The Bucket Hat Mystery

Summary

Dateline NBC – "The Bucket Hat Mystery"

Original Airdate: October 7, 2025
Host: Lester Holt | Main Correspondent: Keith Morrison

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Episode Overview

This Dateline episode investigates the shocking murder of beloved Waipahu acupuncturist and surfer John Tokuhara. In a case swirled with secrecy, intricate surveillance footage, romantic entanglements, and a mysterious figure in a floppy white bucket hat, the story unfolds across the working-class town of Waipahu, Hawaii. The episode traces the criminal investigation, community mourning, a troubled trial process marked by junk science and inconclusive evidence, and ultimately a dramatic verdict.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Community Shock and Mourning

• Waipahu Setting: The episode situates the murder in Waipahu, a tight-knit local enclave distinct from the tourist Hawaii most know. John Tokuhara, known affectionately as "Tokes," was deeply integrated in the community and mourned by hundreds.
  • “It's a small community. Everybody knows each other.” —Nicole Trazo [03:14]
• The episode begins with the reaction of John's friends and family upon hearing the devastating news.
  • “He just had that personality that it was just so golden.” —Nicole Trazo [05:37]
• Vigils brought the whole community together and “took up the whole street.” —Nicole Trazo [08:58]
• Emotional surfside paddle-out honored John, whom friends universally described as “everybody’s best friend.” [09:15]

2. Crime Scene & Early Clues

• John’s mother discovered his body at his acupuncture clinic. He’d been shot execution-style with three .22 caliber bullets, and the scene lacked signs of struggle or forced entry.
• Peculiar evidence included a backpack with $4,000 in cash—untouched—and John wearing a surgical mask despite being alone.
  • “Why was he there after hours sitting at the desk with a backpack full of cash?” —Liz Thompson [16:39]
• Police were baffled: “No enemies, no vices, no debts.” —Lester Holt [16:08]

3. Unraveling Relationships & Motives

• Investigators considered romantic jealousy as a motive, uncovering love triangles and affairs involving John, married women, and ex-boyfriends.
  • “There had been an affair going on.” —Detective Mead [01:27]
• The death placed scrutiny on Andy Iramata (current girlfriend) and her ex, Daryl Fujita, as well as Joyce Thompson, a former patient with an intimate online history with John.
  • “Thousands of messages between John and Joyce Thompson that were intimate in nature and explicit.” —Liz Thompson [21:56]
• Each potential suspect denied involvement; some, like Fujita, acted suspiciously (e.g., wiping his phone), but police could not tie them to the murder.
  • “It looks a little suspicious to change phones in the middle of a murder investigation?” —Detective Mead questioning Fujita [20:27]

4. The Bucket Hat and Surveillance Hunt

• Investigators pored over hours of surveillance footage and identified a mysterious, heavily disguised person in a white bucket hat near the time and place of the murder.
  • “It looked like a person trying to disguise themselves to go do a murder.” —Liz Thompson [23:37]
• The “bucket hat” person was caught on numerous security cameras entering, pacing nervously, then exiting the crime scene area, and losing the distinctive hat after the crime [29:00–31:00].
• The hat, found later by a homeless man, seemed a promising source of DNA—though it would prove problematic.

5. The White Pickup Truck

• A white Chevy Silverado was identified in multiple surveillance angles shadowing the movements of the bucket hat suspect.
  • “But then eight minutes later, that's our person in the bucket hat...” —Lester Holt [34:36]
• Investigation traced matching trucks to 53 local owners, including Eric Thompson—husband of Joyce Thompson, John’s brief lover.

6. Evolving Investigation and DNA Setbacks

• Police seized the Thompsons’ home and truck, discovering .22 caliber ammo and a cache of guns (none matched the crime), and eventually arrested Eric Thompson when DNA tests on the bucket hat concluded he “could not be excluded as a contributor” [40:23–41:21].
• The limitations and contamination of the key DNA evidence (the hat was run over, handled by multiple people) became a lynchpin of the defense.
  • “These mixtures are not interpretable ... most of the DNA tests came back as inconclusive.” —Liz Thompson [40:23–40:48]
• A damaging audit found the Honolulu PD Crime Lab had major deficiencies in validating DNA evidence, undermining the reliability of testing.
  • “When you saw that, what was your first thought? I was shocked.” —Liz Thompson [58:08–58:12]

7. The First Trial: Circumstantial Case and Deadlock

• The prosecution presented motive (revenge for infidelity), circumstantial evidence (truck matching, disguised suspect), and DNA “inclusions.”
  • “Eric Thompson killed the man who slept with his wife. And this is a story as old as time.” —Prosecution [44:56]
• The defense countered with lack of physical evidence, contamination, and alternative suspects—highlighting investigation tunnel vision and Johns' lifestyle.
• Jury deadlocked 9–3 (for conviction), resulting in a mistrial.
  • “Nine to convict, three to acquit. And so the judge declared a mistrial.” —Lester Holt [55:41–56:11]

8. Retrial, Improved DNA Methods, & Final Verdict

• Second trial commenced without the original HPD DNA evidence, but introduced high-tech Cybergenetics digital analysis—asserting the DNA match was “16.4 trillion times more likely” if it belonged to Eric Thompson.
  • “The DNA typing results ... are 16.4 trillion times more likely to be observed if they originated from Eric Thompson.” —Expert testimony [61:49–61:57]
• Defense challenged the reliability, stressing the analysis still used flawed police lab data.
• Prosecution underscored motive (affair, post-marital agreement to secure assets); defense argued lack of forensic, eyewitness, or digital evidence.
• Jury initially struggled but ultimately returned a guilty verdict for Eric Thompson.
  • “We, the jury … find the defendant guilty as charged of murder in the second degree.” —Courtroom [82:31–82:35]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He was everybody's best friend.” —Lester Holt [10:14]
• “It was like an assassination.” —Lester Holt [01:13]
• “You can't see a face at all.” —Lester Holt [01:38]
• “Do your time, boy.” —Eric Thompson’s friend [83:03]
• “How can you sleep at night knowing what you did to him, to John, our friend, his family?” —Nicole Trazo [83:49]
• “I don't think I've laughed the same since he's been gone.” —Nicole Trazo [84:30]
• "One more, one more, there we go..." —Eric Thompson & Nicole Trazo, referencing memories of John’s surfing ritual [85:16–85:26]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |----------------------------------|------------------| | Community reactions & John's life | 03:14–11:15 | | Love triangles & early suspects | 12:04–22:42 | | Bucket hat suspect emerges | 23:37–32:23 | | White truck focus, Eric connection | 34:10–41:21 | | First trial evidence & deadlock | 44:56–56:11 | | Crime lab scandal & retrial | 57:06–58:34 | | Cybergenetics DNA testimony | 61:49–63:41 | | Defense & alternative suspects | 64:15–67:35 | | Verdict and aftermath | 82:31–85:26 |

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Conclusion

Dateline’s “The Bucket Hat Mystery” skillfully dissects a labyrinthine case of murder, infidelity, and forensic uncertainty, set against the backdrop of a close Hawaiian community. With every turn—love triangles, suspect disguises, botched evidence, and split juries—the story challenges listeners to question how justice is built from both science and circumstance, and leaves lingering questions about the limits of certainty in the courtroom.

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For Further Exploration:

• [Talking Dateline Podcast: Behind the scenes of tonight’s episode] (available Wednesday in the Dateline feed).
• [The Last Appeal Podcast] – another Dateline true-crime investigation.

Transcript

[Lester Holt]

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[Liz Thompson]

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[Lester Holt]

Tonight on Dateline.

[Nicole Trazo]

I have so many memories of him at the beach. Hawaii was his home. You know, he loved to surf. I still ask, why would somebody do that?

[Detective Mead]

John Togahara's body was discovered lying in a pool of his own blood.

[Lester Holt]

Somebody had shot him, shot him to death. Like an assassination.

[Nicole Trazo]

It just still doesn't make sense.

[Liz Thompson]

There was a backpack. Found a lot of cash in it. Was he in debt to someone?

[Detective Mead]

Thousands of text messages.

[Lester Holt]

This is a love triangle.

[Detective Mead]

There had been an affair going on.

[Liz Thompson]

When I first saw the video and saw the white hat, it looked like a person trying to disguise themself to go do a murder.

[Lester Holt]

You can't see a face at all.

[Detective Mead]

He had even disguised his truck, his.

[Lester Holt]

Code and calculated man.

[Nicole Trazo]

How can you sleep at night knowing what you did to John? How could you?

[Lester Holt]

You're in the dark.

[Nicole Trazo]

Yeah, we were all in the dark.

[Lester Holt]

Even your best friends have secrets, right?

[Nicole Trazo]

Right.

[Lester Holt]

High passions in Hawaii. A surfer murdered in a riptide of revenge. I'm Lester Holt and this is dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with the bucket hat. Mystery. Say Hawaii. The first thing that pops to mind for many is this unmistakable place. This picture, Waikiki. Of course it does. Waikiki has been photographed and filmed so many times through so many eras. It is Hawaii for many, the image of some warm, rich fantasy. Locals might grouse though, that this is merely a fantasy land version of Hawaii, the tourist version, the real thing. Well, for that they would tell you to see the Hawaii loved and lived in by islanders, you need to go just 20 miles to the west to the working class town of Waipahu in the outskirts above Pearl Harbor.

