Peter Kema Sr. has passed a polygraph test indicating he was truthful about where he left the body of his son, Peter Kema Jr., also known as “Peter Boy,” in 1997, Hawaii County Prosecutor Mitch Roth confirmed Monday.
In a deal with prosecutors, Kema Sr. pleaded guilty April 5 to manslaughter and and first-degree hindering prosecution, 20 days before he was to go on trial for murder. His deal called for him to take authorities to the site where he took the boy’s body after he died. If remains were found, he would receive a 20-year sentence serving a minimum of six years and eight months before becoming eligible for parole. If remains were not found, he would be subject to a polygraph examination to determine if he was telling the truth about where he left the body.
Later in April, Kema Sr. took police, prosecutors and family members of the boy, who died of chronic abuse, to a remote stretch of Puna coastline, but the remains have not been found.
If the polygraph determined Kema Sr. had lied, he would be subject to consecutive terms of imprisonment on the manslaughter and hindering prosecution convictions, for a possible 25-year prison term.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced at 8 a.m. July 24 by Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura.
A Hilo grand jury indicted Kema and his 46-year-old wife, Jaylin Kema, on April 28, 2016, for the death of their son. The indictment alleged murder by omission, which means the boy’s death resulted from the couple’s failure to seek medical attention or to provide for his basic needs.
Jaylin Kema also pleaded guilty to manslaughter and cooperated with authorities. She received a 10-year probation sentence with a year in jail, which has already been served.
Prosecutors say Peter Boy, who was 6 when he went missing in 1997, likely died as a result of septic shock in a festering arm wound as a result of being abused by Kema Sr. and because neither Kema Sr. nor Jaylin Kema obtained medical treatment for the boy’s injuries.
Peter Boy was abused almost from birth. Kema Sr. told reporters in August 1997 he left his son with an “Aunty Rose Makuakane” in Honolulu as a hanai, or informal Hawaiian adoption. Authorities didn’t believe Kema and couldn’t find evidence the woman existed or airline tickets to corroborate Kema’s account.
The case became the most notorious missing child-turned-murder case in Hawaii history.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.