There were no updates in the case until 2019 when cold case detectives asked a forensic biology unit to examine several items of evidence from the scene, including Momohara's underwear

The unsolved death of a teenager in 1977 haunted students and staff at Honolulu's McKinley High School for nearly half a century. But last week, police used advances in DNA

Before Dawn Momohara was killed, she got a call from an unknown male and told her mother she was going to a shopping center. That was the last time her mom saw her, police said.

Susie Chun Oakland arrived to a crime scene at McKinley High School in Honolulu that March morning nearly a half century ago.

Nearly five decades after her partially clothed body was discovered on the second floor of her Honolulu high school, modern DNA testing has led to an arrest that could solve the cold case murder of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara.

Honolulu Police say modern forensic tests allowed them to identify and arrest a suspect in Dawn Momohara's 1977 murder.

Dawn Momohara was 16 years old when her body was found on the second floor of McKinley High School in Honolulu in 1977. For decades, detectives had failed to identify a suspect in the murder case but now, thanks to a breakthrough in DNA technology, they have arrested a former classmate, police confirmed.