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Second suspect charged with murder in slayings 06-04-02

HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT
HILO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIVISION
LIEUTENANT DEREK D. PACHECO
PHONE: 961-2252
JUNE 4, 2002
H-09382
MURDER

Kyle Zengy Thurston Hill John McGovern
SUSPECTS CHARGED — Kyle Zengy Thurston Hill, 19, left, and John McGovern, 18, have been charged in the deaths of two young Puna men.

MEDIA RELEASE UPDATE

Police have charged a second suspect with murder in the deaths of two young men who disappeared in early May.

At 11:50 a.m. Tuesday (June 4, 2002), police charged Kyle Zengy Thurston Hill, 19, of no permanent address, with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and one count of the use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Hill is being held at the Hilo police cellblock with no bail.

A second suspect was charged Sunday with murder in the slayings. John McGovern, 18, also of no permanent address, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle and promoting detrimental drugs. McGovern was arraigned Monday in Hilo District Court. He is currently being held without bail at the Hawaii Community Correctional Center and is due for a preliminary hearing in Hilo District Court on June 28.

The two have been charged with murder in the slaying of two young men whose bodies were found off Lehua Street in the Fern Acres subdivision of Puna the afternoon of May 30.

Preliminary autopsy results determined that both young men had died of gunshot wounds to the head.

The decomposed bodies could not be identified immediately, but Hilo CIS detectives believe they are those of two men who were reported missing under unusual circumstances earlier in May.

The bodies are believed to be those of two men — identified as Cassidy M. Toole, 20, of a Fern Acres address, and Wesley Alan Matheson, also 20, his roommate.

Police originally issued an appeal for information about Toole’s whereabouts on May 15, after his car had been found stripped and abandoned in Ka’u.

At first, police believed that Toole was in the car when it ran off the road and into a ditch near the 70-mile marker of Mamalahoa Highway (Route 11) in the South Point area. It was determined later, however, that Toole had not been in the car when it ran off the road.

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