Peter Boy siblings await settlement in decades-long wrongful-death case

Nearly 30 years after Peter Kema Jr. vanished on the Big Island and his body was never found, his siblings are still pressing a wrongful-death case that now faces a July 30 settlement conference and, if no agreement is reached, a civil trial on Sept. 28.

The lawsuit, filed eight years ago by the siblings of Peter Boy, as Kema Jr. was known, says the State of Hawaii and Child Protective Services failed a child they had already identified as endangered. The case centers on allegations that state workers returned Peter Boy to his parents despite evidence of abuse, then failed to timely investigate later reports or provide appropriate services. A Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals opinion filed Jan. 14, 2025, in CAAP-21-0000412 kept the case alive, saying the siblings were minors when Peter Boy was killed and that his death had been fraudulently concealed until 2016, preserving their standing to sue.

The paper trail inside the case shows how long the warning signs had been there. The Department of Human Services opened a child-abuse case on May 8, 1991, after abuse of Peter Boy’s older half-siblings was reported. In August 1991, Peter Boy was admitted to Hilo Hospital with multiple new and healing fractures in his shoulder, elbow, ribs and knee. A court-appointed guardian urged the state to consider terminating parental rights sooner rather than later, and a psychologist’s evaluation described both parents as emotionally immature and at risk for abusing their children. Still, the state later returned the children to the Kemas and officially closed the case on Oct. 31, 1995.

The allegations did not end there. Archived timelines show a therapist reported abuse concerns again in April 1997, including an allegation that Peter Boy’s arm had been broken. By June and July 1997, social workers were trying to locate the family because Peter Boy was not appearing at DHS appointments. The court record says Peter Boy died in 1997 at age 6 from neglect and physical abuse allegedly inflicted by his parents, along with the state’s failure to act.

The criminal case added another layer of accountability. Peter Kema Sr. pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2017 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Jaylin Kema also pleaded guilty to manslaughter, received a one-year jail term with credit for time served, and died in 2019. Prosecutors had indicted both in 2016 on second-degree murder charges.

The case still resonates in Hilo, Puna and across Hawaii because it is not only about one child’s death. A 2025 legislative resolution cited the Peter Boy case as part of a broader child welfare failure, noting 19 child fatalities or serious injuries reported since 1997 and more than $10 million paid out in lawsuits. The settlement conference now pending will test whether the state can finally resolve a case that has outlasted multiple administrations and still carries a public cost.