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Speaker 2: Helloha, everyone, Welcome back to Facing Evil. I'm Rascha Pecerreiro
Speaker 2: and I'mivet Genteel. In this week, we're talking about the
Speaker 2: murder of Sandra Gaullis. This murder took place back in
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, and it happened in Hawaii, our
Speaker 2: home state. And I know many people think of the
Speaker 2: beautiful islands of Hawaii as a tropical paradise, which it
Speaker 2: absolutely is. But it's a place you don't think that
Speaker 2: murder or crime would happen. But it's just a place
Speaker 2: like anywhere else, and sadly, it does happen sometimes.
Speaker 3: And the thing about this case is that it seemed
Speaker 3: like it was an open and shut case, but this
Speaker 3: took so long for justice to actually come to this case.
Speaker 3: And it's really because of the parents, the family, the Ohanna,
Speaker 3: the village that fought for justice.
Speaker 2: Yes, and we are so grateful today to have part
Speaker 2: of that village with us to join us in a
Speaker 2: conversation about Sandy. We have two members of her Ohana
Speaker 2: with us here today, but first our producer Trevor is
Speaker 2: going to walk us through today's case.
Speaker 4: In January of two thousand and six, twenty seven year
Speaker 4: old Sandra Galis was found strangled in her car parked
Speaker 4: in the garage of her Ala La home.
Speaker 5: Police launched the murder investigation, but never arrested a suspect
Speaker 5: and the case went cold until now, Koa You police
Speaker 5: have arrested a man for the murder of Sandra Gallis.
Speaker 5: He was her ex husband.
Speaker 4: Cal what you police say this has been a collaborative
Speaker 4: effort and they say they were able to track down
Speaker 4: the suspected killer because of improved DNA technologies and a
Speaker 4: new cold case unit.
Speaker 1: Sandra Gallis was a twenty seven year old woman who
Speaker 1: was killed in Hawaii in two thousand and six. On
Speaker 1: the morning of January twenty fifth, Sandra was found dead
Speaker 1: in her car parked in her garage at her home
Speaker 1: in Kawaii. The causes of death were strangulation and blunt
Speaker 1: force trauma to the head. Seven years earlier, she had
Speaker 1: married Darren Gallis. Together they had two sons. In April
Speaker 1: of two thousand and five, Sandra and Darren separated after
Speaker 1: she discovered that he was cheating on her. They decided
Speaker 1: to share custody of the boys. Darren was opposed to
Speaker 1: getting legally separated. He grew even more upset when he
Speaker 1: learned that Sandra had a new relationship with a man
Speaker 1: named Ryan Shinjo, a chef who reportedly lavished Sandra with
Speaker 1: expensive gifts. When Sandra picked up their sons from visits
Speaker 1: with Darren, the two of them would get into bitter arguments,
Speaker 1: and in January of two thousand and six, she wrote
Speaker 1: to her attorney describing an incident in which Darren had
Speaker 1: yelled at her while also shaking her violently as she
Speaker 1: was in the hospital. On January twenty third, two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, his coworkers witnessed Darren losing his temper when
Speaker 1: he saw Ryan and Sandra out together in public. The
Speaker 1: following day, Sandra spent the night at Ryan's house, and
Speaker 1: the next morning he dropped her off around six am.
Speaker 1: Neighbors then saw her car leave to pick up the
Speaker 1: boys from their father's house. The car returned a short
Speaker 1: while later, but without the boys. She would never arrive
Speaker 1: to pick them up. Later that morning, Ryan Shinjo found
Speaker 1: Sandra Gallis strangled and beaten in her car parked in
Speaker 1: her garage. Friends and family thought this case would be
Speaker 1: open and shut and that Darren Gallis would go to jail,
Speaker 1: but this was not the case. The police chief said, quote,
Speaker 1: you have to have some physical evidence and an eye witness.
Speaker 1: Darren Gallis had the means in the motive, but that
Speaker 1: was not enough to charge him. Despite Sandra's parents' objections,
Speaker 1: Darren gained custody of their sons, Austin and Brayden, and
Speaker 1: although Sandra's parents tried to stay in touch with their grandchildren,
Speaker 1: they believed that Darren was brainwashing the kids against them.
Speaker 1: With no new evidence, the case went cold. Over the years,
Speaker 1: Sandra's parents would go door to door seeking new information.
