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The older sister of Isabella Kalua told police she saw the 6-year-old girl in a dog cage in their Waimanalo home with duct tape on her nose and mouth, and she was not breathing, according to police affidavits filed in connection with second-degree murder charges brought against Isabella’s adoptive parents.
The documents say that during a Nov. 5 interview with a Honolulu Police Department detective, Isabella’s sister said Lehua Kalua, 43, and her husband, Isaac K. Kalua III, 52, had asked her to keep a secret about what happened to Isabella.
The Kaluas reported Isabella, whose birth name is Ariel Sellers, missing the morning of Sept. 13, telling police she was last seen in bed around 9 p.m. the previous evening. Law enforcement agencies and countless volunteers conducted widespread searches for the girl, who still has not been found.
The detective’s interview of her sister was likely the turning point in the investigation, which police have reclassified from a missing person case to murder.
The Kaluas made their initial appearances Friday before Family Court Judge Linda Martell at Honolulu District Court via video conference from the courthouse cellblock. Both are charged with second-degree murder and are being held without bail at the Oahu Community Correctional Center.
Second-degree murder carries a penalty of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Because the alleged crime involves a minor younger than 8 years old, the Kaluas, if convicted, also face an extended term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Deputy Public Defender Justin Tanaka entered not guilty pleas for the couple at their initial appearances Friday. A preliminary hearing for both was set for Nov. 26.
The police affidavits were filed Tuesday in District Court in support of arrest warrants for the Kaluas, who were taken into custody Wednesday. The documents say the sister recalled being awakened by her parents during the early morning hours and seeing Isabella inside a dog cage with duct tape on her nose and mouth, and “she didn’t wake up.”
The affidavits did not disclose the sister’s name or age but indicated she was born in 2009.
The girl told the detective that Lehua Kalua filled a bathtub with water and put Isabella in the tub in an attempt to revive her. The sister said she then had to help carry Isabella’s lifeless body to the bedroom they shared.
The girl said her parents told her to go back to sleep and that she does not know what happened to Isabella’s body.
The sister also stated that a few days later, Isaac Kalua sought medical care to “pretend that he was COVID” so he could take time off from work to “help mom.” When asked why he would need to help her mom, the sister said it was “to get rid of stuff … evidence,” according to the affidavits.
The girl told the detective that her mother would not feed Isabella and would put duct tape on her “plenty of times” and place her in the dog cage because she would sneak around at night to get food “because she was hungry.” The sister said she would try to bring food to Isabella “but Lehua would catch them and become upset,” the affidavits said.
The sister said their mother bought the cage online so she could keep Isabella in it at night. The affidavits said the girl also reported that Isaac Kalua saw both sisters “tied up with duct tape on other occasions and did nothing.”
After reporting Isabella missing Sept. 13, Lehua Kalua, who is also known as Lehua R.M. Kanahele, told a detective that she woke up between 5 and 6 a.m. that morning and discovered the side door of the house was closed but unlocked. When she went to Isabella’s room, Kalua said, the girl was not there.
The woman also told police that on previous occasions Isabella would go out to the garage unnoticed and sometimes fall asleep there.
Isaac Kalua III, also known as Sonny, told a detective in a Sept. 20 interview that he last saw Isabella in the kitchen after dinner at about 7 p.m. Sept. 12 and that he went to sleep at about 8 to 8:30 p.m., the court documents said. He said he woke up at about 6:30 a.m when he heard his wife screaming that Isabella was missing.
The affidavits said Isaac Kalua checked around the house and then went driving around the area to look for the child while his wife called police.
Kalua also told police he sought care at an emergency room for COVID-19 symptoms on Aug. 21 and took leave from his job at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard from that date to Sept. 7.
After Isabella was reported missing, police recovered video footage from surveillance cameras at the Kalua residence at 41-610 Puha St. According to the affidavits, the girl was last seen in surveillance footage on Aug. 18.
At a news conference Wednesday, police said they determined Isabella likely died in mid-August, approximately a month before the Kaluas called police to report her missing.
Lehua Kalua was arrested at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday at their home following a raid by police and the FBI. Within the same hour, Isaac Kalua III was arrested at the shipyard.
Records police received from state Child Welfare Services show that Isabella and her older sister were placed in foster care with the Kaluas in February 2019. The couple adopted them and a younger biological sister, born in 2018, in January.
The Kaluas are also foster parents to Isabella’s youngest biological sister, who was born last year.
Police said Isabella’s three siblings were removed from the home Sept. 13 and are under Child Welfare Services custody.
The search for Isabella’s body is ongoing.
Isaac Kalua Complaint by Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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