Murder victim identified as convicted sex offender

The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office on Thursday identified the victim of an apparent murder Wednesday morning in Whitmore Village home as William Aki Jr.

The cause and manner of the death are pending, the Medical Examiner’s Office said.

The body of Aki, 65, was discovered in his home on the 600 block of Kaniahe Street just after midnight Tuesday.

Police went to the Wahiawa home to follow up on a report of a car burning north of Makaha earlier in the evening. Firefighters extinguished the fire in a BMW registered to Aki at 11:11 p.m. at the entrance to Makua Cave on Farrington Highway.

Police have opened a second-degree homicide investigation. There have been no arrests.

The city prosecutor’s office confirmed that Aki was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse in 1981 and since then had to register as a sex offender.