Hawaii: Almost half a century after the murder of a teenage girl, DNA “caught” the perpetrator

Susie Chan Oakland was a sophomore when she arrived at McKinley High School in Honolulu that Monday morning before almost half a century. The high school had turned into a crime scene.

One of her teachers had just found the body of another student on the second floor of the building, Chun Oakland said. Dawn Momohara, 16, was half-naked, with an orange cloth wrapped tightly around her neck, police said. She appeared to have been sexually assaulted and strangled.

In a tight-knit community in Hawaii’s capital and most populous city, nerves ran high after Dawn was discovered on March 21, 1977.

“It was our first experience with such a crime. It was very sad that someone died in this way.” points out Chun Oakland, who works in a nursing home, to CNN today. “People were afraid. In our state we take care of each other, you know. We grow by looking at each other.”

However, decades would pass until authorities name a suspect in the teen’s murder.

Last Tuesday, Mr Gideon Castro, The 66-year-old McKinley High School graduate, who previously told police he knew the victim, was arrested at the Utah nursing home where he lived, Honolulu Police Deputy Deanna Toems told reporters.

Castro was charged with second-degree murder after DNA testing, unavailable in the 1970s, helped identify him nearly 50 years later, Toems said. It is unclear if he has a lawyer.

“I’m happy for her family that this case has been resolved,” Chun Oakland, a former state lawmaker, noted for Dawn. “I am sorry that there are so many other cases that are not solved. It’s mixed feelings… But I’m glad we have people and professionals, as well as a community, who didn’t give up.”

Evidence, but no result

Dawn’s mother last had contact with her daughter the day before she was found dead. The teenager had received a call from an unknown man that Sunday morning, and later told her mother she was going to a mall with friends, according to Toems.

When Dawn didn’t return home that night, friends and family headed to campus looking for her, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported at the time. It was not clear if the teenager – described by classmates as quiet and shy – ever made it to the mall. Dawn was reported missing hours before her body was found outside a classroom.

In the days after Dawn’s murder, Toems said, detectives interviewed her friends, family and acquaintances. Police have released sketches of a man and a car that two witnesses described seeing near the school’s English language building the night before she was found dead.

Castro and his brother were among the girl’s classmates whom detectives interviewed during the early stages of the investigation, the deputy sheriff said.

Castro told police at the time that he had met Dawn at a high school dance in 1976, the year he graduated. He said he last saw her at a carnival the following year, when they talked for about 15 minutes, and he told her he was serving in the U.S. Army, according to Toems.

“Despite reviewing multiple pieces of evidence and interviewing multiple individuals, investigators were unable to identify a suspect,” he said.

The case “froze” for decades

It took 42 years, in 2019, when detectives from the archived case – with the help of modern DNA tests – began to make progress in the investigation by analyzing evidence from Dawn’s shorts and underwear.

Investigators in 2020 were able to recover some of the DNA of an unknown male from the sample taken from the shorts, according to the lieutenant.

In 2023, researchers received information that Castro or his brother could be “possible suspects” in the case, Toems said, without elaborating. Detectives learned where the brothers lived and traveled to the U.S. mainland to obtain DNA samples from the Castro children.

Attention turned to Gideon Castro when a DNA profile obtained from one of his brother’s children showed that he is unrelated.

The sample taken from his son Gideon Castro showed his father matched the DNA found on Dawn’s shorts, according to the deputy.

Earlier this month, detectives went to Utah and obtained a DNA sample from Gideon Castro — which tests showed was it matched the DNA profile which was taken from the shorts. He was arrested at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday (local time) at a nursing home in Utah.

Chun Oakland said she learned of Castro’s arrest from staff and members of the nursing home where she works. She expressed her sadness that Dawn did not have the opportunity to be a wise and caring kupuna (grandmother) to the younger generations.

“Just looking out for each other. This should guide us in our life and how we live it”, FrOakland remarked as she helped an old man get ready for a date. “I don’t know (Doune’s) family, but I hope they are relieved that there is an end.”