A Unicorn Among Beasts

Carly “Charli” Scott, 27, lived in Makawao on Maui and was five months pregnant by her former boyfriend, Steven Capobianco. On February 9, 2014, he asked her to drive him out along the Hana Highway to a spot past Keʻanae, where he said his truck had broken down the night before. Charli agreed, and her dog, Nala, went along. She was never seen alive again.

Capobianco told police he drove his truck back toward Haiku ahead of her and said her headlights dropped out of view near Twin Falls. Nala turned up at Nahiku Marketplace the next day. Neighbors near the Jaws surf break at Peʻahi noticed acrid smoke that night, and on February 12 police found Charli’s burned-out 4Runner there. A day later, searchers found her clothing and belongings in woods off a dirt road leading to Nuaʻailua Bay, and investigators later matched jawbone fragments found there to Charli. Prosecutors told jurors that only Capobianco could have killed her.

After a seven-month trial, on December 28, 2016, a jury convicted Capobianco of second-degree murder and second-degree arson. In March 2017 he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, plus a consecutive 10 years for arson, and in 2018 the Hawaii Paroling Authority set his minimum term at 50 years. An appeals court upheld the verdicts in April 2021, and the Hawaii Supreme Court declined review that July.