Google Maps image of Kauhiula Road near where Albert Harry Pacheco Sr. was found dead in December 2023. Police opened a murder investigation in January 2024.
When police found Albert Harry Pacheco Sr.’s lifeless body sitting in a car outside of the banana farm he worked at in Hawaii, they did not think they were dealing with a murder. But this week, police said things have officially changed.
In an announcement from the Hawaii Police Department, authorities disclosed that foul play is now suspected in the 68-year-old Hilo man’s death last December following findings from a forensic pathologist.
On Dec. 3 just before 5 p.m., officers on the Big Island said they responded to a report of a man sitting unresponsive in a car on a banana farm near a local graveyard known as the Alae Cemetery.
On arrival, Pacheco was quickly identified by detectives as an employee of the farm. Nothing seemed to indicate a murder at the time, but five days later on Dec. 8 an autopsy report revealed a solitary gunshot wound on the man’s upper thigh. Police said they went to the morgue straight away to assess.
After interviewing people at the farm and neighboring properties for the last month, police in Hilo said no suspect has been identified yet and now their investigation is considered a second-degree murder probe.
Police did not disclose the name of the banana farm at this time.
A request for comment to Law&Crime from the Hawaii Police Department Criminal Division was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Anyone who might have tips on Pacheco’s alleged murder is encouraged to call (808) 961-2386, or the police department’s nonemergency number at (808) 935-3311.
According to a 2023 report from local Fox affiliate KHON picking apart FBI data, murder rates in Hawaii have been on an uptick in recent years though violent crime overall has been on the downswing.
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