Samoa’s Police Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo has told media that police suspect there was an argument between the acclaimed author and playwright, Papali’i Sia Figiel, and the woman she is accused of killing, Dr. Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard.
The Commissioner told Talamua Media they suspect the argument somehow escalated and resulted in the defendant allegedly using a sharp object to assault the victim.
Papalii has been charged with murder and being armed with a dangerous weapon.
According to Commissioner Auapaau, a hammer was allegedly used, as well as a small knife that inflicted multiple stab wounds on the deceased.
The two women are believed to have been by themselves in Papali’i’s GaluMoana Theater in Vaivase-uta where the alleged murder took place Saturday, Samoa time.
The two women were colleagues and friends, and those close to them say that Dr. Gabbard was like a mentor to Papalii.
A close friend of Papalii told KHJ News that she has been transferred from Tanumalala Prison to the national hospital in Motootua where she is on a 24-hour suicide watch.
Her first appearance in the Supreme Court is set for June 10th.
Papali’i lived in American Samoa for several years in the late 1990’s and was a reporter for Samoa News, taught at Faasao Marist High School and later joined the local office of the late Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin before relocating to the mainland.
She moved back to Samoa two years ago. Her book, “Where we Once Belonged,” won the 1997 Asia Pacific Commonwealth Writers Prize for non-fiction. 
Dr. Gabbard taught at the American Samoa Community College and the University of Hawaii, and retired to Samoa a few years ago.
Dr. Gabbard was featured by the USA Today in 2020 in a series honoring the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment granting American women the right to vote. The newspaper said she was the first person of Samoan ancestry to achieve the highest academic ranking (full professor) in the United States.
She taught creative writing and Pacific literature for nearly 20 years at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. An accomplished author who has written both academic and non-academic books, her poetry collection, “Alchemies of Distance” was published in 2002.
She was 78.
