Going West: True Crime - Dana Ireland // 263

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

On Christmas Eve, 1991, a 23-year-old woman went missing after a bike ride from her boyfriend’s house in Hawaii. When police discovered her bike, it appeared that someone had purposefully driven into her. Soon, her body was found, but with DNA from an unknown male at the scene, many are questioning whether the wrong men were put behind bars. This is the murder of Dana Ireland. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Judges for Justice: https://www.judgesforjustice.org/ 2. Dana's Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10547943/dana-marie-ireland 3. The Honolulu Advertiser: https://www.newspapers.com/image/265536446/?terms=%22dana%20ireland%22 4. Honolulu Star Bulletin: https://www.newspapers.com/image/273462157/?terms=%22dana%20ireland%22&match=1 5. John's Obituary: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/11/06/obituaries/c6e1bbb6-34d9-4048-b1d7-f81d18de1741/ 6. Honolulu Civil Beat: https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/12/a-retired-judge-keeps-asking-who-really-killed-dana-ireland/ 7. Hawaii Tribune-Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/556902276/?terms=frank%20pauline%20jr&match=1 8. Honolulu Star-Bulletin: https://www.newspapers.com/image/273883408/?terms=dana%20ireland&match=1 9. Hawaii News Now: https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/08/16/judges-unseals-documents-dana-ireland-murder-case-amid-exoneration-fight/ 10. Hawaii News Now: https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/08/18/unsealed-documents-dana-ireland-murder-case-show-no-hidden-dna-evidence/ 11. The Crime Report: https://thecrimereport.org/2017/01/25/a-prisoners-death-3000-miles-from-home/ 12. Honolulu Star-Bulletin: http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/08/28/news/story4.html 13. Hawaii News Now: https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/29107826/new-mexico-inmate-charged-with-killing-man-convicted-in-dana-ireland-murder/ 14. Hawaii Tribune-Herald: https://www.newspapers.com/image/557325640/?terms=%22dana%20ireland%22%20obituary&match=1 15. The Honolulu Advertiser: https://www.newspapers.com/image/264973822/?terms=dana%20ireland&match=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on TrueCrim fans? I'm your host Teez. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to going west. Hello everybody. Hope you're having a great day. Ethan, I just got back from Big Bear. We had a really fun weekend with our friends in a cabin. And I am so sore. Oh my God. So much skiing. So much. Yeah. But I hope you guys are doing well. And I just want to give a special thank you to Allen for recommending today's case. We are still getting through suggestions all the time. But if you do want to recommend a case, the best way to do that is on email, not social media, because we don't see those. So, please email us going westpodcast.gmail.com and let us know if you want us to cover a particular

case. We have hundreds and hundreds of recommendations, so if it takes us a while to get to you, that is why. But thank you anyway. All right, guys. This is episode 263 of Going West, so let's get into it. In December of 1991, a 23-year-old woman went missing after a bike ride from her boyfriend's house in Hawaii. When police discovered her bike, it appeared that someone had purposefully driven into her,

and her body was soon found. But with DNA from an unknown male at the scene, many are questioning whether the wrong men were put behind bars. This is the story of Dana Ireland. Dayna Marie Ireland was born on December 12, 1968 in Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, Virginia, and her father, John, served in the Navy in World War II and in Army in the Korean War, and he lived all over the world. But John did eventually meet and marry Dayna's mother, whose name is Mary Louise Crank, and a couple settled in Virginia, where he was employed by the army as a computer systems

analyst. In 1955, John and Mary had Dana's older sister Sandra, or Sandy, joined much later by Dana in 1968, so Sandy was like 13 years older than her sister Dana. And because of the large age gap when Dana was just 5 years old, her sister Sandy, 18, moved away from home, and that's when she settled in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii while Dana stayed with her parents in Virginia. Now, a family friend remembers her kind nature and that she was, quote, very angelic with a spirit that was very clean.

