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Originally posted by Kelena

If you simply can't move on, perhaps you could at least have the dignity to keep it to yourself. The mother of the victim and of the victim's unborn child has come forth to thank the community for its support and to indicate that she accepts the finding that Boaz Johnson was the murderer. The victim's father and grandfather concur. By what right does someone sitting at a keyboard in a cabin on the arctic tundra announce that Mr. Johnson didn't do this, without citing a scintilla of evidence that would cast a REASONABLE doubt on the findings?

The perpetrator was found hanging from a tree near the site of the crime scene. He wrote a three page confession which an independent forensic expert determined was in Mr. Johnson's hand. The confession describes having killed the victim and having attempted to dispose of her body in a manner consistent with the gloomy and gory trail from the campsite to the ocean and with the place where her body was found. He goes on to say that he is going to kill himself. One looks up, and there he is.

If the mother of the victim can accept the findings, then I think it is incumbent on the rest of us to do the same, or at least to keep our counsel. No one can question the energy and devotion of the family to seek justice in this case. They moved heaven and earth...and our community as well, not to mention thousands and maybe even hundreds of thousands of others. If they are satisfied that justice has been done, then so am I.

This murder cast an unfortunate pall on one of the most uniquely beautiful areas of Earth. There has been a darkness there that you could just feel. Many of us avoided the area for that reason. Boaz Johnson summoned a special brand of evil there. He did it only briefly and he regretted it but the stain was great. The sea is loud there and he could not escape its noise or the darkness of his own thoughts and deeds. That is not to say that only angels walk in Kalapana and that no bad thing has ever happened there before. But those issues are distinct from the question of who killed Brittany-Jane Royal -- a question which has been resolved to the family's satisfaction.

In time we will remember this place for its dynamic and powerful beauty and for the beauty of a young and adventurous feminine soul who saw it as we do and who spent her final days breathing the sweetly-scented salt air, spotting rainbows, and feeling the power of a mountain in motion and perhaps even seeing an Io or two... and feeling one within. I offer my sincere condolences to the family of the victim and her unborn child.

There is a song about Kalapana called "Holei". The lyrics came from a poem that was tacked below a painting of Kalapana. Ledward Kaapana saw the painting and the poem and expanded on those words. Dennis Pavao added as well. The song speaks of how deafening the ocean's roar can be in that area -- kai leo nui....the great voice of the sea...and of how you can hear it all the way up the pali. The sea has spoken and, in this case, you could hear it all the way up the pali and there was no escape.

When I play this song, I start out simply and softly, but with each verse its gets louder, like the ocean itself. And then it roars. I think I can perform this song again now, without a shadow hanging over it. Here is another version of Holei.

Kalapana belongs to us again and to the beautiful spirit of an idealistic young woman who loved it as we do. Aloha.

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