Honolulu police arrested a 44-year-old homeless man on murder charges Friday after the decomposing body of his girlfriend was found in a storm drain in Manoa on Sept. 13.

Gibran K. Copeland was arrested near a tent he was living in at 1215 Hunakai St. and charged with murder in the second degree and use of firearm in the commission of a separate felony in connection with the death of Christina Baca, 50, who also lived in a homeless encampment.

His bail is set at $1 million.

Baca and Copeland dated for about one to two years, according to police.

In August, Baca told a witness that “her boyfriend and/or her boyfriend’s friends were going to kill her and that she was being followed by them,” according to state court records.

The witness told police he ignored her because he thought she was on drugs or drinking and was prone to paranoia.

Shortly after 2 p.m. on Sept. 13, Honolulu police responded to a 911 call from University of Hawaii Department of Public Safety officers who reported the discovery of a dead woman near faculty housing in the 2600 block of Dole Street.

Baca’s body was found in an underground storm drain on the East Side of the housing complex. The storm drain runs north to south and crosses under Dole Street and feeds into the Manoa Stream by the Hawaiian Studies building.

Baca’s body was about 5 feet away from a 20-foot drop which led to the lower level of the drains, according to state court records.

The two drains in the lower level ran parallel to each other and fed into the Manoa Stream.

Responding HPD officers found the “decomposing body of an adult female” who had suspicious injuries, according to HPD Lt. Deena Thoemmes, who leads the department’s homicide and strategic enforcement detail.

Officers found .9mm shell casings near the body, a plastic water bottle, women’s clothes and other items. HPD detectives found shoe prints in the mud of the drain, Thoemmes said.

The prints faced both directions, indicating that “the person wearing the shoes entered and exited” within the same drain.

An autopsy on Sept. 14 by the city Department of the Medical Examiner revealed the victim was shot in the head, torso and limbs. The cause of Baca’s death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide.

David O. Carter, director and professor of Forensic Sciences at Chaminade University’s School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, was brought in by HPD to analyze the body and review the scene to help determine the time of death.

Carter told police Baca died between Sept. 7 and Sept. 10. A witness told detectives that on Sept. 8 at about 2 a.m. she heard six gunshots.

“During the course of this four-week investigation numerous witnesses were located and interviewed, digital trace and DNA evidence were reviewed and examined,” said Thoemmes, speaking at a police news conference streamed live on the department’s YouTube page. “Hours and hours of surveillance video were recovered and reviewed. Through the investigation, it was revealed that Christina had an intimate relationship with the male identified as Gibran Copeland. Reportedly, Christina and Copeland had been involved in previous domestic abuse instances. Copeland was described as being obsessed with Christina.”

The surveillance footage showed that on Sept. 8 at 11:18 p.m. Copeland and Baca were seen walking to the University of Hawaii’s Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies.

Baca was seen in the footage picking up an empty plastic water bottle from the trash and filling it with water from a fountain.

“The bottle was the same bottle recovered near her body,” Thoemmes said.

Three minutes later, Baca and Copeland are seen on video leaving the building and walking to the loi side of the property and the entryway to the storm drains.

On Sept. 9 at about 2:35 a.m., Copeland is seen leaving the university building alone and walking away on Dole Street toward Waialae Avenue.

Surveillance footage showed Copeland wearing a light colored baseball cap, a green-and-black-patterned shirt, dark shorts, white athletic shoes. He had a skateboard and a red and black shoulder bag on him.

Police found that Copeland maintained a unit at the Public Storage at 2888 Waialae Ave. on Sept. 8 at about 5:25 p.m. Copeland was seen wearing the same clothes he had on in the surveillance footage recovered from the university.

Police executed a search warrant and went through Copeland’s storage unit and took a black husky bag that matched what Copeland had at the university. Police also found a second unit at Hawaii Self Storage at 2909 Waialae Ave where they found Copeland’s skateboard and dress shirt.

Copeland’s bag and skateboard tested positive for gunshot residue, DNA from Baca’s fingernails, her body and Copeland’s skateboard.

“All matched Copeland’s DNA,” Thoemmes said.

Surveillance footage taken from TheBus on Sept. 8 at 10:16 p.m. shows him boarding the Route 1 bus.

At 10:51 p.m. Copeland is seen on surveillance footage crossing a pedestrian bridge with Baca before entering a residential neighborhood on the way to the university.

An expert in the identification of athletic shoes identified the brand and model of Copeland’s shoes, Nike Court Vision, that he was wearing in the surveillance footage captured before and after Baca was killed.

The expert also identified the shoe imprint from the mud in the storm drain where Baca’s body was found as coming from a pair of Nike Court Vision.

On Sept. 18, police canvassed the encampment site next to the Queen’s Urgent Care, located at 1215 Hunakai St. and found graffiti on the wall of the drainage area that included “Jared &Christina Marie Baca” in large lettering, as well as smaller green-colored graffiti, stating, “F*** your life Christina Marie Baca.”

Copeland was found in the area and consented to an interview with detectives. Witnesses also told police Copeland was known as “Jared.”

HPD’s scientific investigation’s crime scene, trace, DNA, cyber and crime analysis units were key participants in the investigation, Thoemmes said.

Thoemmes also thanked the University of Hawaii faculty and staff, UH Department of Public Safety, Chaminade’s Carter, JR Entomology, the Department of Transportation, and the two public storage companies for helping HPD with the murder investigation.

The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney’s domestic violence prosecutors helped HPD get “justice for Christina.”