Instagram model Theresa “Tita” Cachuela was shot dead by her husband Jason Cachuela outside a Honolulu mall in front of one of their children on Dec. 22, 2023, cops say. Police later found Jason Cachuela dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. (GoFundMe)
An Instagram model is believed to have died at the hands of her husband when he allegedly shot her in the parking lot of a Hawaii mall in front of one of their young children.
Honolulu police Lt. Deena Thoemmes told reporters that dispatchers received a call about a “suspicious circumstance” around 10:15 a.m. Friday at the Pearlridge Center mall and found a 33-year-old woman identified as Theresa “Tita” Cachuela dead from gunshot wounds. Officers later found the husband, 44-year-old Jason Cachuela, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound behind a home about five miles away, Thoemmes said.
The parking lot was just beginning to fill with Christmas shoppers at the time of the shooting. Danny Earles told Hawaii News Now he heard the volley of shots.
“So I jumped behind a cement column. And then … he must have put another clip in,” he said. “I hear pop, pop, pop pop and I shut down. That’s like 12 bullets and then I crouched down and ran out of the parking lot.”
Court records show a judge granted Theresa Cachuela’s request for a temporary restraining order against her husband just two days before he allegedly killed her. Theresa Cachuela said her husband continually harassed her and made threats of suicide in front of her and their three kids, according to the restraining order reviewed by Law&Crime.
She wrote that he also held a knife up to his neck. The morning she filed for the restraining order she took her son out to the garage to find her husband hiding under her car, she said.
“I am doing this to protect myself, my children and to hopefully get him the help he needs,” she wrote in the Dec. 8 filing.
Court records show the Cachuelas agreed to a one-year restraining order and they would only have contact when they were exchanging their children between his visitations. The judge also ordered Jason Cachuela to turn over any firearms.
Lucita Ani-Nihoa, the victim’s mother, told Hawaii News Now that her daughter and son-in-law were having marital problems and he was abusing her. Theresa Cachuela had recently filed for divorce of her husband of nearly 11 years, her mom said.
“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.
Now the family is spending Christmas without her, still in shock about her death.
“Lives have changed forever,” Ani-Nihoa’s husband Roy Nihoa said.
Ani-Nihoa wrote in a GoFundMe post that her daughter and grandchildren were meeting her for breakfast so they could exchange Christmas gifts.
“My daughter did not deserve this. She was trying so hard to get help, but the Justice system failed her. We are so devastated with the loss of our beloved Tita,” she wrote.
Theresa Cachuela posted under the Instagram name Bunny Bontiti and had about 20,000 followers. She modeled and sold eyelashes online.
Her cousin Terrell Scott told local ABC affiliate KITV he wants people to remember her as a devoted mother and business owner.
“She was very supportive of her kids and she did everything she could to protect them. She’s super loving and an amazing woman. I love her and I’m sorry her kids are going through this,” Scott told the outlet.
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