Dad witnesses son’s death at Cop Shop

Before dawn broke on September 9, 2026, the Maino family’s PMV truck rolled out of Inawi village in the Mekeo Kuni Rural LLG of Kairuku District, Central Province. Bound for Port Moresby, its cargo was familiar bags of green betelnut harvested directly from the family plantation.

For 25-year-old George Maino, this was no ordinary trip. While his brothers and sister pursued higher education in the city funded by their parents’ decades of hard work in the betelnut trade, George was the son who chose to stay back.