Family members of a 63-year-old Ewa Beach woman, who died Friday from head injuries suffered in a suspected hammer attack, say they believe her killer was someone known to her.
Gloria Agno, a Waikiki hotel worker, died Friday at the Queen’s Medical Center.
Ricky Agno, 21, found his grandmother Gloria Agno on Jan. 30 conscious but unable to speak, bleeding on pillows, a blanket and two towels on the floor of her room.
"To me it’s got to be somebody she knew," he said. "It wouldn’t be somebody who would come in and not take nothing."
Police classified the case as a second-degree murder after she died.
No arrest has been made and the case is under investigation.
Ricky Agno said his grandmother’s room was in order, so it did not appear to be a robbery.
"I asked her if she was OK," he said, adding that she could only make a sound in response and stared at the ceiling.
The grandson said a hammer found in the room had apparently penetrated his grandmother’s skull, injuring her brain.
Gloria Agno, who worked in the laundry at the Aqua Skyline at Island Colony, lived in a room that was separate from the family’s main house.
"It’s strange because they didn’t take any of her things, and it didn’t look like a forced entry," said her daughter-in-law Sharyl Agno, who also lives at the Ahona Street house.
"The person that did it looked like they wanted her dead," she said. "Her attacker planned it."
The family can’t imagine anyone would want to do her any harm.
Sharyl Agno said her mother-in-law was "a very generous person. A lot of people can tell you how nice she is."
She was always involved in fundraising and sponsored Filipino pageant contestants. The Saturday before the attack, she was participating in a barbecue chicken fundraising event.
Ricky Agno said his grandmother was usually cooking in the home’s outdoor kitchen and shared her Filipino dishes with neighbors.
"She’s cool with everybody," he said. "She makes food for everybody. All the neighbors come and eat."
Sharyl Agno said, "She had a lot of friends."
She said she last saw her mother-in-law the night of Jan. 28. On the night of Jan. 29, her tenant said she talked to Gloria Agno through the closed door of her room, invited her to eat, but she declined, saying she already had food, Sharyl Agno said.
Gloria Agno was placed in an intensive care unit Jan. 30.
"We thought she was going to make it," Sharyl Agno said.
But blood had gone into her brain, and she wasn’t responding, she said.
Doctors performed CT scans and found she was bleeding at the site of her injury. She was returned to the ICU and put on life support.
"They couldn’t do anything anymore," she said. "We had to let her go."
Gloria Agno is survived by two children and eight grandchildren.
