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- [00:00]
A
Hi, it's Sierra Miller. I can't wait for you to check out my new collection of shoes and accessories at Designer Shoe Warehouse. If you love shoes as much as I do, then trust me, I got you. From cute sneakerinas to the perfect flip flops to stunning heels, these shoes are all style, no drama. It's a girls girl summer. And DSW has just the shoes. Shop the Sierra Miller Collection. Right now at your DSW store or dsw.com you're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moreland.
- [01:15]
B
And I'm Garrett Moreland.
- [01:16]
A
And he's the husband.
- [01:17]
B
And I'm the husband. Happy Monday. Welcome back guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Thank you for supporting. What have you been up to?
- [01:24]
A
I have a rash on my face.
- [01:26]
B
Pena's a little rash in her face. Yes.
- [01:28]
A
That's all I can think about.
- [01:30]
B
Just a reminder, we have bonus content and ad free content on Apple, Spotify and Patreon if you're interested. You can go check that out. But what I wanted to talk about for my 10 seconds is so I've been drinking these. This isn't an ad just letting everyone know. This is personal. I've been drinking these ginger, lemon and like cayenne pepper shots because I've been working a lot and I really don't want to get sick and I feel like everyone else around me sick right now. So I've been drinking one of these a day and I feel like it's been helping but it could just be a placebo effect. So I'm curious if for anyone who knows a lot about like juicing and turmeric and ginger and all that stuff, does it actually help? Like is it actually helping me or am I just drinking these for no reason because they burn like when you drink these things, they burn your throat. It's crazy. Anyways. Yeah, that's my 10 seconds. I'm just curious. I never know what works and what doesn't work these days, so I feel like I always have to ask people. I can do research into it, but I also want to hear about it from you guys.
- [02:30]
A
What a weird world we live in that you can't actually just like trust what the packaging says or like what the studies say. I mean, I. I don't even think it's studies. Like, you hear about things and then they're like, I'll be taking your supplements. And then a year later, they're like, most supplements don't even actually make it through your stomach. It's like, what?
- [02:50]
B
Yeah, I know. There's like. There's just so much research that goes into this stuff. Anyways, so does it work? I've been drinking. It haven't gotten sick. So let me know. Daisy's been so Daisy. I can't say this word out loud, so you guys are going to have to spell. We went to California for a few days and we were able to get away.
- [03:10]
A
Margari's birthday for my birthday.
- [03:12]
B
And we went to the P O O L and she switch AM a lot and like a lot. But she's just been. I think she's depressed. She's been very sad the last couple days since we've been back. And tired and tired. I think she's sad.
- [03:32]
A
She's such a little fake because I don't know if fake. But when we do the pol days. All day long, all day, going, going. Never runs out of energy. But then sleeps all day. I'm like, well, yeah.
- [03:47]
B
Then we get home and she's sleeping all day.
- [03:48]
A
I'm like, how does that work?
- [03:51]
B
Like right now, look at her sleeping.
- [03:52]
A
And then I passed out. Her muscles have to be so sore after those. I think she's just tired because it's not just the. It's not just the playing in the water. She runs. She get. Gets out of the pool and runs
- [04:07]
B
like, like six, eight hours. Just swimming, running, swimming, running, swimming, running.
- [04:12]
A
She's frantic.
- [04:13]
B
Yeah, it's crazy. Anyways, that's what I got. That's my 10 seconds. Let's hop into this week's episode.
- [04:22]
A
Okay. Our sources for this episode are CBS News.com Hawaii TribuneHerald.com K-H O-N2.com HawaiiIPlicradio.org Star Advertiser.com HawaiiNewsNow.com NBCNews.com KITV.com, lawAndCrime.com Marietta Times.com HappyScribe.com and Peacock TV. Now, most people, when they think of Hawaii, they probably imagine crystal blue beaches, warm summer air on your skin, maybe a Mai Tai in front of a sunset. But if you've visited, you know, Hawaii is so much more than that. The culture there is unlike anything else. It seems like everyone is always smiling, helpful, thoughtful, kind. In fact, they, they have a word for the energy and lifestyle. It's called the Aloha spirit. But even in a place built on warmth and compassion, true crime still exists.
- [05:25]
B
Do. Sorry, do we have any listeners from Hawaii?
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A
Probably.
- [05:29]
B
Anyways, if you're listening from Hawaii, let us know.
- [05:32]
A
And how sad. Hawaii is not exempt from our podcast because it feels like it should be. So darkness can definitely still slip through. Because Hawaii, despite always being on island time, has real people with real problems and real secrets. Which is why today's story is a reminder that sometimes evil can strike in the places we least expect it to, even in paradise. So, based on that intro, you probably know where we're headed to today. We are headed to the state of Hawaii, the island of Oahu, to be exact, where just northwest of Pearl harbor lies the small community of Waipahu. And I did look up how to say these. I know the accent is probably not correct. I'm definitely saying it in a very American like non Hawaii accent, but Waipahu.
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B
Nice job, baby.
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A
Thanks.
