Hawaii

Chilling details emerge after schoolmate arrested in Hawaii girl’s 1977 murder

Published

11 months ago

January 31, 2025

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Chilling details emerge after schoolmate arrested in Hawaii girl’s 1977 murder

New DNA technology allows investigator better chance at solving decades old cold cases

02:47

Former Hawaii lawmaker Suzanne Chun Oakland remembers arriving at school one morning in 1977 to an eerie buzz.

The 15-year-old had met up with girlfriends as usual before class at Honolulu’s McKinley High School when she learned a student named Dawn Momohara had been found dead on the second floor of a school building.

“I don’t know how we got word of it, but everything spread really quickly,” Chun Oakland said.

Chun Oakland didn’t know Momohara, who was 16, but the unsolved death has haunted her and other McKinley students and staff for nearly half a century. That was until last week, when police used advances in DNA technology to arrest a 66-year-old resident of a Utah nursing home.

The suspect, former McKinley student Gideon Castro, was scheduled to make an initial court appearance Friday before a judge in Salt Lake County District Court. He remained in custody Thursday with the bond for his release set at $250,000, according to Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office records.

Castro’s attorney, Marlene Mohn, did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.

Momohara had been sexually assaulted and strangled, police said.

“I was just really sad,” Chun Oakland recalled earlier this week. “I think for our student body, of course there’s that concern that what if he’s still out there and he does it to somebody else.”

On March 21, 1977, shortly after 7:30 a.m., Honolulu police found Momohara dead. She was partially clothed and lying on her back with an orange cloth tied around her neck, said Lt. Deena Thoemmes, of Honolulu Police. A subsequent autopsy ruled Momohara was strangled to death, and the medical examiner said there were signs of sexual assault.

Details from more than four decades ago are fuzzy for 1967 McKinley graduate Grant Okamura, who was the school’s 28-year-old band teacher in 1977, but the morning Momohara was found has remained a core memory.

Momohara’s sister — one of his flute players — arrived at school that day not knowing her sister had been found dead, he recalled. The sister was called to the office and later walked into the band room, devastated.

“The other students were trying to console her,” Okamura said. “At that point, I couldn’t have band. How do you have a class? She just sat there crying.”

She didn’t return to school for weeks afterward.

He doesn’t remember the sister’s name. The Associated Press was unable to make contact with any possible relatives. Okamura said he met Momohara a few times when he let her into the air-conditioned band room to wait for her sister.

The morning before Momohara was killed, she got a call from an unknown male and told her mother she was going to a nearby shopping center with friends. That was the last time her mother saw her, police said.

Police released sketches of a person of interest and a possible vehicle described by witnesses as a 1974 or 1975 Pontiac Lemans. A witness reported seeing the car when he and his girlfriend drove through campus the night before Momohara died. The witness saw a man and the car on the grass near the school’s English building, Thoemmes said.

Police released sketches of a person of interest in Dawn Momohara’s murder.

Honolulu Police

The witness circled back around but the car and the man were gone.

Police were unable to identify a suspect and the case grew cold, though grief lingered over the campus.

Although police retrieved an unknown man’s DNA sample from the teenager’s clothing, they could not identify a suspect. Authorities would not develop meaningful leads in the homicide until decades later.

In 2019, cold case detectives asked a forensic biology unit to examine several items of evidence from the scene, including Momohara’s underwear. They were able to develop a DNA profile in 2020. Then, in 2023, police received information about potential suspects, two brothers who were interviewed in 1977.

Several days after Momohara was killed, detectives interviewed Castro, who graduated from McKinley High in 1976. He said he met Momohara at a school dance that year and last saw her at a carnival on campus in February 1977. Police interviewed his brother, who also met Momohara at the dance.

In November 2023, Honolulu police went to Chicago, where the brother was living. They “surreptitiously” obtained DNA from one of the brother’s adult children, Thoemmes said.

Lab findings excluded the brother as a suspect, but a DNA sample from Castro’s adult son, and later from Castro himself, proved he was responsible, Thoemmes said.

He was arrested last week at the nursing home where he lived in Millcreek, just south of Salt Lake City, on suspicion of second-degree murder.

Neither Okamura nor Chun Oakland remembered Castro.

Chun Oakland graduated in 1979 and grew up to become a Democratic member of the Hawaii Senate. She said Momohara’s killing bothered her over the years, especially when she would meet victims through her work as a lawmaker or as a board member of the nonprofit Sex Abuse Treatment Center, a statewide program provding services for sexual assault survivors.

Chun Oakland said she is grateful an arrest was possible even after all these years.

“I think the community in general, and our elected officials, they know the importance of trying to preserve the evidence that can someday be able to see justice for that individual or individuals,” she said.

