A popular Hawaiian media influencer and beauty entrepreneur has been shot dead in front of her daughter by her estranged husband, in what authorities are investigating as a murder-suicide.
Theresa Cachuela, 33, a mother of three and owner of House of Glam Hawaii LLC in Waipahu, was shot in the head and killed by Jason Cachuela, 44, in the parking lot of the Pearlridge Center last Friday morning, the Honolulu Star–Advertiser reported.
Her daughter witnessed the shooting and told police her dad pulled the trigger, according to KITV. The girl was reported by local outlets as being either 6 or 8 years old.
Jason reportedly shot himself shortly after fleeing the scene in a grey Mazda.
Police are investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide, which occurred two weeks after a judge granted Cachuela’s petition for an order of protection against her estranged husband.
“This was not a random act, as the victim and suspect were involved in a relationship,” police Lt. Deena Thoemmes said Friday before the gunman was found dead, according to the Hawaii Tribune.
“We do know that there was a TRO that was served on him, which is why this case was classified as murder in the first degree,” she said, referring to a temporary restraining order.
When police served Jason with the TRO, they recovered his five registered firearms, the outlet reported.
“Her youngest daughter is the one that tragically saw everything,” Cachuela’s mother, Lucita Ani-Nihoa, told Hawaii News Now. “She’s traumatized. She has so much faith, this little girl. She just … started praying.”
She added: “She doesn’t believe it. She doesn’t believe her mom is gone. I don’t believe it.”
According to the petition for the TRO, Cachuela threatened to kill himself in front of her, the Hawaii Tribune reported.
“He then took me alone to Waikiki and held a knife to his neck traumatizing me and scaring me,” she wrote, according to the outlet. “The next morning he showed up to my house early in the morning to apologize. I tried to help him and talk to him but he kept threatening to kill himself again.”
Cachuela’s mother described the tragic shooting on a GoFundMe page, saying her daughter, whom the family called “Tita,” planned to have breakfast with her Friday morning.
“I wanted to give her and my grandkids their Christmas gifts,” Ani-Nihoa wrote. “My daughter did not deserve this. She was trying so hard to get help, but the Justice system failed her,” she wrote.
“We are so devastated with the loss of our beloved Tita. This has been so difficult for our family which we were not prepared for,” the grieving mother continued.
Ani-Nihoa said her daughter Cachuela told relatives she had been abused by her husband and filed the TRO due to his continued harassment and stalking, Hawaii News Now reported.
“She wanted to leave him but he wasn’t accepting it. He tried to control her with, with everything … where she would go what she would do,” Ani-Nihoa told the outlet, adding that her daughter had recently filed for divorce.
In the days before the killing, Jason repeatedly threatened to commit suicide, HNN reported.
He was only permitted to contact Cachuela for child custody, KITV reported, adding that they had been married for 10 years.
Jason’s attorney, Michael Green, said the couple had agreed to visitation of the children, according to HNN.
Green told the Star-Advertiser that his client has never threatened violence against Cachuela and the kids.
He told the outlet that the TRO was sought to help keep Cachuela from killing himself and that he had arranged for a psychological evaluation before the couple agreed on the terms of the TRO.
Ani-Nihoa said the shooting could have been prevented had her daughter’s requests for police help been taken more seriously.
“She’s been trying to tell the cops about all the issues that were going on about the gun that he pulled on her a couple of times already,” she told the outlet.
“He threatened to kill her. They never arrested him, knowing that he had guns, knowing that he tried to threaten, he threatened to kill the kids and her in her own garage. The court wasn’t there for her,” Ani-Nihoa said.
“The system failed her — and now she’s gone,” she added.
