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 arrived to a crime scene at McKinley High School in Honolulu that March morning nearly a half century ago.

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

Honolulu Police and the Unified Police of the Greater Salt Lake say they have arrested a 66-year-old man in a Utah nursing home in connection to a Hawaii murder nearly 50 years ago.

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.

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.

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.”

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

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

Castro was arrested on suspicion of murder in the second degree at a nursing home Tuesday morning at 7:40 a.m. in Utah. Castro is awaiting extradition to Honolulu.