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Hawaii

Hawaii’s jobless rate remains second lowest in U.S. – Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Published

9 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Hawaii’s jobless rate remains second lowest in U.S. – Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Hawaii’s labor market
continues to rank among the best
in the country.

The state’s seasonally adjusted rate plunged three-tenths of a point to 2.2% in November from September and now has fallen by a half-percentage point over the last three reporting periods, according to data released Tuesday from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

There was no unemployment data for October due to the federal government shutdown.

The 2.2% rate maintained Hawaii’s ranking as the second lowest in the country, according to state data released Wednesday — a day later — by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Only South Dakota was lower in November at 2.1%.

The last time Hawaii’s rate dropped below 2.2% was in March 2020 when it hit 2.1% just before the pandemic started.

Hawaii’s low number caught Eugene Tian, DBEDT’s former state chief economist, by surprise.

“I was surprised to see the unemployment rate dropped to 2.2% in November,” said Tian, who retired at the end of May. “It is close to the historical low of 2.0% Hawaii experienced during the last four months of 2017. Hawaii ranks as one of the best labor markets in the nation.”

Hawaii’s rate has dropped from 2.7% in August to 2.5% in September to 2.2% in November.

Nationally, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.6% in November, up by two-tenths of a point from September.

Tian said Hawaii’s unemployment rate fell sharply mainly due to a large increase in the number of people employed. Between September and November, the state’s labor force jumped by 1,000, or 0.15%, but the number of people employed increased by 2,800, or 0.42%.

“The faster increase in employment, with a slower increase in the labor force, made the unemployment rate low,” Tian said. “The increase in employment was due to the increase in payroll jobs (1,700 between September and November) and self-employment at 1,100.”

The state’s labor force, which is compiled from a telephone survey of households, edged up in November to 688,000 from 687,000 in September. The labor force includes those who are employed, those who are unemployed but actively seeking work and those who are self-employed. The number of people employed rose to 672,650 from 669,850 while those unemployed fell to 15,350 from 17,200.

In a separate survey, an increase in nonfarm payroll jobs in November from September was mainly driven by a 1,000 increase in construction jobs and a 1,000 gain in professional and business services.

Nonfarm payroll jobs are calculated from a mail survey of employers and are considered a better indicator of job growth due to a larger sample size than the labor force data, which is compiled from a telephone survey of households. In the payroll count, one person might be counted multiple times if that person has multiple jobs.

Tian said construction jobs continued their ascent in 2025 with the November number at a historical high of 42,000, while the values of completed construction, as measured by the contracting tax base, decreased every month between May and September 2025 (the latest data available is September), and the value of private building permits issued decreased every month between August and November 2025 (latest data available is November).

Tian said Hawaii’s unemployment numbers could rise in March when the Bureau of Labor Statistics benchmarks data of the previous year based on complete survey data. He noted that monthly data is based on sample data.

“Due to sampling errors for the monthly data, it is possible that the labor statistics may overstate the current conditions and the corrections will be released in March this year,” he said. “The lagging effect of new hires and activities may also contribute to the distortion of the labor statistics. I expect the unemployment rates will be adjusted toward higher levels when the numbers are benchmarked in March.”

Tian said if more people join the labor force, the state’s unemployment rate will rise when the number of employed people stabilizes.

“In the last few months, the labor force participation rate was stable at 60.4% (August-November),” he said. “Hawaii’s current labor force participation rate is lower than the U.S. at 62.5% (November 2025) and lower than the Hawaii monthly average of 61.1% in 2019. If labor force participation goes higher, the unemployment rate is likely to rise.”

While the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell, all of the state’s four major counties saw increases. State and national labor force data are adjusted for seasonal factors, but the county jobs data are not seasonally adjusted and thus do not take into account variations such as the winter holiday and summer vacation seasons.

Honolulu County’s rate rose to 2.3% from 2.2%. Hawaii County’s rate increased to 2.7% from 2.5%. Kauai County’s rate rose to 2.3% from 2.2%. And Maui County’s rate increased to 2.6% from 2.5%. Within Maui County, Maui island’s rate rose to 2.6% from 2.3%, Molokai’s rate fell to 4.0% from 5.9% and Lanai’s rate dropped to 1.1% from 2.2%.

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Hawaii

Healthier Hawaii: How to protect your hearing; head and neck warning signs you shouldn’t ignore

Published

21 hours ago

January 7, 2026

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Healthier Hawaii: How to protect your hearing; head and neck warning signs you shouldn’t ignore

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – You may have received new earbuds or headphones during the holidays. But there are a few things you keep in mind when it comes to protecting your hearing.

Dr. Ross Shockley, an otolaryngologist with Wilcox Medical Center and Kaua‘i Medical Clinic, offers the following tips for hearing, as well as head and neck health.

Head and neck cancers

Many people are not familiar with head or neck cancers. What causes it and when should someone see a doctor?

