According to multiple reports, Samoan authorities allege that a prominent Samoan novelist, poet and playwright murdered a prominent Samoan academic and fellow writer who was also the aunt of former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard.
Samoa police have charged Papalii Sia Figiel, 57, with manslaughter for the beating and stabbing death of Professor Caroline Sinaivaiana Gabbard, 78, on May 26, the Samoa Observer reported. reportPolice reportedly upgraded the charge to murder after new details and what appeared to be incriminating evidence emerged.
“A small knife was used to inflict the multiple stab wounds on the deceased, as well as a hammer,” Samoa Police Service (SPS) Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo was quoted as saying.
An altercation allegedly took place between Figiel and Gabbard at Garmoana Theatre in Vaivase Uta village before the murder took place. according to Spectrum News.
The theatre is on Figel’s property. New Zealand Herald reportGabbard was Figiel’s mentor, Hawaii News Now report. (Related article: Graduate student charged with murder of professor advisor deemed incompetent to stand trial)
“While we do not know the motive for the crime, it has been reported that the incident occurred on Saturday when the suspect left the victim at home while she went to spend time with friends in Lotofaga,” Police Commissioner Auapa’au told the Samoa Observer. “It was only on Sunday morning, while the victim was having breakfast, that she confessed to her friends what she had done, which led to the police being contacted.”
“She reported the incident to the police station together with a friend and police investigated her home where they found the body of the deceased,” Auapaau added.
The murder reportedly left Gabbard’s family and friends devastated.
“Caroline was a great help to me,” Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mike Gabbard, brother of the late actress and father of Tulsi Gabbard, was quoted as saying by Hawaii News Now. “She would always come up to me and pull me aside and say, ‘Mike, calm down. Come on, why don’t you read this book?’ She got me into the love of reading.”
Sen. Caroline Gabbard saved her from some of the reckless behavior she’d gotten into as a teenager, Gabbard reportedly told Hawaii News Now. The outlet added that Gabbard “could have ended up in jail and all sorts of nonsense,” but “she just said, ‘Keep it up, Mike. God loves you. Mommy and Daddy love you. Just keep trying.'”
According to the media, Senator Gabbard said she never even received a return call from SPS, but learned of her sister’s murder through the media. The family has forgiven the suspect but still wants justice to be served, Senator Gabbard told the media.
“She was a likeable person, a brilliant writer and supporter of writers. A gentle, calm person,” a friend was quoted as saying by the Samoa Observer. “She should not have died the way she did. Despite being a literary giant, she was a very introverted person.”
According to the Samoa Observer, Gabbard was born in the village of Utulei, American Samoa, in 1946. She attended Sonoma State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her Facebook page.
Gabbard was the first Samoan to hold a professorship in the United States, according to the Samoa Observer. She taught creative writing and Pacific literature for nearly two decades and was also an environmental activist.
Senator Gabbard reportedly told Hawaii News Now that, in accordance with her wishes, she will be cremated and her ashes will be scattered at sea.
The Daily Caller reached out to Tulsi Gabbard and the Samoa Police Department but had not received a response as of press time.
