Latest news with #SaltLakeCountySheriff'sOffice
CBS News
14-03-2025
- CBS News
Schoolmate arrested in Hawaii girl's 1977 murder released from Utah jail as prosecution stalls
A 66-year-old suspect in the 1977 killing of a Hawaii teenager was released from a Utah jail on Thursday after prosecutors in Honolulu said they weren't ready to proceed with a murder charge against him. Gideon Castro was arrested in January at a Utah nursing home on a fugitive warrant for suspicion of second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara. He had waived the right to challenge his extradition during a hearing in Salt Lake City last month. Castro, who is ill, appeared by video from a hospital bed. While Castro was still awaiting extradition, Honolulu prosecutors told their counterparts in Utah this week that they were not proceeding against him because of "recent complications involving a material witness in this case and the state of the evidence." "Please understand we view this as only a temporary setback, and we remain fully committed to continuing our efforts to prosecute this matter in the near future," Kelsi Guerra, a deputy prosecuting attorney in Honolulu, wrote in a Monday letter to Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Clifford Ross. Utah District Court Judge John Nielsen ordered Castro's release late Wednesday afternoon. He was released Thursday, said Chris Bronson, spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. On March 21, 1977, shortly after 7:30 a.m., Honolulu police found the body of Momohara on the second floor of a building at McKinley High School. Momohara was partially clothed and lying on her back with an orange cloth tied around her neck, said Lt. Deena Thoemmes, of Honolulu Police. A subsequent autopsy ruled Momohara was strangled to death, and the medical examiner said there were signs of sexual assault. Castro graduated from the Honolulu school in 1976. An attorney for Castro had said during a hearing last month in Salt Lake City that he intended to fight the charges upon his return to Hawaii, where he is still a resident, according to jail records. It is unclear how long Castro had been in Utah when he was arrested at the nursing home in Millcreek, just south of Salt Lake City. A McKinley High School graduate who was the school's band teacher at the time of Momohara's death said he was disappointed to learn of Castro's release. "I guess they've got to make sure they have a rock-solid case," Grant Okamura said. "In a sense I'm disappointed that they couldn't at least go to trial but I can understand their nervousness that they don't want to just haphazardly go into something and have it thrown out." Authorities in Hawaii said Thursday that they were continuing with their investigation into Momohara's killing. No further information was being released at this time, Honolulu police spokesperson Michelle Yu said. Following Momohara's death, police released sketches of a person of interest and a possible vehicle described by witnesses as a 1974 or 1975 Pontiac LeMans. But they were unable to identify a suspect, and the case grew cold. Several days after Momohara was killed, detectives interviewed Castro. He said he met Momohara at a school dance that year and last saw her at a carnival on campus in February 1977. Police interviewed his brother, who also met Momohara at the dance In November 2023, Honolulu police went to Chicago, where the brother was living. They "surreptitiously" obtained DNA from one of the brother's adult children, police said. Lab findings excluded the brother as a suspect, but a DNA sample from Castro's adult son, and later from Castro himself, proved he was responsible, police said. Castro was arrested last month at the nursing home where he had been living in Millcreek, just south of Salt Lake City, on a fugitive warrant for suspicion of second-degree murder. Jail records indicate he is still a resident of Hawaii, and it is unclear how long he had been living in Utah.