Traditionally, head and neck cancers were mostly associated with longtime smokers and drinkers. Now, more cases are tied to human papillomavirus (HPV), even in nonsmokers and drinkers. HPV is the same virus that can lead to cervical cancer in women. It is common and can have no symptoms.
If you have throat pain, pain when swallowing that doesn’t go away, or a mass in your neck that feels firm and isn’t moving, don’t wait. See your doctor.
Head and neck cancers can be treated, no matter the cause, if caught early.

How to prevent hearing loss

More young adults, in their early 20s, are experiencing hearing loss. Can hearing loss be reversed?

Hearing loss can’t be reversed. Once ringing in ears starts, that can be permanent.
Wear appropriate hearing protection when using power tools or firing weapons.
You can find ear protection that blocks out sound for about $15. Protection that covers the whole ear are better than earplugs.

How do you know if music or movies are too loud?

Don’t turn anything up to the maximum.
You want the volume to be at the lowest level where you can still hear and understand.
If there is background noise, don’t crank up the volume all the way to fight it. Use noise-cancelling headphones or go somewhere quieter.

Dangers of cleaning your ears

You may feel the urge to clean your ears. Shockley says do less, or even nothing at all.

Our ears clean themselves. As new skin grows, it takes wax with it out of your ear.
When you clean your ears, you’re interrupting that natural cleaning process.
You can also put yourself at risk for external ear infections – or make your ears itch more.

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Hawaii

Hawaii Grown: Few isle players in College Football Playoff final four | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Press Room

Hawaii Grown: Few isle players in College Football Playoff final four | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

MEN’S BASKETBALL

>> Higgy Katoa (Punahou), La Verne: Had 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds in a 74-70 loss to East Texas Baptist, missing a 3-pointer with six seconds left. Cody Aquino (Moanalua) rejoined the starting lineup and scored 12 points to lead the team a night later in a 104-76 loss to Grinnell, his second time this season in double figures.

>> Landyn Jumawan (Leilehua), Northwestern State: Lost his starting job but responded with 13 points with three 3-pointers in a 74-68 win over New Orleans. We was fouled on another 3-point attempt with two minutes left and buried all three to run the margin to four points.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

>> Paige Oh (‘Iolani), Puget Sound: Spent one game coming off the bench and led the Loggers with 10 points in a 42-36 win over Middlebury, returning to the starting lineup three nights later to extend the team’s winning streak to five.

>> Emi Wada (Hawaii Baptist), Pacific Lutheran: Grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw with less than a second left in regulation and put it back with 0.2 seconds left to send the game into overtime, but the Lutes lost 72-62 to Lewis & Clark. She played a team-leading 45 minutes in the contest and scored seven points but didn’t get a shot off in overtime.

FOOTBALL

>> Gavin Hunter (Mililani), Arizona: Had a career-high eight tackles with one of them for a loss and broke up a pass in a 24-19 loss to Southern Methodist in the Holiday Bowl. Kaena Decambra (Saint Louis) started on the offensive line.

>> Iapani Laloulu (Farrington), Oregon: Kept the offensive line under control against a stiff defense in a 23-0 win over Texas Tech in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, helping the offense generate 309 yards of offense while committing one turnover and allowing Dante Moore to get sacked only twice. Kawika Rogers (Kapaa) and Will Straton (Punahou) also contributed to the victory.

>> Blazen Lono-Wong (Kailua), Arizona State: Got onto the field but didn’t record a tackle in a 42-39 loss to Duke in the Sun Bowl. It was his first time since early October he has failed to make a stop, a span of seven games.

>> De’Zhaun Stribling (Kapolei), Mississippi: Caught seven passes for 122 yards in a 39-34 win over Georgia in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, his first time this season over the century mark. It was the captain’s first time over 100 yards since November 2024 against Texas Tech when he was with Oklahoma State. His big catch was for 40 yards on third-and-5 with 32 seconds left to set up the game-winning field goal.

>> Aliki Vimahi (Kahuku), Utah: Collected three tackles and his first sack of the season in a 44-22 win over Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl and Brock Fonoimoana (Kahuku) added a tackle. Pupu Sepulona (Saint Louis) and Mana Carvalho (Kahuku) also contributed to the victory.

MEN’S WRESTLING

>> Xander Erolin (Hanalani), San Francisco State: Opened his year with a third-place finish at 157 pounds in Linfield’s Mat Cat Open, going 3-1 with winning scores of 16-0, 11-2 and 15-4. His lone loss was 4-2 to the eventual champion.

WOMEN’S WRESTLING

>> Michaela Sarmiento (Kalaheo), Southern Oregon: With most of the rest of the nation off to prepare for the national duals, she took third place at 103 pounds in Linfield’s Mat Cat Open. She began the tournament with a 16-4 victory and ending it with a 9-8 win over teammate Diamond Lopez.

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