The 42-year-old convicted rapist some Kaua’i County Police detectives consider a primary suspect in two fatal West Side stabbings in 2000 was granted parole Monday on O’ahu.
The man, who was convicted of rape, kidnapping, sex abuse and theft in 1983 related to an incident on Oahu, will be released Feb. 28.
He was initially released from prison in 1999, after serving 16 years.
According to authorities, he had relatives on Kaua’i and moved here after his release. He was picked up in the late summer of 2000, along with many other convicted sex offenders living on the island, for questioning in connection with the murders that year of Lisa Bissell, 38, and Daren Singer 43, of Maui.
Both women’s beaten, stabbed and raped corpses were discovered in isolated West Side locations.
Bissell was killed in April and Singer in August.
A third woman was attacked in Kekaha in May. She, too, was beaten, raped, stabbed and left for dead, but survived.
Because of the similarities of the crimes, investigators suspected a serial killer. The primary suspect became the man who was granted parole yesterday at a hearing inside the Halawa correctional facility on Oahu. But he was never indicted and was returned to prison in the fall of 2000 on parole violations.
Tommy Johnson, parole and pardons administrator for the state, said the man’s parole restricts him to Oahu.
“He will be under the supervision of our sex offender (supervision) unit,” a more stringent parole than the standard version, Johnson said. The convicted sex offender’s program includes more frequent reporting to his parole officer and mandatory therapy.
If he doesn’t follow the program Johnson said the man can be re-offended and sent back to prison until his parole expires in October of 2007.
There were rumors locally that some police officials and citizens might object to the man’s parole, but Johnson said no opposition to the parole was presented in person or in writing.
“Some of his relatives showed up (at the parole hearing). But they arrived too late to speak,” Johnson said.
Johnson added that the inmate had had no trouble inside the walls since his return to prison on parole violations about 15 months ago.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
