Child's Fingers Found in Trash Bin, Police Baffled

RESIDENTS OF HAWAIIAN HOUSING ESTATE ARE FRIGHTENED BY GRIZZLY DISCOVERY

From Dateline Zero

• Fingers were inside a plastic bag in suburb of Honolulu
• They belonged to a child aged ten years old or younger

Police in Honolulu are asking for the public’s help in finding the answers to a horrible mystery: How did the fingers of a child end up in a trash bin at a housing complex?

The fingers were found a month ago, according to a Honolulu Police Department news release. Forensic tests have confirmed that the fingers, which were inside a plastic bag, belonged to a child.

The fingers are those of a girl, 2½ to 4 years old, CNN affiliate KHON-TV reported, citing police sources. Six fingers were recovered, according to the report.

Gina Rose Vendegna, who lives near the Kukui Gardens housing complex in Honolulu’s Kalihi neighborhood, told KHON that she found the fingers in the trash bin while looking for material to recycle.

When she came across a zippered plastic bag with the fingers inside, she said, she mistook them for ginger root and took them home. “I’m a gardener, and I recycle, and I thought I’d be able restore them. So I threw them in my purse,” Vendegna said.

When she got home, she took a second look at her find.

“I knew for a fact those were fingers when I seen the fingernails. And people I tried showing them to tried telling me that it wasn’t, that it might be monkey fingers. And I thought just by chance I’m going to call the Police Department, turn ‘em in and let them decide,” she said.

Police said Vendegna is not a suspect.

Checks of missing person reports and local hospitals, as well as interviews of residents of the housing complex, have not turned up any leads for police investigators.

“Twenty-five years in the department, I’ve not seen something like this where we’ve just found partial,” police Sgt. Kim Buffett commented. “We’re really heavily relying on the public out there to come forward. Somebody has to know something.”

A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered for information that leads to the arrest of a suspect.

Meanwhile, the residents and managers of the housing complex are anxiously awaiting further news about the case.

“We’re still a little bit in shock, wondering what the back story is,” said Kevin Carney, Hawaii vice president for EAH Housing, the San Rafael, Calif.-based company that manages the affordable rentals. “No one can really imagine this happening in this neighborhood, in their backyard. Everyone’s anxious for more details.”