TGI Staff WriterBy DENNIS WILKEN LIHU’E-The Kaua`i Police Department announced Friday that the woman found murdered at Pakala Beach Wednesday was Daren R. Singer of Maui. The official cause of death, confirmed Friday after an autopsy performed at Wilcox Memorial
TGI Staff WriterBy DENNIS WILKEN
LIHU’E-The Kaua`i Police Department announced Friday that the woman found
murdered at Pakala Beach Wednesday was Daren R. Singer of Maui.
The
official cause of death, confirmed Friday after an autopsy performed at Wilcox
Memorial Hospital, was homicide.
Singer, 43, suffered multiple stab wounds,
according to authorities.
She was in Kaua`i surfing and had evidently been
camping alone, police said.
Her corpse was found about 20 feet from the
water line, obscured by a sand knoll.
Singer is the third diminutive
Caucasian woman to be stabbed on the west side of Kaua`i since April 7, when
the partially nude body of Lisa Bissell, 38, was discovered in a ditch at
Polihale State Park.
A 52-year old Kekaha woman was also attacked in May.
She suffered multiple stab wounds during an attack which she survived.
A
composite police sketch of her assailant, published in The Garden Island after
that attack and again today, stems from police interviews with the
victim.
Reaction from community leaders after this week’s murder was
swift.
“We’re certainly very concerned with the recent slayings,” Mayor
Maryanne Kusaka said Friday afternoon.”We need to let the public know that we
have assigned detectives to the case, along with 10 other officers to provide
administrative and logistic support.”
Kusaka also confirmed what police
chief George Freitas said Thursday at a press conference about the
homicide.
“We’ll be canvassing on horseback and patrolling neighborhoods on
bicycles. We need to put an end to this awful tragedy. We’re all very stunned
and extremely concerned,” she said.
In the midst of their investigation,
police authorities also had to squelch a rumor yesterday. Calls to The Garden
Island and county government offices inquired about talk early Friday afternoon
that another body had been discovered in Kekaha.
Police quickly said the
rumor was not true and asked for the public’s cooperation in not contacting the
police dispatcher for confirmations or denials of this and other
rumors.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext.
252) and [dwilken@pulitzer.net]
