The Associated Press. That was until last week, when police used advances in DNA technology to arrest a year-old resident of a Utah nursing home. The suspect, former McKinley student Gideon Castro, appeared in court via video on Friday from a hospital bed in the medical wing of a Utah jail. Castro told the judge he wanted to hire his own attorney and was ordered to return virtually to Salt Lake County District Court for an initial appearance on Wednesday.
Castro faces eventual extradition to Honolulu. His current court-appointed attorney, Marlene Mohn, did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment. On March 21, , shortly after a. The sister was called to the office and later walked into the band room, devastated.
How do you have a class? She just sat there crying. 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, homicide Lt.
Deena Thoemmes said. Police released sketches of a person of interest and a possible vehicle described by witnesses as a or Pontiac LeMans. A witness reported seeing the car when he and his girlfriend drove through campus the night before Momohara died. Police were unable to identify a suspect and the case grew cold, though grief lingered over the campus. They were able to develop a DNA profile in Then, in , police received information about potential suspects β two brothers who had been interviewed in Several days after Momohara was killed, detectives interviewed Castro, who graduated from McKinley High in He said he met Momohara at a school dance that year and last saw her at a carnival on campus in February Police interviewed his brother, who also met Momohara at the dance.
In November , Honolulu police went to Chicago, where the brother was living. 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. Chun Oakland graduated in and grew up to become a Democratic member of the Hawaii Senate. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