- [06:31]
B
You're welcome.
- [06:32]
A
Now, Waipahu is a working class town with a lot of ancient history. A place where families have known each other for generations, where childhood friends stick with you for life, where you refer to your neighbors as auntie and uncle. Where life definitely moves slow, but news spreads fast. And in a place like that, secrets, if you want to keep them, need to be protected with your life. And unfortunately, that was the price John Tokuhara paid to keep his secrets. In the year 2022, 47 year old John was living in Waipahu, the place he had spent most of his life in Hawaii. And so everyone there knew John. They knew him as a good person. He had been like that ever since he was a little kid. He studied hard, he was extremely athletic. Baseball, surfing, fishing, volleyball, you name it. And in high school, he even led his volleyball team to a few championships. But like most young adults, John wanted to experience more of the world, or at least more of his country. So he ended up going to the mainland for college and and studied at the University of Portland, where he got his degree in Biology. And then after that, he actually earned a master's degree in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Now, this master's degree wasn't exactly surprising to those who knew John. He'd always just had that calm, soft, protective spirit, the kind of guy who would volunteer his time to help veterans who always wanted to make sure everyone was happy and comfortable. So after receiving his degree, John then returned back to Hawaii. After spending six years away, he moves back and he opens up a small acupuncture studio in his hometown and became known locally as Quote the Healer. Now, he had a modest operation. John was the only one who worked at this little clinic, and it also allowed him the freedom and flexibility to enjoy the little pleasures of life. He kept his canoe and surfboard and at his acupuncture clinic and had no problem closing up early for a day at sea if a client canceled or rescheduled. So John loves being his own boss. He's in charge of his own destiny, free to come and go as he pleases and doesn't have to answer to anyone, which was probably why he chose to stay single for a while and never really settled down, because he was just living this Hawaii dream life. But John didn't need a partner to feel fulfilled. He had a huge circle of friends, and there was always someone he was flirting with or just dating casually. Most women actually found John to be excessively charming. He had a huge smile, kind eyes. It was no wonder he had a lot of female clients. And one of his specialties in this field was actually fertility acupuncture. Now, a lot of women came to John specifically when they were trying to get pregnant. So all of this to say, John was one of a kind in waipahu. And by 2022, he had firmly cemented himself not just as the basically unofficial mayor, but as someone the town definitely relied on, someone they needed to feel safe, happy, healthy and balanced. So you can imagine how shocked and devastated everyone was when they heard about the events that came next in this story.
- [10:18]
B
Okay, let's hear it.
- [10:20]
A
On the evening of January 12, 2022, John closed up his shop after seeing his final client. He then texted a woman he had recently started dating, a local school teacher named Andy. And he tells her he had a bit more work and some phone calls to make. And this was at about 5:30pm and then a half hour later, John and his mother, Lily, also speak on the phone, and she invites him over for dinner that night at around 6:12pm she texts him, asking if Andy, the, you know, friendly Teacher will be joining. And John responds to the text message and says, it's just going to be me tonight. And then at 6:15, his mother Lily texts him back saying okay. And her message is red. But there's no response after that. So now we have dinner plans cemented. She knows it's just John coming. He's read her message, good to go. But instead, an hour ticks by and then two, and it's now 8:34pm And John hasn't made it to Lily's house for dinner yet. It's getting late. She's getting worried as his mother. So she texts him again and says, are you still at the office? No response. And this time her message is left unread. So she sends another one at 9:32pm saying are you okay? The message is still unread.
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B
Okay.
- [11:52]
A
So when she wakes up the next morning and realizes her son still isn't answering his calls or texts, she decides to just go to his office to talk to him. So Lily heads over, she walks inside, and that's when she actually finds her son John lying on the floor.
- [12:12]
B
Oh no.
- [12:12]
A
In a pool of his own blood in his office. Lily barely musters a call to 91 1. And as soon as the police arrive, they know they definitely have a homicide case on their hands. And just keep in mind, this is shocking for everyone in this local area. This is not necessarily the forest area. It's very family oriented, home smaller. So they're all like, oh no, our local healer has died. So there's three.22 caliber shell casings scattered around the clinic. And it appears John was shot while sitting in his office chair and then from there fell onto the floor. Now there's no signs of a struggle or a fight of any kind. It doesn't even appear to be a robbery because nothing's been taken. In fact, there's about $3,900 in cash wrapped up and labeled with the word herbs in a backpack lying right under his desk, like next to his body. So if this was a robbery, that would have probably been taken. Now, an autopsy will later determine John was shot not once, but four. Four times in the head. So this is definitely a targeted killing. It's personal. Now before the story can even make its way to the headlines that day, all of Waipahu knows about it. Each person finds it more unbelievable than the next. How does someone so caring, so kind, so selfless end up as a murder victim? And as far as everyone knows, John was basically liked by everyone. His friends couldn't think of a single enemy. And if it wasn't a robbery, then what was this? Well, the police are just as baffled as John's friends and family are. They don't even know where to start when it comes to suspects. So they quickly turn to the public for help, asking if anyone saw anything, A suspicious vehicle in the area, a suspicious person, anything that seemed out of place. And meanwhile, flowers pile up outside of John's clinic and the town holds a vigil for John, where pretty much every single person in Waipahu shows up to pay their respects. His surfer friends arrange something called a paddle out, where hundreds go out on their boards to the ocean. They form a like, processional ceremony and deliver John's ashes from the beach to the sea. People said you would have thought John was a celebrity with how many people came out to mourn his loss. But for police, that also meant a lot more people demanding answers, wanting to know what had happened. So the pressure was on to solve this case. All right, you guys, we are getting into an ad. And it is no secret that I believe skims constantly revolutionizes the intimates industry. Every new release surpasses the last. From their incredibly stretchy underwear to the perfect push up bra, they continue to innovate. Most recently, they have introduced a new cotton fabric that honestly, has completely transformed my daily wardrobe. I have taken every single one of my favorites and ordered it in their new cotton fabric. I even ordered Garrett some new underwear for his birthday in the cotton fabric. Honestly, it's my favorite. I was actually at PT the other day and the therapist was like, ooh, these pants are so soft. Where'd you get them? I was like, yeah, that's the skims everyday cotton.
