Carly “Charli” Scott is remembered during a public memorial on Sunday afternoon at the Maui Police Department’s forensics facility in Wailuku, six years to the day after she went missing in East Maui. Members of her family were allowed to privately view her remains for the first time following the ceremony. Authorities said they have to keep Scott’s remains because the case is under appeal. The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photos
WAILUKU — Shortly before she walked into the Maui Police Department’s forensics facility to see her daughter’s remains for the first time, Kimberlyn Scott admitted that “honestly, I’m kind of terrified.”
“I advocate for other families of homicide victims, and every one of them tells me, ‘You know, I had that moment where I laid with my child,’ “ she said. “And I’m very envious of that. I’m very envious of that goodbye. So in a way for me today, this is that goodbye that needed to happen.”
On Sunday afternoon, Kimberlyn and Robert Scott were allowed to see Carly “Charli” Scott’s remains, six years after she went missing and more than three years after her ex-boyfriend was convicted in her murder. Family friend Trinette Furtado accompanied them inside to perform a special Hawaiian blessing to cleanse her remains.
Kimberlyn Scott said she knew they couldn’t have a typical service in a funeral home with a burial of her daughter. So they did “the best that we could do” — a public memorial for family and friends outside the MPD facility, followed by a private viewing of her remains. They said a few words, released some butterflies, and Furtado performed a blessing and played “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes — a nod to Charli Scott’s Scottish-Irish heritage.
“Because it’s such a community effort, because there’s been so much community support, it didn’t feel right to do this privately without involving the community and giving them the opportunity to be a part of it,” Kimberlyn Scott said.
Charli Scott’s parents, Robert and Kimberlyn Scott, thank friends and family for coming to their daughter’s memorial service Sunday.
Charli Scott, a 27-year-old woman from Makawao, was five months pregnant when she was last seen on Feb. 9, 2014. Her ex-boyfriend, Steven Capobianco, told police that she drove him from Haiku to about 3 miles past Keanae that night after his truck had stalled there the night before. After fixing a loose battery cable on his truck, Capobianco said that he was driving back to Haiku, with Charli Scott following, when he lost sight of her headlights in the Twin Falls area.
Her vehicle was later found burned near the “Jaws” surf spot in Peahi, and searchers found the clothes she’d last been seen wearing, along with other evidence, at Nuaailua Bay.
Following a seven-month trial, a jury in December 2016 found Capobianco guilty of murder and arson. In March 2017, 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza sentenced Capobianco to life in prison with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, plus 10 years for second-degree arson.
However, Capobianco is now appealing the conviction and seeking a new trial. While the case is under appeal, the state is required to preserve all evidence from the trial, including her remains — a jawbone, five fingernails/finger tips, a skin fragment, two teeth, two bone fragments and a piece of bone, according to the Maui County Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.
“We cannot imagine the pain and suffering that the Scott family and Charli’s close friends are experiencing for the murder of their beloved daughter, sister and friend, which has been made more difficult by not being able to have a proper burial for Charli,” Prosecuting Attorney Don Guzman said in a statement released Sunday. “We are truly sorry for these circumstances which require us to respectfully and securely maintain Charli’s remains, which played a vital part in the murder conviction of her killer as well as Charli’s unborn child.”
A memorial is also set up for Joshua, Charli Scott’s unborn son. Scott was five months pregnant at the time of her disappearance.
In response to allegations that Charli Scott’s remains were not taken care of after they’d been submitted to the court, Guzman said that the court has its own protocols to maintain and secure evidence.
“There is no reason for me to believe that the court would deviate or not follow its protocols,” he said.
After taking the job as prosecutor in March, Guzman said he met with Kimberlyn Scott to discuss her concerns in seeing her daughter’s remains. She said she’d been told the family would get to “take her home at trial’s end.” When they found out they couldn’t, they began seeking access to her remains.
“I don’t want to wait for the appeal process to end,” Kimberlyn Scott said. “I’m calling pau — we’re done. She deserves a burial. If there is evidence needed, it has already been collected.”
A petition on change.org is asking the state “to release her remains for proper burial and also to amend the law so this cannot be done again,” Kimberlyn Scott said. It had garnered more than 3,000 signatures as of late Sunday afternoon and is available at change.org/p/hawaii-state-senate-allow-proper-burial-for-few-remains-of-murder-victim-charli-scott-it-s-been-six-years.
Guzman agreed that the law needs to be changed to balance both the legal process and victims’ rights.
“If the law were changed at the legislative arena, we could at some point just say, ‘Look, these have been DNA tested, the identity has been unrefuted, so let us release these remains to families, ’cause this is what they need,’ “ Guzman said.
On Sunday at the memorial, family and friends filled a table with flowers, photos of Charli Scott and an ultrasound of her unborn son, Joshua, while also paying homage to her love of unicorns. They said her favorite book and movie was “The Last Unicorn,” and the colorful creature described her to a tee.
“Unique, just like her,” said sister Phaedra Wais. “Just everything about her, how she treated people, always bubbly, just always taking care of everyone. . . . And then, of course, her blue hair, just always made her stand out.”
Brittney Baker, one of her best friends, knew her for at least five or six years.
“We all kind of had a big friend group, and we’d go and listen to music and go play music in the cane fields and the beaches,” Baker said. “She was constantly smiling . . . and was always giving hugs out and was always the sweetest, kindest person.”
Robert Scott said while it was “strange at first to involve people I’ve just met in such a personal thing,” the community has become a source of strength for the family.
“I might be reluctant to invite so many people in to this kind of thing, but then as I’ve experienced it, I can’t imagine it any other way,” he said. “I wouldn’t have made it. I would not be OK. . . . So thank everybody in the Maui community.”
* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.
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