A tragic timeline
May 1, 1991: Peter Kema Jr., aka “Peter Boy,” is born to Peter Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema.
May 8, 1991: A Department of Human Services case is opened on the Kema family after the abuse of two older children, Peter Boy’s half-brother and half-sister, is reported. The children are removed from the Kemas and placed with their maternal grandparents, James and Yolanda Acol.
May 14, 1991: A DHS caseworker’s report to family court indicates that the half-brother, 4, told a DHS worker that Peter Sr. hit him on the arms, legs and “okole” with both of his hands and a broom and that he “spanks” him, his sister and Jaylin. The parents deny hurting the children.
June 26, 1991: The older children are returned to Peter Sr. and Jaylin.
July 8, 1991: A DHS social worker in Hilo asks the court to reconsider whether Peter Boy, 2 months old, is at risk in the home.
Aug. 11, 1991: Peter Boy, 3 months old, is admitted to Hilo Hospital. X-rays show multiple new and healing fractures in his shoulder, elbow, ribs and knee. All children are removed from the Kemas. The older children are placed with their maternal grandparents. Peter Boy spends part of the time in foster care and with his maternal grandparents.
Aug. 14, 1991: Court-appointed guardian Edith Kawai Radl recommends DHS seriously consider “terminating parental rights as a viable option, sooner rather than later” because of noncompliance by Jaylin and Peter Sr. with their service plan.
Oct. 31, 1991: Psychologist John Wingert’s evaluation says: “Jaylin and Peter both come across as extremely needy and emotionally immature persons who are evasive of responsibility and who displace the source of difficulties onto others. They appeared to be so wrapped up in their own adjustment problems and unhappiness to the point that this compromises their ability to be empathetic and understanding of the children’s needs and neither of them comes across as particularly child oriented.” Wingert’s report says both parents are at risk for abusing their children.
Nov. 15, 1991: The children are transferred from a Hilo foster home to the Acols in Kona. DHS notes that in the previous three months the grandparents, who lived 100 miles away, visited the children in their Hilo foster home more than the parents, who lived five miles away.
July 7, 1994: Peter Boy’s foster parents write a letter pleading with state officials not to return the boy to the Kemas. After the decision to return the boy to his biological parents, the foster parents write an impassioned plea expressing their misgivings about the decision.
July 25, 1994: Peter Boy is returned to parents.
June 11, 1995: The Kemas get permanent custody of the other children.
Aug. 17, 1995: The attorney for Peter Boy’s grandparents writes a letter to social workers about the Acols’ concerns that Peter Sr. and Jaylin Kema are not abiding by an agreement to allow visitation with the children they took care of for three years.
October 1995: State officials close case.
December 1996: The Acols see Peter Boy for the last time at a family funeral. His grandfather later says the boy had a black eye and injured arm.
Feb. 23, 1997: Peter Sr. completes probation for a 1990 burglary.
April 4, 1997: A 15-year-old cousin reports that Peter Boy might have suffered a broken arm and that he was forced to eat dog feces.
June 1997: DHS opens investigation.
June 1997: Peter Boy is last seen alive by siblings. His grandparents try to report Peter Boy missing, but police say the parents know where he is.
June 17, 1997: Police receive DHS report, which doesn’t mention Peter Boy is missing.
July 7, 1997: Peter Sr. and Jaylin meet social workers without Peter Boy; Jaylin says he is with relatives.
August 1997: Peter Sr. says he left Peter Boy with Aunty Rose Makuakane at Aala Park in downtown Honolulu.
Jan. 9, 1998: At the urging of a social worker and police, Jaylin makes a missing person report.
Feb. 5, 1998: Police issue missing person press release and photo of Peter Boy.
April 15, 1998: A case analysis concludes “there is a disconcerting possibility that Peter Jr. is dead.”
April 22, 1998: Peter Boy’s older half-sister and half-brother, Chauntelle and Allan Acol, along with his younger sister, Devalynn, are taken from the Kemas and put in foster care. Chauntelle and Allan’s father, William Collier, gets permanent custody of the two in 1999. The Acols gain custody of Devalynn in 2000.
April 23, 1998: An unidentified worker assesses the Kema children and writes, “I did bring up Peter Boy’s name; they all showed fear. I feel they do know something about him.”
April 24, 1998: Big Island police take Peter Sr. to Aala Park to retrace steps of alleged handing of Peter Boy to Aunty Rose. At a press conference a few days later, Peter Sr. says, “I did not kill my son.”
April 30, 1998: A DHS report states Peter Boy’s parents “did not describe him to be missing until conclusion by (DHS) that the parents were withholding the child and information about him.”
Aug. 15-16, 1998: A U.S. Department of Justice expert interviews Peter Boy’s siblings and finds that “the children witnessed violent events that created a level of fear that they did not feel safe to disclose while they were in contact with both their biological mother and their step/biological father.”
Dec. 17, 1998: DHS report says that the children, who by now are removed from the Kema home, described sexual abuse at an undisclosed time by Peter Sr., Jaylin and another man.
March 1999: Police submit the case to prosecutors for review. No one is charged in connection with Peter Boy’s disappearance.
2000: Police wrap up their investigation and route it to prosecutors for further action. Police Capt. Randall Medeiros, then a detective on the case, told the Tribune-Herald in 2010 a suspect was named, but couldn’t divulge the identity.
Jan. 31- Feb. 2, 2001: Detectives and personnel from U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory dig up the back yard of a Keaau home where Peter Sr. lived but find no evidence.
April 30, 2005: Lillian Koller, head of the Department of Human Services, releases 23 pages of Peter Boy documents. Another 2,000 pages of previously secret documents are made public a month later.
Nov. 13, 2014: Hawaii County Prosecutor Mitch Roth says police and prosecutors are doing a new round of interviews in the
case, which he described as an active investigation. Roth said an indictment could occur in 2015.
April 27, 2016: A Hilo grand jury indicts both Peter Sr. and Jaylin Kema of second-degree murder by omission.
Sources: DHS records, published reports
