A 27-year-old man allegedly killed his adoptive mother yesterday in a two-story home where numerous relatives lived in a crowded Kalihi neighborhood.

Police responded to a report of a woman unresponsive and bloody in her room about 10 a.m. at 1724 Eluwene St.

The woman, whom relatives identified as Teresita Hernane, 56, was found with a cut on her head and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Officers arrested her son, Charlie Hernane, at nearby Kalakaua District Park on suspicion of second-degree murder.

The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy today.

Relatives said they were shocked, but recalled her son had been violent before, fighting with another family member.

He was quiet and never spoke to anyone in the house, where he lived with Teresita Hernane and her brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece.

Charlie Hernane didn’t work and borrowed money from his mother for cigarettes, family said.

Hernane, who was separated from her husband, adopted Charlie Hernane, a relative of her husband, in the Philippines.

She came to Hawaii in 1994 with her adopted son. Charlie Hernane attended Farrington High School, but eventually dropped out and, as an adult, went back to the Philippines for drug rehabilitation, family said.

About two years ago, Hernane brought him back to Hawaii.

"She just thought he could start a new life," said Teresita Hernane’s nephew Patric Dumalan.

When he came back, Charlie Hernane lived in a room with his mother, who was frail with kidney problems.

Family said Teresita Hernane was a caring person who helped relatives with money and often cooked for her nephew and niece.

"She always cared about everybody, asking where you were going," Patric Dumalan said.

Yesterday morning, relatives could see her lying in bed through a crack in the bedroom door and thought she was asleep.

Misshell Dumalan, 17, who sleeps next door to the room shared by Teresita and Charlie, said she didn’t hear anything and thought her aunt was tired because she returned from the hospital late Tuesday night.

Shortly before 10 a.m., Jocelyn Dumalan called her daughter Misshell, saying she had been unable to reach her sister-in-law to remind her of her dialysis appointment. She asked Misshell to check on her.

Still on the phone, Misshell went to her aunt’s room and could see her lying on the bed through the partly open door. She pushed it open and saw blood near Hernane’s head and on her bedsheets. A knife lay on the floor.

Misshell shouted through the phone that there was blood and called police.

Officers responded and arrested Charlie Hernane at 11:40 a.m.