Speaker 1: They even appeared on Dateline. They also started a foundation
Speaker 1: dedicated to raising awareness of Sandra's murder. Finally, years later,
Speaker 1: a key piece of evidence was discovered pointing to Darren Gallus,
Speaker 1: and he was indicted for second degree murder in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: he reached a plea deal and was given a maximum
Speaker 1: term of ten years in prison, though the family believes
Speaker 1: he deserved worse, and his sentence was reduced in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. And So who was Sandra Gallis? What really
Speaker 1: happened to her in two thousand and six? And how
Speaker 1: does this story of a family seeking justice reveal the
Speaker 1: power of community and dedication?
Speaker 3: Today we are so grateful to have Lawrence Mendanza Senior
Speaker 3: and Lawrence Mendanza Junior. They are the father and the
Speaker 3: brother of Sandy Gaullis. We are so honored to have
Speaker 3: you both on the show today, and especially Larry, thank
Speaker 3: you so much for being here on your birthday. You
Speaker 3: just turned eighty two. To be here with us to
Speaker 3: talk about your beautiful daughter, it's it just means so much,
Speaker 3: So thank you both for being here.
Speaker 6: Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2: So Holi lahanaw Larry, Happy birthday, Arry, So dad, We're
Speaker 2: gonna call you Larry, and then Laurence Junior. Of course, Laurence,
Speaker 2: so our listeners know, but thank you so much for
Speaker 2: being here. And we know that we are all from
Speaker 2: the same beautiful state, raised in Julvity and I feel
Speaker 2: like it's going to be one of the many things
Speaker 2: that we share. I would love to know what was
Speaker 2: it like growing up for you, Lawrence in Kawai.
Speaker 6: It was awesome.
Speaker 7: I mean, as you all know, I mean, the state
Speaker 7: of Provii is just incredible, right, It's not just the
Speaker 7: beauty of the of the aina, but also just the
Speaker 7: beauty of the people. And it's a privilege to have
Speaker 7: grown up there and experienced life on the island.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's you know, Hawaii is really a special place.
Speaker 3: Can you start to tell us about your sister, Like,
Speaker 3: what was it like, you know, growing up with your sister?
Speaker 3: What did you guys do together? What was your life together?
Speaker 7: Like, well, you know, the first part of growing up
Speaker 7: on Kai we lived on a ranch and on a
Speaker 7: whole office, so you know, it was one hundred and
Speaker 7: forty two acres, had our own waterfall in front of
Speaker 7: the house, and the beach front access. So you know,
Speaker 7: we used to go out. I used to take my
Speaker 7: pelict gun and she used to get a little fanny
Speaker 7: pack and we would God, we had two fruit orchards
Speaker 7: on the property, so we would go and we'd be
Speaker 7: gone all day, right, we would go. We got hungry
Speaker 7: we go pick tangerines or oranges or mangos or whatever
Speaker 7: and eat whatever shoot does.
Speaker 6: And those are other things. You know.
Speaker 7: If I shot something, I had to eat it.
Speaker 6: So I always shot, yeah, right, I had to.
Speaker 7: Clean it and eat it, bring it home. Mom would
Speaker 7: cook it, you know. But then we would go to
Speaker 7: the beach and just hang out on the beach and play.
Speaker 7: And it's time to come home. We knew, you know,
Speaker 7: started get dark, all right, we got to go back
Speaker 7: to the house. Mom was making dinner.
Speaker 6: So it was you know, it was awesome.
Speaker 3: What was the age difference between the two of you.
Speaker 7: Two years or year nine months?
Speaker 2: A little a little shorter of a distance. Evet and
Speaker 2: I are eleven years apart. But I would just follow
Speaker 2: her around everywhere. But we were city girls. We never
Speaker 2: got to kill anything and eat it. Peys maybe, but
Speaker 2: that's about it.
Speaker 8: Larry.
Speaker 2: I would love to know your your backstory and you
Speaker 2: and your wife. Obviously you made the conscious decision to
Speaker 2: raise Sandy and Lawrence on Kowai. What what made you
Speaker 2: decide to do that, especially having lived all over the
Speaker 2: world and in Japan.
Speaker 8: If I'm not mistaken, I was born on Kawai.
Speaker 3: Oh you are a Kawai boy. Okay, oh wow.
Speaker 6: I'm a local boy all the way through.
Speaker 8: I love it and.
Speaker 6: I got ready to retire from the military. Lawrence was
Speaker 6: three years old, Sandy was two years old. Mmmmm.
Speaker 9: Sandraw was actually born in Japan, the country of her
Speaker 9: her mother. And the reason I came back to Hawaii
Speaker 9: was I have I had three brothers, two older, one younger.
Speaker 6: We're all military brats.
Speaker 8: If you will, muhullo for your service, thank you.
