Missing Lanaʻi Boy Located in Custodial Case

Katherine Ruth Hunter and Noah Sanchez. HPD photo.

By Wendy Osher

(Update: 2:13 p.m. 4/24/13)

Hawaiʻi Island police have since charged two individuals with custodial interference in connection with a case involving a two-year-old Lanaʻi boy.

At 11 a.m. today, detectives charged Katherine Ruth Hunter, 53, of Pāhoa and her son, Noah Sanchez, 25, of Pāhoa with custodial interference.

Hunter was being held in lieu of $2,000 bail; and Sanchez’s bail was set at $10,000.

Police say an initial court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.

(Posted: 9:33 a.m. 4/24/13)

A 2-year-old Lanaʻi boy who was reported missing in a case of alleged custodial-interference has since been located, authorities said.

Officials with the Hawaiʻi Island Police Department said detectives with the Juvenile Aid Section found the boy on Tuesday afternoon in the company of his non-custodial father and grandmother.

Police say all three were located at a home on Pōmaikaʻi Street in the Leilani Estates subdivision of Puna.

Police arrested Katherine Ruth Hunter, 53, of Pāhoa on suspicion of custodial interference. Police say her son, Noah Sanchez, 25, was arrested on a bench warrant for violating release on bail in an unrelated case, and was later arrested on suspicion of custodial interference as well.

Police issued a press release saying the child, identified in earlier reports as Kingszon Sanchez, was unharmed, and was reunited with his mother at the Hilo Police Station on Tuesday night.

According to police reports, the boy’s mother gave Hunter permission to fly her child to Hawaiʻi Island to visit for five days in March. Police say the grandmother failed to return the child to his mother on Lanaʻi.

The investigation is ongoing.