- [15:50]
B
If you're a guy, I swear they have the best underwear I've ever had in my entire life.
- [15:56]
A
I wear skims basically every other day.
- [15:59]
B
It's amazing.
- [15:59]
A
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- [16:47]
B
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- [17:03]
A
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- [17:19]
B
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- [17:47]
A
And there were two big things about the crime scene that investigators couldn't stop thinking about from the beginning. First was that backpack filled with cash underneath the desk, the one labeled herbs. The second was John was wearing a surgical mask on his face when he was shot, the kind that we all wore during COVID But why are you wearing a mask if you're in your office alone after hours? So this made police wonder, was John actually expecting someone? Was there supposed to be some sort of exchange or transaction that went sideways? Was he in debt to someone he was trying to repay? So detectives decide to look through his appointment book, and they see there was nothing on the books for that night. His last client left the clinic at 5:30pm it was a woman named Kathy Ohama. So they call her in for questioning to see if she noticed anything strange, considering she's like the last known to see him that they know of. And she says John was acting normal at her appointment. He didn't seem nervous or depressed or irritable, just his same old self. So this is when they turn to Andy, John's new girlfriend, if you will. And while she herself has never seemed suspicious to them, they do learn something about her past. Andy had been dating someone named Daryl Fujita for years, and basically every time she and Daryl broke up, she would get together with John. And this was including after this most recent breakup. So this wasn't just a casual thing between Daryl and Andy. They actually Had a house, they had a kid together, and John was her rebound, her in between. And Daryl knew about John.
- [19:37]
B
I don't. I just have no. I have no idea right now. Like, no hints, nothing is kind of giving it away, so.
- [19:43]
A
So police called Daryl in for questioning, thinking, okay, maybe this is some sort of, like, jealousy thing. But throughout his interview, he keeps telling police, listen, yeah, this is our situation. But there's no bad blood between him and John. He didn't care that Andy would date him. So officers are like, hey, can we see your phone? He gives it to them, but he does a hard factory reset first. Now, obviously, this makes him look suspicious, like, what's he trying to hide? But also like, he's probably could be one of the persons that's like, I deserve privacy. I don't know. So the police definitely have their eye on Daryl.
- [20:19]
B
I mean, that's kind of weird.
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A
But it's not enough for an arrest.
- [20:22]
B
No.
- [20:23]
A
So they keep searching for evidence. They canvas the area around John's clinic, looking for any place that has some kind of security footage. And they post up for hours watching all of the videos they gather frame by frame, until eventually they actually see something of note. A person walking toward John's clinic on the day of his murder. They're standing on the other side of the street and just staring at his door. But what police find interesting is this person's outfit. They have sunglasses, a surgical mask, a heavy windbreaker jacket, and a white bucket hat. And they are carrying a brown paper bag. Now they're in Hawaii. This is weird. It's a hot day. A heavy windbreaker doesn't make much sense, but still, this person is captured along multiple cameras in the area, kind of just wandering around. And he's seen there just four minutes before Jon stops responding to those texts to his mom.
- [21:29]
B
Okay, that's kind of interesting.
- [21:31]
A
But the person is never seen walking through the front door of John's acupuncture clinic. Instead, he crosses the street, walks past the front door, and then turns left and heads down the street, almost like towards the back of the office building. But there's no cameras back there, so police have to assume he either went that way and left or went that way and went in. And Then shortly after 6:15pm the bucket hat figure reappears, headed in the opposite direction he came after, only disappearing behind that building for about a minute and a half.
- [22:08]
B
Okay.
