Cyrus Belt
- January 17, 2008
On January 17, 2008, motorists were witness to a man
throwing
something off of an overpass into the path of traffic
on the H-1 free-
way at about 11:40am. Little did any of them know,
the "something"
would turn out to be a little boy named Cyrus Belt:
"We received phone calls of a male throwing
an object
over the Miller Street pedestrian overpass.
Officers
who responded to the freeway discovered that
it
was in fact a baby"
Captain Frank Fujii - Honolulu Police Department
At first, witnesses thought it was a doll that had
been thrown 30 feet
below:
"It looked like a doll. I thought it was a
doll at first,
'cause I thought, you really wouldn't expect
that of a
regular child. So we went over and we looked
down
on the highway and we saw that it was an
actual
child. So then we immediately called the
police"
Kraid Hengst
Witnesses were able to describe the man who had
thrown the baby off of the over pass as an Asian man wearing what seemed
to be hospital
scrubs, they said he looked to be about 20 years
old. Just a few
blocks away, police found a man who fit that description
and they
took Matthew M. Higa, who was 23, into custody.
Nancy Asiata Chanco, the mother of Cyrus Belt said
that he was an
outgoing child who was very talkative and that
she had left him with
her boyfriend who had then put them in their apartment
with his
grandfather. Nancy said that her father was sleeping
and that during
that time, Cyrus was taken that morning. Nancy
also said that she
believes Cyrus opened the door for whoever took
him because he was such a friendly child. She said, through tears, that
she never left Cyrus with Matthew:
"He stole my baby"
Nancy said that she was afraid of Matthew because
he acted odd and
he was a drug user. Matthew was her neighbor and
he was always
asking her if he could hold her baby. Nancy says
even with all of that,
she never left him with her son. Police had reported
that Matthew
had baby sat Cyrus on occasion, Nancy says that's
not true:
"I would never, ever let that murderer watch
my baby"
Nancy says that door to her apartment was not locked,
though the
screen door was and she insists that Cyrus would
have opened the
door for Matthew, who was always very friendly
towards everyone.
Ron Asiata, an uncle to Cyrus said that Nancy was
very upset and was not able to go and indentify the body of her son, as
was his father. Ron said that he was going to be the one to go to the medical
examiners office and identify the body of Cyrus:
"He's my nephew. I love him with all my heart
and he was
killed in a violent death. I'm really upset
about it"
Police told Nancy that in video tapes of what happened,
it doesn't
appear that Cyrus is struggling or moving at all.
Nancy said her son
was wrapped in a blanket and she believes that
Cyrus was either dead or unconscious before he was thrown off of the overpass.
A neighbor, Roy Seminuk, said that Nancy and Matthew
had both
moved into the apartment complex only a few months
before the
incident. Roy said that Matthew was a longer and
would walk around
all the time, seemingly with nowhere in mind to
go to. He would go
up and down the stairs of the three floors in the
building. Other
neighbors stated that they could hear Matthew and
his father arguing,
that they lived in the same apartment. Neighbors
also said they could
hear things being thrown around inside the apartment.
Matthew M. Higa was arrested and faced a charge
of second degree
murder. He plead not guilty to that charge and
was being held on a $1 million dollar bond. If convicted, he was facing
life in prison with-
out the possibility of parole. This is the sentence
that I believe ANY-
ONE who kills a child due to abuse should
get. Matthew's lawyer said
that he was going to be sure that he was examined
and checked for
his mental status:
"I think that's a brutal evil crime that he's
done and
I think he deserves life. If he has to stay
in the state
mental hospital, let him stay there for life"
Philip Asiata
Nancy Asiata had been accused of child neglect in
the past, though
Child Protective Services never did much, if anything,
about it. Nancy
has two other children, besides Cyrus, neither
of them lived with her
at the time of his death. During their lives, Nancy
had been in and out of abusive relationships and she had abused drugs,
she even admitted that while she was pregnant with Cyrus, she had done
the drug crystal meth amphetamine.
The Department Of Human Services released 180 pages
of documents that were the record of Nancy's case. The records state that
Nancy was a young mother who filed on more than one occasion to take proper
care of her sons due to her use of drugs. Parts
of the record had been blacked out to exclude names of family members,
case workers and
those who had filed complaints against her.
In May of 2002, Nancy dropped her son, who was 11
at the time, off
with a relative claming she was going to search
for a job and a place
to live. When, after a month, Nancy had not taken
her son back and
the relative had been supporting him, the relative
filed for power of
attorney. In December 2002, after giving birth
to her second son,
nancy was accused of being detached from her son
and her family
said that she told them she didn't want him. That
child lives in Turkey with Nancy's mother.
In her fifth month of pregnancy with Cyrus, Nancy
admitted that she
had done drugs. After he was born, neighbors called
Child Protective
Services claiming that Nancy often disappeared
for days at a time and
that she didn't properly care for Cyrus. In June
of 2006, Police found
that there was no electricity in their home. SHOCKINGLY,
Cyrus was
never removed from her custody.
Nancy said she thought of the birth of Cyrus as
her last chance to
become a good mother:
"This baby was my first baby that I really
took care of on
my own. All he wanted to do was be beside
his mommy.
He's the only thing I cared about enough
to change.
And it's too late now"
Lilo Asiata, her father, said that Nancy had been
taking good care of Cyrus:
"He's the only reason she wanted to turn her
life around.
She just started coming around and taking
care of her boy.
She was beginning to be a good mother, and
now, for this
to happen, it's so sad"
Caseworkers closed their case against Nancy and
one of them said
that nancy was an attractive, intelligent woman
who was providing a
happy home for Cyrus. A couple of weeks before
his death, Child
Protective Services received another complaint.
They determined that
there was no immediate safety issue. Nancy's father
was upset that
the records had been released:
"It saddens me to think that they'd bring
these
things out at a time like this"
Lilliam Koller, the director of the department said
that they were NOT
trying place blame, they were simply trying to
determine if anything
could have been done to help Cyrus. Carroll Cox,
an environmental
activist, was called by the family, they asked
her to help them. She
stated that Child Protection Services had done
an investigation and
if they felt Cyrus was in danger or that the family
was a threat to his
well being, they should have removed him from the
home.
Philip Asiata, the brother of Nancy said the media
should focus on
the death of Cyrus and the man who killed him rather
than focus on
his sister and father:
"She had nothing to do with her son's death.
Whatever
problem she has in the past, she was taking
care of
it, from my understanding"
The memorial wall on the Miller Street overpass
continued to grow.
People were dropping off hundreds of items including
stuffed animals, balloons, letters and flowers. Stacey Norris, a former
Army Staff
Sergeant was going to gather up the stuffed animals
and pay to have
them sent to children and injured soldiers in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Stacey brought two friends to the overpass and
they bagged up the
stuffed animals in preparation to wash them before
shipping them:
"This will give them a little comfort. This
is the
family's wishes"
Return
To Cyrus's Story
Read
About Memorials And The Funeral For Cyrus
Read
A Timeline Of Events Surrounding The life Of Cyrus
For information about preventing
child abuse in the state of Hawaii, click the links below. If they can't
help you, ask for someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help
for an abused child!
Call this number to report
child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
  
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