[Nicole Trazo]

It's a small community. Everybody knows each other. It started off with the sugar mill. It's one of those places where most of the friends that I have are my childhood friends.

[Lester Holt]

It's an ancient place. Waipahu, a kind of regional capital long ago before its century, is a sugar plantation. And even now, generations on, its way of life runs like blood in their veins. Elders are called auntie or uncle, and news about the town bounces around from house to house well before it appears on any TV newscast. Which is what happened on Thursday, January 13, 2022, when word flashed from person to person that the healer, the beloved local who owned this modest little acupuncture studio, was dead. And more shocking, had been shot. Dead, murdered. Elton Escobedo learned about it from a group chat. That's how we all found out. Do you remember the first words? John got killed or something like that. We was like in shock. Yeah, we didn't want to believe it. Right. Moses and Cheta heard about it from a fellow surfer.

[Eric Thompson]

I couldn't believe it. I was like, nah, this isn't true. This isn't true.

[Lester Holt]

Nicole Trazo got the news from a friend.

[Nicole Trazo]

He just told me that John was gone.

[Lester Holt]

What was that like for you?

[Nicole Trazo]

Earth shattering.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Nicole Trazo]

Hard to believe.

[Lester Holt]

Julie and Tolan heard about the shooting while at work.

[Nicole Trazo]

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe what I heard. I said, no, no, no, they cannot be here. Are you sure? Are you sure? I kept on saying that I tried to go back to work and I said, I can't do this. And I ended up driving to his office. I saw them carrying his body out to the car and it was just too much. It's hard to believe that that would. I thought it was somebody. I kept on saying, can it be? Can it be? And everybody just said, no, it was John. It was John.

[Lester Holt]

The victim was 47 year old John Tokuhara. Tokes is what they called him, who said his friend Joanna Sabas had a kind of aura about him.

[Nicole Trazo]

I don't think we went anywhere where somebody didn't recognize John and know who John was. He just had that personality that it was just so golden.

[Lester Holt]

Which made it all the more tragic, that sudden, shocking loss and so very puzzling. It was his mother who found him, found his body. That is. That's her in the passenger seat of the silver suv. So understandably distraught, she struggled to answer basic questions. Everything was open. Everything was open. Eventually, Mrs. Tokuhara Lily pulled herself together and told police she last spoke to John on the phone. Around 6pm the night before. They were making a plan to have dinner together, but he never showed. And so the next morning, around 8, worried now, she drove over to her son's acupuncture studio to check on him, and she saw the back door was open. She went inside. And there, crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood, was her son, John. Investigators later found three.22 caliber shell casings scattered about the tiny office, which was cluttered but didn't appear to have been ransacked. And there were no signs of a fight or a struggle of any kind. Making clear to police that this was a targeted killing.

[Nicole Trazo]

We're just trying to make sense of it.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Nicole Trazo]

What did you know? Did John talk to you last or, you know, that kind of stuff? We didn't know. We didn't know what happened.

[Lester Holt]

As we gathered with a group of John's friends, and there were many, we could see that they were still processing the what of it all as they groped for answers about why.

[Nicole Trazo]

Everybody was just trying to make sense of the why. The why? Yeah. What happened? How did it get, you know, who would want that? Who would want to do that to John?

[Lester Holt]

Who indeed. The question that would be asked again and again by friends and investigators.

[Liz Thompson]

There was a backpack found, and it had a lot of cash in it, like around $4,000 cash. See the arrow?

[Lester Holt]

Yep.

[Liz Thompson]

That's our person in the bucket hat.

[Nicole Trazo]

We now consider this female and another male to be persons of interest. Nobody knew who they were.

[Lester Holt]

Even your best friends have secrets, right? Right. Police, for all they tried, could find no enemies in John Tokuhara's background, no one who was out to do him harm. So stymied, investigators were forced to turn to the public for help.

[Eric Thompson]

If you have information regarding this incident.

[Detective Mead]

Whether you saw something suspicious, maybe you saw a suspicious vehicle or someone that looked suspicious in the general area, that kind of looked out of place, you know, something very minute.

[Lester Holt]

Please just give it to us and let the detectives comb through it all the while. Flowers piled up outside the door of his clinic. A week after the murder, there was a vigil, and it seemed like the whole town showed up.

[Nicole Trazo]

I didn't realize how big it was going to be. It basically took up the whole street. It was just tons of people there, all there to just mourn the loss of a friend. It was amazing.

[Lester Holt]

At the beach where he surfed, friends in their hundreds gathered for a paddle out, as they call this. They formed a processional passage as John's ashes were delivered from the beach to the Sea.

[Nicole Trazo]

Oh, one of the most beautiful days. I don't even know how many people were there. Probably hundreds. You would think that he was some.

[Detective Mead]

Kind of like celebrity.

[Nicole Trazo]

Celebrity, the way we had it, I mean there was just.

[Lester Holt]

He was a celebrity.

[Nicole Trazo]

I mean, yeah, he was, but it was beautiful. I'll never forget it. That day I felt close to him because all of his hundreds of closest family and friends was there. And it was just like he was with us.

[Lester Holt]

Once out on the water, the mourners gathered in concentric circles as John's ashes were scattered across the breakers.

[Eric Thompson]

You know that everybody had one thing in common that speaks volume about John, that everybody was saying, John was my best friend.

[Lester Holt]

He was everybody's best friend.

[Nicole Trazo]

He was mine though.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Eric Thompson]

What are you sure?

[Lester Holt]

What are you sure?

[Nicole Trazo]

But that's the truth. He was everybody's best friend.

[Lester Holt]

Which is what made the crime, all the money, more incomprehensible. He'd been such a good kid growing up in Waipahu. He'd studied hard, excelled at sports.

[Eric Thompson]

He played baseball and I played volleyball with him. When he was a junior and a senior, he helped Waipahu win the OIA championship. He won back to back championship. He's a really athletic guy, very competitive. Competitive meaning when he's on the court.

[Lester Holt]

A, he's a totally different person. It's time to get down to business and get the job done. After high school, John moved to the mainland and graduated from the University of Portland with a degree in biology. He went on to get a master's in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. And then after being away for six years, he came back to Hawaii, back to Waipahu.

[Eric Thompson]

He could have done anything anywhere, but he ended up coming back to Waipahu. That's his roots, you know, that's what it is, you know. Waipaway, his blood. Born and raised.

[Lester Holt]

John opened his tiny acupuncture studio less than a mile from his modest apartment and his mother Lily. His clinic was a one man operation where he stored both his surfboard and outrigger canoe. So whenever the waves were right, he'd close up shop and hit the surf. A simple, uncomplicated life made simpler yet by having never married. Though friends he had in abundance.

[Nicole Trazo]

I've known him for over 35 years. He's had girlfriends. You know, in my eyes he's always been a serial monogamous.

[Lester Holt]

But the fact was women just loved John. Even his ex girlfriend stayed friends. Yet somebody wanted him dead. The lover scorned, possibly.

[Liz Thompson]

It almost looks like that he got shot and fell out of the chair onto the floor.

[Lester Holt]

The shooting of John Tokohara raised so many questions with his friends, with police, with us, that we asked retired veteran homicide detective Liz Thompson, who's investigated hundreds of murders, to give us an outsider's take on the case file.

[Liz Thompson]

There was visible wounds to his face and the casings that are within the office space.

[Lester Holt]

How many shell casings were there?

[Liz Thompson]

There were three casings that were found. They were.22 caliber casings. So this camera, for example, she had.

[Lester Holt]

Absorbed it all by the time we talked, as if she could almost see it. Even though a new occupant has remodeled John Tokohara's acupuncture clinic, Thompson showed how the killer made his or her entry into the building.

[Liz Thompson]

So this is the back door to the clinic. So he would have entered here. There have been some changes here, so I'm going to walk you through if you come down here. So this wasn't here, but there was a wall with this reception window. Encounter.

[Lester Holt]

The killer would have been on that.

[Liz Thompson]

Side, would have been on that side.

[Lester Holt]

Pointing out this way.

[Liz Thompson]

This is where John would have been sitting. Approximately.

[Lester Holt]

He.

[Liz Thompson]

He reaches through the window and shoots him. And John falls this way onto the floor.

[Lester Holt]

Just like that.

[Liz Thompson]

Just like that.

[Lester Holt]

While reviewing the crime scene evidence, Liz Thompson came across two curious items in John's clinic that investigators were unable to explain. The first was a surgical mask, which John was wearing, still common in 2022, to protect against Covid. But why wear a mask when you were alone? The other thing police found, and this was truly strange, under John's desk was a backpack.

[Liz Thompson]

And it had a lot of cash in it. Like around $4,000 cash.

[Lester Holt]

Which begs the question, why did John have so much cash on hand? In big bills, no less. And why did the shooter not take it? The money, the surgical mask. Did John have an off the books meeting with his killer that somehow went south? Looking to crack the code on your career? Well, maybe it's time to get your degree. Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 programs you can complete online. No set class times means you can do it all on your schedule. And with some of the lowest online tuition rates in the US they make getting your degree affordable too. Get Started at SNHU. Edu Dateline. That's SNHU. Edu DateLine.

[Detective Mead]

I'm Julio Vaquero, anchor of Noticias Telemundo.