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A
Now, police realized, like, this timeline does fit perfectly. And they feel pretty confident that whoever this person is is now their number one suspect. They're pretty sure this person went behind the building, went in, and in a minute and a half, shot him and left. And they also see something critical happen. On the security footage, the person's bucket hat actually flies off into the road as they're crossing the street. And they don't go back for it. It's almost like they don't even notice it. Like, they notice it, but it's not a big deal to them. And instead, the hat just sits in the road for a bit until what seems like an unhoused man walks by and picks it up. And then the footage shows the suspect walk back in the original direction they came. And that's when you realize why they maybe didn't even notice the hat fly off. And it's because underneath that hat, they were wearing some kind of ridiculous wig.
- [23:04]
B
No way.
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A
Curly. Almost like a clown wig.
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B
Like the wig was stuck in the hat.
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A
Well, the hat came off the wig, but that's probably why they didn't even, really, like, register it.
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B
Oh, I see what you're saying.
- [23:16]
A
Because they didn't feel it come off their actual head because there was that layer of disguise. But two good things come from this footage as police continue to analyze it. First, they get a pretty good screenshot of the man who picked up the hat. So about 10 days later, they go to the area, they find a local encampment, and they track down the man who picked up the hat. And shockingly, he still has this. It's balled up, lying next to a cooler, which is tricky, because the hope was they could test this hat for evidence. But now there's a possibility it's been touched by a dozen different people. Still, they take it and send it to the Honolulu Police Department's crime lab for testing. It's going to take a few weeks to get those results back, though. So in the meantime, they keep looking over that footage. Just this is their only lead. They're combing it. Have they missed anything? And that's when they do see a specific white pickup truck, one that seems to arrive in the area before the alleged attacker comes on screen, and then leaves pretty shortly after the man's hat flies off. Now, unfortunately, they can't make out the driver in the truck to tell if it's the person, and they aren't even able to get a license plate. But that doesn't stop them from calling in an expert, an expert who helps them identify the make and model. Somewhere between a 2014 and 2016 white Chevy Silverado. And when they run this model through the local DMV's database, they find there's about 53 of those vehicles registered in the area that could be a match.
- [24:52]
B
I mean, that's not bad. No, honestly, that's not too bad. It might. It seems like a lot, but like, could you imagine? Yeah, no, it seems like a lot. That's actually not. That's not too bad.
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A
You can comb through 53. So they start going through the owners one by one, looking to see if any of them even had a connection to the victim.
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B
John, because that's, that's the other thing. I mean, if the car stolen, then you're really out of luck, right?
- [25:15]
A
But eventually they do narrow it down to one person, an owner, a man named Eric Thompson. So now let's figure out why Eric stood out to police a little bit. About 34 year old Eric. He was a local business owner of a place called Island Bath Works, which specialized in bathtub conversions for the elderly or those with special needs. He was a graduate of the University of Hawaii. He had married his high school sweetheart, Joyce. He had a young daughter and lived in a nice neighborhood just east of downtown Honolulu. Their home had a tennis court, rental units on site.
- [25:55]
B
Dang. Okay.
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A
Was a quick walk to the beach.
- [25:57]
B
Making money, especially in Hawaii, is so expensive. Not just houses. Everything, like, everything there is extremely expensive.
- [26:08]
A
And the thing was like, on the surface, no one who knew John had ever heard of Eric or Joyce Thompson before. So the connection doesn't make much sense. But the police feel differently because they are the ones who had access to John's phone and computers, and they had found something on there they weren't expecting. John actually had a private Instagram account his family didn't know about. And in that account, thousands of messages exchanged between John and Joyce Thompson. Messages that basically indicated an affair. Now, Joyce is Eric's wife.
- [26:49]
B
Got it.
- [26:50]
A
High school sweetheart to be exact. So when they know this, when they know there's an alleged affair and they're going through the pickup truck owners and they realize that Eric, Joyce's husband, owns one, they're like, yeah, duh, this is our number one suspect. Now, their affair seemed to start up around May of 2021 and lasted until about July of that year. And towards the end, Joyce had expressed fears of her husband finding out, and she was the one who called things off. But here's how it played out from Eric's side of things. Her husband. Before the birth of their daughter in 2020, Eric and Joyce were having a hard time trying to conceive. And after Months of failed attempts and miscarriages. A friend recommended that Joyce go to see an acupuncturist on Wapahu known as the Healer. That's obviously John now. After several treatments with John, Joyce finally did get pregnant, and they had their little girl in June of 2020. But Eric said Joyce struggled a bit emotionally after the birth of their daughter. So Joyce decided to return to John for more treatments, thinking it would help her postpartum. Okay, this isn't a secret. Okay? Her husband Eric knows she's going, knows where she's going. But over time, there were little things Joyce was saying and doing that just felt strange. For example, there was one time when Joyce claimed some family friends were in town. But instead of getting a sitter and inviting him to come along, she asked Eric to watch their daughter while she goes out and sees the family friends. It was little things like this that started to make Eric question what Joyce was up to in her alone time, which was why he began keeping a closer eye on their home security cameras. And after he returned home from a work trip and played them back one day, he saw that Joyce had actually left the house one night while he was away without telling him. And so that was when he felt for sure. Okay, Joyce is sneaking around on me. So In July of 2021, Eric confronted her about it, and she denies it for about two days. And then finally, she confesses to everything. Okay. And when Eric asked, okay, well, are you cheating with one of our family friends? She's like, no, it's with John, my acupuncturist.
