The Murder of Margaret Enos — Hilo, Halemaumau Crater, Pele, and the 1932 Volcano Killing | Revisited: 036

In 1932, seventeen-year-old Margaret Enos of Hilo said no to Sylvester William Nunes. What followed was not romance, no matter how some old headlines framed it. It was stalking, abduction, gun violence, murder, and a sacred place forced to carry the weight of someone else’s obsession. This revisited episode of Beneath the Palms returns to the murder of Margaret Enos near Halemaumau Crater, the note left behind in Nunes’s red roadster, the dangerous recovery of Margaret’s body by Rikan Konishi, and the wave in Hilo Bay that some in the community understood through Pele, sacred ground, and cultural memory. We stay with the verified record first: Margaret was taken from her home, her sister Mrs. Manuel Furtado was shot trying to stop the abduction, Nunes drove Margaret toward Kilauea, and both bodies were later found below the rim of Halemaumau. From there, we carefully separate documented facts from old newspaper language, public memory, and the beliefs people carried after violence entered a place many understood as Pele’s home. This is not a “lovers’ leap” story. This is the story of a young woman whose no should have been enough. If this episode stays with you, let it stay for Margaret. Not the note. Not the roadster. Not the old headlines. Margaret was seventeen. She had the right to grow older. Listener discretion is advised. This episode discusses stalking, domestic violence, abduction, gun violence, murder, suicide, and cultural beliefs surrounding Pele and Halemaumau. Sources for this episode include: “And Now I Must Pay” | Images of Old Hawaii https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/and-now-i-must-pay/ “Pele” | National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/articles/pele.htm “Kilauea” | Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/havo/learn/nature/kilauea.htm “Hawaii Volcanoes National Park” | National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/havo/ “NCEI Hazard Earthquake Information — 1932 Mexico Earthquake Event” | NOAA/NCEI https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-more-info/3492 “NCEI Hazard Tsunami Event Information” | NOAA/NCEI https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/tsunami/event-more-info/1932 “NCEI Hazard Tsunami Runup Information — Hilo, Hawaii” | NOAA/NCEI https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/tsunami/runup-more-info/2227 “Leaps Into Volcano After Murder” | The Advertiser, preserved by Trove/National Library of Australia https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/34682672 “Page 3 — Indianapolis Times, 13 June 1932” | Hoosier State Chronicles https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=IPT19320613.1.3 “Page 1 — Indianapolis Times, 3 June 1932” | Hoosier State Chronicles https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=IPT19320603.1.1 “Hawaii Herald, 17 July 1987 — Page 19” | Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection https://hojishinbun.hoover.org/?a=d&d=thh19870717-01.1.18 Archival reporting referenced through the episode also includes 1932 coverage from the Chicago Tribune, Fresno Bee, and Stanford Daily, as quoted and preserved in the Images of Old Hawaii research page listed above. Special mahalo to Yoza for “Broken Wings.” Follow Beneath the Palms wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone who cares about Hawaii history, true crime, sacred places, and the victims whose names deserve more than the way they died. #BeneathThePalms #MargaretEnos #Hilo #Halemaumau #Kilauea #Pele #HawaiiTrueCrime #HawaiiHistory #TrueCrimePodcast #UnsolvedHistory #DomesticViolenceAwareness #VictimCenteredTrueCrime