So Where's Peter?

Humor me for a moment as I take a small amount of your time to talk about something that most of my readers have most likely never even heard of.  It is no shock really. It is one of the last big stories in Hawaii to break before I left the Islands to go to school. As much as I would like to say that it is a happy one, it most certainly is not.

In January of 1998, a six-year old boy from Hilo, Hawaii named Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr. was reported missing by his parents. His father, Peter Kema Sr., claimed that he had taken his son with him to Oahu when he went to look for work. There he claimed to have left his son with an older relative in order to take care of him since he and his wife were to poor to do so. Seems like a very typical story right, wrong, DEAD WRONG. First, Peter Boy had not been seen by anyone since July of 1997. His grandparents and social workers (we will get to this one later) had not been able to get him on the phone or see him during this time and his parents only reported him five months due to family pressure. Second, the relative with whom Peter Sr. supposedly left his son, no one has ever found any evidence to believe that she even exists. Third, it turns out that there is no evidence that the Kemas were ever on Oahu. And finally, the Kema children had a very long history with Child Welfare authorities in Hawaii. With Peter Boy being subjected to abuse that was particularly horrific.  If you want to know the gory details, there is a link at the end of this article.

Why I am I writing about this, because this months marks the 13 year anniversary of this boy’s  being reporting missing. He was six years old when he disappeared and would have turned 20 this year, just one year shy of being able to buy beer. He would be about the same age as some of the college students that I work with at the call center. It is a shame really; anyone with two brain cells to rub together can deduce what most likely came of this little boy. But since no one ever found his body and since his low life parents have stuck to their story, there is just not enough hard proof to bring these monsters before a court of law. I remember early one watching a news report with my mom who said simply, “They killed him”.   Bumper stickers that bore the slogan that is the title of this post were a common sight in Hawaii. And after all this time, the question still remains.

So where’s Peter?

http://hawaii.gov/dhs/quicklinks/peter_boy/