Continuing from Part 1...
Something that it was actually discontinued in response to Lisa's case. As such, it was difficult to be sure who was trying to stop you at night. It could have been an actual officer or just someone posing as a one to lure women into a false sense of security. This theory was also compounded by a small detail about the state of Lisa's car. As I mentioned, Lisa's ID was missing and her window rolled down. To many of this signal that the young woman had been stopped by either an actual cop or someone she thought was one. It's believed that she rolled down her window, handed this person her ID and then was abducted.
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| image: newspaper.com |
This theory is one that most probably never see gaining any traction, not necessarily due to it's viability, but because as we all know it's incredibly difficult to convince a legal system to go after police, even when it's entirely justified and even necessary, which is one of the things that makes this case so different. Following a witness testimonial local police officer was actually called out by name as the person who stopped Lisa and possibly murdered her. And soon said officer was under full investigation. Both the state and local PD didn't seem too concerned about protecting one of their own. Something that tends to not be seen very often. To many, this development seemed promising and perhaps to the public even felt comforting but not everyone was convinced.
The Au family hired ex HPD homicide Lieutenant Burke Cornell as a private investigator. And what made Cornell especially relevant here is that he was actually the man in charge of Lisa's case at the time it reached the department. And on top of this, the former officer felt that the investigation had been botched for a number of reasons, mainly stuff that basic investigating could have debunked. For example, the whole crux of a killer cop and/ or cop impersonator theory hinged upon Lisa's missing ID. For a long time, that ID was integral to this case but it turns out that it was actually later located. If you'll recall, I mentioned that Lisa stopped at a grocery store to pick up snacks before heading off to meet Doug at the Makiki apartment.
That type of seemingly trivial information would normally be left emitted from stories like this but in this case, it was left and for a reason. While at the grocery store Lisa wrote a check, which is a thing we humans used to do. It required an ID, one she simply forgot at the cash register. Now this doesn't necessarily disprove anything. This case is still unsolved to this day and by all means it still could have been a cop or impersonator who was responsible, but only looking a tone person of interest, which has be foolish. And to add to this angle, these so-called witness who named the officer as a suspect was actually pulled over herself the night of Lisa's disappearance for supposed erratic driving. But it's not confirmed that she actually saw the officer interact with Lisa. So where do we go from here? As part of his private investigation Detective Cornell also interviewed various witnesses that HPD seemed to have overlooked. One of them being a man by the name of Thomas Thornburg, the security guard workingthe Makiki apartment where Lisa was last seen alive.
According to him, he saw the couple arguing that night at around 11:00 PM, just an hour and a half before everyone went their separate ways. Maybe this was the reason why the meeting was so short but either way this brings us to a much more obvious person of interest, Lisa's own boyfriend. Spouses and romantic partners are always looked at first whenever a homicide takes place. But for whatever reason, HBP seemed completely uninterested in Doug Holmes. Keep in mind he wasn't just the last person to see this woman alive but also the one who found her car and had an argument with her the night before. Of course, that's not to say he wasn't investigated at all. He was and was even issued two polygraph tests, both of which he failed while still maintaining his innocence. Lie detectors, of course are not a perfect science but you'd assume that,especially back then this would have raised some questions.
When asked about his results, Doug claim that he failed due to guilt. That he felt bad about what happened to Lisa. For whatever reason, the HPD thought that this was perfectly reasonable and also claim that they couldn't see Doug having any motivation to hurt Lisa. The final bit of relevant information in regards to this case comes from a witness by the name of Charlotte Kamaka, who happened to be driving along Tantalus the night Lisa went missing. She claimed it was then she witnessed a man in a blue car along with a woman in the passenger seat who seemed to be unconscious.
Who this mystery man was is unknown and whether or not this was Lisa is still unverified. Although, it seems entirely plausible. Even so without a plate number or pictures this testimony didn't do much. And that's really the frustration surrounding this case. All avenues have led to dead ends and it feels like those in charge were more worried about publicly pinning down a suspect rather than capturing the actual killer. In the end, Doug Holmes was never arrested in relation to the Lisa Au case and a grand jury failed to indict the accused officer.
So that's all about the case. Keep pinching guys.
