Authorities in Hawaii on Thursday arrested a suspect in connection with the killings of three men on the Big Island this week, officials said.
A tip to police led to the arrest of Jacob Daniel Baker, 36, who was first spotted in a field ducking down as traffic passed by. He fled and was found in a small cave, Hawaii Police Chief Reed K. Mahuna said at a news conference.
It was not clear Thursday night what connected the killings of the three men, who were found Monday and Tuesday in the Puna District.
“We can’t say at this time,” Mahuna said at a news conference when asked about any connection.
Baker was the subject of a days-long manhunt and had been described as “extremely dangerous.” The tip that a possible suspect was seen hiding in a grassy area in the Kaimu Cove area came in at 2:38 p.m. local time, Mahuna said.
Baker was arrested on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and other charges related to theft and unauthorized use and entry of a motor vehicle, Mahuna said.
There were no weapons found on Baker when he was arrested, he said.
The three men were found dead earlier this week in the Puna District, a large rural area on the island’s east coast.
Two of the victims were identified as Robert Shine and John Carse, both 69. Authorities were awaiting next-of-kin notification for the third man, who the department said was 79.
Autopsies determined that Shine was strangled and Carse died from sharp force trauma, the department said in a news release. The other man was found with what Police Capt. Jeremy Scott Lewis described at a news conference Wednesday as blunt force injuries.
The only known connection between the victims was the close proximity between Shine and the unidentified man, Mahuna said at a previous news conference.
Mahuna said they lived 400 to 500 feet apart.
He has not said what evidence led investigators to identify Baker as a suspect, but has said, “We are confident that the suspect here is responsible or involved in all three homicides.”
Shine was the first man to be found, according to the release. He was discovered Monday night partially submerged in a man-made pond, Lewis said.
Authorities initially believed a medical issue may have been responsible for his death, Lewis said, but an autopsy determined that his death was a homicide.
A neighbor of Shine’s, Jacob Spandl, told NBC affiliate KHNL of Honolulu that he encountered Baker after Shine’s body was recovered.
“He was yelling crazy things,” Spandl told the station. “None of it really made sense, but one of the things that stood out was he screamed ‘Bob’s dead’ about three to four times.”
Shine’s daughter, Anon, described her father to the station as an avid farmer whose death had left her reeling.
“I’m just still really in shock and just going through different waves of emotion and disbelief and sadness,” she said.
The 79-year-old man was found Tuesday afternoon after officers responded to a home in Pāhoa, Lewis said.
Carse was found 19 miles away Tuesday night after a request for a welfare check, Lewis said.
Mahuna on Thursday thanked the person who provided police the information that led to Baker’s apprehension.
“It was a citizen that saw something, said something, and helped bring brought this manhunt to a safe conclusion,” he said.
In Puna, there was relief after the arrest.
“Everyone’s been really scared,” resident Priya Surrago told KHNL. “A lot of people around here, we just live very close in community and not even everybody even has, like, locks on their doors.”
Online court records did not appear to show a murder case for Baker on Thursday evening, and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