Speaker 6: I was the only one that came back to Kawai.
Speaker 9: The other three actually ended up living in Texas and
Speaker 9: or Oklahoma. I think that basically to take care mom
Speaker 9: and dad. There was nobody here to take care mom
Speaker 9: and dad. And I think it was a great decision.
Speaker 9: I don't regret it, and other than the fact of
Speaker 9: losing Sandy, but of course that was her decision.
Speaker 3: So Lawrence, growing up with your sister, you know, as
Speaker 3: you guys started to get older, you know, in your
Speaker 3: teen years, like what was you know some of your
Speaker 3: sister's dreams, like what did she want to be?
Speaker 7: Or do you know she always wanted to have a family.
Speaker 7: You know, she loved being with her friends, she loved dancing,
Speaker 7: hula was she she was? She was she performed a
Speaker 7: lot in fact that can verify this. What was she
Speaker 7: in the coal plantation day Prix?
Speaker 9: When she was younger, she joined Leilani Bond pull Lull.
Speaker 9: She participated in kikiula competition. M Well, she was in
Speaker 9: high school. She actually worked part time on why l
Speaker 9: e Li riverboat trips.
Speaker 6: Up to the Fern Grotto and Little River. That's where
Speaker 6: she made her spending money.
Speaker 8: I love it.
Speaker 3: She was a local girl through and through.
Speaker 9: She was never satisfied with everything. She was always in
Speaker 9: a hurry to get get what she was doing. She
Speaker 9: actually convinced us to let her join the gymnastics for
Speaker 9: school when she was five years old. Shortly thereafter and
Speaker 9: she decided she wanted to learn hula. So she was
Speaker 9: doing gymnastics and dancing and learning to dance sula. I
Speaker 9: love it and that was the start of her life.
Speaker 9: She always did that. When she went to college after
Speaker 9: high school, she wasn't satisfied with taking fifteen or eighteen
Speaker 9: credits there per semester.
Speaker 6: She wanted more. She called us, I can take more,
Speaker 6: I can take no. We put a stop on that.
Speaker 9: She she wanted to do everything but she never really
Speaker 9: thought about it as to managing her time. So we'd
Speaker 9: sit her down and say, Okay, where are you going
Speaker 9: to get the time?
Speaker 6: I'll make time. I'll make time. That was sy That
Speaker 6: was that was her life.
Speaker 2: Sounds like Sandy really had a lust for life. And
Speaker 2: especially when you dance hula, you have to, you know,
Speaker 2: appreciate the eye of the land that you come from,
Speaker 2: and she just it's like a beautiful soul. I'd love
Speaker 2: to ask you, Lawrence. So we're here to tell Sandy's story,
Speaker 2: to get her voice out there and to know more
Speaker 2: about what to look for, because we're always looking for
Speaker 2: the light in the darkness. And so if you feel comfortable,
Speaker 2: can you walk us through. Did you see signs leading
Speaker 2: up to her unfortunate death of domestic violence or anything
Speaker 2: that you were like, oh, I'm worried for my baby sister.
Speaker 7: Looking back on it, yeah, Hind's like twenty twenty, right,
Speaker 7: can you look back on things and you're like, oh,
Speaker 7: I would have paid more attention, or we had paid
Speaker 7: more attention, maybe something could have been done. So, I mean,
Speaker 7: I distinctly remember one instance, and I was I had
Speaker 7: come home for it was the summer or what. But
Speaker 7: I happened to be home on Kawai and she came
Speaker 7: to visit. Is when at that time she only had
Speaker 7: her first son, Austin, my oldest nephew, And she was
Speaker 7: at the house and we're all sitting around and I
Speaker 7: was playing with the kids, and I happened to look
Speaker 7: down at her thigh and she had this big old
Speaker 7: bruise on her leg.
Speaker 6: And I was like, and I.
Speaker 7: Jokingly and looking back pretty inappropriately, but.
Speaker 6: What happened there?
Speaker 7: He beat daring, beating you or what?
Speaker 6: And she just kind of played off.
Speaker 7: She said, no, I ran into the table or whatever.
Speaker 8: You know, typical response.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, looking back, you know it probably was the
Speaker 7: result of of something of that sort. And you know,
Speaker 7: it's it's one of the things that kind of wears
Speaker 7: on me.
Speaker 8: You can't let that get to Lawrence.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, it's for the most part of me. She
Speaker 7: she knew if she ever told me or Dad or
Speaker 7: any of the family or any very really close friends
Speaker 7: what was really going on, she knew what would happen.
