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Honolulu prosecutors will charge Florida man with murder in 1982 death of woman

Leila Fujimori

Honolulu prosecutors are prepared to charge a 61-year-old Florida man with second-degree murder in the September 1982 death of Kathy Hicks, a 25-year-old Atlanta woman, whose body was found in Nuuanu shortly after the alleged crime.

Police said the suspect was identified through DNA comparison.

The Associated Press identified Thomas Garner, a dental hygienist in Florida, as the suspect in the Hicks homicide as well the 1984 murder of Pamela Cahanes, a U.S. Navy recruit.

He was arrested in March 2019 for Cahanes’ murder, and was found guilty May 6 of first-degree murder.

Garner was stationed in Hawaii from April 1980 to October 1982.

Hicks was a Delta Air Lines reservations clerk who was in Hawaii to play in a softball tournament when she was killed, according to Honolulu newspaper reports at the time.

The Honolulu Police Department said Friday that detectives conferred with prosecutors who have accepted the case.

Garner’s DNA was found on Hicks’ underwear, according to authorities.

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