Less than a month after Albert Aukai Manners was reported missing on Dec. 1, 2020, his family suspected he had been murdered.
On the Facebook page “Albert Manners” — a public page that identifies the former mixed martial arts fighter as an athlete — Shanny Manners, the slain man’s sister, on Dec. 22, 2020, asked the public for leads and offered a reward.
In the post, she said since her brother had been reported missing “people have said the same story.”
“Albert was shot in the back and is now dead. The family please would like as much information as possible as to what happened. Also the family would like to know where the body is so they may have a proper ceremony and closure,” the post said, in part.
Police released a statement Friday identifying Manners, who was 35 when he disappeared, as a murder victim. It was the first media release about Manners since Feb. 8, 2021, when police renewed their request for information on the then-missing man.
In Friday’s dispatch, police didn’t say where Manners’ remains were found, how he was killed, or the motive for his killing.
Asked those questions, Lt. Rio Amon-Wilkins of the Hilo Criminal Investigations Section replied, “We’re not releasing that information at this point.” He did, however, say the incident occurred in Puna.
The Friday police statement identified two Puna men as suspects in the slaying of the cage fighter, whose nickname was “Always Bad” Manners. They are 44-year-old Kiha Rodney Stone Kaahu of Leilani Estates subdivision and 42-year-old Olomana P. Black of Ainaloa Estates subdivision.
“They haven’t been charged at this point. They’ve been identified as suspects in this case, and that’s the way it was sent to the prosecutor’s office,” Amon-Wilkins said. “It’s a strong case.”
County Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen said he hadn’t had time to review the case and didn’t want to comment because the suspects hadn’t been charged.
According to Amon-Wilkins, Manners’ homicide was “suspected for the better part of the investigation.”
“In cases like this, there are a lot of things that need to be investigated, potentially a lot of people to interview, forensic evidence to be analyzed — to get to a point where we could forward a case to the prosecutor’s office,” he explained.
Amon-Wilkins said the suspects have been interviewed by detectives.
According to court records, Kaahu was convicted of misdemeanor assault after pleading guilty in 2004, and Black has an active felony drug case in the court system.
Manners also had his scrapes with law enforcement.
In 2010, he was convicted of second-degree assault and sentenced to five years of probation. And in 2015, he was again convicted of second-degree assault and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Shanny Manners said police didn’t tell the family her brother’s remains had been discovered.
“They never said nothing about his body. They just sent my sister an email regarding suspects,” she told the Tribune-Herald. She added she didn’t know the suspects identified by police.
Shanny Manners acknowledged that her brother had a drug problem.
“When he was not on drugs, he was around us, but when he was on drugs, he would not be around us,” she said. “Because he didn’t want us to tell it like it is. He didn’t want us to tell him, ‘Oh, what are you doing to yourself?’”
She said that before her brother started using drugs, “he was a happy person, loving, would give you the shirt off his back.”
“He was still a good person,” Shanny Manners said. “He had a lot of heart and a lot of love, and he would give his last dollar — such a generous person.”
Police ask anyone with information about this case to contact Hilo Criminal Investigations Section Detective Blaine Morishita at 961-2385 or Blaine.Morishita@hawaiicounty.gov.
Those who prefer anonymity may call Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.