Speaker 7: And you know, she was very much the type that
Speaker 7: would take care of things on her own, whether it
Speaker 7: didn't matter.
Speaker 6: What it was.
Speaker 8: You know, she was a gutter yea.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so looking back, yeah, there's probably signs that that
Speaker 7: weren't as obvious. And me being away from home so much,
Speaker 7: I mean, I have seen it a whole lot. If
Speaker 7: I was home more, maybe I would have been able
Speaker 7: to see more of it and just kind of get
Speaker 7: a grasp on it and kind of reel it in.
Speaker 7: And there were definitely signs there.
Speaker 3: One of the reasons that I was so attached to
Speaker 3: this case and it so emotionally struck me is just
Speaker 3: the circumstances and you know, the way that things happened
Speaker 3: and how he didn't get convicted until twelve years later.
Speaker 3: But you the family, you're Ohana like you fought and
Speaker 3: fought and fought for justice to come. You know, how
Speaker 3: did you do that?
Speaker 8: Is my question?
Speaker 3: How did you you all stay so strong, you know,
Speaker 3: just to keep persevering forward.
Speaker 6: Dad was a spearhead.
Speaker 7: I mean, he made it his life's mission to get
Speaker 7: justice from my sister, and he did not let anything
Speaker 7: get in the way of that. You know. He was
Speaker 7: meeting with the police chief, you know, every month and
Speaker 7: had developed a very close relationship with the police chief.
Speaker 8: Was that Chief Perry right?
Speaker 7: Mm hm, Yes, yes, Dad was definitely the spearhead for that,
Speaker 7: and you know it wouldn't let her name die and
Speaker 7: we sat down and thought about things. I remember thinking
Speaker 7: about things to keep her name out there, like fundraisers
Speaker 7: and charity events, and because of friends the family, we
Speaker 7: were able to get in touch with the y w
Speaker 7: c A and help them put together golf course or
Speaker 7: a golf tournament and keep my sister's name alive and
Speaker 7: keep the public aware of what's going on and you know,
Speaker 7: generate revenue for to help fight domestic violence. But that
Speaker 7: and Mom definitely were the ones that were not going
Speaker 7: to let it go away and disappear. And it definitely
Speaker 7: took a toll on them. I can definitely say that
Speaker 7: for sure. You know Dad with his hard issues and
Speaker 7: moms with their health issues as well, so that Dad
Speaker 7: was not going to let it fade away and for
Speaker 7: it to be forgotten.
Speaker 6: For sure, they.
Speaker 8: Will not let anyone forget Sandy. No.
Speaker 6: Well. Started at her graves.
Speaker 9: I promised her that I would go until we got
Speaker 9: close here, and I always lived by that model. When
Speaker 9: I make a promise, I intend to keep it whatever
Speaker 9: the cost.
Speaker 8: Whatever the cost.
Speaker 9: Yeah, any things with Sandy that you know why she
Speaker 9: was growing up during the awkward ages, we never got along.
Speaker 9: She thought it was a cruelest and Mena's father.
Speaker 6: In the world.
Speaker 9: She had made it after Reft she was married and
Speaker 9: you know, wanted our help and all this. She said, Well,
Speaker 9: I thought you were Mena's dead in the world, but no,
Speaker 9: I can't live without you.
Speaker 6: We made up.
Speaker 9: We were we were bonding and getting quite pleasuredly together
Speaker 9: with each other over the last two or three years
Speaker 9: of her life.
Speaker 7: I can definitely say that they but it heads a
Speaker 7: lot because they had identical personalities.
Speaker 2: Personalities sounds like me and my daughter Leilani. Yeah, I can,
Speaker 2: I can relate. I can relate very very much so,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure it was different when Sandy became a
Speaker 2: parent herself. And is it appropriate and is it comfortable
Speaker 2: for you to talk about Sandy's children and how they are.
Speaker 9: There were three and five when Sandy died, and they
Speaker 9: lived with their father, who was the perpetrator, so consequently
Speaker 9: he poisoned their minds. Children think Sandy was an evil woman,
Speaker 9: and Grandpa is unheard of. Grandpa is beyond that. They
Speaker 9: won't talk, They won't talk to us, they won't listen
Speaker 9: to us.
Speaker 6: Nothing.
Speaker 9: But I've had family friends, relatives that met with him,
Speaker 9: so they were cousins and all this.
Speaker 6: They just shout him. That's the way the two children are.
Speaker 8: I'm so sorry.
Speaker 9: In fact, the oldest one, he will turn twenty three
Speaker 9: on the twenty fourth of this month, and when I
Speaker 9: send them cards and all that, in some cases they
Speaker 9: won't even gesh to check.