- [29:12]
B
So, I mean, I think I know where this is going.
- [29:15]
A
But Eric's totally blindsided. Even stranger, Joyce tells her husband it was her sidekick that was encouraging her to have this affair.
- [29:26]
B
What is up?
- [29:28]
A
Apparently, Joyce consulted with psychics for a lot of her decision making.
- [29:32]
B
That's nuts.
- [29:33]
A
And they were the ones who were like, yeah, step out of your marriage. Here's the green light.
- [29:38]
B
You know, I hear this happen a lot.
- [29:41]
A
You got to be careful with the psychic.
- [29:43]
B
I hear this happen a lot. Yeah, it's crazy to me.
- [29:48]
A
And, you know, you gotta have your own intuition. Even if you fully trust in a sidekick, you have to, because at the end of the day, you know, you
- [30:01]
B
better than anyone else 100% agreed, at
- [30:04]
A
least in your heart, you know, dude,
- [30:08]
B
I'd be so mad at that psychic.
- [30:09]
A
And also, like, so mad.
- [30:11]
B
Babe, are you kidding me?
- [30:13]
A
Giving the green light for an affair is very different than giving the green light for a divorce. Like, a psychic being like, listen, I don't think this marriage is for you. You've tried everything. You don't want to be here.
- [30:25]
B
I'm also on the side of. Everyone just has to kind of experience and make decisions themselves at some point.
- [30:32]
A
Yeah.
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B
Like, even if you're trying to tell a friend or someone, like, hey, you shouldn't be dating this person, or you shouldn't do that. Totally okay to do that. But I feel like decisions are never made until that person actually has an experience and makes a decision. Like, I think it's pretty hard to actually convince someone to make a decision about something big in life like that. Like, someone has to. Someone has to do it themselves out of their own free will.
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A
Right.
- [31:01]
B
Anyways, I don't know.
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A
Just my thoughts, because oftentimes if they don't, either we end up doing it
- [31:06]
B
wrong, they either regret it, or they go back with the person. I mean, I don't know. There's so many. Just. There's so many things.
- [31:12]
A
And this is hard because, like, is it. Is a sidekick really different than, like, a friend? Like a good trusted friend at this point who's, like, encouraging this bad behavior or.
- [31:23]
B
Well, that depends how much you believe that the psychic knows the future or not.
- [31:28]
A
True.
- [31:29]
B
I think that. I think there's variables there.
- [31:33]
A
Anyways, listen, I know they say everything happens for a reason, but it. Sometimes you really can't just leave. You know what I'm saying?
- [31:40]
B
Yeah.
- [31:40]
A
Like, sometimes you really don't need that excuse. You can just not do it. Here's the thing. When Eric finally gets in front of the police, because police call him in, they're like, hey, you have this truck, you have this connection? He's like, listen, I had nothing to do with John's death. Eric said he was planning to work through the situation with his wife. Like, they were gonna work through it. They were gonna go to therapy, get the whole thing behind them. They agreed on signing a post marital agreement which would give Eric everything, including the house and custody of their daughter should their marriage come to an end. Whether it was his fault or hers. Eric said he looked at the affair as a sign that he was falling short a bit in as a partner in their marriage and that he needed to be there more for Joyce, so she didn't feel like she was needing to seek attention. And Joyce claimed she didn't actually want to leave her husband either. She, too wanted to work through it, which was why she had ended the affair. And Eric does tell police, like, yes, I'm very angry. Of course I considered confronting John about the affair. But he says he never followed through. He just left it alone and focused on working on his marriage. Now, from October to December of that year, according to Joyce and Eric, things were looking up between the Thompsons. They were seen photographed together at several different holiday outings. Plus, Eric told police, no, I have an alibi for the night of January 12, 2022, the night John died. He said it around the time of John's death, which is pretty specific considering the security footage. He was on the other side of the island getting rid of some construction debris at a dump. And then at 9:54pm he went to Long's Drugs in a residential area of Honolulu to buy beer and eggs. And then after that, he went home.
- [33:28]
B
Big alibi.
- [33:29]
A
He said he actually learned about John's death the following afternoon when Joyce received the call that John had been killed. But from what I could tell, police were actually never able to, like, fully corroborate Eric's whereabouts that night or find evidence to confirm his alibi. It's not like they could see his.
- [33:48]
B
You know, it seems interesting, though. It seems like they could get the cameras from the.
- [33:52]
A
It feels like maybe there's not a lot of cameras in the area.
- [33:58]
B
Okay.
- [33:59]
A
Like, there's definitely some, but maybe not as much as a large city, if you will. Which is why, in early February, the police decide to search the Thompson's home for evidence. And not only did they see Eric's pickup truck exactly like the one spotted in the footage around John's clinic, they also find a lot of guns in the Thompson's house. About 12 total ton of ammunition. Some of it was.22 caliber. This is the same type that was found at the crime scene. However, none of the guns or bullets exactly matched the shell casings found at the scene. And when police confiscated and searched Eric's phone and computer, they didn't find a single text call, email, search history, anything that was indicating he was planning to kill John.
