Associated Press HONOLULU — A Honolulu man has been charged with murder and sex assault in a decades-old killing of an 81-year-old woman. ADVERTISING Evidence recovered through DNA technology led to the arrest last week of Gerald Austin, 52, who
Associated Press
HONOLULU — A Honolulu man has been charged with murder and sex assault in a decades-old killing of an 81-year-old woman.
Evidence recovered through DNA technology led to the arrest last week of Gerald Austin, 52, who was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree sex assault in the death of Edith Skinner. Skinner, 81, was found in a Honolulu senior housing complex on July 25, 1989.
Austin remained held on $200,000 bail after his initial appearance in District Court on Monday. He was being held at Oahu Community Correctional Center.
The case remained cold until investigators found new evidence in 2006. Police did not provide details of the new evidence. Skinner’s body was found in her apartment by the resident manager after worried friends didn’t see her at breakfast. A man described as 19 to 25 years old was seen leaving her unit at about 5 a.m., police said.
A single black hair and faint bruises on Skinner’s body led to the finding that Skinner had been raped and strangled.
Skinner was a former Ziegfeld dancer who was born in New York City, her son Steve Skinner said in 2006. He was working in California at the time, and police back then told him there were few leads. He said he wished there was DNA technology in 1989.
“Nothing will bring my mom back,” he said. “But people that do things like this need to suffer the consequences.”
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
