A 21-year-old soldier was discovered dead in a burning car in Honolulu, and her boyfriend was charged with murder for allegedly stabbing her in the neck and setting fire to the vehicle.
Spc. Laau Jordan Laulusa, a member of the Hawaii Army National Guard, was discovered inside the torched car parked outside Mililani High School around 6:40 a.m. Monday, according to KITV.
Witnesses said they saw a man holding a “bladed weapon” open and close the car’s doors moments before it caught fire, then flee the scene.
Passers-by followed him until police arrived and arrested him.
Samuel Jones, the suspect, was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree arson. His bail was set at one million dollars.
“Our Aloha and prayers are with her ‘ohana (family) and those who knew this soldier personally and professionally,” Brig. Gen. Stephen Logan, commanding officer of the Hawaii Army National Guard, said in a statement.
“This is a tragic loss for the entire Hawai‘i Army National Guard. We are cooperating with authorities during the ongoing investigation,” he added.
Laulusa, who joined the Guard in 2019, was a supply specialist for the 227th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to the military.
Her uncle, Sasoa Feagai, told KHON: “It’s too bad because she’s still young, a beautiful girl, real kind, and she didn’t deserve this.”
Laulusa, also known as Jordan, was described by her family as a beautiful young woman who was excited to travel the world with the military.
“Where’s the love? What happened? It’s so hard to think about something like this happen(ing) to anybody,” Feagai told KITV. “But it does happen. Without the aloha and love that we should give people.”
“Thankful for those people who did that otherwise who knows how long it’s going to be to be solved,” Feagai told the outlet. “We’re just dealing with the tragedy of it and try to make sense of what had happened.”