[Lester Holt]

You can watch Dateline, the hit true.

[Detective Mead]

Crime series on Telemundo. And now you can listen to Dateline as a podcast stories of love and betrayal, of secrets revealed of the men and women who stand between evil and justice. Every twist and turn can now be heard in Spanish with new mysteries arriving every week. Just search Dateline en Espanol wherever you get your podcasts and start listening. Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with Oscar winner Cillian Murphy to discuss.

[Lester Holt]

The impact of the billion dollar Oppenheimer.

[Detective Mead]

Movie on his life and his extraordinary new Netflix film.

[Lester Holt]

Steve.

[Detective Mead]

You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts.

[Lester Holt]

That backpack what did it mean? $4,000 in big bills just sitting there a couple of feet from the body of an immensely popular man. A man with no known enemies or vices or debts and yet was murdered execution style. Was the money somehow at the heart of the murder? Was the killer after this bag of cash and just couldn't find it? Was he in debt to somebody?

[Liz Thompson]

Was he in debt to somebody?

[Lester Holt]

Was he in debt to a bad dude?

[Liz Thompson]

Exactly. We just don't know. Why was he there after hours sitting at the desk with a backpack full of cash?

[Lester Holt]

And there was also that surgical mask John was wearing as if he was preparing to have a face to face meeting with somebody even though he had no other appointments scheduled. So a digital detective went through John's computers and phones to see who he was contacting prior to to his murder. The last patient of the day was a longtime friend, Kathy Tanita Ohama, who when questioned by a deputy prosecuting attorney, said she left the clinic around 5:30pm.

[Detective Mead]

When you left at 5:30pm as far as you're aware, was there anyone else in John's office?

[Lester Holt]

No.

[Detective Mead]

Can you tell us what John was like that particular day when you were with him?

[Lester Holt]

He was normal.

[Liz Thompson]

Everything was ordinary.

[Detective Mead]

Did he seem agitated at all?

[Eric Thompson]

No.

[Detective Mead]

Did he seem nervous?

[Eric Thompson]

No.

[Detective Mead]

Did he seem depressed?

[Eric Thompson]

No.

[Lester Holt]

After Kathy left, John texted his current girlfriend, Andy Iramata, a local school teacher, with a cryptic message saying he had more work to do and had to make more phone calls. Thirty minutes after that, around 6pm is when John and his mom Lily spoke on the phone and the two made plans to have dinner together. At 6:12pm John read a text from his mom asking, shall I pack for two? Meaning would John be bringing his girlfriend Andy to dinner? John replied right away, just me. Andy isn't coming. Thanks. At 6:15, Lily responded okay. John read that message but never responded. At 6:18pm John's cell phone was unlocked, but no Messages were sent more than two hours later. At 8:34, Lily texted John asking, are you still at the office? Again, John did not respond, but this time the message went unread. An hour after that, at 9:32, Lily texted, Are you okay? This message too went unread. So the last person known to be in contact with John that evening, other than his mom and his last patient, Kathy, was his girlfriend, Andy Iramata, seen here in a Hawaii News now story about the grammar school where she teaches. But after reviewing case documents, retired detective Liz Thompson found Andy Iramata had what one might call a complicated backstory. An ex boyfriend named Daryl Fujita.

[Liz Thompson]

She had been dating a man like 12 years prior, and they had broken up because she started seeing John. And then they broke up and she ends up back with Darryl years later, and again she starts seeing John, and she and Darrell broke up again. So this guy's been scorned. This is a woman who did him wrong.

[Lester Holt]

Scorned twice by the same guy?

[Liz Thompson]

Yes, by the same guy. This is really a person of interest. We need to take a look at this guy.

[Lester Holt]

Daryl Fujita's life was very much intertwined with his ex, Andy. They had lived together, still owned a house together, even had a child together. So Daryl was questioned by police and then much later by a deputy prosecuting attorney, insisting all along there was no bad blood between him and John.

[Detective Mead]

Did you kill John Tokoharov?

[Eric Thompson]

No.

[Detective Mead]

How did you feel about John dating Andy?

[Eric Thompson]

Nothing really. It's all good. Whatever.

[Lester Holt]

Vegeta allowed police to search his phone, but he didn't hand it over until after he put it through a factory reset.

[Detective Mead]

Mr. Vegeta, do you agree that it looks a little suspicious to change phones in the middle of a murder investigation?

[Eric Thompson]

Not to me, Noel, but to everybody else, I guess.

[Lester Holt]

Well, it certainly did to retired homicide detective Liz Thompson.

[Liz Thompson]

I don't know why he would do that, but it's suspicious.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, no kidding.

[Liz Thompson]

It's very suspicious. I wouldn't recommend that. If the police need your phone to wipe it, that's kind of an automatic clue that there's something suspicious. So we don't know what was on the phone that he was concerned about? We just don't know.

[Lester Holt]

Would you like to?

[Liz Thompson]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I would like, as an investigator, I want an explanation that makes sense.

[Lester Holt]

Nicole Trazo has known John since childhood and Daryl Fujita for a decade or more. Did you hear about what was happening in the investigation?

[Nicole Trazo]

I heard some of it. Some of our friends would hear little bits and pieces and we would discuss it amongst ourselves.

[Lester Holt]

Do they ever talk about this Daryl Fujita, or did you ever hear about that part? She had no idea. She said, that Daryl Fujita was a person of interest in John's murder investigation. Police, though, continued to comb through John's phones and computers to see if there was anyone or anything else of note hidden away in there. There was a private Instagram account with just one very attentive follower, a former patient, Joyce Thompson.

[Liz Thompson]

Now, we're. We're talking thousands of messages between John and Joyce Thompson that were intimate in nature and explicit. And this, of course, is very suspicious.

[Lester Holt]

Because this woman, Joyce, was very much married. When questioned by police, Joyce acknowledged she did have a fling with John. But it was seven months over. It ended almost as soon as it began. Her story matched the timeline on the Instagram account. Given the flurry of messages were all jammed into a short period, two months. John's friend Nicole said it had to be a brief romance if she never caught wind of it. Or Joyce Thompson. Did you hear about her at all?

[Nicole Trazo]

Joyce never heard anything of her.

[Lester Holt]

So police continued to look into John's past. And then my name came up. That was a few days after the murder, I believe. John demarco's wife, police learned, also had an affair with John Tokuhara. They asked her how they met. So she met John as a patient. She was getting acupuncture. The affair ended the DeMarco's marriage, but that was 14 years ago. DeMarco said he held no ill feelings toward John. And while his wife was questioned by police, he never was. From what I had heard, I wasn't a suspect. Which meant when it came to persons of interest, Daro Fujita was still top of the list. Until the focus turned to a mysterious person wearing. Well, it was a strange outfit for a warm day in Hawaii.

[Liz Thompson]

It looked like a person trying to disguise themselves to go do a murder.

[Lester Holt]

They are everywhere, Those unblinking robot eyes staring at us, hiding behind smoked glass domes, watching, recording everything we do. They're all around John Tokuhara's old acupuncture clinic. Maybe, police wondered, maybe one of them caught his killer on camera. So they canvassed the neighborhood, collecting video. Everything these cameras recorded around the time of the murder. And then one of the investigators sat at a screen and watched for hours, looking for something. Couldn't be sure what or who.

[Liz Thompson]

It's hard to do. It's the most tedious thing because you're looking at everyday life. Lots of traffic, lots of people walking by.

[Lester Holt]

It's not very easy to do that. I mean, there's a whole lot of video and a whole lot of time they have to watch.

[Liz Thompson]

And you've got to make sure that you are looking at every camera that could possibly be capturing anything, because you don't know which direction this person came from.

[Lester Holt]

This person being John Tokuhara's killer. Did he or she come to the clinic on foot, by car, bicycle, bus, even? Who knew? And then, while police were watching hours and hours of nothing in particular, a recurring character began to emerge in an almost where's Waldo sort of way. It was a person loping along toward the clinic, possibly toting a brown paper grocery bag and wearing a floppy white.

[Liz Thompson]

Hat, Just kind of a goofy bucket hat. They have on sunglasses and a mask and a kind of heavy windbreaker jacket.

[Lester Holt]

Here he comes. One particular video clip caught Liz Thompson's attention.

[Liz Thompson]

I want you to watch what he does right there.

[Lester Holt]

He's walking back and forth there.

[Liz Thompson]

Yeah, he's, like, a little indecisive. Yeah, he's, like.

[Lester Holt]

Notable because the video was recorded just four minutes before John stopped responding to calls and texts. And now there was this oddly attired man or woman directly across the street from John Tokuhara's clinic, staring at the front door, which was chained, shot because of an earlier act of vandalism.

[Liz Thompson]

So it wasn't like he was gonna go try the door.

[Lester Holt]

You can see. Yeah, there are many clips of this mystery person walking one way, then another. So many that when viewed all at once, they come across as a confusing jumble of disconnected images. So to help us understand a little better the sequence of events, Liz Thompson walked us through the route taken by the suspected killer, Starting with the very first camera that picked him up. Him or her. This one overlooking the parking lot of a preschool Stepping stones academy.

[Liz Thompson]

He's captured walking this direction along here. These hedges at that time were much shorter. And then back in that corner, there's a video camera that captured this.

[Lester Holt]

A block later, here's buckethat again, picked up by the cameras of this dialysis clinic.

