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I am covering this case because it needs attention. There is little information available, and I could not find any pictures of the victims. I also could not find the obituary of Carol Drake. The crime was a brutal double murder, and I just find it strange local media barely covered it.
Carol Drake, 56, co-owned an adult video club at 50 Wilikina Drive in Wahiawa, Hawaii, and the adjoining Wahiawa Adult Book Store and Family World Video, a general VHS tape store.
Terry Lea Shimizu (also known as Terry Foxx) was the manager. She resided on Hokuiwa Street, Mililani, three and a half miles from her workplace. Terry was 31 and the mother of two sons, Ron T. Johns of Georgia and Hiroki Shimizu, and one daughter Miki Shimizu. Her husband was Army Specialist Robert Livingston.
At 1:50 p.m. on December 16, 1985, a friend of one of the women visited the video store but found it locked. He went next door to the bookstore to ask if his friend was there, and the employees said no. He then told them of the locked door, but they were stumped because the building had been open since 9 a.m.
At 2:25 p.m., the employees forced the door open, found both women dead on the floor, and called the police.
Authorities found a bloody knife at the crime scene, but no other information regarding the weapon was available. Detectives theorized the women were kneeling or lying down when they were killed because “little blood was found away from the women,” reported the Honolulu Advertiser.
Employees said they had last seen one of the women at 1:30 p.m. and did not hear any loud or unusual sounds.
There were no signs of forced entry, and the store was undisturbed. The day’s cash receipts from the video club were missing, and an envelope containing an undisclosed amount of money was on the floor, suggesting robbery was not a motive. However, an employee said some cash was missing.
A medical examiner determined Carol was fatally stabbed once in the heart and Terry once in the neck. It meant that Carol faced the killer, but the killer came up behind Terry. There were no other injuries or evidence of sexual assault on either victim.
Two weeks before the double murder, Carol had been sentenced to one year’s probation on December 2, 1985, for selling a sexually explicit magazine to an undercover cop in April 1984. Seven months earlier, police arrested her, Terry, and another employee on the promotion of pornography charges. The charges seem absurd, considering the store contained adult material.
Police never solved the double murder, and I could not find any further articles on the murders after December 1985. Terry is mentioned in her mother’s 2006 obituary, but that’s it. It seems strange that her family did not and has not kept the case alive since the establishment of social media.
It also appears to me that certain people might have kept the lid on this case. Whether it was the Army or police, or family members, I don’t know. But to have two women murdered with barely any information and not have even one picture of the victims available is odd. How do you have crime scene pics but no images of the victims?
If there has been any action on the case since 1985, police are not talking.
I don’t buy the robbery motive. Even police said in 1985 that robberies rarely led to murder. And the killer could not possibly have fled with a lot of cash. Police also said whoever killed them knew where to stab someone fatally once. Was this a professional hit? If so, who was the intended target? I feel one woman was, and the other was at the wrong place at the wrong time; the killer did not want to leave witnesses. That could suggest he did not cover his face, and they could have identified him.
Two weeks before the Drake-Shimizu murder, Army soldier Lisa P. LaFlamme, 21, was found dead in a Canefield between Haleiwa and Wahiawa, about five miles from the double murder. She was nude above the waist. Lisa had been bludgeoned to death. Friends last saw her on November 23, 1985, when a friend dropped her off in Wiahawa. Lisa was stationed at nearby Schofield Barracks. Like the double murder, I could not find further information on Lisa’s killing after December 1985. What gives?
Lisa’s homicide is not listed with Honolulu PD’s cold cases, so it’s unclear whether the police solved it. I’m not saying her killing is related to the double murder, but the lack of information is concerning. There is one small connection between the double murder and Lisa’s killing: the Army. Terry’s husband was in the Army, and so was Lisa. I do not know where Livingston was stationed.
If you have any information about the double murder, please contact CrimeStoppers at 808-955-8300, or click here to e-mail the Honolulu Police Department.
Sources
“Double Murder in Wahiawa.” Honolulu Star-Bulletin. December 17, 1985.
McMurray, Terry. “Two Women Stabbed to Death in Wahiawa Adult Book Store.” The Honolulu Advertiser. December 17, 1985.
Tswei, Suzanne. ‘Police Still Searching for Clues in Fatal Stabbing of 2 Women.” The Honolulu Advertiser. December 19, 1985.