Speaker 6: Other cases, they'll keep.
Speaker 9: It till the bare minimum maximum time before they catch it.
Speaker 6: No, thank you, no nothing. We don't hear from them
Speaker 6: at all.
Speaker 8: I'm so sorry.
Speaker 9: This was something I anticipated when I decided to pursue
Speaker 9: Sandy's case. It was a decision that we had to
Speaker 9: make because either we lay Sandy to rest the way
Speaker 9: she should have been and corporate the relations with our grandchildren.
Speaker 6: That's a decision we made.
Speaker 8: In order to have justice.
Speaker 3: I guess I can ask both of you this question.
Speaker 3: You believed that he was the one who did it.
Speaker 3: It wasn't Ryan, her boyfriend. All of the evidence was
Speaker 3: pointing to Darren.
Speaker 9: There were two different people. Ryan was cooperative. We were
Speaker 9: up in Texas visiting with Lawrence and my brother at
Speaker 9: the time when Sandy was killed, so we had to
Speaker 9: rush back and when we got back, we.
Speaker 6: Met Ryan for the first time.
Speaker 9: I never you know, he was He wasn't in our
Speaker 9: lives to be prior to Andy's death, but he was cooperative.
Speaker 9: He had some issues, but and still on occasion I
Speaker 9: communicate with him via emails. He's in he lives in Anola.
Speaker 9: Darren was just the opposite. Darren wouldn't have anything to
Speaker 9: do with us. He discouraged the two boys from even
Speaker 9: communicating with us. I uh when they got a food
Speaker 9: order for visitors, right and he signed it and agreed.
Speaker 9: So every weekend we would pick the two boys up
Speaker 9: and he went quite well for about two or three months.
Speaker 9: Then started where the oldest grandson said, I don't I
Speaker 9: don't really want to come over there, and I could
Speaker 9: see the writing on the wall.
Speaker 6: They were being badgered.
Speaker 9: When I brought them back on Sunday evening, they were
Speaker 9: being verbally badgered.
Speaker 3: Larry, can you tell us a little bit about the
Speaker 3: Sandy g Memorial golf tournament that they have every year
Speaker 3: in Kawhai.
Speaker 9: After Sandy got killed, there was, you know, as part
Speaker 9: of keeping her name and the case alive, that the
Speaker 9: young lady that worked at the YWCA News Sandy and Lawrence.
Speaker 9: She was one of their teachers when they were in
Speaker 9: elementary school at Saint Katherine School. And this particular person
Speaker 9: was the principal of Saint Katrine School when Sandy graduated,
Speaker 9: so you know she knew Sandy quite well. Yeah, after
Speaker 9: Sandy died and I was I was in. I basically
Speaker 9: told the police that, you know, I was going to
Speaker 9: be a thorn in their side and the case was
Speaker 9: so and a couple of years after this was going,
Speaker 9: it was looking like the case was going on the
Speaker 9: cold case files. So I set up an appointment with
Speaker 9: the police chief and went in to see him. Unfortunately,
Speaker 9: he kind of took an interest in Sandy's case. He
Speaker 9: had retired from honul Police department as a major and
Speaker 9: now he was a police chief and on Kawhi, so
Speaker 9: he had contacts in Honolulu. He brought in the cold
Speaker 9: case team from Honolulu.
Speaker 6: And they, you know, kept the thing going.
Speaker 9: But in the process I got with Renee, who is
Speaker 9: who had moved from an employee at the at the
Speaker 9: YW to the executive director of.
Speaker 8: The YW un koy okay Oh.
Speaker 9: After we got organized about a year after Sandy's death.
Speaker 9: The year year and a half, we decided to start
Speaker 9: a golf tournament.
Speaker 8: Wow, fantastic we did.
Speaker 6: We do it every year.
Speaker 9: Now it's it's like the seventeenth or eighteen anniversary coming up, and.
Speaker 8: It's August of twenty twenty three. Yeah.
Speaker 9: Yeah, first tournament only had like about thirteen or fourteen teams.
Speaker 8: Still pretty good.
Speaker 6: Yeah, side different scratch. There was really nothing.
Speaker 9: We really didn't know what we were doing. But as
Speaker 9: we progress for the last two years, we've matched out.
Speaker 9: The maximum is thirty six teams that we can have
Speaker 9: in one one.
Speaker 6: Shift, if you will. If we get anything bigger, then
Speaker 6: we'd have to have a second shift.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 9: They uses their earnings for domestic violence in YWCA activities,
Speaker 9: but averages out maybe about on an average about maybe
Speaker 9: twenty thousand.
