The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) has arrested a suspect in the unsolved murder of a teenager in a nearly 50-year-old cold murder case.
On the morning of March 21, 1977, a teacher found the body of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara dead on the second floor of McKinley High School’s English building. The teacher discovered her partially-clothed body lying on her back and with an orange cloth tightly wrapped around her neck.
According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Momohara got a call from an unknown man the morning before her death. Later that day, the last time Momohara’s mother ever saw or heard from her, she said that she was going to the Ala Moana Center with some friends.
In the autopsy, the medical examiner confirmed the murderer sexually assaulted Momohara and that she died of asphyxiation due to strangulation. Momoraha’s death was ruled as a homicide, and she had also sustained injuries to the neck where the orange cloth was used.
Momohara’s murder rattled Honolulu’s tight-knit community, and HPD detectives subsequently interviewed Momohara’s family, friends, and acquaintances.
Chun Oakland, a program coordinator at an Oahu senior center said that “It was our first experience with a crime like that. It was very sad that someone actually died that way”, in a CNN interview. “People were afraid. In our state, we take care of each other, you know. We grow up looking out for one another.”
According to one male witness, he and his girlfriend drove through McKinley’s campus the night before her murder and saw a car and a man near the English building.
He described the car as a 1974 or 1975 Pontiac LeMans, Buick Century or Buick Regal two-door hardtop featuring a maroon bottom, white vinyl top, and louvered rear windows, with a second witness also confirming the car’s description.
The suspect was recounted as an 18 – 22-year-old Asian man that was between 5 foot 5 inches, and 5 foot 7 inches tall, with an estimated weight of 140 – 150 pounds. He reportedly had a light tan complexion, and dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair that was combed back, and was clad in dark-colored long pants, a short-sleeved shirt, and a plain, light-blue collared pullover.
Even though a police sketch of the man was released to the public, this didn’t confirm any leads.
In May 2020, the profile of an unidentified male was found by DNA criminalist from a sperm fraction found on Momoraha’s shorts, which were previously submitted for testing. In September 2023, the DNA evidence helped investigators pinpoint two suspects, brothers William and Gideon Castro.
In November 2023, HPD detectives traveled to Chicago and collected a DNA sample from one of William Castro’s children. When the sample was compared to the DNA on Momohara’s shorts, he was rules out as a suspect.
HPD detectives then traveled to Utah, where a 66-year-old Gideon Castro was living. They managed to secretly collect a DNA sample from him, which matched with the DNA sample on Momohara’s shorts. Another DNA sample from Castro’s son, which was secretly taken and tested by the FBI and Homeland Security, also served as damning evidence.
Castro was arrested in his Utah nursing home on Jan. 21, and according to Honolulu Police Lt. Deena Thoemmes, he will be extradited to Hawai’i to face murder charges, per KITV and Hawaii News Now.
Detectives had previously interviewed Castro on March 28, 1977. Castro, who had graduated from McKinley in 1976, told police that he had known Momohara since late 1976 when they met at a school dance, and she was friends with both him and William.
“On behalf of the Honolulu Police Department, I want to thank all the individuals and agencies that made today’s arrest possible,”, said Thoemmes, as mentioned by CBS News. “Thank you for all your dedication and commitment to the tireless purusit of justice for Dawn and the Momohara family.”
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