Police have arrested a suspect in the unsolved murder of a Honolulu teenager, whose death rocked the high school where her body was discovered almost five decades ago. They said the man arrested, Gideon Castro, was one of her former schoolmates who joined the U.S. Army Reserve after graduating.
Dawn Momohara was found dead the morning of March 21, 1977, on the second floor of a building at McKinley High School, in Hawaii’s capital, according to the Honolulu Police Department. She was 16 and a student there in her sophomore year.
Officers at the time showed up to a gruesome scene. Momohara was partially clothed and lying on her back with an orange cloth tied around her neck, said Lt. Deena Thoemmes, of Honolulu Police, at a Tuesday news conference. A subsequent autopsy ruled Momohara was strangled to death, and the medical examiner said there were signs of sexual assault.
Although police retrieved an unknown man’s DNA sample from the teenager’s clothing, they could not identify a suspect. Authorities would not develop meaningful leads in the homicide until 2020, after a cold case detective re-submitted evidence for forensic exams using updated technology.
By September 2023, the DNA tests led investigators to two possible suspects: brothers Gideon Castro and William Castro, who had both been interviewed in the immediate aftermath of Momohara’s killing. Back then, Gideon Castro told police he met Momohara at a school dance in 1976, just before he graduated, police said. William Castro in those interviews said he and Momohara periodically talked on the phone but denied ever being in any kind of relationship with her.
Once forensic tests narrowed down the pool of potential suspects to the Castro brothers, Thoemmes said police traveled to Chicago, where William Castro lived, to obtain a DNA sample secretly from one of his children and use it as a comparison. The comparison excluded William Castro as a suspect, and Gideon Castro, now 66, was arrested at his nursing home in Utah on a second-degree murder charge.
Gideon Castro will be extradited back to Honolulu, Thoemmes said.
“On behalf of the Honolulu Police Department, I want to thank all the individuals and agencies that made today’s arrest possible,” the lieutenant said. “Thank you for all your dedication and commitment to the tireless purusit of justice for Dawn and the Momohara family.”
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social and criminal justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
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