Speaker 3: That's fantastic, goes to the foundation, right for the YWCA.
Speaker 9: Right, I'd beget questions over and over that want to
Speaker 9: emphasized it. As co sponsors of the thing, we did nothing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you're not making money, that's not what you're doing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're not there to make money.
Speaker 9: Well, we're there to keep Sandy's.
Speaker 6: Name going on.
Speaker 9: That being said, it costs me out of pocket on
Speaker 9: an average between five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars for
Speaker 9: every tournament, and Launch contributes some of it.
Speaker 6: But we got to where.
Speaker 9: We give out a sleeve a sleeve of three three
Speaker 9: golf balls in a box of a logo golf balls.
Speaker 9: We through relatives, family and et cetera, we came up
Speaker 9: with logo for Sandy g and I had it printed,
Speaker 9: I had it made out, and then we had it
Speaker 9: put on golf faults and back this year, I spent
Speaker 9: over one thousand dollars getting two years supply of golf
Speaker 9: logo golf bault, which is one of the things I
Speaker 9: donate to the tournament. Lawrence doronates the logo te's and ballmarkers.
Speaker 8: That's absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 7: We also get a lot of help from the community,
Speaker 7: a lot of donations from businesses and you know, family
Speaker 7: members and contributing and and even like people just reaching out.
Speaker 7: We have donations from all over all over the country,
Speaker 7: golfers coming in from all over the country a lot
Speaker 7: of times. Yeah, it's just another way for us to
Speaker 7: help keep the name alive as well as generate money
Speaker 7: for the y w c A and Kawhi to help
Speaker 7: prevent I've always said, if we can help prevent one
Speaker 7: other individual or family from going through what we went through,
Speaker 7: we've we've.
Speaker 6: Done our job.
Speaker 7: Not only are we keeping my sister's name alive, but
Speaker 7: we're helping others not have to endure what my sister
Speaker 7: endured and what we endured as well.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, so, Sandy has a monument at the White b
Speaker 2: C on Kola, and can you tell us a little
Speaker 2: bit about that, Lawrence, weren't you there for the opening
Speaker 2: of that?
Speaker 8: I feel like I saw something with you for part
Speaker 8: of it.
Speaker 7: They it was kind of a two part deal. They
Speaker 7: put a plaque there with my sister's picture and kind
Speaker 7: of her story. They had a true opening when they
Speaker 7: had the cranes put in, and I was not there
Speaker 7: for that. My parents were there, but they had a
Speaker 7: big celebration and almost a lot of my sister's friends
Speaker 7: showed up, and it was right there in downtown Lehuy.
Speaker 7: It's it's definitely a monument that that keeps my sister's
Speaker 7: name alive, but definitely is kind of a ray of
Speaker 7: hope there at the White BCA for anyone that just
Speaker 7: drives buyers or comes by.
Speaker 6: To see it.
Speaker 9: How Howard came about was when I when they agreed
Speaker 9: to start the golf tournament. So I kind of fell off,
Speaker 9: felt obligated to go in and help them. So I
Speaker 9: was going in just about every day, five days a week,
Speaker 9: doing handy dandy work on maintenance, so little minor maintenance,
Speaker 9: whatever they wanted to help.
Speaker 6: One day I went in there.
Speaker 9: And I was so check in with the executive director
Speaker 9: to see what she wanted, if she had anything for
Speaker 9: me to do, and she.
Speaker 6: Said, well, have a seat, let's have a talk.
Speaker 9: And okay, she said, well with the board has just
Speaker 9: met last night and they agreed to make a monument
Speaker 9: for Sandy. And they were interested to know whether I was,
Speaker 9: you know, I was agree to it or whatever. Of
Speaker 9: course keeping her name alive yet, yeah, that was all
Speaker 9: fort What they didn't tell me was we expect you
Speaker 9: to make the monument.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, that's a big piece to leave out.
Speaker 9: So there was one worker, a young fellow, he's in
Speaker 9: his forties that I was training. He worked there full
Speaker 9: time so and he wasn't very familiar with all the
Speaker 9: mating and stuff. So I was training him on where
Speaker 9: whatever I was doing. Bring him along and short so
Speaker 9: long story short, he and I ended up making the
Speaker 9: moss rock we true to why. We got a guy
Speaker 9: to volunteer to donate a look at a payloader bucket
Speaker 9: full of moss rock that we had to go down
Speaker 9: and pick up with a truck and aul it up
Speaker 9: to the site we had. I had another friend come
Speaker 9: in and there was a big palm tree there that
Speaker 9: we had to get out and some boulders we had
Speaker 9: to move, and he had a little bayloader, so he
Speaker 9: came down and did that, and once we got it
Speaker 9: all leveled off, I made the forms for the for
Speaker 9: the base and we did a moss rock monument stand
Speaker 9: plus around.
