Utah Judge Releases Gideon Castro in 1977 Hawaii Killing of Dawn Momohara at McKinley High School

A Utah judge has ordered the release of Gideon Castro, a 66-year-old suspect in the 1977 killing of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara in Hawaii, after prosecutors in Honolulu indicated they were not ready to proceed with a murder charge against him. Castro was arrested in January at a Utah nursing home on a fugitive warrant for suspicion of second-degree murder. The decision to release Castro was influenced by recent complications involving a material witness and the state of the evidence, as cited by Honolulu prosecutors. Despite the setback, Honolulu prosecutors have expressed their commitment to continue efforts to prosecute the matter in the near future. Castro, who is ill and appeared by video from a jail hospital bed, had waived his right to challenge extradition during a hearing in Salt Lake City last month. The body of Dawn Momohara was found on the second floor of a building at McKinley High School in Honolulu on March 21, 1977, where she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Advances in DNA technology were used to connect Castro to the killing.