Honolulu homicide detectives have reopened the 1989 case of an 81-year-old woman who was raped and strangled in a housing complex for the elderly in Waikiki.

Edith Skinner was found by the resident manager in Unit 706 of the Makua Ali'i housing complex after friends failed to rouse her for breakfast. Neighbors told the resident manager they had not seen the woman for at least two days.

Police said Skinner was killed at 2 a.m. July 25, 1989, and that a man 19 to 25 years old, 5 feet 8 with a slim build and curly short black hair, was seen leaving her complex at 5 the morning of the killing.

Skinner's son Steve, 60, a business banker now living in Tucson, Ariz., said he hopes anyone with information will contact police. He said he wants justice for his mother's death.

Steve Skinner said he remembers when a Honolulu police detective phoned to say his mother had been killed.

"Nothing will bring my mom back, and after 17 years I've sorted that one out," he said by phone. "But people that do things like this need to suffer the consequences. It is an unforgivable act. After 17 years, I am very happy to see that HPD is doing the cold-case-file approach and has resurrected this. Hopefully somebody comes forward. Maybe they heard something, know something, think they know something, just anything. I hope they (possible witnesses) put themselves in my place. If their mother was raped and strangled, what would they want to happen?"

Skinner said he has flashbacks to his mother's death every time he sees a television show that discusses sexual assault, murder and DNA testing. He said he wishes DNA technology had existed in 1989.

Edith Skinner was born in New York City in 1908 and moved to Hawai'i in 1930. She was a former Ziegfeld dancer and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

At the time of Skinner's death, former Honolulu police homicide Lt. Gary Dias said police interviewed witnesses and "looked at individuals," but no arrests were made.

Unsolved killings in Hawai'i are investigated by police detectives and a unit with the state attorney general's office, which is staffed with many retired homicide detectives.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, or *CRIME on your cellular phone. Free cellular calls are provided by Cingular, Nextel Hawaii, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless Hawaii.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.