THE DISAPPEARANCE OF DIANE SUZUKI

PETER EAGLE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DIANE SUZUKI

TANIA HERMAN

KILLER GRANNIES

DEATH ROW GRANNY

BROOKE WILBERGER

MISSING TIFFANY

KELSIE SCHELLING

NATALEE HOLLOWAY

JENNIFER KESSE

A hard day teaching dance. Finish work and head to the beach.  It’s an appealing prospect especially when that beach is the North Shore of Oahu, on the beautiful Hawaiian Islands.  Whether it is standing by the ancient temple looking out to sea, having a coffee on any of the waterfront cafes or swimming in the warm blue ocean, the beach is one of those paradise-like places about which we all dream.

It might be a touch different today to what it was like back in the mid-1980s, but the ambience is little changed.  On July 6th 1985, a talented and enthusiastic student planned to go to that beauty spot along with friends when she finished teaching her dance class at the Rosalie Woodson Dance Academy, located in the ‘Aiea district of Honolulu. 

But Diane Yayoe Suzuki never made it.  Her class finished at 3.00pm, but by the time her friend arrived fifteen minutes later, the student was missing.  She has never been seen since.

Diane was a girl with a bright future.  She was just nineteen when she went missing; a small, petite young woman, she came in at under five feet tall and weighed just 109 lbs.  She was studying at the time in the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and was already displaying a lot of promise as a journalist.  Diane also had a love of dancing, and not only instructed at the Rosalie academy (to give her some pocket money during her student times), but also often performed in her academy’s shows.

There was nothing in her past to suggest that Diane’s disappearance was anything other than a criminal offence; she came from a loving family, and was close to her parents.  Indeed, they turned up at the dance school soon after it became apparent that their daughter was not sticking to her original plans for the evening. 

There, they waited in their car for her to return.  It was a futile wait, although one observation they made was of interest to police.  More of that later.  Diane had been a success at school, and seemed happy and contented with her lot.  She grew up in a comfortable home.  Yes, the future seemed rosy indeed for the young lady of Japanese descent.

So little evidence was found that could be connected to her disappearance that police were struggling from the start.  Her cars, keys and purse were left at the studios, suggesting that whatever happened at least began there.  And that, pretty much, was that.

But where to go next?  Diane’s parents had observed an incident that might be of significance.  While they waited in vain outside of the dance academy, feeling a growing sense of panic over their missing daughter, they observed three people leaving the centre.  They were carrying a heavy trunk which they put into a car before driving away.

Costumes?  Props?  Lighting? Or something more sinister?

Back in the mid-1980s police had a set procedure for dealing with suspected homicides.  In Diane Suzuki’s case, her disappearance moved from that of a missing person to the more serious crime.  Gary Dias is a retired detective, a former lieutenant with the Honolulu Police Department.  He explained the problems police faced when investigating serious crime such as a suspected homicide more than thirty years ago.  ‘A typical homicide investigation involved interviews, diagrams and photographs.  We had very little scientific work,’ he explained.

But to begin with, police felt that Diane might simply be missing.  They committed substantial resources to trying to locate her, and deduced in the end that the disappearance had a more worrying cause.  It was six years, however, before advances in forensic testing led to police becoming convinced that the young woman had been the victim of a crime as serious as homicide. Some blood was found in the bathroom at the academy, and although it was found probably not to match Diane’s (the police thought her group – A – differed from the findings), it suggested some sort of struggle.  Further, testing was uncertain at best, back then, and they had no samples from Diana against which they could assess their discovery.

They decided to upgrade Diane’s case from that of a missing person to one of suspected homicide.

A new chemical had found its way into their armoury – luminol.  The Diane Suzuki case was one of the first in the entire country in which it was used.  The luminol was sprayed into the bathroom of the upstairs studio where Diane had been working, and the blood was found. 

Suddenly, her parents’ observation of the trunk removed from the building carried greater weight.  The shift turned from trying to find Diane, to attempting to solve her murder.

But progress was slow.  Although an arrest did take place, charges were never brought.

‘We did have some very good technology at the time,’ recalls Dias.  ‘We didn’t have the full understanding of all the players within the justice system about the (Diane Suzuki) case.  We had lots of evidence, that we felt was evidence, and could use that to convict, more than just charge a particular person in that individual case.’

In fact, there were two main suspects linked to Diane Suzuki’s disappearance.  For the first, we have to head back in time to the turn of the 1980s.

Hawaii is, relatively speaking, a low crime area of the United States.  As befits its Pacific status and island heritage, murders are rare.  The US was undergoing a surge in violent crime during the 1970s and 1980s, however, and although the impact was felt less on the islands than elsewhere, nevertheless the period did mark an increase in violent attacks.