[Liz Thompson]

And under that overhang, there are two surveillance cameras, and they look out towards the street, and they captured. As the person in the white hat walked past the dialysis clinic, another camera.

[Lester Holt]

Captured the suspect walking down this street and then turning right at the intersection.

[Liz Thompson]

So around this corner, if you'll look to the right, you see that sign way up high on that building?

[Lester Holt]

Building.

[Liz Thompson]

It says hyper squad. Right on the corner above that sign are two surveillance cameras, and they've got a Perfect view. They've got a perfect view.

[Lester Holt]

It was one of those cameras that caught the person in the bucket hat pacing back and forth across from John's clinic.

[Liz Thompson]

So the person stops about right here, and this is where you see that indecision. It's close, closed. Should I go? And those are the cameras that captured that. So at this point, and this is very specific now, we know this is the specific business this person is wanting to go to, because at this point now, the person crosses the street directly in front of the clinic, but then.

[Lester Holt]

Turns left, walking up the sidewalk along the row of businesses, which ended at the Ultimate Grinds restaurant.

[Liz Thompson]

And they have a lot of cameras.

[Eric Thompson]

Oh, yeah.

[Lester Holt]

Camera here. Yeah, Three of them, I think.

[Liz Thompson]

So what it captures is the person with the white hat walks across this grassy area, almost like they're going to go that way, and then turns to go around the back of the building.

[Lester Holt]

After rounding Ultimate Grinds, the suspect was picked up on a camera overlooking the.

[Liz Thompson]

Back parking lot, but only so far, because the cameras do not cover the back entrance to the clinic.

[Lester Holt]

But if we go back to that overview camera at Hypersquad and zoom way in, we can just make out the white hat near the rear entrance to John's clinic. And then it disappears. The time is 6 hours, 15 minutes and 51 seconds. The hat reappears 1 minute and 13 seconds later. It was during that time, police believe, John Tokohara was murdered. Then the bucket hat person, moving more quickly now, walks past those cameras in reverse order. These cameras are watching him all the way along here, right?

[Liz Thompson]

They are. This is the video that we watched, that he. From the back, he's approaching the street, getting ready to cross the street, where.

[Lester Holt]

Something very unexpected happens.

[Liz Thompson]

So he crosses the street. This is where he starts to jog a little bit. It looks like maybe the wind catches a hat, flies off.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, comes off, lands right over there.

[Liz Thompson]

Lands right over there in the middle of the lane.

[Lester Holt]

A hat that would presumably be covered with DNA. So find the hat, find John Tokohara's killer. Right. Well, good luck with that. It happens in a second. The hat worn by John Tokohara's suspected killer blows off and lands in the middle of the street.

[Liz Thompson]

Here he goes. Now watch the hat.

[Lester Holt]

And he's not even going to stop to think about it. The most crucial element of this apparent disguise, now suddenly gone. But he or she does not return to pick up the hat, perhaps because, said Liz Thompson, because under the hat, the killer appeared to be wearing a wig. An extra layer of disguise so to.

[Liz Thompson]

Me, it looks like one of those Halloween wigs that has, like, elastic that goes over your head, and then you have, like, curly, almost clown hair in the back. And if you have something on your head that may prevent you from feeling that that hat has come off, he may not have noticed at all.

[Lester Holt]

To Liz Thompson's investigative eye, the suspected killer seemed distracted while crossing the street.

[Liz Thompson]

I found it very interesting that when he gets over to the sidewalk, he's worried about something, and then what's he doing with the bag? He opens the bag, and he briefly looks inside of it.

[Lester Holt]

The now hatless suspect follows the same route back and is last seen exiting this camera shot at the Stepping Stones Academy, just where the camera picked up the bucket hat 10 minutes earlier. But now that hat was lying in the street, run over again and again by dozens of cars, trucks, even a bus. It was blown about for more than 12 minutes before this man crossed the street to claim it.

[Liz Thompson]

And that's all caught on surveillance video. Aha. So they were able to get good face shots of the man that picked up the hat from the surveillance video.

[Lester Holt]

But who was it using those face shots? A local beat cop actually found the man who found the hat.

[Liz Thompson]

He was homeless and camped nearby, and they went to his camp, and there's the hat exactly where he said he had put. He kind of wadded it up and stuck it next to his cooler in his camp.

[Lester Holt]

This was now 10 days after John Tokohara was murdered, 10 days after the hat had fallen from the suspect's head.

[Liz Thompson]

So there's a problem right off the bat that it laid in the street. And then there is this period of time where the man who picked it up said no one else touched it. But we don't know that. We don't have confirmation of that, meaning.

[Lester Holt]

It could be so contaminated it would be worthless as evidence. Still, they sent the hat to the Honolulu Police Department's crime lab for DNA testing, a process that would take weeks. As they waited, investigators continued to watch those surveillance videos again and again. And they saw something they hadn't noticed before. A white pickup truck that kept popping up on the same cameras that captured footage of the bucket hat person. Liz Thompson showed us how the footage matched up.

[Liz Thompson]

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through the videos that they discovered that showed, like, the path of the truck arriving 22.

[Lester Holt]

Minutes before the murder. Here's the truck, or a white truck at least, going by Ultimate Grinds now, seen by one of those cameras at Hypersquad. And then captured by that loading dock camera heading up the street past the dialysis clinic and that Stepping Stones Academy camera. Now, that's just a truck going by. I wonder why they would think that that was particularly interesting.

[Liz Thompson]

But then eight minutes later, that's our person in in the bucket hat, heading.

[Lester Holt]

As we now know, toward John Tokohara's clinic. And then returning hatless 10 minutes later. A minute after that person walks out of frame, a white truck appears, turns right up the street, turns right again, passing in front of the Stepping Stones Academy, and is last spotted heading toward the freeway. But the driver is never seen, nor is the license plate identified. And there are thousands of white pickup trucks in Hawaii. They're as common as coconuts. Who knows for sure if these are all the same truck or not. It was frustrating. And then, on February 5, 24 days after the murder, the Honolulu Police Department called the press together. They had an announcement to make regarding the Tokohara investigation.

[Nicole Trazo]

We now consider this female and another male to be persons of interest.

[Lester Holt]

In Texas. The countdown has begun. Robert Roberson is scheduled to die. When the clock hits zero, it's over. But a growing chorus insists Robert is innocent. We didn't hear Robert. We chose to disbelieve him. I'm on the ground in Texas, searching for the truth. The Last Appeal, a new podcast from Dateline and Lester Holt. To listen now. Search the Last Appeal on Amazon Music. The prowling white pickup, the wandering stranger, the clown wig, the crumpled bucket hat, the backpack full of cash. None of this was known to the public when a spokesperson from the Honolulu Police Department made this cryptic statement.

[Nicole Trazo]

We have discovered that the victim.

[Eric Thompson]

Victim.

[Nicole Trazo]

Was in a romantic relationship with a female. We now consider this female and another male to be persons of interest.

[Lester Holt]

This announcement by the Honolulu Police Department came out of the blue, and it was strange. Strange in that it was so vague. The couple referenced were not arrested, weren't named, weren't even labeled as suspects, just persons of interest. That was it. John's friend of 35 years, Nicole, said she had no idea who the police were talking about.

[Nicole Trazo]

That was a shock, like nobody knew who they were.

[Lester Holt]

So why did the police make this announcement rather than make an arrest? Anybody in law enforcement knows that calling someone a person of interest has no legal bearing. A witness to a crime can be called a person of interest. So what was the point?

[Liz Thompson]

This can be a strategy to perhaps motivate someone to talk, meaning police may.

[Lester Holt]

Have been trying to get one of those persons of interest to flip on the other. What police didn't say in this announcement was that they believed this mystery couple had a connection to that white pickup truck. After checking with a car expert, investigators determined the Pickup was a 2014-2016 Chevy Silverado Crew cab work truck. A search of the DMV database though, showed there were dozens of trucks in Hawaii that fit that description.

[Liz Thompson]

53 trucks to be exact. Well, guess who one of these trucks is registered to? Eric Thompson.

[Lester Holt]

The man married to Joyce Thompson, the prolific Instagrammer, who seven months before the murder, had an affair with John Tokuhara. The Thompsons were 30 something strivers who, along with their toddler daughter, lived in this tony neighborhood east of downtown Honolulu. Their home had a tennis court, some rental units, and it was just steps from the beach, a family sanctuary. Until police showed up three weeks after John Tokohara's murder with a warrant to search the Thompsons home and computers and cars parked in the driveway. The police found Eric's pickup truck, a white 2014 Chevy, a Silverado work truck, just like the one in all those videos. Inside the house, police found guns. Lots of them. 12 all told.

[Liz Thompson]

The other thing that was found was.

[Lester Holt]

A lot of ammunition.22 caliber ammunition, the same type used to kill John Tokohara. It was all very curious, but not incriminating because neither the guns nor the ammunition matched the shell casings found at the murder scene. And police found nothing on Eric's phone, nothing on his computer that connected him to John Tokohara. No texts, no calls, no emails, nothing. In fact, it appeared the only thing possibly connecting Eric Thompson to the murder was that truck of his. A truck that kind of looked like the one in all those videos. But certainly police needed more than that to get an arrest warrant. So they waited for the DNA results on that bucket hat.