NBC News
14-03-2025
- NBC News
Utah judge orders release of suspect in 1977 Hawaii killing after prosecution stalls
SALT LAKE CITY — A 66-year-old suspect in the 1977 killing of a Hawaii teenager was released from a Utah jail on Thursday after prosecutors in Honolulu said they weren't ready to proceed with a murder charge against him. Gideon Castro was arrested in January at a Utah nursing home on a fugitive warrant for suspicion of second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara. He had waived the right to challenge his extradition during a hearing in Salt Lake City last month. Castro, who is ill, appeared by video from a hospital bed. While Castro was still awaiting extradition, Honolulu prosecutors told their counterparts in Utah this week that they were not proceeding against him because of 'recent complications involving a material witness in this case and the state of the evidence.' 'Please understand we view this as only a temporary setback, and we remain fully committed to continuing our efforts to prosecute this matter in the near future,' Kelsi Guerra, a deputy prosecuting attorney in Honolulu, wrote in a Monday letter to Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Clifford Ross. Utah District Court Judge John Nielsen ordered Castro's release late Wednesday afternoon. He was released Thursday, said Chris Bronson, spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. On March 21, 1977, shortly after 7:30 a.m., Honolulu police found the body of Momohara on the second floor of a building at McKinley High School. She was lying on her back, partially clothed with an orange cloth wrapped tightly around her neck and had been sexually assaulted and strangled, police said. Castro graduated from the Honolulu school in 1976. An attorney for Castro had said during a hearing last month in Salt Lake City that he intended to fight the charges upon his return to Hawaii, where he is still a resident, according to jail records. It is unclear how long Castro had been in Utah when he was arrested at the nursing home in Millcreek, just south of Salt Lake City. A McKinley High School graduate who was the school's band teacher at the time of Momohara's death said he was disappointed to learn of Castro's release. 'I guess they've got to make sure they have a rock-solid case,' Grant Okamura said. 'In a sense I'm disappointed that they couldn't at least go to trial but I can understand their nervousness that they don't want to just haphazardly go into something and have it thrown out.' Authorities in Hawaii said Thursday that they were continuing with their investigation into Momohara's killing. No further information was being released at this time, Honolulu police spokesperson Michelle Yu said. Following Momohara's death, police released sketches of a person of interest and a possible vehicle described by witnesses as a 1974 or 1975 Pontiac LeMans. But they were unable to identify a suspect, and the case grew cold. Police used advances in DNA technology to connect Castro to the killing. They had interviewed Castro and his brother in 1977, but they were unable to conclusively link Castro to the killing until obtaining DNA samples in recent years.
USA Today
13-02-2025
- USA Today
Cold-case sleuths, sonar solve 20-year Utah mystery of man who disappeared without a trace
Cold-case sleuths, sonar solve 20-year Utah mystery of man who disappeared without a trace Show Caption Hide Caption Missing hiker found alive in Colorado after 4 days Gina Chase, a 53-year-old hiker from Victoria, Canada, was found safe on Saturday after being missing for four days in southwest Colorado. unbranded - Newsworthy For more than two decades, Kevin Anderson searched for answers. In June of 2004, his brother Steven disappeared without a trace while driving to their parent's cabin in Flaming Gorge, Utah. The family filed a missing person's report but the case went cold, leaving a mystery with few clues and many questions: Had the pressures of life gotten to be too much for the 46-year-old father? Did he decide to just go off the grid? Was he in an accident? Was there foul play? This week, the answers finally came. An examination by Utah's Office of the Medical Examiner and DNA testing from a private lab confirmed that remains found in a car submerged in a Utah reservoir last year belonged to Steven Willard Anderson, police said Tuesday. No foul play is suspected in his death, and "as a result, Anderson's case will be officially closed," the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. Though he expected such an outcome when his brother's car was first uncovered in September, Kevin Anderson said Thursday that DNA confirmation of his brother's identity has provided a sense of peace. "This is closed and the family can have complete, 100% closure, which is an amazing gift, particularly for all of his children," Kevin Anderson told USA TODAY. When his brother first went missing in June 2004, Kevin Anderson said search efforts encountered challenges because he was an adult. His brother's fate remained unknown for year after year. But a "miraculous chain of events" ultimately led the mystery to be solved, he said. The case was featured by local media in 2022, which attracted the attention of Doug Bishop with the United Search Corps, a nonprofit advocacy organization for families of missing people, and Dave Sparks, co-founder of Spark Motors who appeared on the reality show the Diesel Brothers, the sheriff's office said. The men began collaborating with police in April. Bishop said his team used helicopters and mountain crews to identify places where Anderson's vehicle may have