Speaker 6: Seat.
Speaker 8: Oh so someone can sit there.
Speaker 6: What a lot of people most people don't know.
Speaker 9: Is on the seat in it's marsh rock around and
Speaker 9: then a marble slab on top. But in the middle
Speaker 9: of that we ended up putting a crime capsule in, Oh.
Speaker 8: You did what year was that that you did?
Speaker 4: That?
Speaker 9: So have good ten years ago and I had never
Speaker 9: done work with marsh rock before. Fortunately they help or
Speaker 9: had had some experience, so we between the two of
Speaker 9: us we got it done and ironically not the monument
Speaker 9: even the logo of Sandy. We put on Sandy's golf boat.
Speaker 9: I have a cousin living up right outside of Los Angeles,
Speaker 9: and he's about two months older than I am, and
Speaker 9: he's a very educated person who's got a PhD. And
Speaker 9: he's a part time artist and photographer.
Speaker 6: So I got with him.
Speaker 9: Told him what we wanted on the monument, and between
Speaker 9: he and I and over the phone, he drew up
Speaker 9: exactly what we wanted.
Speaker 2: Well, I promise you we will visit her memorial when
Speaker 2: we go to Lihue Koway. Yeah, I would love to know.
Speaker 2: How do you imoa right? How do you move onward
Speaker 2: and upward?
Speaker 6: Is?
Speaker 2: What does your healing journey look like? I'd love to
Speaker 2: know from your perspective, first, Lawrence, if we could, as
Speaker 2: an uncle, as a brother, I want to know about
Speaker 2: you personally, how do you heal if that's even possible.
Speaker 7: Keeping her alive? I have two children on my own,
Speaker 7: my oldest Sander. You know, when my wife was pregnant
Speaker 7: with my son, were we definitely wanted to keep my
Speaker 7: sister's memory alive. And you know, we tossed names back
Speaker 7: and forth, and we finally decided on Sander, spelt a
Speaker 7: little differently than the normal.
Speaker 6: It's s A N.
Speaker 7: D R. So we basically took Sandra, my sister's.
Speaker 5: Ficial friends and flip floped the last two letters. So
Speaker 5: and both my children, my son Sander.
Speaker 7: And my daughter Brelan, both absolutely know my sister although
Speaker 7: they never met her. Yeah, we celebrate her birthday. We
Speaker 7: have her pictures up in the house. Obviously, my son's
Speaker 7: named after her. It's amazing because there's times where we'll
Speaker 7: just be sitting around and talking and my daughter go, Daddy,
Speaker 7: I miss and Sandy, or my son will say the
Speaker 7: same thing, I miss as Sandy.
Speaker 5: I wish I met her. So that's definitely you know, it's.
Speaker 7: Keeping her memory alive, and you know, passing it on
Speaker 7: to my kids and making sure my kids understand. And
Speaker 7: and my son is is very inquisitive.
Speaker 5: He's a very smart boy, and he's he's.
Speaker 7: Always asking questions, well, why why did this happen?
Speaker 6: Daddy?
Speaker 7: And you know, why do people do that? And you know,
Speaker 7: it also gives me and my wife an opportunity to
Speaker 7: educate both our kids on situations like this and and
Speaker 7: to have them understand that this is not something we do.
Speaker 7: If you see it happen, you want to step up
Speaker 7: and put a stop to it. And then they both
Speaker 7: know about the golf tournament.
Speaker 5: Like you said, looking for that ray of sunshine, you know,
Speaker 5: and looking for the light in the darkness and turning.
Speaker 6: A good into a bad. And so we're.
Speaker 7: Definitely having my children, you know, pass on the positive
Speaker 7: from it's it's it's something we definitely look to do.
Speaker 3: You know, Larry, can you tell us what the light
Speaker 3: would be in your story? You know, as as Sandra's dad.
Speaker 3: What last words could you leave us?
Speaker 9: I don't know if there is a light for me
Speaker 9: at the end of the tunnel. The light was getting
Speaker 9: Sandy's case solved and putting her to risk. Maybe that's
Speaker 9: what I came to this world for. I don't know,
Speaker 9: But I really have no desire, if you will, to
Speaker 9: have anything. I've done what I tended to do. Now
Speaker 9: there's just a matter of living life and trying to
Speaker 9: have our life, my wife and iyes as comfortable as possible.