In the area where Diane lived, this surge of crimes hit home more than elsewhere.  Eight young women – nine if Diane is included – disappeared in the space of a few years between the early and mid-1980s.  A number of bodies were found, but none of the crimes were solved.

A pattern emerged between five of the murders, and police decided that these, at least, were the actions of a single person.  This man, never fully identified, would become the first serial killer in the islands.  Although initially police had no idea who the culprit might be, he would soon acquire a name: the Honolulu Strangler.

These five attacks all took place between 1985 and 1986, and that ties in strongly with the dates of Diane’s disappearance.  The strangler’s first victim was Vicki Gail Purdy, the twenty-five-year-old wife of an army helicopter pilot.  On May 29th 1985, a little more than a month before Diane disappeared, she left to go clubbing with friends.  She never turned up.  Vicki was last seen by the taxi driver who took her to a hotel at midnight to collect her car, but that was never moved from the car park. 

The following morning, her body was discovered nearby; she had been raped and strangled.  Vicki worked at a video rental store, one which specialised in pornographic films.  Two women had been stabbed to death at the store the previous year, and for a while police wondered whether the two events were connected.

The Strangler’s second victim was younger.  Regina Sakamoto was just seventeen, and attended Leilehua High School.  She missed her bus to school on the morning of January 14th 1986, and rang her boyfriend at 7.15 am to tell him that she would be late.  She was not seen alive again.

Her body was discovered at Keehi Lagoon, the same location as Vicki, the following day.  Her lower garments had been removed, and she too had been raped and strangled. 

Denise Hughes was 21 years old, a secretary for a telephone company who was a keen supporter and attender of her local church.  She commuted to work by bus, but did not show up on January 30th, just two weeks after Regina had been taken. 

Her body was found decomposing in a stream two day’s later.  Her hands were bound, and she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.  This time, perhaps as an attempt to disguise the body, or to make its transportation easier, the body had been wrapped in a blue tarp.

Who is to deny the possibility that somewhere in the vicinity Diane’s body had been dumped?  The killer had demonstrated a willingness to place bodies in or close to water.  The sea around the islands are known for sharks and other predators.  Could that be why Diane’s body has never been found?

Louise Medeiros was the fourth person to definitely be linked to the Honolulu Strangler. Like Vicki, she was twenty-five.  However, there was a slight difference in this case.  Louise lived in Waipahu, but had travelled to Kauai because of the recent death of her mother.  She had undertaken the journey to meet up with her extended family.

She took a late flight back to Oahu on March 26th, and arranged to take a bus from the airport to her home.  Her family were aware of her plans.  Witness statements prove that she disembarked from the plane and left the airport, but was not seen again. 

On April 2nd some road workers made an unwanted and gruesome discovery near Waikele stream.  Louis’s body, semi-naked and decomposing, lay in the water.  She was wearing her blouse, but was unclothed from the waist down.  Her hands were, like in the cases of other victims, tied behind her back.

Another clue that was beginning to emerge in the modus operandi of the killer was the link to buses.  Louise had planned to catch one – perhaps she did, but was just not identified by the driver or the few fellow passengers travelling late at night.  Denise was a bus user, and had not turned up for work on the day she went missing.  Had she been waiting for her commuter transport?  Regina had missed her bus.  Was she waiting for another?

Could this killer be picking up women from bus stops?  Was that too simple?  The police were, just as with Diane Suzuki, completely in the dark.  But they certainly did their best.  Sting operations were set up to try to lure the killer into a trap.  Police women were stationed around the Honolulu International Airport and in Keehi Lagoon in a hope that they could catch the killer as he attempted to strike again.

Victim number five was Linda Pesce, a slightly older woman aged 36.  She shared an apartment with a roommate, and left for work as normal on the morning of April 29th 1986.  She did not return home that evening, but was expected to be late anyway because of a work meeting.  Perhaps she had stayed over elsewhere.  But when she did not show up for work the following morning, and her abandoned car was found parked on the side of a viaduct, she was reported as missing by her roommate. 

In one of those strange twists of fate that often accompany serial and serious crimes, a 43-year-old man claimed to have been told by a psychic where to find a woman’s body.  It was on Sand Island, and the man took police to a specific location.  The body was not found there but a search of the whole island revealed Linda’s body.  It was nude, and her hands had been tied behind her back.

Sand Island is a small and picturesque land mass close to the harbour at Honolulu.  That is of course, the location of Keehi Lagoon.

Maybe the attacker carried out further assaults.  Maybe he had previous rapes and murders to his name.  But after Linda’s death, the Strangler appeared to strike no more.  Perhaps he became concerned at the activity of the police. 

A task force had been set up from early February, after the discovery of Denise Hughes’