gone off the road undetected and narrow down waterways they needed to search. In September, they used SONAR systems that detect submerged objects to locate Anderson's vehicle in Starvation Reservoir, he said. "Those moments are what drives us through everything that we do," Bishop said of the discovery. "We're providing a family and a community and an agency with answers they've been search for for 20 years." Multiple agencies worked together on a complex recovery operation to extract the vehicle and human remains were found inside, police said. Though the discovery of the vehicle and the remains was a major break after 20 years, Bishop said the family was left in limbo until the DNA analysis was complete. The discovery trigged a fresh wave of grief for Kevin Anderson and felt like "teleporting back 20 years later to just the raw emotions of it all." "We were fairly certain it would be his remains, but yet, still a little open, just wanting to have confirmation," he said. Though his team has developed theories about what could've happened in Anderson's final moments as part of the search process, Bishop declined to speculate about the sequence of events that led to his car ending up in the reservoir. "The official 'why' is something we leave in law enforcement's hands, we specialize in where," Bishop said. Exclusive: Woman thought long-lost brother was dead. Then she saw his face in USA TODAY Kevin Anderson said the DNA confirmation has provided "amazing closure" and he urged other families with missing loved ones not to give up hope. The news has allowed the family to go from talking about where Anderson is, to cherishing memories from his life, he said. Steven Willard Anderson was a gifted athlete who excelled at track and field as well as football, had an energetic, outgoing personality, and had worked as a district sales manager and the owner of a dog food company, his brother said. "The open wound that that has been for so long for all the family and the associated issues with that has been really hard," he said. "And I think it's going to take time to heal, but we're heading in the right direction."
CBS News
12-02-2025
- CBS News
Remains found in Utah reservoir confirmed to be man missing for 20 years
The remains of a man who disappeared more than 20 years ago when he was on his way to his family's cabin have been found inside a submerged car in a Utah reservoir. The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday that human remains recovered last year from a reservoir in Duchesne County have been identified as Steven Willard Anderson, 46, who went missing in 2004. The Utah Office of the Medical Examiner and a private lab used DNA testing to identify Anderson's remains. No foul play is suspected in his death, and the case was officially closed Tuesday after decades of uncertainty for the family, the sheriff's office said. Anderson left his home in Murray to make a more than 200-mile drive to his family's cabin in Flaming George, Utah, CBS affiliate KUTV reported. When he didn't answer his father's phone call, his father went to the cabin to find him. Anderson's relatives said he was driving a leased vehicle to do some painting but never arrived, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety. His daughter, Emily, in 2022 told KUTV that she believed her father and the vehicle could be submerged somewhere. The former cold case caught the attention of Doug Bishop from United Search Corps, a nonprofit that specializes in missing person cases, and Dave Sparks, a Utah entrepreneur and internet personality. The pair chronicled their search efforts in videos posted to YouTube and began working with law enforcement last spring.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Yahoo
Remains recovered from Utah reservoir confirmed to be man missing since 2004
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The remains of a man who disappeared more than 20 years ago when he was on his way to his family's cabin have been found inside a submerged car in a Utah reservoir. The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday that human remains recovered last year from a reservoir in Duchesne County have been identified as Steven Willard Anderson, 46, who went missing in 2004. The Utah Office of the Medical Examiner and a private lab used DNA testing to identify Anderson's remains. No foul play is suspected in his death, and the case was officially closed Tuesday after decades of uncertainty for the family, the sheriff's office said. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. 'Just been a wound that, you know, has continuously been opened over the past 20 years just not knowing,' Anderson's son, Axel, told FOX 13 News. 'It's good to have some closure for the family, and I'm excited for the future now.' Anderson's relatives said he was driving a leased vehicle to a family cabin in Flaming Gorge to do some painting but never arrived, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety. The former cold case had caught the attention of Doug Bishop from United Search Corps, a nonprofit that specializes in missing person cases, and Dave Sparks, a Utah entrepreneur and internet personality. The pair chronicled their search efforts in videos posted to YouTube and began working with law enforcement last spring. On Sept. 29, 2024, United Search Corps discovered a submerged SUV around 50 feet deep in Starvation Reservoir. Law enforcement extracted the 2001 Toyota Sequoia and later identified it as the vehicle Anderson had leased. His family says the positive ID, and the knowledge that no foul play is suspected, will finally allow them to heal.