[Liz Thompson]

In some of the samples, it was more than four people. And these mixtures are not interpretable by most of the government labs. They don't have the capability to take a look at this mixture of DNA and separate out, okay, this is this profile. This is this profile.

[Lester Holt]

Which is why most of the DNA tests came back as inconclusive. Except for two, which determined Eric could not be excluded as a contributor. Didn't say for sure it was him. Just couldn't be excluded. Nothing more than that. But it was good enough for the cops. On February 14, 2022, Valentine's Day, as well as his fifth wedding anniversary, Eric Thompson wedding was arrested and charged with murder.

[Liz Thompson]

Court documents allege Eric Thompson walked into Tokuhara acupuncture and healthcare about 6:15 the evening of January 12th.

[Lester Holt]

But friends like Julie and Tolan, who's known John since kindergarten, were now more confused than ever. Who the heck were Eric and Joyce Thompson?

[Nicole Trazo]

I never heard of her.

[Lester Holt]

Really? In all the years you knew John, you never heard of Joyce?

[Nicole Trazo]

No, I don't know her. I don't know her. I don't know them.

[Lester Holt]

Who were these people? And how did they fit into John's life together? Since their first flirtations at Kalani High School, Eric and Joyce looked like the perfect match. Eric, the pragmatic one, got a degree in biology, then launched a thriving contracting business. Joyce, however, lived among the clouds. She attended beautician school, led a couple of failed startups, and routinely sought advice from psychics. They stayed together, though, and 14 years after they met, they married. Three years later, in 2020, they had a baby girl. But despite being homegrown locals to the close circle of friends around John Tokuhara, Eric and Joyce were strangers. Nobody had ever heard of them.

[Nicole Trazo]

All of that was, you know, kind of a shock, like nobody knew who they were or how.

[Lester Holt]

Even your best friends have secrets, right?

[Nicole Trazo]

Right.

[Lester Holt]

Now, police were saying this stranger, wearing a disguise no less, and furious about some fling involving his wife, walked into John's acupuncture studio and shot him to death. But with some past affair, motive enough to execute a man in cold blood. And could the state produce enough evidence to prove Eric Thompson was in fact the man in the bucket hat? Once arrested, the accused man did not linger behind bars very long. No long months of jail time awaiting trial, no. Eric Thompson quickly posted bail, set at a million dollars, and went home to house arrest in his spacious property with his child and his wife, Joyce, who was still by her husband's side 17 months later when his murder trial was called to order. Do you think to see that his wife was sitting up there in court apparently supporting him?

[Nicole Trazo]

That made me sick to my stomach. But, you know, they said that she had to be there, you know, to put up a front, I guess. I don't know, make her look like she's supporting her husband, make him look innocent.

[Eric Thompson]

I don't know.

[Detective Mead]

I had never covered a trial as extensively as this one. This was my first go around. And what a trial to jump into.

[Lester Holt]

Hawaii News now anchor Mark Carpenter said that to him, Eric Thompson appeared to be the unlikeliest of murder defendants.

[Detective Mead]

Eric Thompson is a self made businessman. He is a successful contractor. He lives all the way on the other side of the island. So what is going on here?

[Lester Holt]

Deputy Prosecuting attorney Benjamin Rose put it rather succinctly. The state's case in a single sentence.

[Detective Mead]

Eric Thompson killed the man who slept with his wife. And this is a story as old as time.

[Lester Holt]

The first witness was John Tokohara's mom, Lily, who told the story of finding her son's body as if it had happened just minutes ago.

[Nicole Trazo]

I went into the office and I.

[Lester Holt]

Saw him on the floor, and I slapped paper, paperwork all over the room. Next, the prosecution called Daryl Fujita to the stand. He's the guy, remember, whose ex actually left him for John Tokohara twice. The strategy, presumably, was to show the jury that Fujita should not be portrayed as some alternate suspect for the defense to accuse because he'd been fully investigated and cleared. But the prosecutor did not go easy on Fujita when asking that one very hard question. Why did he scrub his phone before handing it over to police?

[Detective Mead]

Why do you normally delete phone call logs, texts?

[Lester Holt]

I don't know, man.

[Eric Thompson]

I don't see anything wrong with it. Like, I just. I just.

[Lester Holt]

I just delete them.

[Detective Mead]

You agree that it looks kind of odd, right?

[Eric Thompson]

No, I mean, unless you got something. I mean, watch what I say here. But I don't think it looks suspicious.

[Lester Holt]

To me, for lack of a better word.

[Detective Mead]

That was among the most colorful bits of testimony that we saw.

[Lester Holt]

He was annoyed to even be there.

[Detective Mead]

To even be involved with this, which is understandable.

[Lester Holt]

John demarco was also called for the same reasons as Fujita. I was really flabbergasted that I was called to have to testify, first of all, because I wasn't a suspect. But how solid really was the case against Eric Thompson? Well, now the lead detective took the stand. Man named Mead. Detective Mead began by describing what he found when he arrived at John Tokuhara's clinic. It appeared very personal.

[Detective Mead]

Mr. Tokohara was shot several times in.

[Lester Holt]

The face, and it seemed very calculated and quick. Detective Mead walked the jury through all that surveillance video of the white truck and the mystery man in the bucket hat. And then they showed the jury this. It's video recorded by a neighbor's security camera overlooking Eric Thompson's home. This is from the evening of the murder. First, there's Eric's truck leaving the property at 5:20pm about an hour before John Tokoharo was shot. And then at 6:48pm exactly 30 minutes after the shooting, the truck returns. Now look at this. The neighbor's surveillance camera catches a light flaring and flickering in the Thompson's backyard. Only one explanation for that, said Detective.

[Detective Mead]

Mead, through my training and experience, it's.

[Lester Holt]

Typical for suspects that have committed crimes to try and destroy evidence.

[Detective Mead]

And what's one way of destroying evidence?

[Lester Holt]

Fires. Mind you, the police never could find evidence of an actual bonfire in Thompson's the backyard. But, said Detective Mead, they did find something. Something that would account for what the neighbor's camera recorded. We discovered, I would say a medium sized pot that appeared to be have.

[Detective Mead]

Char marks in in a wheelbarrow that.

[Lester Holt]

Also appeared to be partially burnt. The prosecution closed its case with the DNA tests of the white bucket hat that determined Eric Thompson could not be excluded as a possible contributor.

[Detective Mead]

The DNA recovered on the white bucket hat, all this surveillance video, the fact that Joyce was seeing him, they have this extensive history together. It had seemed that the prosecution had done a great job of putting themselves at an advantage.

[Lester Holt]

At least that's what Carpenter thought until Eric's defense team presented its case and put Eric Thompson himself on the stand.

[Liz Thompson]

We solem swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give should have yes.

[Detective Mead]

Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with Oscar winner Cillian Murphy to discuss.

[Lester Holt]

The impact of the billion dollar Oppenheimer.

[Detective Mead]

Movie on his life and his his.

[Lester Holt]

Extraordinary new Netflix film.

[Detective Mead]

Steve, you can get our conversation for.

[Lester Holt]

Free wherever you download your podcasts.

[Detective Mead]

I'm Julio Vaqueiro, anchor of Noticias Telemundo. You can watch Dateline, the hit true crime series on Telemundo. And now you can listen to Dateline as a podcast.

[Lester Holt]

Stories of love and betrayal, of secrets.

[Detective Mead]

Revealed of the men and women who.

[Lester Holt]

Stand between evil and justice.

[Detective Mead]

Every twist and turn can now be heard in Spanish with new mysteries arriving every week. Just search en espanol wherever you get your podcasts and start listening.

[Lester Holt]

Eric did not kill John Togar. Evidence, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder sometimes. And this beholder, defense attorney David Hayakawa, saw not a solid case against his client, but a messy blundering investigation by cops wearing blinders. The police in this case blatantly ignored significant, obvious other leads that could have either tracked existing suspects or found unknown suspects. The person in the bucket hat, for example. Well, there was no telling who that was. The mystery man in all these different.

[Eric Thompson]

Videos does not look like Eric Thompson.

[Lester Holt]

He does not walk like Eric Thompson. And the hat itself had been so mishandled and cross contaminated, said defense attorney Hayakawa. It should never have been admitted as evidence the prosecution is saying, even though.

[Detective Mead]

This many people touched it, you cannot rule out that Eric Thompson's DNA is still there.

[Lester Holt]

Whereas the defense is saying, so many.

[Detective Mead]

People touched this hat, there's no way you can definitively say that it belongs to Eric Thompson.

[Lester Holt]

Remember that Chevy Silverado spotted in Waipahu? The one the bucket hat person was supposedly driving? That wasn't Derek's truck. Said the defense couldn't have been, because at the time of the shooting, Eric said he was far away on the opposite side of the island at this dump, tossing out a load of construction debris. The backyard fire that was no bonfire of the evidence. That was light from the Thompson's tiki torches. And the stockpot, of course, it was blackened a bit. It had been used in a construction project. As for those guns, not a single one of them could be tied to the shooting. Same thing for all the.22 caliber ammunition the police found at Eric's place. It was the same caliber, yes, but different brand, different bullet casings. Then, before concluding, the defense called a surprise witness to the stand. Eric Thompson himself. Yes, he'd held his tongue for a year and a half, but now the jury and the public would finally hear Eric, in his own words, describe a loving relationship with his wife, Joyce, and his respect and gratitude for John, the acupuncturist who had been treating her.

