Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt stabbed multiple times, beaten to death with hammer by prominent author: report

( NYPost )

The aunt of ex-Democratic Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was stabbed multiple times and beaten with a hammer during a fight with her protege in Samoa last month, according to a report.

Dr. Caroline Sinaviana-Gabbard, 78, was found dead on May 25 inside award-winning Samoan playwright Papalii Sia Figiel’s home in Vaivase-Uta, according to Spectrum News. 

The two women reportedly were alone inside Figiel’s home which doubles as the community’s local theater named GaluMoana Theater, when the deadly confrontation took place.

Sinaviana-Gabbard is believed to have been Figiel’s mentor.

Figiel reportedly fled to a friend’s house following the brutal attack and turned herself over to the police.

Figiel, 57, was initially arrested for manslaughter last Sunday, but her charges were upgraded to murder following an investigation.

“A hammer is alleged to have been used as well as a small knife that inflicted multiple stab wounds on the deceased,” Smoa Police Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo said, according to Somoanews.com.

Papalii Sia Figiel

“We do not know what the motive is of the offending but from reports the incident occurred on Saturday and the suspect left the deceased at her home while she went out to Lotofaga and spent time with a friend,” Filipo added.

Sinavaiana-Gabbard, a former professor at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, was the older sister of Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard, Tulsi’s father.

Mike Gabbard said he was very close to his sister growing up and proud of her accomplishments in life.

“Caroline was my best friend as a teenager,” Mike Gabbard said in a statement to Spectrum News. 

“She helped me considerably during my rebellious stage of adolescence. She got me hooked on reading, so much so that I followed in her footsteps and majored in English at Sonoma State University in California, then returned to our birthplace, American Samoa, where I taught English in high schools and was a faculty member, guidance counselor and dean at the community college for many years.

“I love her deeply and wish her well as she continues her journey.”

Mike Gabbard went on to say that he forgives the person responsible for her death, but hopes justice will be served and that the person “will be punished to the full extent of the law.”

Sinavaiana-Gabbard taught creative writing and Pacific literature during her nearly two-decade tenure at the school.

Her family says she was the first Samoan to become a full professor in the US, and was an accomplished writer, teacher and environmental activist.

Tulsi Gabbard served four terms in Congress serving Hawaii’s second district, and was the first Samoa-American to become a voting member of Congress.

In April, Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, revealed she turned down an offer to serve as independent presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy’s running mate.

Figiel’s work is published in New Zealand and has won the Best First Book award in the South East Asia/ South Pacific region of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1997.

Following her arrest, Figiel was transferred from Tanumalala Prison to the National Hospital in Motootua where she was placed on 24-hour suicide watch, a close friend told KHJ News.

Figiel is expected to appear in front of the Supreme Court of Samoa on June 10.