A Hawaiian social media influencer and beauty entrepreneur has been shot dead in front of her daughter by her estranged husband, in what authorities are investigating as a murder-suicide.
Theresa Cachuela, 33, a mother
of three and owner of House of Glam Hawaii LLC in Waipahu, was shot in the head
and killed by Jason Cachuela, 44, in the parking lot of the Pearlridge Center
last Friday morning, the Honolulu Star–Advertiser reported.
Her daughter witnessed the
shooting and told police her dad pulled the trigger, according to KITV. The
girl was reported by local outlets as being either 6 or 8 years old.
Jason reportedly shot himself
shortly after fleeing the scene in a grey Mazda
Police are investigating the
deaths as a murder-suicide, which occurred two weeks after a judge granted Cachuela’s
petition for an order of protection against her estranged husband.
“This was not a random act, as the victim and
suspect were involved in a relationship,” police Lt. Deena Thoemmes said Friday
before the gunman was found dead, according to the Hawaii Tribune.
“We do know that there was a
TRO that was served on him, which is why this case was classified as murder in
the first degree,” she said, referring to a temporary restraining order.
When police served Jason with
the TRO, they recovered his five registered firearms, the outlet reported
“Her youngest daughter is the
one that tragically saw everything,” Cachuela’s mother, Lucita Ani-Nihoa, told
Hawaii News Now. “She’s traumatized. She has so much faith, this little girl.
She just … started praying.”
She added: “She doesn’t believe
it. She doesn’t believe her mom is gone. I don’t believe it.”
According to the petition for
the TRO, Cachuela threatened to kill himself in front of her, the Hawaii Tribune
reported.
“He then took me alone to
Waikiki and held a knife to his neck traumatizing me and scaring me,” she
wrote, according to the outlet. “The next morning he showed up to my house
early in the morning to apologize. I tried to help him and talk to him but he
kept threatening to kill himself again.”
Cachuela’s mother described the
tragic shooting on a GoFundMe page, saying her daughter, whom the family called
“Tita,” planned to have breakfast with her Friday morning.
“I wanted to give her and my grandkids their
Christmas gifts,” Ani-Nihoa wrote. “My daughter did not deserve this. She was
trying so hard to get help, but the Justice system failed her,” she wrote.
“We are so devastated with the
loss of our beloved Tita. This has been so difficult for our family which we
were not prepared for,” the grieving mother continued.
Ani-Nihoa said her daughter
Cachuela told relatives she had been abused by her husband and filed the TRO
due to his continued harassment and stalking, Hawaii News Now reported.
“She wanted to leave him but he
wasn’t accepting it. He tried to control her with, with everything … where she
would go what she would do,” Ani-Nihoa told the outlet, adding that her
daughter had recently filed for divorce.
In the days before the killing,
Jason repeatedly threatened to commit suicide, HNN reported.
He was only permitted to
contact Cachuela for child custody, KITV reported, adding that they had been
married for 10 years
Jason’s attorney, Michael
Green, said the couple had agreed to visitation of the children, according to
HNN.
Green told the Star-Advertiser
that his client has never threatened violence against Cachuela and the kids.
He told the outlet that the TRO
was sought to help keep Cachuela from killing himself and that he had arranged
for a psychological evaluation before the couple agreed on the terms of the
TRO.
Ani-Nihoa said the shooting
could have been prevented had her daughter’s requests for police help been
taken more seriously.
“She’s been trying to tell the
cops about all the issues that were going on about the gun that he pulled on
her a couple of times already,” she told the outlet
“He threatened to kill her.
They never arrested him, knowing that he had guns, knowing that he tried to
threaten, he threatened to kill the kids and her in her own garage. The court
wasn’t there for her,” Ani-Nihoa said.
“The system failed her — and
now she’s gone,” she added.
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