[Eric Thompson]

John not only helped her get pregnant, but also helped her through. And that acupuncture played a big role.

[Lester Holt]

He also talked about his feelings of betrayal when he learned of their affair.

[Eric Thompson]

It's really disappointed. I mean, it just didn't make sense that, like, John helped us through the pregnancy, and, like. I mean, what. I just didn't understand why he would do that if he's just gonna blow it up later.

[Lester Holt]

Then Eric told the jury he never contacted John at all after finding out about the affair. And he told them why.

[Eric Thompson]

The first couple days, I was thinking, you know, call him, chew him out. But it came to the realization that, you know, I don't think I could have said anything to make things better. And I. I don't think I could get him to say sorry or feel bad. I mean, what's the point? You know? Like, the problem was, with me and Joyce, it wasn't. I mean, she cut him off.

[Lester Holt]

Did you kill John Do.

[Eric Thompson]

No, I didn't.

[Lester Holt]

Did you have anything to do with being in Waipahu or anything to do with that entire incident?

[Eric Thompson]

No, I had nothing to do with it.

[Lester Holt]

For the questions, your honor, Eric came.

[Detective Mead]

Across as somebody that was sincerely Heartbroken to find out that there had been an affair going on and she had been seeing John. He didn't come across as the cold, calculated person that the prosecution tried to build a case around.

[Lester Holt]

In his closing argument, defense attorney Hayakawa attacked both the police and John Tokohara, saying one was incompetent and the other was a homewrecker. Who knows who else was out there? The detective himself said, we had leads. Multiple relationships, overlapping relationships. Many of the women had. Were in relationships, and many of them had children. None of that followed up on Julianne Tolan, who'd known John since kindergarten, couldn't believe how her friend, the victim, was portrayed in court.

[Nicole Trazo]

The defense was twisting stuff around and, you know, making it seem like John was the. Like, the bad guy.

[Lester Holt]

What was it like to hear that sort of thing?

[Nicole Trazo]

It was frustrating. I was mad, I was upset, you.

[Lester Holt]

Know, and you can't say a darn thing right. You want to stand up in court and say, no, that isn't him.

[Nicole Trazo]

Yeah, it was very frustrating. I was sitting there and I was like, you know, shaking my leg and like, oh, my gosh, you know, like, I can't believe they're saying this thing, stuff like that. And it was. It was tough.

[Lester Holt]

And now it was up to the jury to decide what to believe.

[Nicole Trazo]

That was something that kind of. I couldn't believe what I heard.

[Lester Holt]

A trampled bucket hat, perhaps worn by the killer. A white truck, perhaps driven by the killer. A mess of slightly ambiguous DNA. What were jurors to think? Whatever it was they were thinking, they went on and on. One day, two days, and at the end of day three, they gave up, hopelessly deadlocked. Nine to convict, three to acquit. And so the judge declared a mistrial.

[Nicole Trazo]

That was something that kind of. I couldn't believe what I heard. You heard all the evidence. You know, you listen to, you know, all these people come in, and you still couldn't come to a conclusion. I mean, it. Yeah, you know, everything's there. It was hard, you know, to see Eric Thompson sitting there smug and acting like he was innocent.

[Lester Holt]

He walked out of there.

[Nicole Trazo]

Yeah. With his wife in his hand. Hand in hand.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Nicole Trazo]

Yeah, I was there. It was. It was hard to see. It was hard to see.

[Lester Holt]

Eric remained at home under house arrest pending retrial. But 13 months later, as the prosecution prepared to make its case in court a second time, this happened. Felony trials are being delayed and many.

[Nicole Trazo]

Criminal cases are being reviewed because of this report.

[Lester Holt]

Hawaii News. Now investigative reporter Lynn Kawano uncovered An audit of the Honolulu Police Department's crime lab, which revealed that while they passed on most of the issues and most.

[Liz Thompson]

Of the parameters, they did have about 314 deficiencies.

[Nicole Trazo]

And in those had to do with DNA.

[Lester Holt]

Liz Thompson, who was trained by the FBI to do advanced DNA investigations, reviewed the crime lab report.

[Liz Thompson]

They discovered that the Honolulu Police Department's lab wasn't validating the results of the DNA testing.

[Lester Holt]

What do you mean wasn't validating?

[Liz Thompson]

So part of the process of, of DNA testing, you've got to have checks and balances. So you want to make sure that your results can be replicated and you have a process to validate those results.

[Lester Holt]

Which is kind of an important part of the process.

[Liz Thompson]

Extremely important. Extremely important.

[Lester Holt]

Wouldn't they know that?

[Liz Thompson]

They should have.

[Lester Holt]

When you saw that, what was your first thought?

[Liz Thompson]

I was shocked.

[Lester Holt]

All of which meant the state could not use the bucket hat DNA analysis in trial number two. And without that DNA evidence, how could the prosecution ever hope to get a guilty verdict at the retrial? Still, they went ahead. This is January 21st, 2025.

[Detective Mead]

You'll see that throughout this trial, Eric Thompson planned this murder, and he executed this murder nearly flawlessly.

[Lester Holt]

And this time, the prosecution highlighted motive. The affair. Eric's wife Joyce, sitting rigidly behind him, opted not to testify in either trial, citing Hawaii's marital privilege law. So the prosecutor came, called Joyce's sister Kelly.

[Detective Mead]

So after the affair, how was the defendant's relationship with Joyce?

[Liz Thompson]

After.

[Detective Mead]

Yes, after discovering the affair, the first.

[Liz Thompson]

Week was a little different. But after that it was back to normal.

[Nicole Trazo]

It was as if nothing happened.

[Lester Holt]

As if nothing happened, the prosecutor alleged, because Eric Thompson was quietly calculating strategy. Jurors watched the surveillance video of the white Chevy Silverado driving around Waipahu before and after the murder. But how could they know this was Eric Thompson? The prosecutor called a man who sold Chevy trucks.

[Detective Mead]

What can you tell us about this truck here?

[Lester Holt]

These are freeze frames of Eric Silverado and the one in the surveillance video.

[Detective Mead]

When doing a side by side, what can you tell us about these two trucks?

[Nicole Trazo]

We see looks the same.

[Lester Holt]

Black mirrors, running boards, the steel wheels. Then this officer told the jury about the man they believed was driving that truck, the man in the bucket hat.

[Detective Mead]

How many hours of surveillance footage in total did you watch? Approximately?

[Eric Thompson]

Around three weeks, more or less, not.

[Detective Mead]

Including my days off. Based on your review of the surveillance in the nearby area, did you develop a suspect?

[Eric Thompson]

I did.

[Detective Mead]

Can you describe what that suspect looked like?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Detective Mead]

This suspect was wearing a light colored.

[Lester Holt]

Bucket hat, style which flew off after the murder and as you'll recall, was picked up by a man who lived in a homeless encampment and who was later found by the police. Then the Honolulu police criminal testified about the DNA test she did on the bucket hat, but could say nothing more because the dismal results of that crime lab audit had invalidated her earlier analysis.

[Detective Mead]

Do you have any conclusions today?

[Liz Thompson]

No, I did redact my conclusions.

[Eric Thompson]

Why did you redact them?

[Liz Thompson]

It was redacted because there was a statistic that we do not use anymore.

[Lester Holt]

It was as if the prosecution was simply admitting defeat until this.

[Liz Thompson]

Do you soundly swear or affirm that the testimony.

[Lester Holt]

A surprising witness was called to the stand.

[Detective Mead]

Please have a seat.

[Lester Holt]

While the judge refused to admit the police department's DNA analysis into evidence, he did allow an analyst from a high tech company called Cybergenetics to present their own separate analysis of the bucket hat DNA. And when she applied the company's advanced software to the DNA in the bucket.

[Liz Thompson]

Hat, the DNA typing results for the.

[Lester Holt]

Interior top of crown are 16.4 trillion.

[Nicole Trazo]

Times more likely to be observed if.

[Lester Holt]

They originated from Eric Thompson. 16.4 trillion. The number almost seemed made up like something out of a children's book. But no. What that computer generated number said to the courtroom was that Eric Thompson was the man in the bucket hat and therefore the man who killed John Tokohara. Except Cybergenetics, enormous number was based on data provided to them by the Honolulu Police Department's problem plagued crime lab. So how reliable a number could it really be? What a game changer. DNA has been the proof that settles criminal cases everywhere. Especially when DNA offers assurances like this in the case of the murder of acupuncturist John Tokuhara.

[Liz Thompson]

So the DNA typing results for the.

[Lester Holt]

Interior top of crown are 16.4 trillion.

[Nicole Trazo]

Times more likely to be observed if.

[Lester Holt]

They originated from Eric Thompson. Meaning Eric Thompson must be guilty of murder. Unless defense attorney Susan Arnett pointed out a hitch in that big cyber genetics DNA number. The company never did test the actual bucket hat. No swabs, no swipes at all.

[Nicole Trazo]

The data from hpd, all of that comes to you?

[Liz Thompson]

It comes to me in an electronic file.

[Lester Holt]

Meaning Cyber genetics analyzed the digital information which was sent to them by the Honolulu Police Department lab. A lab with, remember, some big deal problems which criminalist Michelle Amerin admitted to during cross examination.

