A prominent Samoan author and playright has been charged with murdering the aunt of Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii Democratic Congresswoman, according to multiple reports. 

Papalii Sia Figiel, 57, was arrested Sunday following the death in Samoa of 78-year-old Caroline Sinaviana-Gabbard, a retired former University of Hawaii professor. 

The victim was stabbed multiple times and beaten with a hammer, local reports said, citing police. Samoa is a country located in the South Pacific Ocean.

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The deadly incident took place on May 25 at Figiel’s home in the village of Vaivase-Uta, which is about three miles from the island nation’s capital city of Apia. Figiel’s property also doubles as the local theater, the New Zealand Herald reports. 

An argument had broken out between the pair before the incident turned violent, Samoan Police Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo said, according to the publication. It is not clear what sparked the argument. 

The two women were colleagues and friends, and Gabbard was Figiel’s mentor, according to local media reports.

Sinaviana-Gabbard was Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt and sister of Hawaii state Sen. Mike Gabbard. 

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

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An aerial view of Main Beach Road in Apia, Samoa, 2021 during a lockdown. Apia is about five miles from where Caroline Sinaviana-Gabbard died.  (Chikara Yoshida/Getty Images)

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.”

Samoa is a country located in the South Pacific Ocean. (Google Maps)

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.”

According to Spectrum News, Sinaviana-Gabbard earned undergraduate degrees in English and psychology from Sonoma State University, a masters’ degree in folklore from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Hawaii.

She taught Pacific literature at the University of Hawaii for over 20 years before retiring. 

A spokesperson for the lawmaker’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital request for comment. 

The space capsule will carry a two-person team to the International Space Station (ISS).

The launch countdown for Boeing’s new Starliner space capsule on its inaugural crewed test flight has been halted, postponing the mission for at least 24 hours.

The postponement was announced during a live NASA webcast on Saturday.

Earlier, launch forecasts had called for a 90 percent chance of favourable weather conditions.

However, less than four minutes prior to liftoff, a ground system computer triggered an automatic abort command that paused the countdown clock, according to mission officials.

The reason for the halt remains unclear.

.@NASA, @BoeingSpace , and @ulalaunch (United Launch Alliance) scrubbed today’s launch opportunity due to the computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count. The ULA team is working to understand the… pic.twitter.com/pKkS6cdxYO

— NASA Space Operations (@NASASpaceOps) June 1, 2024

The CST-200 Starliner’s first voyage carrying two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to the International Space Station (ISS) has been highly anticipated and much-delayed as Boeing scrambles to gain a greater share of lucrative NASA business now dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Mission commander Wilmore had earlier given a short but rousing speech telling tens of thousands of people tuning into the live feed that “It’s a great day to be proud of your nation”.

A May 6 countdown was also halted just two hours before launch time over a faulty pressure valve on the Atlas upper stage, followed by weeks of further delays caused by other engineering problems, since resolved, on the Starliner itself.

A backup date is available for Sunday, but it is not yet known whether the spaceship will be ready to launch.

The first attempt by Boeing to send an uncrewed Starliner to the space station in 2019 failed due to software and engineering glitches. But a second try in 2022 succeeded, paving the way for efforts at getting the first crewed test mission off the ground.

Boeing’s struggles

Boeing, whose commercial plane operations are in disarray after several sequential crises, badly needs a win in space for its Starliner venture, a programme several years behind schedule with more than $1.5bn in cost overruns.

While Boeing has struggled, SpaceX has become a dependable taxi to orbit for NASA, which is backing a new generation of privately built spacecraft that can ferry astronauts to ISS, and in the future – under its ambitious Artemis program – to the moon and eventually Mars.

Starliner would compete head-to-head with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which since 2020 has been NASA’s only vehicle for sending ISS crew to orbit from US soil.

The flight would mark the first crewed voyage to space using an Atlas rocket since the storied family of Atlas launch vehicles first sent astronauts, including John Glenn, on orbital flights for NASA’s Mercury programme in the 1960s.

Once launched, the capsule is expected to arrive at the space station after a flight of about 26 hours and dock with the orbiting research outpost some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

Plans call for the two astronauts to remain at the space station for about a week before riding the Starliner back to Earth for a parachute and airbag-assisted landing in the US southwestern desert – a first for crewed NASA missions.

Depending on the outcome of the first crewed test flight, Starliner is booked to fly at least six more crewed missions to the space station for NASA.