Nearly five decades after a Honolulu teen’s body was discovered in her high school, DNA testing has led to the arrest of her ex-schoolmate for her brutal slaying. The body of Dawn Momohara,

Nearly a half-century after Dawn Momohara’s body was found, Gideon Castro, 66, was arrested in a Utah nursing home and charged with her murder.

Susie Chun Oakland was a sophomore when she arrived at McKinley High School in Honolulu – a crime scene – that Monday morning nearly a half-century ago. One of her teachers had just found the body of another student on the second floor of the English building,

Honolulu Police say modern forensic tests allowed them to identify and arrest a suspect in Dawn Momohara's 1977 murder.

I know her goals in life were to protect lands and promote a healthy place to live for all of us. I can just speak in volumes to what an amazing, beautiful, strong woman she is.”

A man was arrested at a Utah nursing home on suspicion of second-degree murder in connection to a decades-old case from Hawaii.

Dawn Momohara was 16 years old when her body was found on the second floor of McKinley High School in Honolulu in 1977. For decades, detectives had failed to identify a suspect in the murder case but now, thanks to a breakthrough in DNA technology, they have arrested a former classmate, police confirmed.

On Tuesday, Gideon Castro, 66, a McKinley High School graduate who previously told police he knew the victim, was arrested at the Utah nursing home where he lived, Honolulu Police Department Lt.

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A suspect in a 1977 murder at a high school in Hawaii was arrested in Utah almost 48 years later. The arrest happened 7:40 a.m. Tuesday by Unified Police Department in Millcreek, Honolulu Police Department's Lt. Deena Thoemmes said.

Dawn Momohara, 16, was found dead on the second floor of McKinley High School in Honolulu on March 12, 1977. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled, with an orange cloth found tightly wrapped around her neck, Honolulu police Lt. Deena Thoemmes said at a press conference on Jan. 21.

Dawn Momohara was 16 years old and a student at McKinley High School in Honolulu when she was found murdered on March 21, 1977.

COURTESY HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT Victim Dawn Momohara in 1977. 1 /2 COURTESY HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT Victim Dawn Momohara in 1977. COURTESY HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT A composite drawing of the suspect in the 1977 murder of Dawn Momohara.