A Hawaii Halloween ghost story

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The statue of Duke Kahanamoku in Waikiki serves as a reminder to his legend as Hawaii's premier waterman.

The statue of his sister Maria has its own legendary status, but for a much different reason.

Located in the Oahu cemetery on Nuuanu Avenue, the statue is the only full size cemetery statue in the state.

It stands quietly, watching the headstones and grave markers in eternal silence. However, some say that it's more than just her statue presiding over the grounds. "The tragic part is she died young when she was only in her 20's" explains cemetery historian Nanette Napoleon. "They couldn't diagnose exactly what she had, and she was sick for days, and weeks. It was in the newspapers and everything".

After she passed, Maria's fiancé—an Italian baron—commissioned the statue to be placed at her gravesite. That was in 1932.

In 1941, as Napoleon explains it, a local couple came face to face with Maria---but not in the way they were expecting. After a drive up to the Pali lookout, the young suitor decided to scare his date. He drove into the cemetery and parked in the darkness."It's pitch black out there--but he sees some kind of motion going on" she describes.

After peering into the darkness, something—or someone appeared.

"They could clearly make out that it was a person, and it was a young woman. She walked across the road like this, looking straight ahead…came right to the road, with the car right there, turned, and looked right through the windshield, and looked right into their eyes".

With his girlfriend screaming, the young man fired up the car, peeled out, and drove off as fast as he could. He dropped her off before returning home himself, but something was gnawing at him.

Something was compelling him to return.

The next morning, in broad daylight, he returned to the same spot in the cemetery.

"He walks around this side of the car, and he turns to look on this side of the grave, and he sees that statue". Napoleon points to the statue of Maria Kahanamoku when re-enacting the scene.

"Mr. Souza sees this and says, my god we saw a ghost, we saw the ghost of Maria Kahanamoku".

A lifelong researcher and historian, Napoleon says she believes the story as it was recounted to her.

Do you?

If you want to experience it for yourself, and draw your own conclusions you can contact the Oahu cemetery, and they will put you in touch with Napoleon for a guided group tour.

Copyright 2013 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.