Sister told police that parents accused of murdering daughter, 6, kept girl in cage

A 6-year-old lady whose adoptive dad and mom are accused of her homicide was discovered useless inside a canine cage with duct tape overlaying her mouth and nostril, her sister advised officers.

The sister’s account was in a legal criticism filed Friday in Honolulu circuit court docket.

The lady supplied the small print to a Honolulu police detective Nov. 5, almost two months after Isabella Kalua was reported lacking by her dad and mom, Isaac Kalua, 52, and Lehua Kalua, 43, in line with the criticism.

The couple was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of second-degree homicide.

In an interview with police, Isaac Kalua denied being concerned in Isabella’s disappearance, in line with the criticism.

The sister, who was recognized within the paperwork solely by her initials, was additionally adopted by the Kaluas.

The occasions she described passed off roughly two months earlier than she spoke to police, the paperwork say. She mentioned she noticed Isabella duct-taped and contained in the cage in the course of the night time.

On the time, Isabella wasn’t respiration, the sister advised the detective.

Lehua Kalua eliminated Isabella from the cage and put her in a bath crammed with water “to see if she would get up,” the sister advised police, in line with the paperwork. “It didn’t work.”

Her dad and mom advised her to “preserve a secret” that Isabella did not get up, the sister mentioned.

She advised the detective that her sister was useless, although she did not know what her dad and mom did together with her physique, which hasn’t been discovered.

Isabella was put within the cage as a result of she would “sneak round at night time and wish to eat as a result of she was hungry,” the sister advised authorities, including that Lehua Kalua had duct-taped Isabella “loads of occasions.”

It isn’t clear if the Kaluas have attorneys. Their case was referred to the Honolulu public defender’s workplace, which declined to remark Friday.

William Harrison, a lawyer and household pal who has beforehand spoken on the {couples}’ behalf about Isabella’s disappearance, mentioned in an e mail Friday that he had simply discovered concerning the allegations and isn’t representing them.

“In fact I’m extraordinarily saddened,” he mentioned.

Based on the criticism, Lehua Kalua advised authorities that the final time she noticed Isabella was the night time of Sept. 12, after they ate dinner collectively. The subsequent morning, after discovering Isabella’s mattress empty, police have been dispatched to the Kaluas’ residence to take a report that she was lacking.

The report prompted a search effort that included lots of of volunteers scouring the Waimanalo space of Honolulu, the place the household’s house is, however authorities mentioned Wednesday that they now imagine the account supplied by Lehua Kalua is fake.

Along with Isabella, who was adopted in 2018, and her organic sister, who was adopted in 2009, the Kaluas took in two extra of their siblings — one in 2018 and one other final yr. The childrens’ organic dad and mom are described within the criticism as homeless within the Waimanalo space.