good. and then, six minutes into her ruling, finally, here it was. you are hereby ordered committed to the custody of the director of the department of public safety for imprisonment for a period of ten years. ten years. the maximum she could impose. and with that, the mendonca family s 12-year quest for justice came to an end. that was my graveyard promise to my daughter, and i fulfilled it. i believe that you ll always be in my heart larry and toshie follow a series of rituals on the anniversary of sandra s death. they bring flowers to her memorial outside the ywca. have lunch at the beach house restaurant where sandra once worked. you are my heart. and they pray by her graveside at holy cross cemetery, where she is surrounded by her ancestors.
we ve we ve got to get this case solved. on this day, larry, and sandra s mom, toshie, had to see darren at grandson austin s little league game. that s darren on the field, coaching. and in the dugout, with his girlfriend, cherene, a woman he d known since before sandra s murder. and it was at this point, 2009, three years after sandra s murder, when larry felt the time had come for him to go from investigator to avenger. he was seriously thinking about killing darren. if i figure out a way to get away with it, it ll happen. fortunately the arrival of a new kauai police chief put his plans on hold. darryl perry, a 30-year veteran of the honolulu p.d. agreed to meet with larry and listen to his theories about the case. and he showed me the scene.
hello and welcome to dateline. sandra was born and raised on an island known as one of the most beautiful places on earth. so how could something so ugly have happened there? the young mother was found strangled to death in her garage. police immediately set their sights on two men close to sandra, but it would take a father s relentless pursuit of the truth to unravel this mystery. here s keith morrison with the other side of paradise. wandering through this land, you wonder if you ve been transported to the beginning of biblical time, to a garden free of want, temptation, or betrayal. and in a land so
verdant estates of the wealthy few. she was in a neighborhood more working class suburbia than polynesian paradise. in her own small ranch house, in her garage, in her car. she d been strangled to death. it was sandra s new boyfriend, ryan shinjo, who called the police, said he found her that way. and she was slumped to the right, to the passenger seat, face down into the seat. roy asher was one of the original investigators. we spoke to him in 2009. this was three years after sandra was murdered. i saw the back of her neck, some ligature marks. we didn t find the cord itself. we have an idea of what what could ve been used. what? a thin, thin cord, like a fishing line. sandra s shirt and bra were askew. her lip was split as if she d been punched in the face. ryan, the boyfriend, he s the
for a small island girl, it felt as big and lonely as new york city. she missed kauai, her family, and would come home as often as she could. that s when she got involved with darren. and darren was here. darren was here. darren galas. a little older, made good money in his highway construction job. sandra was crazy about him. and soon after she moved home, they got married. son austin came nine months later, and braden two years after that. so by the age of 24, sandra was the matriarch of her own little clan. she loved the boys to death. i mean, she, you know, that was they were the apple of her eye. life was good. until april 2005, when sandra came to her parents, very upset. as she told us, she was cleaning out her husband s backpack and two papers fell out, two phone numbers. so she called the phone numbers