Between May 1985 and January 1986 five women disappeared from Honolulu and were found dumped in remote places on Oahu, most of them near water. Vicki Purdy, twenty-five, was found at Keehi Lagoon. Regina Sakamoto, seventeen, and Denise Hughes, twenty-one, were found in Keehi Lagoon and the Moanalua stream. Louise Medeiros, twenty-five, was found near the H-1 freeway at Waikele. Linda Pesce, thirty-six, was found on Sand Island.
All five were bound at the wrists, sexually assaulted and strangled, and all five had been taken while alone at night, waiting for transport or walking. The bindings were consistent across the cases.
A task force of twenty-seven officers was formed, the first of its kind in the state, and worked with the FBI's behavioural unit. A man was arrested in 1986 after his girlfriend gave information about Linda Pesce's disappearance, and he was released when the evidence would not hold. He remained the principal suspect until his death in the 2000s, and was never charged.
There were no further killings after January 1986. The case is open and the evidence has been reviewed for DNA more than once.