[Nicole Trazo]

The crime lab was audited, correct?

[Liz Thompson]

Yes.

[Nicole Trazo]

And the audit came out with some serious criticisms and finding fault with the.

[Lester Holt]

Crime lab, didn't it?

[Liz Thompson]

There were Some findings, yes.

[Nicole Trazo]

It was a big deal, wasn't it, Ms. Ameron?

[Liz Thompson]

Sure.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Nicole Trazo]

Made the local news.

[Lester Holt]

It did. And said the defense, the hat was so contaminated, after being run over dozens of times and handled by who knows how many people, it simply was worthless as evidence. Anyway, who could say for sure the guy wearing it was even John's killer? Look at all these people roaming about in the parking lot outside John's clinic, said new lead defense attorney Nelson Guy.

[Eric Thompson]

And in this video, as it shows, a man walking towards the clinic with a bag over his shoulder, followed by a person pulling a shopping cart, Correct?

[Lester Holt]

Correct. Any one of them could have been the killer, said Gu, or could have been John DeMarco, whose wife had a fling with John Tokuhara.

[Eric Thompson]

When you confronted John Tokuhara, you were pissed, right?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, a little bit. That's natural.

[Eric Thompson]

But during this call, isn't it true that you said, brah, this is bull what you did?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, probably. Yeah. The toughest part was being on the stand and having the defense almost accusing you or even being asked the question that, did you murder John Tokuhara? I'm like, absolutely not. It's just a weird question to have been asked in. In such a serious tone. What about Daryl Fujita? Remember him? The guy who twice lost his girlfriend Andy to John, Even though you weren't.

[Eric Thompson]

Legally married to Andy, it was as if it was like a family unit, right?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Eric Thompson]

Okay. And things were good, right? It could be better, but. Yeah. So that went on for several years. Okay.

[Detective Mead]

No.

[Eric Thompson]

Yes or no?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Eric Thompson]

Yes is. Yeah, a yes.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Okay.

[Eric Thompson]

We have to make a record. That's fine. No, I understand. She gotta type it? Yes. Okay. Now, so Mr. Fujita, at some point, John Takahara broke up that family union by getting. I don't know why you guys keep trying to say that. I mean, you guys can keep saying it, but. No, he didn't. It was bad between both sides, and that's just the way it is, bro.

[Lester Holt]

But the lawyer continued to imply that Fujita was a man with a motive who was never fully cleared.

[Eric Thompson]

I want to talk about Daryl Fujita. Right. He gave an alibi as to the relevant time, saying he was at his parents house 4:30pm on January 12, 2022. Maybe leaving around 7:30pm yes. Yeah. You never verified that alibi, right?

[Lester Holt]

No. As for his own client, Eric Thompson, GU got Detective Meade to concede there was zero digital evidence connecting Eric to John Tokohara or the murder.

[Eric Thompson]

There's no data, cellular or otherwise, to indicate that he was in Waipahu on January 12, 2022, correct?

[Lester Holt]

No.

[Eric Thompson]

And actually, Detective, there's no data, there's no social media, there's no Instagrams, there's no phone records of Eric Thompson ever trying to communicate with John Tokuhara from July 21, 2021, to January 12, 2022, correct?

[Lester Holt]

Yes. And then Eric Thompson took the stand again. A bold move, but one that seemed to have worked for the defense in the first trial.

[Eric Thompson]

We went through several multiple miscarriages along the way.

[Lester Holt]

He told the jury the backstory of his and Joyce's failed attempts to have children and the advice they got from a friend.

[Eric Thompson]

She recommended she go to, you know, the acupuncturist that she was going to. And who was that? That was Mr. John Tokuhara.

[Lester Holt]

And that, said Eric Thompson, was like a miracle because after John's treatment, Joyce got pregnant. And on June 9, 2020, daughter Emma was born. Eric said he was thrilled, but Joyce seemed depressed afterward.

[Eric Thompson]

It seemed like she wasn't herself, not as enthusiastic as I thought she'd been. Because motherhood was something that we both looked forward to for so long.

[Lester Holt]

So Joyce went back to John for follow up treatments.

[Eric Thompson]

I knew she was going to, but it didn't raise any red flags.

[Lester Holt]

Eric said he felt very good about it all until he checked his home security system after returning from a work trip.

[Eric Thompson]

To my surprise, I see Joyce walking out in the middle of the night. So I was saying, wait, Emma's in the house, Joyce is going outside. What's so important to go outside for? I was saying, like, I would never leave, you know, leave a baby in the house like that.

[Lester Holt]

When confronted, Joyce admitted nothing, at least for the first two days.

[Eric Thompson]

And then she looked at me and she said, you know, I had an affair. And what was your reaction? What were you feeling? I mean, it was complete shock. Then she said, she said it was with John 20th. And then I was like, who? And then she said, she said, you know, Dr. John. And I was like, it's like, oh, the massage guy. And it's just like. Just didn't make any sense. Like, like, not only like, why, but it's like, like how, like how logistically, like, could this happen? Like, I had no, like, prior to that week, there's like zero suspicion. I was pissed. Like, what did I do to deserve this? Did you ever threaten to kill John at that time? No, never. Have you ever threatened to kill John? No. Did you ever feel like you had to go confront him? Uh, you know, maybe on the first day I seen, like, oh, you know, how could someone do that? Like, I would want to, you know, call him and, you know, tell him off kind of thing. But, I mean. I mean, I just realized, like, you know, where's that gonna get you? And then I kind of came to the realization that, like, holy. Like, I must be at fault, too. I realized that, you know, John was there for her, and I should have paid more attention. I realized that, you know, it was an issue between me and Joyce.

[Lester Holt]

How did they get past it? Joyce agreed to sign a postmarital agreement which would give Eric everything, including the house and custody of their daughter should their marriage come to an end, no matter who was at fault.

[Eric Thompson]

I think Joyce came up with the idea of, well, I'm never going to do this again. And here we can do this.

[Lester Holt]

Fifteen days after the signing of that agreement, Joyce Thompson got a phone call.

[Eric Thompson]

She kind of just looks at me, just, like, shocked, and she says, oh, my God. John's been. He was found shot. Aaron, did you kill John Tokuhara? No. No, no, no. Thank you. No further questions.

[Lester Holt]

Quite a story. One which the prosecution. Prosecution was ready to rip into.

[Detective Mead]

So to save your doomed marriage, you decide to kill the man who could take her away from you?

[Eric Thompson]

No. Joyce got a call. We wouldn't be fighting about stuff. It was with John Tortoise.

[Lester Holt]

As unflappable as Eric Thompson was on the stand, his testimony did nothing to persuade John's friends that he was innocent. What did it do to you to look at him? Oh, man, I always like thinking, so. I don't want to kick his ass. You know what I mean? I just look at him like, wow.

[Nicole Trazo]

I mean, I don't know. For me, it's like, if you're not guilty, you'd be, like, fighting for hell, like, trying to make sure that, you know, he had nothing, no feeling whatsoever.

[Lester Holt]

Of course, by testifying, Eric had left himself open to cross examination, which prosecutor Ben Rose began by playing the video of Eric pulling into his driveway half an hour after the murder.

[Detective Mead]

This is at 6:48pm this is you returning, correct?

[Eric Thompson]

Yes.

[Detective Mead]

And nobody in the car with you?

[Eric Thompson]

That's right.

[Detective Mead]

And as I pause it here at 18:48 of. In front, 44 seconds, still nothing in the bed of the truck, Correct?

[Eric Thompson]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

To observers in the courtroom, it seemed like an odd line of questioning. Those facts were not in dispute after all.

[Eric Thompson]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

What was the point in going over it again? And then Rose played this video recorded three hours later as Eric was leaving to pick up a few groceries at the local Safeway.

[Detective Mead]

This is you leaving at 9:53pm as you testified to, correct?

[Eric Thompson]

Yes.

[Detective Mead]

Okay. This time there's a toolbox in the bed of the truck, right?

[Eric Thompson]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Why? That was significant. Rose didn't say. Instead, he moved on to that odd post marital agreement signed two weeks before the murder.

[Detective Mead]

This postmarital agreement, it gives you control over your wife, does it not?

[Eric Thompson]

Objection. Agreement to sustain.

[Detective Mead]

You keep the baby and you keep the house in the event of a divorce or separation, correct?

[Eric Thompson]

No. I mean, we weren't intending you this document.

[Detective Mead]

Not intending the terms of the agreement.

[Eric Thompson]

We weren't intending to get divorced.

[Detective Mead]

And 15 days after signing this agreement, you killed John Tokuhara, right?

[Eric Thompson]

No.

[Lester Holt]

The cross examination of Eric and Joyce's marriage then weirdly took an abrupt turn away from this legal document and toward the influences Joyce felt from the beyond. The jury learned that Joyce believed in the power of psychics. Believed so much she told Eric it was a psychic who gave her the green light to have an affair with John.

[Detective Mead]

You believe that Joyce had issues relying on psychics, Correct?

[Eric Thompson]

During that time it was. Yeah, it was becoming an issue.

[Detective Mead]

You find out that it was a psychic who encouraged Joyce to have an affair. You find out that it was a psychic that Joyce was trying to reach out to a psychic in December, and you're worried that she's gonna have another affair, right?

