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

DNA evidence helped lead long-stymied detectives to a suspect in the murder of Dawn Momohara, 16, who was strangled and found dead at her high school.

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.

Student Dawn Momohara, 16, was found dead inside McKinley High School on Monday, March 21, 1977, according to the Honolulu Police Department. “A teacher had found her and it was early in the morning, second floor of the English building,” Susie Chun Oakland, a former student, told KHON in 2019.