New court filings may explain why body of murdered 6-year-old was never found

 

By Lynn Kawano

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Court records filed last month explain what may have happened to the body of the 6-year-old Waimanalo girl who police said was murdered by her adoptive parents.

Isabella “Ariel” Kalua was reported missing in September 2021, according to Honolulu police, but Isaac “Sonny” Kalua and Lehua Kalua allegedly killed her a month prior, according to the records.

The child’s body was never found, despite hundreds of search hours by law enforcement and community volunteers.

The Kaluas were charged with murder, hindering prosecution and abuse.

Last month, the defense attorney for Lehua Kalua filed a motion to dismiss the murder charge because the indictment was incomplete, lacking key elements.

Attached to the motion were the grand jury transcripts of testimony by Isabella “Ariel” Kalua’s older sibling.

The sibling told the panel that in August 2021, Lehua put the girl in a dog cage and put duct tape on her mouth then went to sleep. Some time during the night, they woke to find the child was not breathing.

The older sibling said the Kaluas started going to different public beaches about every other day.

They “poured this green stuff into the public toilets” the sibling said. Lehua was washing dishes at the beaches, “pots and pans and... other cooking materials” that Lehua used.

When the deputy prosecutor asked what the sibling was doing while this was going on, she told the grand jury panel that she was the lookout, told to “watch if somebody’s coming.”

She said the Kaluas poured green stuff down the drains of the bathrooms after they were done.

“We were just horrified by what the survivors were subjected to,” said Randall Rosenberg, one of the attorneys for the siblings.

Rosenberg said the older sibling was apparently forced to assist “in disposing of the body.”

Another attorney for the other children, Trevor Potts, believed the green fluid was possibly acid.

Potts said the revelations about cooking and grilling items and then the disposing of those items in dumpsters are difficult, but said volunteers who searched for the child and others who cared about the child deserve to know.

“Especially the community of Waimanalo where this all took place,” Potts said.

The older sibling will likely be called to the stand to talk about this again during the Kaluas' trial, legal expert Victor Bakke said.

A hearing on the motion to dismiss the murder charge is set for April 14.

The Kaluas remain in jail without bail.

Lori Vallow, mother of missing Rexburg children, arrested in Hawaii

KAUAI, Hawaii — Lori Vallow, the mother of two missing Rexburg children, was arrested in Kauai Thursday afternoon.

According to the Kauai Police Department, 47-year-old Vallow has been charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children.

She has also been charged with resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court.

She is currently being held in Kauai on a $5 million bond.

“First of all, we wish to thank the public for the massive outpouring of concern regarding this case,” said Kauai Chief of Police Todd G. Raybuck. “We also want to thank everyone for their patience while investigators worked diligently to comprehensively gather everything they needed in order to obtain this arrest warrant.”

The arrest warrant was issued by the Madison County Prosecutor's Office.

In a news release Thursday evening, the prosecutor's office explained why Vallow was charged.

"The complaint... alleges that Vallow abandoned her two minor children, delayed law enforcement’s attempts to locate her children, and encouraged another individual to delay law enforcement’s attempts to locate her children," the statement reads.

Credit: Rexburg Police Department

Lori Vallow (left), Joshua "JJ" Vallow, and Tylee Ryan.

An official close to the investigation tells KTVB that Vallow's extradition hearing could be held on Friday or Monday on Kauai and that extraditions typically can take up to two weeks or more.

We also reached out to former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy, who says once Vallow has the extradition hearing and a judge OKs the extradition order, she can be sent back to Idaho immediately.

As of Thursday night, Idaho Gov. Brad Little's office says it has not yet received a request from Madison County to start the extradition process.

Vallow's husband, Chad Daybell, was not arrested.

Leroy said even though Vallow and Daybell are married, he has no legal authority to support her children and therefore, cannot be charged with felony desertion of a minor.

“If he has no legal relationship with these children, he has no obligation to provide support or assistance to the children," Leroy said. "Technically, it would be impossible for him to be charged with failing to support his lawful children where they are not his lawful children.”

Vallow failed to comply with a court order to produce her kids before authorities, who haven't been seen since September, by January 30.

17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old J.J. Vallow haven't been seen since September.

Police in Rexburg have said previously that they “strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger.”

No other information on the missing children was released.

If found guilty, Vallow could face up to 14 years in prison for each felony desertion of a child charge.

Post by kauaipd.

Indictment in Alleged Child Pornography Case:

Indictment in Alleged Child Pornography Case:

October 25th, 2012

By Wendy Osher

A federal grand jury in Honolulu returned an indictment on Wednesday, charging John Ridgely Tucker, 56, with six counts of producing child pornography.

According to the indictment, Tucker allegedly used and enticed two minor children, to produce six images of child pornography in 2008.

According to an affidavit filed on October 11, 2012, in support of the complaint, the following assertions were made by US Attorney for the District of Hawai’i, Florence Nakakuni:

• The FBI Honolulu Division initiated an investigation after receiving three images of child pornography from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children. The images depicted two minor children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and appeared to show a telephone book issued by Hawaiian Telephone Company for the Big Island of Hawaii.
• In an unrelated case in Phoenix, Arizona, FBI agents recovered the same images, as well as an image of the two minors with an adult male.  The picture of the male was forwarded to the FBI Honolulu office, which put out a press release asking the public to identify him.
• On October 10, 2012, the FBI received information identifying the adult male in the photos.

The grand jury indictment contains six charges, each of which carries a minimum penalty of 15 years in jail, and up to 30 years in prison, and a potential lifetime term of supervised release.

Officials with the US Department of Justice say the charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and Tucker is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Tucker was arrested and ordered detained without bail.

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