Haunted Kiona‘ole Road

It lies in the shadows of the Ko‘olau mountain range, a narrow road with a melancholy, and sometimes violent, history.

Originally, this stretch of road was a footpath that dated back to at least 1837. It was widened for horses and wagons over the years and later, improved to accommodate a real road for vehicles. All traffic crossing Nu’uanu Pali between Honolulu and Windward Oahu traveled that stretch.

In modern days, with tales of Urban Legends swirling about, that portion of road became mislabeled as “Morgan’s Corner,” although the area has nothing to do with Dr. Morgan. The misnomer is possibly due to the simple directions given to thrill-seekers and ghost hunters as being “a twisting road with hairpin turns just before the Pali lookout.” These days, it is often referred to as the “Second Morgan’s Corner.”

On the Kane‘ohe side of the Nu‘uanu Pali, at the end of the old footpath lived a Hawaiian of questionable habits. His name was Pakuanui and he lived on the land known as Kamaikola. Here he had his grass hut on top of a rock foundation. In one version of his story, Pakuanui invited the single traveler who crossed over the steep and treacherous Pali into his hale to partake of refreshment after his tiresome trip. The doorways of the hale were very low in those days, so as the traveler crouched to enter the hale, Pakuanui release a catch which held a large stone suspended above the doorway on the inside. This stone, called pohaku puka, usually disabled or killed the man. All the bodies were buried in a pit near the house.

Hawaiian newspapers as far back as 1885 have recorded tales of robberies, fires, rapes, fatal accidents, and murders on the mile and a half twisting trail from the halfway house junction to the bottom of the road where it meet Kamehameha highway.

In 1887, a government contract paid for the road to be improved, creating what was then called Old Pali Road. During that construction, a large number of skulls and human bones were discovered and then re-buried under tons of earth at the foot of the cliffs -- the remains of Kalanikupule's warriors.

This new Pali Road drastically improved the passageway between Honolulu and the Windward side. But it didn’t put a stop to the unfortunate incidents.

In 1986, city officials decided to close most of this stretch of road. After the building of Castle Junction, some commuters still used Kionaole Road to bypass the major intersection on their way to the Pali Highway but city officials said that the road had become a haven for troublemakers and criminals.

In 1986, city officials decided to close most of this stretch of road. After the building of Castle Junction, some commuters still used Kionaole Road to bypass the major intersection on their way to the Pali Highway but city officials said that the road had become a haven for troublemakers and criminals.

The Fire Chief at the time first proposed that the road be closed at night, citing 15 calls for alarms ranging from fatal accidents and a gang fight to brush fires in the preceding two years.

The police department agreed to wanting the road closed with the Windward District Commander stating that the department had been called to the road more times than he could recall. The commander described the road as a lover’s lane that has attracted peeping toms, and worse. Cars have been set on fire, other kids joyride, cars flip over, resulting in fatalities. He also stated that there have been multiple rape cases, including more than one homicide.

The Unsolved Murder of Nirmala Weddle

In 1983, the nude body of 20-year-old Nirmala Weddle was found strangled near the Pali Golf Course one Sunday morning. The medical examiner said Weddle had either been raped or had sexual intercourse before being killed and that she was strangled with a hard object, not human hands. Police recovered a tire iron from the murder scene, possibly used in the killing. Nirmala was found strangled with a blunt object and left in the tall grass off Kiona‘ole Road, after a resident found her purse hanging on a gate post the next morning.

Nirmala Weddle was dressed in white pants and a white blouse at the time of her disappearance. She left a Waikiki restaurant around 2am after an argument with her boyfriend. What happened after that remains a mystery. After being questioned by the police, her boyfriend was not considered a suspect.

Two weeks after her murder, the police finally had a description of a suspect. Nirmala was seen walking with a man on Kapahulu Avenue near the Honolulu Zoo parking lot, headed mauka. The suspect was described as an Asian man about 25 years old, 5 feet, 5 inches, 140 pounds, with short black hair, wearing a gray suit.

By the end of the year, the case had continued to baffle police and, sadly, Nirmala Weddle, has not found justice.

The Rape and Murder of Dawn “Dede” Bustamante

Before Nirmala Weddle’s murder, many of you will still recall the story from 1975 of Dawn Bustamante who was also kidnapped and murdered on that short stretch of road.

On Friday, March 14, 1975, Cherry McCoy and Dawn Bustamante decided to walk to the Kalapawai Market. A man drove past the girls, turned around, and pulled onto the shoulder to talk to them.

The driver asked where they were going and kept trying to strike up a conversation. He asked the girls if they needed a ride. When they said no, the man became angry and pointed a gun at them and threatened to kill them if they didn’t get into the car.

Afraid for their lives, Dawn and Cherry reluctantly got into the man’s car and he ended up driving to the dark and deserted Kiona‘ole Road.

The stranger had already raped Dawn and, after a passing car spooked him, he led the girls into the bushes at gunpoint. The kidnapper hit Dawn in the head with his gun, knocking her out.

When he did the same to Cherry, she pretended to lose consciousness, hoping he would leave. Instead, the man knelt down and began to strangle her. Just when Cherry thought she was going to die, Dawn became conscious and started running. The man chased after Dawn as Cherry then jumped up and started running in the opposite direction.