- [34:47]
B
Okay, so, all right, so if Eric didn't do it, who did it?
- [34:51]
A
Well, it gets even worse because there's no sign his phone ever traveled to Waipahu on the day in question. And. And there's no evidence that he tried to get in contact with John since the affair ended in July the year before. It looks like he really did just leave it alone. Guys, waiting sucks. I hate waiting for things like spiritually, like hold music should be illegal. And Earn in is an app, not a bank that gives you access to money you've already earned. You heard me right? So you can get up to $150 a day, up to $1,000 between paychecks. Tips are optional. And standard transfers take one to two business days with no mandatory fees. Expedited transfers start at 3.99and cap at 5.99.
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A
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B
That's an insane discount. 50% off. You guys need to go check that out. Go get some cameras, Go get a security system. No one's coming into your house.
- [37:28]
A
So basically at this point, the only thing connecting Eric to the crime was a potential motive. An affair that had ended seven months ago, and then possibly his car on some footage.
- [37:40]
B
Be extremely difficult to bring to. Yeah, extremely.
- [37:44]
A
Police realize at this point they're like, either Eric is innocent or he's good at cleaning up his tracks. Like, we haven't found anything. But they still have that huge clue that needs to be analyzed. The bucket hat detectives are hoping they can find DNA from the hat that will prove their theory is correct.
- [38:01]
B
I mean, I know it's, I guess, big evidence, but I still don't think that's like, damning evidence.
- [38:07]
A
I mean, if you find DNA in a hat that you think the suspect was wearing, I don't know if it's
- [38:12]
B
like, but how can you also prove
- [38:13]
A
that that was a smoking gun, that
- [38:15]
B
that was a suspect?
- [38:16]
A
Right. I think it's really easy to argue for a defense team to be like,
- [38:19]
B
what if it's just so, what if
- [38:21]
A
he picked it up and wore it later? What if he had it before that?
- [38:23]
B
Correct. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
- [38:24]
A
Yes. The results finally do come back in 2022. Most of them are inconclusive.
- [38:30]
B
Okay.
- [38:30]
A
But there's two that said Eric could not be excluded as a contributor. Now, this is not definitive, not by a long shot, but it's enough for them to decide to get an arrest warrant for Eric. They're like, listen, we couldn't exclude you from the bucket hat. We think you have the most motive. Your truck does match the security footage. Like, we're going to move.
- [38:52]
B
I mean. Yeah. To me, honestly, this the part that's the most, like, criminalizing or damning. Is the. Is the truck matching the security footage? Well.
- [39:04]
A
And you have a pretty clear cut motive. I mean, this is a motive we see time and time again in murder.
- [39:09]
B
Yeah. And we talk about it all the time. I mean, how many coincidences can there possibly be?
- [39:14]
A
Like, how can you be the guy your wife was? Or how can this be the guy your wife was having an affair with?
- [39:20]
B
And then the truck and then now the hat.
- [39:22]
A
Yes. Like, so, I mean, it does make sense why police are like, eh, we're gonna move forward with it, even though it's not great. And on Valentine's Day, 2022. On Valentine's, on Eric and Joyce's fifth wedding anniversary, Eric is arrested and charged with murder. After posting his $1 million bail, Eric's allowed to go home, but he does have to be under house arrest after a prosecutor argues to the judge that his wealth makes him kind of a flight risk. Still, on April 22, 2022, he's indicted on charges of second degree murder.
- [39:58]
B
Wow.
- [39:58]
A
And carrying or using a firearm. So Eric's trial begins in 2023.
- [40:05]
B
Okay, I'm going to say that actually, you just go. Just go.
- [40:10]
A
Okay, so I'm just going to lay out quickly what each side presented at trial because there was obviously some stuff that wasn't in the initial investigation. So the defense makes a pretty interesting argument. They point out, hey, John had a, quote, track record of cheating. Joyce was not the first married woman he had slept with. Also not the first client either. In fact, two other men whose wives had affairs with John were called to the stand. And the defense also pointed out that there were plenty of women that John had dated and then ghosted who could have been angry. They're just pointing out possible motives.
- [40:49]
B
Got it.
- [40:49]
A
For other people. There's other husbands who could have been mad. There's other women who could have been mad. And they also claimed John had a bit of a gambling addiction, which might have explained the money and the mask that was found at the crime scene. Perhaps he was planning on paying someone back that day. The defense's point was, listen, there might have been a lot of people who had motive to kill John, but the police zeroed in on Eric because of his truck. And the defense is like, they didn't really consider anyone else. But the prosecution brought something else up their sleeve to trial. They had security footage taken from a neighbor's camera pointed at the Thompson's home. Now, if you remember, he has his alibi. It's not like they could really track him at the dump. But this footage on the night of the murder shows Eric's truck leaving the house at 5:20pm okay, this is about an hour before 4. John was shot at the clinic. And he returns at 6:48pm just 30 minutes after the kill.
