Sunday’s tragedy at Diamond Head that saw the deaths of two Honolulu Police Officers was the result of city and state agencies neglecting a warning about Jerry Hanel’s violence according to an acquaintance.

Lois Cain, who owned the home that Hanel was staying in, had her guest Janice Morrow staying in the home with her from Los Angeles over the holidays.

Morrow was away from the home doing yoga Sunday morning when Hanel attacked two women, shot two police officers, and ignited the home in flames.

“As soon as they said they couldn’t find Lois that she wasn’t at the park, right away I just felt that she was dead,” Morrow said.

“I felt like if she was alive she would have been out with everybody else, so I was just kind of numb”

Morrow says that she had reached out to numerous agencies in the city and state after her arrival on Oahu December 27th to help Cain get protection from Hanel, who she believed was acting aggressively and erratically.

“For 3-4 days I had called just about every agency,” Morrow said.

“I went to the police station twice, Adult Protective Services, the office of the ombudsman, left messages to the District Attorney’s offices. Left messages regarding this that it was very dangerous. I wanted them to get involved expedite the eviction, and nobody helped them. It’s horrifying to me that this is what it took: a triple homicide and a neighborhood being burned down.”

Always Investigating learned Wednesday that the Department of Human services did receive a complaint of elder abuse against Cain from Morrow on December 30th.

In a statement, DHS said:

“DHS confirms that on December 30, 2019, Adult Protective Services Intake Unit hotline received a call from a concerned person alleging psychological abuse of a landlord by a tenant. Based on the information the caller provided, the landlord did not meet the standards required by law for being considered a “vulnerable adult.”

“In the abundance of caution, APS contacted HPD to perform a wellness check on the landlord. That same day, HPD confirmed with APS that an officer conducted the wellness check.”

Morrow described Hanel’s behavior akin to someone who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, noting that he heard voices and thought that his neighbors were spying on him.

“I thought it was violent and he was aggressive.” Morrow said.

“When (Cain) would go into the laundry room she would tell me that he would stand there staring at her and filming her. (He would) have the camera pointing at her, get right behind her when she was putting clothes in the dryer. Things like that really weird and creepy.”

“I think at one point he cut the wires to the TV because he thought people were spying on him.”

Many are still wondering how Hanel was able to get his hands on a gun with multiple restraining orders placed against him.

Lois Cain is still missing, although unidentified remains of two people were found Tuesday at the scene of the crime.