There are days when Donny Gouveia’s 1991 death by beating weighs especially hard on his mother.

“It still hurts,” said Annette Gouveia, 66, of the death of her only child. “Some days I’m OK, but some days when I look at his picture or I think about something I come across what happened, I get the crying fits, and you stay that way for the whole day until you sleep.”

A jogger found the body of her then 19-year-old son, a University of Hawaii accounting student and AT&T worker, at 6:25 a.m. Nov. 4, 1991, near the Waikiki end of Magic Island lagoon.

Now, nearly 28 years later, the Honolulu Police Department’s Cold Case Unit is asking for help in identifying a man, possibly in his early 20s, who is shown in a grainy ATM surveillance photo standing behind Gouveia at Ala Moana Center at 8:48 p.m. Nov. 3, 1991. That man is not a suspect and may have been waiting for Donny Gouveia.

Detective Michael Ogawa said police canvassed the area, but no witnesses were found. There were indications he had been in the park the night before, and they do not suspect he was a victim of a robbery.

“No suspect was ever identified,” he said, but added there is evidence police can now analyze with new technology.

His uncle Walter Gouveia Jr., who was about to join HPD at the time, said he was not provided many details then, nor now, because he’s too close to the case. But he was told that his nephew had no personal effects on him and no money was withdrawn that night from his account.

Investigators at the time suspected he died the night before, and had possibly been struck in the head with a large rock found nearby.

He was found lying face up with head injuries, wearing a black tank top and multicolored Jams, Honolulu Star-Bulletin articles from the time reported.

Donny Gouveia, who lived with his family in Kalihi Valley, hung out and exercised at Ala Moana Beach Park with friends after work, and was never in any trouble, his uncle said.

He was the family entertainer who enjoyed singing and dancing. Annette Gouveia said her son was a Latin dancer, who performed at parties and even danced on a float at the Aloha Week parade.

“We have no clue as to why anyone would do this to him,” said his uncle, now an HPD corporal. “He didn’t hang around with that unsavory crowd. He never got in trouble with police. … It makes no sense.”

“I went in years ago, and they told me they can’t talk to me because I’m too close,” he said, adding that he understands.

He hopes that when police re-interview people, it may jog their memories.

“I always say, ‘You forget a lot of things, but if you’re a witness to a murder, that’s something you never forget.’”

The Gouveias hope new technologies may somehow bring things to light and move the case forward. “Now new technology is bringing these cold cases alive again,” Walter Gouveia said.

”It’s never going to make the pain go away,” but at least it’ll bring closure and give the family answers, he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or visit honolulupd.org, then go to the Cold Case section, which is on the home page, and click on Help with Tips.