Hawaii County police have identified a body found last week near Stainback Highway in Hilo as that of a Hawaiian Acres man who was initially reported missing and later determined to be a murder victim.
The body of Dante Peter Gilman, 44, was identified through dental records, police said Monday.
Gilman was reported missing Jan. 10. His body was found Jan. 22 in an area off a road known as "Tree Planting Road."
Cousins Claude Keone Krause, 30, and Kawena Krause, 19, were charged Jan. 19 with second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, second-degree theft and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with Gilman’s death.
According to a police affidavit and a police report, Claude and Kawena Krause and an unidentified male confronted and argued with Gilman on Dec. 28 at his Hawaiian Acres home.
Police said a surveillance camera at the home recorded video of a man who appears to be Claude Krause shooting Gilman with a rifle. Subsequent footage shows a man who appears to be Kawena Krause choking Gilman until his body goes limp, police said.
Police have not disclosed a cause of death pending additional forensic analysis. They also are working with an anthropologist from the Joint POW Accounting Command/Central Identification Laboratory from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
While searching for Gilman off Stainback Highway in Hilo on Jan. 18, police found badly decomposed remains that were identified through dental records Thursday as those of Shayne Yoshi Kalani Kobayashi, 38. He had been reported missing on Dec. 11 from his Pahoa home. Police said foul play is suspected.
Kobayashi was a witness in a 1999 murder trial that resulted in the convictions of Frank Pauline Jr. for the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of Dana Ireland, a Virginia woman who was bicycling in Kapoho when she was abducted.
Pauline is serving a life sentence.
