On a February morning in 2025, police in Las Vegas moved in on a 61-year-old man named Joseph Andrew Jacuzzi. He had lived quietly for decades, with almost no criminal record beyond a misdemeanor reckless driving conviction from 1992. He had no idea, apparently, that a DNA profile built from two hairs found at a murder scene in Everett, Washington, had just matched him. The hairs had sat in evidence for over three decades.

Now they had become the thread that finally pulled a 36-year-old cold case shut. The story of how Jacuzzi came to be arrested begins long before that morning, in the lives of four women whose murders went unsolved for decades. Each case followed a similar arc: a brutal death, a trail that went cold, and then, years later, a breakthrough made possible by forensic science that did not exist when the crimes were committed. On March 21, 1977, a little after 7:30 in the morning, police in Honolulu, Hawaii, were called to McKinley High School after the body of a student was found in one of the buildings.

The victim was 16-year-old Dawn Mamahalo. She was discovered lying on her back, partially clothed, with an orange cloth wrapped tightly around her neck. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. The horror of that morning was compounded by a cruel twist of timing.

Dawn’s sister turned up for school that day, unaware that her sister’s body had been recovered. She was called to the principal’s office and informed. Shortly afterwards, she made her way to the school’s band room, where her classmates attempted to console her. Grant Okamura, the band teacher, later told the Independent, “The other students were trying to console her.

At that point, I couldn’t have a band. How do you have a class? ” She just sat there crying. Dawn had last been seen the previous day, when she received a call from an unknown male and later told her mother that she was heading to the local shopping center to meet friends.

She never came home that night. In the days after her death, police released sketches of a person of interest, as well as an associated vehicle, based on eyewitness reports. The car was described as a 1974 or ’75 Pontiac LeMans, seen by a witness and his girlfriend as they drove through the school campus the night before her body was found. A man was near the car on a section of grass close to the school’s English building.

The man and the vehicle were never identified, and the case grew cold over the next few years. It wasn’t until 2019 that a cold case team requested that a forensic biology unit take a look at some of the items still in evidence, including Dawn’s underwear. The following year, forensic experts were able to create a DNA profile. And in 2023, they received information about two brothers who had been interviewed back in 1977, just days after the body was found.

Gideon Castro, who had graduated from McKinley High School the year prior, had been approached by investigators at the time. He explained that he’d met Dawn at a school dance in 1976 and last saw her in February 1977, when he was at a carnival. The pair had spoken for about 15 minutes, and he had mentioned being in the US Army Reserve. His brother William had met Dawn through Castro.

After receiving further information about the brothers in 2023, detectives journeyed to Chicago, where William was living, and obtained DNA from one of his adult children. Forensic testing found it not to be a match to that found at the crime scene. So investigators turned to one of Gideon Castro’s children, whose DNA revealed a link. After taking a swab from Castro himself, they found a concrete match.

In January 2025, Castro was arrested for second-degree murder at the nursing home where he lived in Mill Creek, south of Salt Lake City, Utah. As of late January, he was awaiting extradition to Honolulu. There had been no new updates in the case at the time of recording. Eleven years after Dawn’s body was found and more than a thousand miles away, another woman’s life came to a violent end.

On the morning of September 18, 1989, 30-year-old Beverly Wivel of Canton Township, Michigan, dropped her son off at school. According to investigators, she had taken a nap in her vehicle afterwards when she was abducted from the car, sexually assaulted, and shot to death. Some reports state that her legs had been run over by at least one vehicle. Her body was discovered on the side of the road off Gotfredson Road in Washington County.

Investigators established that Beverly had been shot with a . 45 caliber pistol. In the following hours, they tracked down her vehicle. Its engine was still running.

The driver’s side door was open, and her belongings remained inside, including a handbag. Detectives also determined that the murder and assault had occurred in about an hour, as Beverly’s son was dropped off at 8:30 a. m. , while police were called to the scene at around 9:40.

Her son, Dale Swanson, was 13 when his mother was killed. Reflecting on that time in his mother’s life, he stated, “There was stuff going on, though she was divorcing my dad at the time, and my grandfather wouldn’t let her bring her new boyfriend into the house, so she would stay out in the car, but she wasn’t living in the car. ”

While police collected DNA evidence and a rape kit was administered, they had very little to work with. A match could only be made if the perpetrator’s DNA profile was already in the system, and it wasn’t.

Witness reports were few and far between. One witness claimed they’d heard a gunshot and seen a blue vehicle similar to a Chrysler New Yorker with a white top speeding from the scene, but this account went nowhere. For decades, Beverly’s case lay dormant. In 2022, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office re-examined the case, hoping that fresh eyes and new forensic techniques would bring closure to a 32-year-old tragedy.

The authorities worked with Michigan State Police and ultimately sent their forensic evidence to Othram, Inc. , a corporation specializing in forensic genetic genealogy. In January 2024, forensic experts working with Othram began building a complete DNA profile of the suspect and used it to carry out genealogy research, which narrowed down the pool of suspects. From that pool, authorities eventually honed in on 69-year-old Buster Robbins from Almont, Michigan.

They subsequently carried out several days of surveillance across several weeks, staking out the home he shared with his wife. On September 24, 2024, they gathered several items, including used straws, which were sent for DNA comparison. A match was soon confirmed, and Robbins was arrested. His wife later told authorities that in 1989, he drove a vehicle that matched the one reported by the witness.

They also found a . 45 caliber magazine inside his home while executing a search warrant. Robbins was charged with felony murder. His attorney stated during a discussion about bail that he was a father of four, had both grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and had no criminal history.

