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Dawn Momohara Is Found Murdered At Her Hawaii High School
On the morning of March 21, 1977, Dawn Momohara was found dead in her Honolulu high school. She was partially undressed and had an orange cloth wrapped tightly around her neck.
Dawn had been reported missing the previous evening when she failed to return home from a shopping trip. Her mother said the teen had received a phone call from an unnamed man on March 20 and then said she was going to meet her friends at a local mall, but it’s unclear if she ever even arrived at the shopping center.
Two witnesses came forward and said they’d seen a suspicious vehicle in the school parking lot the night of March 20, but the leads seemed to end there. Despite canvassing neighborhoods and stopping all cars that matched the description the witnesses provided, the case eventually went cold.
Honolulu Police DepartmentA sketch of the suspect in Momohara’s murder case.
During a press conference, Deena Thoemmes, a lieutenant at the Honolulu Police Department, stated, “Despite following up on numerous leads and interviewing multiple individuals, investigators were unable to identify a suspect at that time.”
Now, thanks to advances in DNA technology, detectives have finally arrested a man believed to be Dawn Momohara’s killer.
DNA Testing Provides Answers Nearly Half A Century Later
In 2019, investigators at the Honolulu Police Department reopened Dawn’s case. This time, investigators built a DNA profile from a semen sample found on Dawn’s shorts.
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