Schoolmate arrested in Hawaii girl’s 1977 murder released from Utah jail as prosecution stalls
A 66-year-old suspect Killing Hawaiian teenagers in 1977 Prosecutors in Honolulu said they were not ready to file murder against him and were released from Utah prison Thursday.
Gideon Castro Arrested in January at a nursing home in Utah on a charge of escape arrest warrant Dawn Momohara. He waived his right to challenge his extradition during a hearing in Salt Lake City last month. The sick Castro appears by a video on the hospital bed.
While Castro is still awaiting extradition, Honolulu prosecutors’ colleagues in Utah this week said they did not object to him because “recently involved in material witnesses and evidence status in this case.”
“Please understand that we see it as a temporary setback, and we remain fully committed to continuing our efforts to bring this matter up in the near future,” Honolulu Deputy Attorney Kelsi Guerra wrote in a letter from Clifford Ross, Deputy Salt Lake County Deputy County Attorney Clifford Ross.
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Utah District Judge John Nielsen ordered the release of Castro on Wednesday afternoon. Chris Bronson, a spokesman for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, said he was released Thursday.
On March 21, 1977, shortly after 7:30 a.m., Honolulu police found Mohora’s body on the second floor of a building in McKinley High School. Momohara explain Lieutenant Deena Thoemes of the Honolulu Police Department. A subsequent autopsy ruled that Momohara was strangled to death, and the medical examiner said there were signs of sexual assault.
Castro graduated from the Honolulu School in 1976.
According to prison records, a Castro’s attorney said at a hearing in Salt Lake City last month that he intends to fight his allegations while returning to Hawaii, and he remains a resident. It is unclear how long Castro was arrested in Utah when he was arrested at a nursing home in Millcreek, south of Salt Lake City.
A McKinley High School graduate who was a band teacher at the school when Momohara died, was disappointed to learn about Castro’s release.
“I think they have to make sure they have a solid case,” Grant Okamura said.
“In a sense, I was disappointed that I could not be on trial at least, but I could understand the tension that they didn’t want to get into something casually and throw it away.”
Hawaiian authorities said Thursday they are continuing to investigate the killings in Mohora. Honolulu police spokesman Michelle Yu said no more information has been released yet.
After Momohara’s death, Police released sketch An interested person and witness described as a possible tool for Pontiac Lemans in 1974 or 1975. But they couldn’t identify the suspects and the case became cold.
A few days after Momohara was killed, the detective interviewed Castro. He said he met Mohola during a school dance that year, and the last time he saw her at a carnival on campus in February 1977.
In November 2023, Honolulu police went to Chicago where their brother lives. Police said they “secretly” obtained DNA from a brother’s adult child.
Police said the laboratory found that the brothers were not included, but DNA samples from Castro’s adult son, later from Castro himself, proved that he was responsible.
Castro was arrested last month in a nursing home in Millcreek, south of Salt Lake City on charges of fugitive orders for a second-degree murder. Prison records show that he remains a Hawaii resident and it is unclear how long he has lived in Utah.
