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COURTESY ANGELEI CASTILLO
Travis Isobe, left, and Malani Bilyeu.
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The family of a 28-year-old man who died in a head-on vehicle collision on Kauai has created a GoFundMe account to raise money for funeral expenses.
Travis Isobe was the oldest son of Hoku Award-winning singer Malani Bilyeu and Crystal Bilyeu. He was driving a Ford Ranger on Kuhio Highway on Saturday when a Dodge pickup truck driven by a 22-year-old Kauai man crossed the centerline and struck the Ranger. Isobe was pronounced dead at the scene. His death came just five weeks after Malani Bilyeu died of a heart attack.
The driver of the Dodge was treated at a hospital for injuries that weren’t life-threatening and released. Police arrested him on Monday on suspicion of first-degree negligent homicide but released him pending further investigation.
Angelei Castillo, Isobe’s aunt, said the family plans to lay Isobe to rest next to Malani Bilyeu at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe. Isobe served in the Marines from 2014 to 2018, and Bilyeu, a Vietnam veteran, served in the Army.
Malani Bilyeu, who was a founding member of the contemporary Hawaiian band Kalapana, had raised Isobe since he was less than a year old after marrying Isobe’s mother. Isobe later got to know his biological father, Alvin Isobe, whom he met when he was a teenager.
Castillo’s daughter, Tiffany Mahelona, created the GoFundMe account. Donations also will help Isobe’s mother and younger siblings, who live on Kauai, to travel to Oahu.
To make a donation, visit the “Official Kokua page for the Bilyeu Ohana” at 808ne.ws/travisisobe.