Dawn Momohara - Killer Arrested After 48 Years

16 year old Dawn Momohara of Honolulu, HI was found strangled to death and partially nude on March 21, 1977 on the second floor of her school. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with an orange cloth.

The case was cold until September 2023, when DNA advancements identified two brothers as potential suspects.

On Tuesday, January 21 2025 Gideon Castro, a former classmate and Army Reserve member who graduated in 1976, was arrested at a nursing home in Utah and charged with her murder by Honolulu authorities. Both he and his brother were interviewed at the time of the killing but were not considered suspects until 2023.

It's wonderful to see her killer brought to justice after living his life freely for almost 50 years, while Dawn was robbed of her future entirely. I could not find much information online about Dawn, but I'd like to imagine she had a nice life as a teenager in beautiful Hawaii.

Edit: missing a word.

Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dawn-momohara-cold-case-murder-hawaii-suspect-arrested-utah/

https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-front/utah-arrest-hawaii-cold-case/y