LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Police Department has confirmed a link between a man found murdered this month and an organized crime family from the East Coast, but would not elaborate at this time. Daniel Bonanno emerged from O‘ahu’s Halawa Correctional
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Police Department has confirmed a link between a man found murdered this month and an organized crime family from the East Coast, but would not elaborate at this time.
Daniel Bonanno emerged from O‘ahu’s Halawa Correctional Center on Nov. 8 sober and set to stay that way, his ex-wife said Tuesday.
In an exclusive, lengthy telephone interview from her home in California, Marianne Trombley painted a very different picture of the man she married compared to published reports of Bonanno’s long and troubled criminal past.
“He was real hopeful,” she said of Bonanno, who was found murdered in a car parked on Loop Road in Wailua Homesteads on the morning of Nov. 9.
Trombley said she was surprised when Bonanno did not call her upon his release from prison.
Bonanno, 47, had written several letters to Trombley, who divorced him while he was in prison. She never told him she remarried, she said. The last letter came to her in California about a month ago.
The letter said he had been free of drugs, alcohol and tobacco for the entire five years he spent in three prisons in Arizona and on O‘ahu. The letter also said he had received culinary training while incarcerated and looked forward to continuing to live a substance-abuse-free life upon his release.
“I think he wanted to turn his life around and start anew,” said Trombley, adding that the news of his murder “just makes me really sad.”
“Daniel had very decent moments,” was very intelligent, and could be very kind and loyal, she said. He was also a talented artist.
“He could have gone far in life,” she said.
Trombley said she is upset by the comments she has read insinuating that, because the Loop Road area of Wailua Homesteads is a place where drug use and dealing is known to take place, that Bonanno was there doing or dealing drugs.
“Just because he was found on Loop Road doesn’t mean he was up there doing drugs,” said Trombley, who lived on Olohena Road for some of her 20 years on the island.
“We need to find out who did it. People don’t get away with murder anymore,” she said. “There’s no reason to kill anybody, period.”
Trombley said she thinks it was Bonanno’s wish to be cremated.
She said while he wasn’t the most wonderful person in the world, and did physically abuse her while they were married, “that doesn’t mean he deserved to be brutally murdered.”
His letters indicated he had lost weight and was hopeful of staying straight upon his release from prison, she said.
Regarding her, her mother and Marianne Trombley’s husband all filing temporary restraining orders against Bonanno prohibiting him from contacting them or coming near them, Trombley said those filings were just for precautionary measures.
“I didn’t think that Daniel would go through with his threats” to kill or injure her, Tobin or Nancy Trombley, Marianne Trombley said.
“He was mostly talk.” He never fought with other men, she said, adding that she has been racking her brain trying to figure out who might have wanted to kill Bonanno.
She thinks he probably angered someone in one of the three prisons he was in during his confinement for five years on a theft charge, and that person or persons orchestrated Bonanno’s death the day of or the day after his release.
Bonanno made threats to various people, she said, but didn’t think he would follow through on any of them.
She also confirmed that Bonanno’s father, the late William Bonanno, was an organized-crime figure from the East Coast, and that Daniel Bonanno had a troubled childhood.
She would not elaborate.
Now living in California, Trombley said she lived with Bonanno’s mother, Carol Bonanno, on Olohena Road in Wailua Homesteads until 2007 when Trombley went to prison for a year (Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center) after convictions for driving under the influence of an intoxicant and third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug.
“My concern is for Carol,” she said of her ex-mother-in-law, who is grieving and has to deal every day with the trauma of losing her son and the publicity the crime has generated.
It is Carol Bonanno’s Ford Ranger that Daniel Bonanno was found murdered in, Trombley said.
Trombley said she hopes one day to return to Kaua‘i to live. “It’s my home and I love it,” she said, adding that she left Kaua‘i to help her mother in California.
KPD shares some details
Meanwhile, Kaua‘i Police Department investigators remain tight-lipped over details of the murder scene, reluctant even to release details on the murder weapon, condition of the body or vehicle, and other facts.
Assistant Chief Roy Asher did fill in a few blanks, cognizant of the fact that preserving the integrity of the ongoing KPD investigation supersedes the public’s right to know what went on in Wailua Homesteads involving Bonanno.
He said he has evidence that Bonanno is linked to the East Coast organized crime family bearing his last name, but declined to elaborate.
Police know what the murder weapon is, Asher said, but can’t divulge that information without jeopardizing the investigation.
The assistant chief would not reveal the extent of injuries Bonanno suffered, so that if a witness does come forth they will be able to tell from the witness testimony whether the person was really there when the murder took place.
He also would not say whether the murder was a professional hit, but did confirm that the investigation is still KPD’s and has not been taken over by any state or federal law-enforcement or investigative agency.
When asked if police have identified anyone on Kaua‘i who may have wanted Bonanno dead, Asher answered “no.”
Asher did not respond by press time to a follow-up question regarding whether he is able to comment on factors that led KPD to conclude that Bonanno’s death was a murder and not suicide.
The assistant chief said Bonanno and Terrence Pantohan were half-brothers, Carol Bonanno the mother of both men. In 2004, Pantohan filed a temporary restraining order against Bonanno, but the file was destroyed by state Judiciary employees because of its age.
Terrence Pantohan II, Carol Bonanno’s grandson, thanked his grandmother for her support at Pantohan’s Kaua‘i Drug Court graduation program last week. Carol Bonanno attended the ceremonies in 5th Circuit Family Court Judge Calvin Murashige’s courtroom at the Lihu‘e state courthouse.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
