SERIAL KILLER: The Honolulu Strangler
When young women start disappearing from the streets of Honolulu only to soon be found brutally murdered, investigators at first dismiss any connection between the cases. But as the disappearances continue and the similarities pile up, they’re forced to confront a brutal truth…there’s a serial killer in paradise.
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The Honolulu Strangler’s victims named clockwise from top left: Denise Hughes, Louise Medeiros, Linda Pesce, Vicki Purdy, and Regina Sakamoto.
Photo Source; Enhanced by audiochuck staff
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Episode Source Material
- Honolulu Homicide, by Gary A. Dias and Robbie Dingeman.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Police beat.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Waipahu girl strangled, coroner reports.
- Discovery Plus: Breaking Homicide: The Honolulu Strangler (Season 1, Episode 5).
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Woman found dead at Keehi Lagoon.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Increase in murder cases since November baffles police, by Catherine Enomoto.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Police see links in murders of 3 women.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): police beat.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): 5 women slain: a macabre landmark for Hawaii, by Robbie Dingeman.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Buses to get radios in the war on crime, by Catherine Enomoto.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): A fourth woman found murdered, by Kay Lynch.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Slaying victim identified by police, by Mary Adamski and Catherine Enomoto.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Police beat.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Victim was apparently waiting for bus, by Lester Chang.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Isle police contact force probing Seattle slayings, by Catherine Enomoto.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Police say missing Isle woman could be 5th murder victim, by Will Hoover.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Serial killer theory reinforced, by Will Hoover.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Serial-killings suspect profiled, by Mary Adamski.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Police free suspect in serial killing, by Will Hoover.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Witnesses often key to solving old cases, by Rod Ohira.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): 5th woman’s body found in possible serial killings, by Vickie Ong.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, HI): Police arrest suspect in Linda Pesce death, by Robbie Dingeman, Hildegaard Verploegen, and Harold Morse.
- Honolulu Star-bulletin, by Linda Hosek.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Half of murders probe team reassigned.
- The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, HI): Police turn over ‘serial killings’ data to prosecutor.
Suggested Episodes
WANTED: Justice for Rhys Pocan & MMIW Part 2
In 2021, we set out to cover the case of Rhys Pocan, a 35-year-old Indigenous woman who was murdered in Wisconsin in the ‘80s. In Part 2, we look into cases of two other female dismemberment victims in Wisconsin with striking similarities to Rhys Pocan’s.
WANTED: Justice for Rhys Pocan & MMIW Part 1
In 2021, we set out to cover the case of Rhys Pocan, a 35-year-old Indigenous woman who was murdered in Wisconsin in the ‘80s. But while we were in the field, we uncovered a disturbing pattern of murders with similarities to Rhys’ that were just too blatant to ignore. So, we spent the next three years working with local and federal law enforcement to try and get to the bottom of it.
WANTED: The Keddie Cabin Killer
A family’s brutal murder rocks a tiny California town and leaves behind too many unanswered questions.
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