A 21-year-old soldier was found dead in a burning car in Honolulu – and her boyfriend has been charged with murder for allegedly stabbing her in the neck and igniting the vehicle.
Spc. Laau Jordan Laulusa, a member of the Hawaii Army National Guard, was discovered at about 6:40 a.m. Monday inside the torched car, which was parked outside Mililani High School, KITV reported.
Witnesses told police they saw a man holding a “bladed weapon” opening and closing the car’s doors moments before it went up in flames, and then fleeing from the scene.
The passersby followed him until police arrived and took him into custody.
The suspect, identified as Samuel Jones, was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree arson. His bail was set at $1 million.
“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, who was known as Jordan, was described by her family as a beautiful person who was looking forward to traveling 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.”
He said he appreciated that the witnesses chased after the suspect.
“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.”