- [41:52]
B
So here's a.
- [41:54]
A
Which doesn't match.
- [41:55]
B
No, his original story. It starts not matching someone's story in red flags. And, oh, you lied.
- [42:03]
A
He didn't come around home till nine. They now have on neighbor security footage. He is gone from the house in the time window that John is killed.
- [42:12]
B
And how in court do you all of a sudden go, oh, well, actually,
- [42:15]
A
like, that's not the only thing interesting from that night. A little while later, the same neighbor catches the camera, catches a light flickering in the Thompson's backyard. It looks like a fire or a bonfire. And the prosecution is like, why were you lighting a fire late that night? Were you possibly destroying evidence? Yeah, well, detectives take the stand and say while they never actually saw evidence of a bonfire in the Thompson's yard, they did find a pot that had char marks on it and a wheelbarrow that was pretty burnt. But the defense obviously has a rebuttal for that. They're like, listen, there was no fire. These were tiki Torches in the family's backyard. This is Hawaii, after all. It couldn't have been Eric's truck on the surveillance video, because he was on the other side of Oahu getting rid of construction debris that night, remember? And they reminded the jury the DNA results do not conclusively state they were a match for Eric. His guns and ammunition did not conclusively match the ones at the crime scene, and there was zero digital evidence at
- [43:19]
B
all, which this part I do understand. So let's say we think he. We think he did it. If there's any doubt at all that he maybe didn't, should we send him to prison for life?
- [43:32]
A
I mean, according to the law. No.
- [43:34]
B
Exactly. And so that.
- [43:35]
A
Well, reasonable.
- [43:36]
B
Reasonable, yes, but that's where things start getting tricky and start getting. That's where the gray area is.
- [43:41]
A
And I think this is, like, an interesting point, because I think sometimes reasonable. Reasonable doubt is taken. Is like, if there is any. Anything at all that says no, but no, we can have something reasonable, like, okay, but, yeah, there's another option that's reasonable.
- [43:58]
B
It's hard. It really is hard.
- [44:00]
A
I mean, again, how it. I mean, look at. Look at crimes today. How many Google searches, how much cell phone history. Correct. His cell phone history doesn't show him going over there. Granted, he could have not taken it, but there's so much digital evidence that in a year like this should have been found, and there was nothing.
- [44:21]
B
Yeah, and that would be hard for me because with how much we use our phones and how much digital evidence there should be, if there's nothing that would make me be, like, I don't know.
- [44:30]
A
Nothing beforehand either. They couldn't find him looking John up, him looking for the address, him looking for the phone number like there was nothing at all, or it was done
- [44:40]
B
on another phone or something else. Right.
- [44:42]
A
Which is what the pro. The prosecution is saying. He's just good at cleaning up his tracks. Like, the reason we don't have the evidence is not because it didn't exist. It's because he was good.
- [44:51]
B
But you can't prove that.
- [44:53]
A
No, you can say that you can't prove that he was a good murderer.
- [44:57]
B
Correct.
- [44:57]
A
You know what I mean?
- [44:57]
B
This is hard. This is tough. Yeah.
- [44:59]
A
But you do have the security footage showing he was gone in the window.
- [45:04]
B
Yep.
- [45:04]
A
And you do have a possible match for his truck on security.
- [45:11]
B
Yeah.
- [45:12]
A
That's it, though. Like, as far as. Is this possible? Now, Eric's trial resulted in a hung jury. They couldn't come to an agreement, which I don't think Is that surprising? It's a mistrial. And a new court date was set for February 2025.
- [45:29]
B
Wow.
- [45:30]
A
There was a big problem going into his second trial. The judge didn't want to allow the police department's DNA analysis of the hat to be brought up into evidence this time in the second trial. And you might be like, well, why? According to a woman named Liz Thompson, who worked with the FBI on cases like this, no relation, by the way, the Honolulu PD's lab wasn't validating their results. Basically, she claimed there's this process of checks and balances to make sure DNA results, like, can't be replicated. And this wasn't done in this case. So the state technically couldn't use the bucket hat DNA in trial number two, which was one of their strongest, stronger pieces of evidence. Being like, we couldn't rule him out. He could have easily. This could be his DNA on the hat.
- [46:18]
B
I don't think he gets convicted, and I don't know if I think he it or not. I don't know.
- [46:23]
A
The prosecution tries to find a loophole. They get the judge to allow results from a private analyst instead. So not the state, but a hired private analyst, someone with a company called Cyber Genetics, who presented their own separate analysis on the bucket hat. And what they found apparently was even more convincing than the Honolulu PD's crime labs initial finding. They found that the odds that this DNA came from Eric Thompson were 16.4 trillion times higher than the odds that it came from a random, unrelated individual. So, okay, basically they're saying, AKA Eric Thompson's head was in that hat. Like, that's, that's what the private analysis is saying. The rest of the trial honestly played out similarly to the last one. Like, this was very similar, except this part, the jury went to deliberate and not guilty. They're split again.
