 1996.

According to the report, James Acol told the social worker on Dec. 26 that he was concerned about his grandson. The social worker states in the report: “At this time, Grandfather was receptive to taking the initiative and filing a missing person report on Peter Jr.”

It is not clear why the social worker asked Acol to call police when, according to Chandler on Tuesday, the department had already done this in June. Chandler did not return phone calls to The Advertiser to clarify the issue.

Yolanda Acol said yesterday that she asked the social worker in December if she had taken police to the Kaumana home to find Peter. But they had not.

Police accompanied a social worker on Jan. 8, but had to return the next day because no one was home. On Jan. 9, Jaylin Kema was unable to tell them where Peter was.

“She wept when pushed to give answers to what appeared to be her own complacency about the welfare of one of her children, Peter Jr.,” the report stated. She finally agreed to make a missing-person report.

The Acols were upset to learn that their grandchildren were once again in protective custody yesterday. They are interested in taking care of the children, they said.

“At this time the kids need somebody who they know,” Yolanda Acol said. “We just want to hold them and hug them, for them to know they have someone they can get comfort from.”

Police are still waiting for a break in the case. The FBI, which has opened a preliminary kidnapping investigation, has questioned people about Peter’s whereabouts.

The agency also sent case details to its profiling unit in Quantico, Va., said John Pikus, supervisor of the FBI’s violent crime squad in Honolulu.

“It gives us an idea of where to focus our investigation,” Pikus said.

April 25, 1998

The investigation into the disappearance of a Big Island boy was shifted to Honolulu yesterday as Big Island police detectives took Peter Kema Sr. to Aala Park to retrace his son’s last known steps.

Detectives found no sign of Peter Kema Jr., 6, or a woman named Auntie Rose Makuakane who the father said took custody of the boy late last summer at the park, Hawaii County police Capt. Morton Carter said.

Big Island police have been investigating the boy’s disappearance since January. Relatives say he has not been seen for more than a year and fear he may be dead.

Peter Kema Sr. has said he took Peter with him when he traveled to Oahu last August to find a job, and was living in Aala Park when he gave the boy to Makuakane.

The taking of Kema to Honolulu to reconstruct his actions on the day he said he left Peter Jr. is a typical practice, Carter said. He added that Kema is not a suspect and that it is not a criminal case.

“He cooperated with us,” Carter said. “He repeated his movements in Honolulu.”

Carter said detectives and Kema were back in Hilo by last night. Carter said Honolulu police joined them at the park near Chinatown.

Police began investigating the case after they and social workers persuaded Peter’s mother Jaylin Kema to file a missing-person report.

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