Speaker 9: As far as I'm concerned with me, there is no
Speaker 9: light at the end of the tunnel that I did
Speaker 9: what I wanted to do.
Speaker 8: In my humble opinion, Larry, you are the light. That
Speaker 8: is the light. Yeah, you are the light.
Speaker 2: I know your your wife, and your son, Lawrence, and
Speaker 2: your grandbabies, and Sandy knows you're the light. I definitely
Speaker 2: want to say, from the absolute bottom of our hearts,
Speaker 2: Mahalo Nuiloa, thank you so much for sharing your light,
Speaker 2: Sandy's light with us. I know it's not easy to
Speaker 2: talk about, but I believe in moments that are supposed
Speaker 2: to happen for a reason, and today, in this moment,
Speaker 2: on Larry's eighty second.
Speaker 8: Birthday, we were supposed to be here.
Speaker 2: We were all supposed to be together and to share
Speaker 2: Sandy's story, and we promise you we will not let
Speaker 2: the world forget her.
Speaker 9: Once Sandy's case was solved, I had agreed with the
Speaker 9: Dateline at the time that I would give them the
Speaker 9: full information I had, and they agreed not to publish here.
Speaker 6: It built after the case was solved.
Speaker 9: After the trial, beautiful, they held up to their agreement.
Speaker 6: I held up to mine.
Speaker 9: After that was done, I always bound and determined that's it.
Speaker 9: I got what I did, what I wanted to do,
Speaker 9: and I was not going to participate in any additional
Speaker 9: broadcast which Oxygen Lawrence took over. I didn't participate in that,
Speaker 9: so podcasts. I'm not familiar with it. Something told me
Speaker 9: to go ahead and participate in it. So consider yourselves lucky.
Speaker 8: We are.
Speaker 2: We have to thank you from the bottom of our
Speaker 2: hearts from being here. You got two new nieces and
Speaker 2: learned to got a new cousin so or new two
Speaker 2: cousins so well, we.
Speaker 7: Welcome both the ENSA Ohanna.
Speaker 6: I'd like to say any of you come to Kawaii,
Speaker 6: is what they said.
Speaker 2: Today's message of hope and healing goes out to the
Speaker 2: memory of Santra Goddiss in this.
Speaker 8: Story of absolute heartbreak.
Speaker 2: We never want to lose sight of the person whose
Speaker 2: light was lost way too soon to such tragedy.
Speaker 3: Sandra was a beautiful, strong local girl with a strong
Speaker 3: inner drive. Her father even said in grade school that
Speaker 3: she had perfect attendance and was described as being a
Speaker 3: teacher's pet. Also in high school, she ran track and
Speaker 3: she danced.
Speaker 2: Tula Sandy's Ohanna. Her family shared with us that she
Speaker 2: was full of energy, she wanted to do everything all
Speaker 2: at once, and she was a absolute go getter. Sandra
Speaker 2: shined as a gymnast and she even had dreams of
Speaker 2: becoming a journalist.
Speaker 3: One day after she separated from her husband, she became
Speaker 3: an assistant food and beverage manager at the Grand Hyatt
Speaker 3: on Kawhi, where her co workers said that she was
Speaker 3: a great manager and she would give her all to everyone.
Speaker 2: Sandra would never become the journalist that she dreamt of being,
Speaker 2: but at the time of her death, she was truly
Speaker 2: coming into her own. She ended up getting married young,
Speaker 2: and she had two beautiful children, and she was a
Speaker 2: devoted mother. She was just finding out who she was
Speaker 2: meant to be. And so today we want to honor
Speaker 2: that bright light that was Sandy. Onward and upward, Emua Emua.
Speaker 8: That's our show for today.
Speaker 2: We'd love to hear what you thought about today's discussion
Speaker 2: and if there's a case you'd like for us to.
Speaker 3: Cover, find us on social media or email us at
Speaker 3: facingevilpod at tenderfoot dot tv.
Speaker 2: And one small request, if you haven't already, please find
Speaker 2: us on iTunes and give us a good rating and
Speaker 2: a good review. If you like what we do, your
Speaker 2: support is always cherished.
Speaker 8: Until next time. Aloha.
Speaker 1: Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV.
Speaker 1: The show is hosted by Russia Paccuerero in a Vetchintila,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk, Donald
Speaker 1: Albright in Pain Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Carolyn Talmage.
Speaker 1: Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
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