- [47:19]
B
Okay.
- [47:20]
A
Judge sends them back, like, nope, we're not getting this hung jury. Go back and figure it out. You're going to get a verdict. Few of them said it came down to Eric's decision to testify on his own behalf. When he got up and testified in his second trial, they found him cold, like, a little tense and, quote, lame, but, like, low key. If I was being tried for a murder I didn't commit, I'm not sure I would be very, like, warm and bubbly on the stand.
- [47:46]
B
Yeah, I don't know. I don't.
- [47:47]
A
Yeah, you know, I think I would be defensive as well. I'd like, no, I didn't do this. But there still seemed to be a Lot of reasonable doubt. Watching the footage over and over, most of the jurors couldn't even be sure if they were looking at a man or a woman that was walking in the bucket hat, let alone whether it's Eric Thompson. But after three days of deliberating, alliances started shifting. Votes started flipping.
- [48:09]
B
Yeah.
- [48:10]
A
Verdict was met. Eric Thompson was found guilty of second degree murder.
- [48:14]
B
Interesting. Okay.
- [48:15]
A
He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the murder charge and was given an additional 20 years for the weapons charge. These would run concurrently. He must serve a minimum of 15 years before he's eligible for parole. But I still think there's a lot of questions that linger in this case. Is there more to the story between Eric and John? Like, how many times do we see a love triangle murder that has absolutely zero history between the murder and the
- [48:43]
B
victim that we can find coincidences and I don't know. I'm glad that I don't. I don't know.
- [48:51]
A
There's nothing. We don't have anyone from John's family being like, oh, yeah, Eric was crazy. He was stalking John. We don't have anyone from Eric's family being like, yeah, he went and found John, I assume.
- [49:00]
B
He obviously claims his innocence today. Is there anything going on with that, or.
- [49:04]
A
Not really, no. He's just. He has 15 years. So the question is, is Eric just that good at covering up his tracks? No digital evidence, very little crime scene evidence, almost no DNA evidence. Had he kept that hat on his head, would he have gotten away with murder? Like, if that private analysis hadn't come through and said no, it's almost probably pretty sure. Like, if he just hadn't lost the hat on the way out and he is the murderer, would he not have been?
- [49:35]
B
I mean, it's a good chance. I think so.
- [49:37]
A
And seven months after the affair ended, he kills his wife's affair partner. Did Eric know something that no one else did? Did something go wrong? Did someone get it wrong? What I can say is this. In a place known for its aloha spirit, you'd expect these answers to come easy. But unfortunately, in this case, pieces of the truth might be lost forever in paradise, and that is the murder of John Tokuhara.
- [50:05]
B
It's hard because, like, who else would have done it? Like, who else would have done it, right? Like, I mean, I don't know. It sounds like this guy was sleeping with everyone's wives, so maybe someone else
- [50:12]
A
would have done it and, like, pissing women off because he did date around. He was.
- [50:16]
B
There's a lot of people that would have killed them.
- [50:17]
A
And if the gambling debt is true and the person who showed up was actually just there to collect on a debt and didn't end up taking the money because that's pretty obvious.
- [50:27]
B
I mean, do I think he probably did it? Yes. Is there a chance he didn't do it also? Yes. So I don't know how I feel.
- [50:35]
A
I also don't love the idea that like the first trial was hung jury, the second trial was a hung jury and then they go make it.
- [50:41]
B
Yeah, I don't like that.
- [50:42]
A
Yes. A judge is allowed to do that. He's allowed to be like, no, go back.
- [50:45]
B
Putting your life just. It's weird to put your life in all these random strangers hands.
- [50:49]
A
And I think for me, like the fact the jury came out afterwards and openly said I didn't vote that way first. But after being forced to sit there for three days and forced to come to an agreement, I switched my vote.
- [51:01]
B
Not a fan.
- [51:01]
A
That feels weird.
- [51:02]
B
I agree.
- [51:03]
A
I don't know. All right you guys, that was our episode for today and we will see you next time with another one. I love it and I hate it. Goodbye. This podcast is supported by MIDI Health. Are you in midlife? Feeling dismissed, unheard, or just plain tired of the old healthcare system? You're not alone. In fact, even today 75% of women seeking care for menopause and perimenopause issues are are left entirely untreated. But it's time for a change. It's time for MITI. MITI's not just a healthcare provider. It's a women's telehealth clinic. Founded and supported by world class leaders in women's health. Their clinicians provide one on one face to face consultations where they truly listen to your unique needs. They offer a full range of holistic, data driven solutions. That isn't one size fits all care. This is care uniquely tailored for you. At midi, you will find that their mission is to help all women thrive in midlife, giving them access to the health care they deserve. Because they believe midlife isn't the middle at all. It is the beginning of your second act. Ready to feel your best and write your second act script? Visit joinmitty.com today to book your personalized insurance covered virtual visit. That's joinmidi.com midi the care women deserve.