Halawa Shooting Ruled Murder-Suicide
Co-Workers Remember Slain Woman As Talented Leimaker
POSTED: 4:09 pm HST May 27, 2008
UPDATED: 4:33 pm HST May 27, 2008
HONOLULU — Honolulu Police Department investigators said it appears a Halawa Heights man shot and killed his wife before killing himself in a double fatal shooting on Monday night.
Friends remembered the woman, who worked as a lei maker at the airport.
Friends told KITV that the woman said she had problems with her husband’s temper even before they were married on Valentine’s Day this year.
The crime happened in a second-floor unit of a Halawa Heights apartment on Monday night.
The medical examiner said Eliseo Dumlao Jr., 60, and his wife, Marissa, 45, both died of gunshots to the head. Eliseo Dumlao’s death was ruled a suicide and his wife’s a homicide.
“Just seemed like a normal family, totally normal family. That’s why it was a shock to everybody, what went down last night,” Halawa resident Shaff Bautista said.
The Dumalos’ landlord said they were good tenants, who moved there in March from Waipahu.
Marissa Dumlao was a lei maker at Maile’s airport lei stand, where her friends hugged and cried as news spread of her death.
“She is a very kind lady. She is a nice lady,” fellow leimaker Aurora Doble said.
Doble said Marissa Dumlao did the work of two lei makers, working extremely quickly to make the most intricate orchid lei. She said Marissa Dumlao never talked about problems at home and was very generous with co-workers.
“I’m not going to forget what she did. Every time she’d go to the store, she bought my favorite food,” Doble said.
Other friends said they repeatedly told Marissa Dumlao to move out of their apartment because he had a temper that would flare up when he drank. Friends said the couple separated for a month or two several times before marrying in February. Records show he has two driving under the influence convictions from 2002 and 1999.
Eliseo Dumlao Jr. had retired from the Navy and worked in the kitchen at Tripler Army Medical Center.
Marissa Dumlao’s 18-year-old daughter was not home at the time her mother was killed, police said. She was located on Monday night and found unhurt.
Friends said Marissa Dumlao stayed with her husband in spite of their problems because she could not drive and relied on him to drive her places and because she needed medical insurance for herself and her daughter through her husband.
Source: http://www.kitv.com/news/16408861/detail.html
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