Beverly’s son, Dale, observed that what hurt the most was thinking that 35 years ago he did this and then carried on with his life like nothing happened. A judge ultimately ruled that Robbins would be held without bail. The case was ongoing at the time of recording. On the morning of March 8, 1998, police in Toronto were called to a car park on Carlton Street near Jarvis Street following reports that a body had been found.

The victim was four months pregnant and had been strangled to death. She was soon established as 24-year-old Donna Ogliff, originally from the Philippines, but a resident of British Columbia at the time of her death. She had only been in Toronto for five weeks before she was killed. Investigators learned shortly thereafter that she was a mother of one already and that she made her living by engaging in sex work.

Despite being able to collect DNA from the crime scene, Donna’s case remained unsolved for over two decades. In 2019, a Toronto cold case team released a YouTube video appealing for information. Two years later, the case was featured on a Toronto Police podcast which highlights unsolved crimes. The head of the cold case unit, Detective Sergeant Steve Smith, stated, “This was a horrendous crime.

She was vulnerable, working on the streets to make money. But we never forgot Donna. We never forget anyone. ”

Despite their efforts to garner new leads, authorities remained clueless as to the identity of Donna’s killer.

In 2022, investigators sent the forensic evidence in Donna’s case to Othram, Inc. , as they had done with Beverly’s. Forensic experts built a DNA profile of the suspect, and a genealogy search was conducted. Police, now armed with the names of potential suspects, began working to narrow down their list.

On February 6, 2025, 50-year-old Ronald Akerman of Gander, Newfoundland, was arrested at Toronto Pearson Airport, having returned from a trip to Alberta, where he worked in the oil fields. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder. Detective Sergeant Smith, who announced the arrest the following day, stated that police believed Akerman, who was a 24-year-old truck driver in 1998, had been a client of Donna’s on the night of her death. They stated that at this time, they were not sure if it was a one-off or if he saw Donna on a regular basis.

Notably, investigators also stated that Akerman was known to them, but that his name had never surfaced during their investigation into Donna’s death. Another unnamed law enforcement source told the Toronto Sun that when greeted by police, Akerman seemed surprised. They added, “He was like, ‘Are you sure? ’ And, ‘Oh my goodness.

’ In his mind, we had it all wrong. ”

Smith also announced that they would be looking into Akerman’s movements over the last 25 years to establish whether he had any links to other crimes. “We need to find out what he’s been doing over the past 25 years and make sure there are no other victims, whether sexually motivated or homicides, that he could be involved in. ”

In early February, Akerman was still in custody.

There had been no updates since, but the case, like the others, was ongoing. On February 1, 1989, Mary Anne Daniels was discovered dead in her home in the 2100 block of Hoyt Avenue in Everett, Washington. Mary was a 33-year-old developmentally disabled woman residing in a transitional living facility at the time of her death. Her brother Terry described her as someone who was trusting, carefree, and always believed the good in people.

It was quickly established that Mary had been murdered, strangled to death with a ligature made from her bra, purse strap, and an electrical cord. Her body had been discovered by the property manager, who had gone to collect her rent and discovered that the door was ajar. He initially believed she was just asleep after seeing the lower portion of her legs on her bed, and so he let himself out. But the following day, he returned to find that she hadn’t moved.

This time he saw the ligature around her neck and subsequently called the police. Investigators noticed while examining the scene that a TV guide was opened on the listing for January 28 and speculated that, given the condition of her body, she had likely died that night. In the days that followed, authorities discovered a cut electrical cord and two hairs that did not appear to be Mary’s, collecting the pieces as evidence. They also canvassed the area and, upon speaking with friends, discovered that Mary had a sexual relationship with a man while she was living in a motel, but more recently had discussed a relationship she had with a neighbor she called Joe.

Despite this information, the most suspiciously behaving person in the case was the property manager, who quickly became belligerent. He refused to give his date of birth to the police and was soon found to have provided a false name. He was arrested on a felony warrant and returned to Oregon, where he was wanted for another crime. Police eventually tracked down the man Mary had been seeing while staying at the motel.

Though police found some of his statements to be odd and at least a bit concerning, he had an alibi for the night of the murder. For years, investigators believed that one of these men was likely responsible for the crime, but they never had the evidence to prove it, and both eventually died. In 2011, the DNA of both men was compared to that found on Mary’s body, and both were ruled out. A third person of interest, who has not been named, was also ruled out at this time.

For decades, the case collected dust. It wasn’t until 2021 that Othram, Inc. managed to acquire a DNA profile from the hairs found at the crime scene. The profile was then uploaded to GEDmatch, and in 2022, Joseph Andrew Jacuzzi was identified.

Jacuzzi was one of Mary’s neighbors at the time of her death and had been interviewed, but was not considered a person of interest. When speaking with police in 1989, he stated that he’d gone to work, returned home, had a shower, and went out to dinner alone before moving on to a bar where he stayed until closing. When questioned about his relationship with Mary, he claimed he had no sort of relationship with her beyond that of casual neighbors. Notably, Jacuzzi was only spoken to once by investigators between the time of Mary’s death and his arrest in 2025.

By the time the link was made, he was living in Las Vegas. Everett police contacted authorities in the area to help obtain a DNA sample, and a discarded beer bottle was collected from a restaurant he was eating at before it was shipped to the Everett PD. The DNA from the bottle matched that of Mary’s crime scene. Jacuzzi was arrested in Las Vegas in late January 2025 and placed in Clark County Jail.

He was to be extradited back to Washington, where prosecutors requested that he be held in lieu of a $2 million bail. Four cases, four women, and four killers whose identities were finally dragged into the light by science that simply didn’t exist when the crimes were committed. For the families of Dawn, Beverly, Donna, and Mary, the wait lasted decades.

But in 2025, the answers finally came.