HPD Officer Assists in Identifying Wanted Mississippi Man

Officer Kenison named Officer of the Month for November. (PC: Hawai’i County Police Department)

A Hawai‘i County Police Officer helped identify a Mississippi man wanted on an extradition warrant after taking his daughter from the state and fleeing to Hawaii.

The East Hawaiʻi Aloha Exchange Club named Officer Derek Kenison as the “Officer of the Month” for November for his work on the case. Kenison, an 8-year veteran with the Hawaiʻi Police Department, was nominated by Lt. Scott Amaral.

“By trusting his instincts, and because of his investigative skills and through his use of resources available to him, Officer Kenison was able to successfully rescue a kidnapped child, and ensure that the responsible was brought to justice,” police officials stated.

The incident occurred on Nov. 12, when police received a report that a 41-year-old Mississippi man fled to Hawai‘i with his 5-year-old daughter after alleged incidents involving his estranged wife in Mississippi made him fear for his life as well as his daughters.

At the time of the report, a check with the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) was conducted and it was found that the 41-year-old man was not wanted in Mississippi. Kenison removed the child from the custody of her father and placed her into protective custody with the State of Hawaiʻi Child Welfare Services while the investigation was initiated.

When Kenison returned home that evening, he felt a lingering “gut feeling” that something wasn’t right. He took the extra step of doing an online search of the child’s mother’s name. His search revealed several news articles indicating the child was missing from Hinds County Mississippi, but not declared officially missing by law enforcement.

The next day, Kenison checked NCIC and found there was now a recently updated full extradition warrant for the 41-year-old Mississippi man for parental kidnapping of his daughter, which was issued by Hinds County Mississippi.

Kenison informed the Hawaiʻi Police Department Area I Juvenile Aid Section of the full extradition warrant, and kept in close contact with the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office throughout the process of Juvenile Aid Detectives obtaining the required documentation to extradite the Mississippi man, who was later arrested for the extradition warrant.