1-17-08
Nancy Chanco left her 21-month-old son in the supervision of his
grandfather on one weekday in January. The child’s grandfather then allowed a neighbor to take the boy for a walk. The neighbor, 23-year-old Mathew Higa, had babysat the toddler on several occasions before, according to friends and family, but on this day in paradise, something would go horribly wrong.

The pair walked to a pedestrian overpass on the busy H-1 freeway, which cuts through the heart of Honolulu, Hawaii. Carrying the child along the pedestrian overpass, Mathew stopped in the middle over several busy lanes of traffic. That’s when witnesses say he used just one hand to toss the child over the bridge into the speeding cars below. He then reportedly lingered for a moment, and walked away smoking a cigarette.

Twenty-three-month-old Cyrus Belt landed on the westbound lanes, where he was struck by at least one car. Its driver told police he saw the man on the overpass, and then watched as something fell in front of his vehicle. It wasn’t until he stopped on the side of the road to investigate that he discovered he had hit a child. The boy died at the scene from his injuries.

It was a horrifying crime that dozens of people witnessed. Several of those witnesses followed Higa on foot and on bicycle, directing police to his whereabouts. Local police nabbed him less than half an hour after the incident. He was wearing green hospital scrubs and hiding in the bushes, several blocks from the scene of the crime.

Social services had been working with Cyrus and his family from 2002 to 2008, and the tot had endured some pretty tough situations in his short live. Child welfare documents released a day after his death show that his mother struggled with drug problems off and on throughout her life, even using marijuana and crystal meth while she was pregnant with him. This had made for a dysfunctional home, and there were also problems
with domestic violence. DHS director Lillian Koller said that they were releasing this information to the public “not to blame anyone for their action or inaction,” but to “determine if there was anything that could have been done to save the life of this child.” Nancy Chanco, mother of Cyrus, also has two other children.

Higa was charged with second-degree murder in the case on Friday, a day after the crime occurred, and was being held on 1.2 million dollars bail. Hawaii residents promptly set up a makeshift memorial on the overpass where Cyrus was killed. Needless to say, the event shook up many local residents, who were outraged at the senseless act of violence. This tragedy comes just one week after a Massachusetts woman walked
her niece and nephew, 5 and 4 respectively, out into oncoming traffic in a murder suicide.