Families say Joy Mills-Ferren, Bradley Wood-Ferren couple found dead Friday

KAILUA-KONA — Families of the deceased couple found inside an Alii Drive apartment Friday say the agony of not knowing what happened to their loved ones is compounding their sorrow.

While police haven’t identified the deceased, the families on Monday unidentified the couple as Joy Mills-Ferren and Brad Wood-Ferren. They were found dead Friday morning by a neighbor who performed a welfare check.

“The tears don’t stop,” said Linda Y. Leilani Mills, mother of Mills-Ferren, on Monday outside her late daughter’s Alii Lani apartment. “She was the most dedicated, loyal and loving heart. She had so much to live for and the most beautiful hula dancer I have ever seen.”

Mills-Ferren, 48, was a lifeguard at Laaloa and Kahaluu beaches. An Oahu native who had been living on the Big Island for 10 years, she was an avid ocean-goer versed in Hawaiian culture and conservation and in January performed at the Iolani Luahine Hula Festival and Educational Challenge.

“She was full of life, full of laughter,” Leilani Mills said. “Her neighbors said they could always hear her laughing all the way down, that she had an infectious laugh.”

Wood-Ferren, 56, was a Hawaii Preparatory Academy graduate who ran his own brush and weed business and loved teaching Hawaiian culture as well as participating in conservation efforts such as beach cleanups. He was a father of two from a previous relationship.

Officers arrived at 9:49 a.m. Friday at the complex on the 75-6000 block of Alii Drive after neighbor Susan Olson, at the behest of Leilani Mills, performed a welfare check. Olson came across the bodies in the bedroom and told West Hawaii Today she had not seen activity in the apartment for four days.

Police on Monday said foul play is suspected, but the case remains under investigation. On Friday, Police Maj. Robert Wagner said the department wasn’t looking for any suspects.

Police are waiting for a forensic pathologists to come in from Oahu to perform an autopsy. The department is waiting to hear back from the pathologist, so it couldn’t offer a timeline on when that could be. Forensic pathologists are brought in from Oahu when foul play is suspected. Hawaii Island has a medical examiner for the more routine deaths but not for deceased found at suspected crime scenes.

Both families said the uncertainty of waiting and not knowing what happened — or when it happened — compounds the agony.

“That is extremely frustrating,” Leilani Mills said. “Just give us a date … I can’t fathom that, I can’t understand that.”

Annie Ferren, mother of Wood-Ferren, echoed those sentiments.

“That’s having a toll on my psyche,” Ferren said. “That’s all I think about.”

She said if extra forensic pathologists are hired on island to expedite the process for future families, that would be one good thing to come of the tragedy.

“It’s pretty hard on my … heart,” she said of the waiting. “Because there is no closure, everything is so open.”

She said her son, 56, was not a violent person, rather a kind and caring one with a deep appreciation for the island.

“He loved life, he loved to be involved in the community,” she said of the man who demonstrated with his wife on Maunakea during the Thirty Meter Telescope demonstrations. “He loved to be involved in the culture, the Hawaiian culture.”

Leilani Mills said the couple’s relationship was strained in the end. Olson described it similarly on Friday. Ferren on Monday, however, said the relationship seemed normal.

“I understood it to be a normal marriage with the normal ups and downs,” she said, “but mostly ups as they loved the same things.”

She said she hopes the couple is remembered for their love for the land.

“Their love of the aina,” she said.

Mills-Ferren leaves behind a sister and brother.

“She was all about giving and caring, there was not a bad bone in her body,” Mills-Ferren’s sister, Yvonne, said.

She described her younger sibling as talented, someone who could do anything she wanted if she put her mind to it. She was a hurdler in high school track, rhythm dancer, artist with a degree in graphic art and a lifeguard, among other things.

“Whatever she did, she did it well,” Yvonne said. “She was amazing.”

Anyone who may have information about this incident is asked to call the Police Department’s non-emergency line at 935-3311 or Detective Dominic Uyetake at 326-4646, ext. 228 or dominic.uyetake@hawaiicounty.gov.