Dawn Momohara was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the daughter of Takeo and Mabel Momohara. She has one sister, Faye or Kaye (reports vary). Her father died in an industrial accident in a Nanakuli quarry on May 31, 1960, six months before Dawn’s birth.
Dawn was a junior at President William McKinley High School in Honolulu, a few blocks from her home. She was active in the Leo Club, Science Club, and Moonlight Memories.
Students and teachers described her as “nice, very quiet, and shy.” (McMurray, 1977) Dawn never skipped school or ran with the wrong crowd.
Around noon on Sunday, March 20, 1977, Dawn told Mabel she would meet friends and go to Ala Moana Center, a shopping mall on Ala Moana Boulevard, a half mile from their home at 1270 Elm Street. When Dawn failed to return, Mabel called the Honolulu Police Department at 10:38 p.m. to report her daughter missing.
The next day, March 21, 1977, a teacher at Dawn’s school found her body at 7:25 a.m. near a hallway on the school’s second floor in the English building. The body was outside a classroom door next to a stairwell. An autopsy determined she had been strangled and possibly sexually assaulted.
Investigators questioned Dawn’s friends and acquaintances, but no one had seen her since she left home. Detective Lt. Gordon Lee said whether Dawn ever reached the shopping center was unknown. His men canvassed the area between Dawn’s home, the school, and Ala Moana Center, carrying photographs of Dawn, questioning residents in the area and looking for clues, but found nothing helpful.
Dawn’s case was the seventh killing of a teenage girl in Honolulu in two years. All but two of those cases resulted in arrests. (McMurray)
Around the time of Dawn’s killing, 61-year-old Charlotte Paik Whang was found dead in her fourth-floor apartment at 1026 Kalo Place, Moililli, Honolulu, less than two miles from the Momohara home. She had been stabbed to death.
Charlotte was a ceramics painter and hostess at The Pottery Steakhouse in Kaimuki. She was also an exceptional cook and Hawaii’s national Pillsbury Bake-Off 1971 finalist. She also specialized in ice carvings, including 21 featured at the Honolulu baker’s convention in 1974. (McMurray)
Police arrested a suspect shortly after Charlotte’s murder after the man went to the police station to report the murder. It is unclear whether he was charged in her killing, but her case is not listed on the Honolulu Police Department’s unsolved crimes section of its website.
Charlotte had lost her husband on October 15, 1076, when a pickup truck hit him as he crossed South King Street near their home.
There were never any arrests in Dawn’s murder, and it remains unsolved. Five years ago, Honolulu police released sketches of a person of interest and possible suspect in Dawn’s case (seen above). Furthermore, they released a possible suspect vehicle – a 1974 or 1975 Pontiac LeMans with louvered rear windows, a maroon bottom, and a white vinyl top. (Speakman, 2019)
(Updated, December 10, 2025) In March 2025, police arrested a 66-year-old suspect in the murder investigation.
Gideon Castro was arrested in January at a Utah nursing home on a fugitive warrant for suspicion
of second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara. He had waived the right to
challenge his extradition during a hearing in Salt Lake City last month. Castro, who is ill, appeared
by video from a hospital bed.
While Castro was still awaiting extradition, Honolulu prosecutors told their counterparts in Utah
this week that they were not proceeding against him because of “recent complications involving a
material witness in this case and the state of the evidence.”
“Please understand we view this as only a temporary setback, and we remain fully committed to
continuing our efforts to prosecute this matter in the near future,” Kelsi Guerra, a deputy
prosecuting attorney in Honolulu, wrote in a Monday letter to Deputy Salt Lake County District
Attorney Clifford Ross. (CBS News, 2025)
If you have any information about Dawn’s murder, please get in touch with CrimeStoppers at (808) 955-8300.
Sources
“Dawn Momohara.” Obituary. Honolulu-Star Bulletin. March 23, 1977
McMurray, Terry. “Widow, Girl STudent Slain.” The Honolulu Advertiser. March 22, 1977.
“Schoolmate arrested in Hawaii girl’s 1977 murder released from Utah jail as prosecution stalls.” CBS News. March 14, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dawn-momohara-cold-case-murder-hawaii-suspect-released-prosecution-stalls/
Speakman, Kimberlee. “Police Seek Help to Solve Decades-Old Murder of McKinley High School Student.” KHON 2. September 28, 2019. https://www.khon2.com/local-news/police-need-help-in-decades-old-cold-case-of-a-mckinley-high-school-student-murder/