Hearing a single gunshot, Cherry continued running and finally made her way to the parking lot of the Pali Golf Course. Battered and bloody, she used their phone to first call Dawn’s father, and then the police.

13-year-old Dawn “Dede” Bustamante was found dead. It was years before any charges were filed in the case however, it remains unsolved to this day.

The year before Bustamante’s murder, a man named Alo was arrested for bringing his wife to that road behind the golf course and shooting her. There have been dozens of stories of car crashes that resulted in the deaths of dozens of souls. There are even stories of horse-drawn carriages where the animals suddenly become spooked and gallop out of control, injuring and killing their drivers. That short mile and a half road has seen more death than most of the roads in our state.

Finally, in 1986, the road was closed to through traffic for repairs and never opened again. Gates have been erected in hopes to keep the unwary traveler out.

THE STORY OF CHARLIE KAULALOHA - 1937

Coming down the Old Pali Road, high upon the Koolau side of the Nuuanu Pali, the road hesitated for a few yards on a level plane, then forked, and plunged downward two ways to the sea. Turning right onto Old Kalanianaole Highway, now an extension of Auloa Road, would bring you towards Kailua and Waimanalo. Staying on the Old Pali Road portion, which is now Kiona‘ole Road, would bring you to the beginning of Kamehameha Highway.

At that junction stood Halfway House, a neat little green house that the city erected in place of the original crumbling shack. It was the home of Charlie Kaulaloha, the “Hermit of the Pali.” Charlie painted a sign on the door there that read, “Kuu home na Pali hauliuli o ke Koolau.” The green Pali of the Koolau is my home.

Better known as “Hemo ka Papale” for doffing his hat to every carriage and vehicle that passed him, Charlie was the Pali Road maintenance man for almost 30 years. His official city title was “Cantonnier.”

A 1929 newspaper story about him said, “Everybody who has gone down the Pali road probably has seen Charlie. He is a lean, brown Hawaiian with a face as rugged and as ageless as the mountains that rise above the road. If one is passing casually, one may notice that the old man raises a battered straw hat and bows.” It didn’t matter whether Charlie knew them or not, whenever someone passed him on the road, Charlie would straighten up from his shovel to raise his hat and smile to passersby.

Charlie would wake up in the middle of the night to start his job at 2am, keeping the Pali road clear of the clay and rocks that fell from the hills above. Six days a week, he traversed the Pali Road, making his way up the steep grade with his sledgehammer and shovel and broom. If the rocks were too big to be lifted, Charlie would break them with his sledge before pushing them over the edge of the road to crash into the brush below. No one from the city told Charlie that he had to be at work by 2 o’clock in the morning. It was his own idea. If a motorist should find the road blocked by fallen rocks, it would pain Charlie deeply. By 7am, motorists would find the road smooth and clean.

In the daytime, Charlie would tend to his flowers. Long ago, before anyone else gave a thought to beautifying the rugged roadside, Charlie found wildflowers in the valleys below his house and coaxed them into growing in the ditches. By 1929, almost the entire roadside was lined with color. The Outdoor Circle even furnished Charlie with flowers and shrubbery and ferns.

As the sun made its way down below the cliffs, Charlie would make one more trip over the top just to make sure that there were no rocks or clay on the road that runs from the clouds to the sea, and then he retired to his lonely little house on the cliff.

On Saturdays, Charlie went to town where he stayed with his wife who was taking care of her aged mother. Sometimes, on a Saturday night, even as he lay snuggled in his bed in town, storms and trade winds would cause him to worry, thinking restlessly of huge boulders blocking his road.

By 1935, Charlie told another newspaper reporter that a lot of fun had gone from his work with the advent of modern sedan cars. In the days of horse-drawn carriages and open vehicles, he would collect hats that travelers were always losing in the gusty pali gales. He stored the hats in his house where they could be returned if their owners came back to claim them but many hats weren’t called for.

“Plenty of friends in those days,” recalled Charlie, “They used to choose hats to fit them from the collection. But today, no more hats, fewer friends.”

Charlie’s wife had passed away by that time and his six children lived in the city. Charlie lived alone in his little green house only traveling to the city twice a month to collect his pay. In 1935, Charlie was the oldest and highest-paid laborer in the city’s service making 55 cents an hour. City officials knew him as “Charlie Cantonnier.”

In 1937, Charlie worked a full day as usual, then discarded his laboring clothes and donned his Sunday best. His bed had not been slept in and his house was immaculate. At just 68 years old, Charlie was found hanging from a rafter in the toolshed behind his house by a fellow laborer who called on Charlie every morning on his way to work.

Charlie left no note and he hadn’t communicated his intentions to even his closest friend. The autopsy revealed that he died of strangulation and that he suffered from chronic heart disease. Authorities believe that his illness may have furnished the motive for suicide.

The Halfway House stood empty for a number of years. A few people moved into Charlie’s old house for brief periods, including an Army sergeant and his family. Over the years, the Halfway House became known as a Haunted House. The little green house was dismantled in 1949, but ghost stories about the area persisted and became part of the rich lore of the Pali.

After the construction of the new highway in the 1950s, few people had reason to travel the stretch of road that Charlie used, and the road is now closed to through traffic. As predicted in a 1929 newspaper article, the true story of the life and times of Charlie Kaulaloha has drifted into the limbo of forgotten realities.

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