Don’t look away from child abuse

In the aftermath of 6-year-old Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr.’s disappearance, reported by his mother in 1998, a photo of the smiling child’s face, accompanied by the question, “So … Where’s Peter?”, appeared on bumper stickers and signs.

The answer is still unclear. But now, 16 years after police wrapped up their investigation and sent the matter to prosecutors for further action, there finally is a confession — and hopefully, impending closure. Details are surfacing in connection with the case, which spotlights troubling child abuse issues.

On Thursday, Peter Boy’s mother, Jaylin Kema, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and agreed to testify against her husband, Peter Kema Sr., who is scheduled to go on trial in April. That plea came eight months after a Hilo grand jury indicted the boy’s parents of second-degree murder by omission.

It was two years ago — almost a decade after officials had released any update on the case — that Hawaii County Prosecutor Mitch Roth said police and prosecutors were pursuing a new round of interviews. He and others on Hawaii island, where the child’s image can still be seen on faded orange-and-black bumper stickers, are to be commended for persistence.

“I’m so proud of the people of the Big Island for never letting this case fall from memory,” Roth told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Thursday.

Peter Boy, who suffered repeated physical abuse, was last seen alive by his siblings in June 1997. About seven months later, at the apparent urging of a social worker and police, Jaylin Kema submitted a missing person report. Subsequent news reports detailed an alarming record of child abuse in the boy’s home.

The case has helped heighten the ever-present need for vigilance tied to causes and consequences of child abuse.

In decades past, it was not uncommon for people in the islands and elsewhere to look the other way when a child had bruises, broken bones or a black eye from an apparent beating. Today, the argument that such matters are no one’s business except for the family involved, is no longer acceptable.

Recognizing and confronting child abuse when it surfaces is everyone’s business.

As zero-tolerance views pertaining to physical abuse — even applying to old-fashioned corporal punishment — evolve, so must government vigilance.

About one week after Peter Boy’s birth, May 1, 1991, a state Department of Human Services (DHS) case was opened regarding reported abuse of two older children in the Kema home. The children were removed and placed with their maternal grandparents, but were returned to their parents’ home about one month later.

Not long after, when Peter Boy was 3 months old, he was admitted to Hilo Hospital for treatment of multiple new and healing fractures in his shoulder, elbow, ribs and knee. Following that incident, all three children were removed from the Kema home and would spend the next few years living with their maternal grandparents and in foster care.

At age 3 Peter Boy was returned to his parents. Roughly a year later, in June 1995, the Kemas secured permanent custody of the other children. Sadly, allowing them to live with their parents was a tragic mistake.

While Peter Boy was still a toddler, a psychologist had concluded that both parents were at risk for abusing the children. An evaluation noted: “Jaylin and Peter both come across as extremely needy and emotionally immature … evasive of responsibility. … Neither of them comes across as particularly child oriented.”

About seven years after Jaylin Kema reported her son missing, DHS released documents that revealed, among other things, that Peter Boy’s then 5-year-old sister told a psychologist that she had seen her brother’s dead body on two occasions.

Prosecutors said this week that they believe Jaylin Kema doesn’t know where the body is, and that the boy died from septic shock from not getting medical care.

More grisly, heartwrenching details can be expected at the April trial. Finally, though, it seems that justice is near for Peter Boy Kema. Communitywide, that includes this reminder: If you see something, say something.