Woman feared for life before murder-suicide, daughter says

The daughter of Jolene Kapua-Allison, a 54-year-old Mountain View woman killed in an apparent murder-­suicide on Hawaii island, said her mother feared leaving her abusive husband, a police officer.

“I could have easily gone to the police, but after what my mom told me a while ago, if she was going to do anything that would ruin his job or reputation, he would kill her,” said Heitiare Kapua-Leslie. “That is what stopped me from doing anything. Now it’s too late.

“In a way I felt like I could have prevented it from happening, yet I was scared to do it, knowing the type of man that he was. It probably would have ended way earlier than yesterday. I’m having such a hard time balancing this out.”

Hawaii County police had not identified the couple Monday. In a news release Sunday, police said the lifeless bodies of a man and woman, one of whom was a police officer, were found at about 3:25 p.m. in a Pacific Paradise Gardens subdivision home in Mountain View.

Detectives are investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide. An autopsy this week will determine the exact cause of their deaths, police said.

Kapua-Leslie identified the man as her mother’s husband, Christopher Kapua-Allison (born Christopher Allison), a police officer in his early 50s with 11 years on the force.

“He’s supposed to be protecting,” she said. “He was the complete opposite.”

She said her mother was a hard worker who held down two jobs.

Jolene Kapua-Allison worked in customer service for the J. Hara store in Kurtistown and at Roberts Hawaii as a bus aide assisting the riders, many of whom were special-needs children. “They all loved her,” she said.

“She was known as Miss Aloha, Miss Smiles,” Kapua-Leslie said. She was a true believer in the aloha spirit, always kind and helpful, willing to give the shirt off her back to anyone and was very loving.

“Her personality was like sunshine. She never frowned, no matter what she was going through. She was an amazing person.”

Despite her being outwardly happy, “she was hurting inside. She was deeply, deeply scarred and she never showed it,” Kapua-Leslie said.

Her husband would put on a good face in front of others, she said. But “when they were alone together, he was the meanest person.”

Kapua-Leslie said, “It stemmed from jealousy — people loving her, wanting to be around her.”

“She confided in me,” she said. “She would call me late nights and tell me how mean he was to her, lock her out of the house, take her keys away from her. My mom did everything for this man, and he took advantage of that.”

One night about 1-1/2 to two months ago, her husband locked her out of the house. That’s when she decided to leave him, Kapua-Leslie said. She tried to get herself together, buy a new car and do things on her own.

She suspects her mother returned Sunday to pick up some of her things.

Christopher Kapua-Allison served with the Traffic Enforcement Unit, according to a November police news release.

The two met on Oahu, where she is from, while working for Roberts where he was a bus driver, and had been together a little over 20 years, Kapua-Leslie said.

Around 2007 they moved to Hawaii island, where he is from, and he joined the Police Department. They married in about 2009.

She is also survived by son Brock Kapua-Leslie and brother Reyd Kapua.