[Eric Thompson]

No, I think she was trying to find like a business psychic or something.

[Detective Mead]

So to save your doomed marriage, you decide to kill the man who could take her away from you?

[Eric Thompson]

No.

[Lester Holt]

Argumentative. Indeed. It was an accusation to be repeated. And prosecutor Rose's closing arguments the following day. That John Tokohara's murder was well thought out. And here's where all those elements came together, starting with the removal of that tool or lockbox in the back of.

[Detective Mead]

Eric's truck on the day of the murder. When he leaves his home at 5:20pm, no lockbox. When he returns at 6:48pm, no Lockbox. When he leaves later that night at 9:53pm he's put the lockbox back on. He is disguising his truck so that it's not obvious in surveillance that it would be his truck. He's disguising himself so as not to get caught. He cases John Tokahara's office before walking around and shooting him. That those are the actions of a deliberate, rational thinker, somebody who is assessing the risks and benefits. It is not someone who is overcome with emotion.

[Lester Holt]

Then Rose showed the jury a video which he didn't introduce in the first trial, a video of Eric Thompson walking.

[Detective Mead]

Wash his right arm. Look how it swings. This is something that he can't consciously try to stop. Watch here at 9:32pm from his home, that same right arm swing. All of this evidence point to one man and one man only. It's Eric Thompson.

[Eric Thompson]

Eric Thompson did not kill John Tucaro.

[Lester Holt]

Defense attorney Nelson Gu, in his closing argument, said police suffered from a particular form of blindness during the investigation in that they only had eyes for Eric.

[Eric Thompson]

This is the perfect example of tunnel vision. No eyewitnesses, no murder weapon, no evidence that Eric was in Waipahu that day or the days or weeks and years before. There was no digital footprints. There's no suspicious activity on Eric's devices. None. No searches or contact or threats, Anything towards John Tokohara before or after finding out about the affair.

[Lester Holt]

And don't forget he said about that backpack full of cash.

[Eric Thompson]

What's under the desk is all this money. Hundred dollar bills, 38 of them.

[Lester Holt]

And the prosecution never explained what the money was for or why it was there. Said attorney goo. It could have been an important lead.

[Eric Thompson]

This is the inference. He owes money.

[Lester Holt]

And then there was Darryl Fujita's phone.

[Eric Thompson]

Why did he get rid of his initial phone?

[Lester Holt]

And of course, how could the work of the Honolulu Police lab be trusted?

[Eric Thompson]

After that audit, the results are unreliable. Without these validation studies, you cannot rely on their conclusions. Where's the evidence? Circumstantial or not? The conclusion I ask you to draw from all of this is this. Eric Thompson did not kill John Tokuhara.

[Lester Holt]

With that, the jury began its deliberations. And as the hours ticked by, a familiar discouraging feeling began to spread among John's friends.

[Nicole Trazo]

It makes you think a lot of different things, right? Like, are they having issues with the evidence? Or.

[Lester Holt]

I mean, if it was a sure thing, they'd be back in a couple hours, right?

[Detective Mead]

Right.

[Lester Holt]

John Tokuhara's friends waited, waited for the jurors to make up their minds. And a day passed. And then another day, the mood darkened.

[Nicole Trazo]

It makes you think a lot of different things, right? Like, are they having issues with the evidence or.

[Lester Holt]

I mean, if it was a sure thing, they'd be back in a couple hours, right?

[Nicole Trazo]

Right.

[Lester Holt]

If a mistrial was declared, it seemed unlikely the DA would spend the time and money for a third go round. Meaning a hung jury could essentially be an acquittal. Eric could walk out of the courthouse a free man for good.

[Detective Mead]

Our initial vote was, like, eight said.

[Lester Holt]

He was guilty, three undecided One not guilty. And the undecided said they were leaning toward not guilty. This juror, who asked not to be identified, told us how they argued and argued about all those bits of sometimes ambiguous evidence.

[Detective Mead]

I thought, oh, boy, we're going to.

[Lester Holt]

Be here a long time.

[Detective Mead]

One of the jurors said, how do.

[Lester Holt]

You know it's him? Maybe, you know, we can't see who it is. We have to have proof. I don't have proof.

[Detective Mead]

And we just talked it over.

[Lester Holt]

You know, what about the truck?

[Detective Mead]

What about the bond fund?

[Lester Holt]

What about the DNA evidence?

[Detective Mead]

And, you know, going through the evidence.

[Lester Holt]

Piece by piece over and over. We watched every single video at least 10 times. Like this video of the white truck taken before and after the murder. His truck was seen a few blocks away from where the murder took place. Yes.

[Detective Mead]

To me, it's impossible.

[Lester Holt]

Impossible that it wasn't Eric that is.

[Eric Thompson]

To be accused of something like this.

[Lester Holt]

And when the juror listened to Eric Thompson testify, that was lame.

[Detective Mead]

All of his testimony was lame and terse.

[Lester Holt]

He could have done much better. But there were other possibilities. After all, what about Darryl Fujita's testimony?

[Detective Mead]

Some people said that. Some of the jury members said maybe he did it.

[Lester Holt]

The person who you saw walking in that white bucket hat. Yeah. Toward where the murder occurred and then away again. Could you tell whether it was a male or a female or who it was at all? Did it look like? We cannot identify who that person is. It probably is a male, but we can't really say for sure. Surely can't tell if it's Eric.

[Detective Mead]

That's true. He's so well disguised, you can't tell it's him. Some of the jurors didn't want to convict him for that reason.

[Lester Holt]

We just went over the stuff again and again and again and again and.

[Detective Mead]

And after the second day, it was looking like it was going to be hung.

[Lester Holt]

And then on the third day after the lunch break, alliances started shifting, and finally they made a decision. So we figured, we're going to go sign the paper and give it to the judge, and then tomorrow be in court again to come back in, read the verdict. Yeah. The judge's clerk entered the room, told the jurors to lie, line up in order, as they did every time they entered the courtroom. I figure, okay, we're just going to.

[Detective Mead]

Talk to the judge.

[Lester Holt]

And then they open the door. Everybody's in there, the cameras, Eric's in there. This is it.

[Detective Mead]

We didn't know.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, boy.

[Detective Mead]

Jury is now back in the courtroom.

[Lester Holt]

Everybody started shaking.

[Detective Mead]

Mr. Thompson, can you stand as the clerk of the court reads the verdict of the jury?

[Lester Holt]

I had butterflies in my stomach. I had tears coming out, honestly, because I had.

[Detective Mead]

I felt very bad for both sides.

[Lester Holt]

And then we had to read the verdict.

[Nicole Trazo]

State of Hawaii versus Eric Thompson as two count one.

[Liz Thompson]

We, the jury in this case, find.

[Nicole Trazo]

The defendant guilty as charge of murder.

[Liz Thompson]

In the second degree.

[Lester Holt]

Guilty. Eric stood as still as a statue as the verdict was read and then slowly removed his jacket and walked towards his waiting room. He did not look back, not even a glance at his high school sweetheart, his wife, the mother of his child, Joyce. And from one of John's friends, a parting taunt.

[Eric Thompson]

Do your time, boy.

[Lester Holt]

Which would be 15 to life later. In the hallway outside the courtroom, John's friends and family held each other and wept. John's favorite beach was this one, White Plains. His surf buddies since childhood were known as the fence line crew. This is where his friends held his paddle and where they met with us a few days after the verdict. Feelings about Joyce and Eric still very raw.

[Nicole Trazo]

How can you sleep at night knowing what you did to him, to John, our friend, his family? How could you? I'm mad. I'm still mad. You took away this person that we love and we care about. How dare you.

[Eric Thompson]

I don't.

[Lester Holt]

As for Joyce, she sat there in.

[Nicole Trazo]

Court behind him, supporting him when it all started from her and not only blaming her. Yes, John is also at fault as well with the affair. But she sat there knowing that this happened because of your husband. And now, I don't think I've laughed.

[Liz Thompson]

The same since he's been gone.

[Eric Thompson]

And let me tell you, John is not dead.

[Detective Mead]

He's still here.

[Lester Holt]

Like the saying goes, you are the best of the last person you have met. And each and one of us, there's a piece of him that's the best of him.

[Eric Thompson]

I met John out here surfing one.

[Lester Holt]

Day and he still talks to him, said Moses Anchetta. Every time.

[Eric Thompson]

There's always moments. My wife always asks, why are you sitting in the lineup for so long? Then I will just be like the fresh waves for you, John.

[Lester Holt]

First waves.

[Eric Thompson]

First waves.

[Lester Holt]

And John would say, when it was time to go home, it will be.

[Eric Thompson]

Like, one more.

[Nicole Trazo]

One more, one more, one more.

[Eric Thompson]

There we go, one more, one more, there we go.

[Lester Holt]

One more, one more wave. One more laugh with a friend or dinner with Mom. One more moment of life. And that's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our talking Dateline podcast. Keith Morrison and Blaine Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode available Wednesday in the DATELINE feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night. In Texas, the countdown has begun. Robert Roberson is scheduled to die. When the clock hits zero, it's over. But a growing chorus insists Robert is innocent. We didn't hear Robert. We chose to disbelieve him. I'm on the ground in Texas, searching for the truth. The Last Appeal, a new podcast from dateline. And Lester Holt. To listen now, find and follow the Last Appeal on Pandora.