Nearly a year after she disappeared, police are still searching for the body of Masumi Watanabe, the young Japanese national who allegedly was murdered by pest-control technician Kirk Lankford, according to testimony yesterday in Lankford's homicide trial.

Police officer Phil Camero, of HPD's missing-persons detail, said personnel searched last weekend in the Hau'ula area for Watanabe's remains.

Since Watanabe, 21, was last seen April 12, 2007, police and other government agency personnel have conducted 44 days of "extensive searches," Camero testified.

Search efforts began on the same day Watanabe disappeared and "continued up to this weekend," Camero said.

A total of 623 people have been involved in the "search and hopefully the recovery of Masumi Watanabe," the officer testified.

Police and fire department helicopters began searching for Watanabe by air the day she went missing. Firefighters have rappelled down the cliffs of the Pali Lookout and 60 to 70 feet down an abandoned well near the top of Pupukea Road on the North Shore, he said.

City water-safety workers have conducted underwater dives as well as personal-watercraft searches for Watanabe's remains. Federal personnel with expertise in locating graves have helped in the search. A trained "cadaver dog" has been flown to O'ahu on multiple occasions from the Big Island, Camero said.

Transportation Department workers have searched both sides of H-3 Freeway for the missing woman, he testified.

Prosecutors allege that Lankford, 23, killed Watanabe after he encountered her walking along Pupukea Road the morning of April 12.

Two witnesses reported seeing Watanabe speaking with the driver of a Hauoli Pest Control truck that morning on Pupukea Road.

Lankford acknowledged being in the vicinity in his Hauoli truck that morning but told police he never saw or spoke to Watanabe.

Police later recovered a pair of glasses that allegedly belonged to Watanabe wedged between the passenger seat cushion and seat back in the Hauoli truck.

Yesterday, HPD lab technician Samantha Kashimoto testified that traces of blood found on the passenger door, seat, floor mat and weather stripping of the truck match Watanabe's DNA.

Only one person in a population of 304.8 trillion other people would have the same DNA, Kashimoto testified.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.