She didn't smoke or drink, she was very innocent and not interested in men yet. She was just a giving and sharing a very gentle and loving person. She was so full of joy. Not that if you smoke or drink or talk to boys, you are not, but this is what they said. So Dana was athletic and adventurous

and she loved the outdoors. Pursuing her love of staying active and fit upon graduating high school, Dana decided to pursue a degree in sports physiology or the particular branch of biology that outlines how cells, tissues, and organisms function. She stayed close to home, attending George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia,

but after graduating with her bachelor's degree in sports physiology in June of 1991, Dana decided to relocate to Hawaii to be closer to her sister Sandy. Having spent most of their lives living in separate states, 22-year-old Dana was thrilled to be able to just deepen her connection with her sister. And Dana was of course also thrilled to enjoy Hawaii's natural beauty, and she wanted to learn to scuba dive. She spent her days getting scuba certification, taking long bike rides around the island, and searching for a job in physical therapy. 36-year-old Sandy and her boyfriend Jim Jim Ingram, whom she eventually married, lived near Capojo on the easternmost tip of Hawaii, or the big island of Hawaii, with a population of only about 120,000 people on the entire island.

The area is now uninhabited due to the 2018 eruption of the Quila Way of Alcano that wiped it completely out. So for the Christmas season in 1991, the Ireland family decided to convene in Hawaii for a holiday in Paradise, what they were calling their best Christmas ever. And it was a really exciting time for Dana as well. You know, she was newly settled into Hawaii

and she had just celebrated her 23rd birthday and had also started dating a new boyfriend named Mark Evans. The Ireland family rented a house in the vacation land rental home subdivision on Capoho Kai Drive. On December 24, 1991, which was Christmas Eve, the family planned a lavish dinner at their rental home. Now, Dana wanted to invite her boyfriend Mark to the Christmas festivities the next day, so she planned to drop by his house before dinner. Her sister offered her a ride, but in true Dana fashion, she just wanted to ride her bike.

So at 2.10 pm, she set off for Mark's house, promising to be back soon. Dana rode these six or so miles or about nine kilometers to Mark's house and made it there around 2.40pm. So after visiting with Mark for close to an hour and a half, she left his house around 4.30 pm. Then around 5pm, Dana had almost made it home and was only about 200 yards from the

Ireland's rental house. But at 5.25pm that evening, a local woman named Anna Sheryl called 911. She was driving along Capoho Kai Road, which is a dirt road leading to the vacation home subdivision, and reached the intersection of Capoho Kai and Ililani Rhodes when she saw what looked like a woman's left tennis shoe abandoned in the middle of the road, and what she saw alongside the road was even more alarming. A mangled black 18-speed bicycle lay on the side of Kapoho Kai Road just across from the intersection of Ililani Road. Poho Kai Road just across from the intersection of Ililani Road. In addition to the bicycle, Anna observed a broken watch, the other shoe which would be the right shoe, and a sizable chunk of blonde hair, which Anna guessed was about a foot

in length. That is like a big chunk of hair. But the person the items belonged to was nowhere to be found. So obviously this is alarming to find a chunk of hair, a mangled bike, and shoes, and there's just nobody in sight. I mean, yeah, I can imagine that Anna's probably feeling like this is an abduction. Totally. So she, of course, called the police right away to report what she assumed, could have

been that, or even maybe just a really bad traffic accident. But shortly after that, at 5.36.36pm again this is Christmas Eve. Dana's father John called 911 to report his daughter missing, claiming that she had gone out for a bike ride and was supposed to be home about 40 minutes prior to his phone call and that they were worried that something had happened to her. Now around that same time, Sandy and her boyfriend had just finished up wrapping their Christmas presents and they were walking the short distance from their home to the vacation home that they were staying in.

Down the road, they noticed a commotion and looked like the wreckage from an accident. Now, they immediately recognized that the bike was Dana's, so Sandy and Jim rushed to the scene to speak with police and just begin the search for her sister. And according to the family friend who was also in attendance that evening, Christmas turned into quote, a horror that none of us knew was right next to us. So after a frantic search of the area in Suued, turning up no sign of Dana, word came about an hour later that she had been located about five miles or eight kilometers away. A nearby resident had heard what sounded like weak cries for help and had gone to investigate,

finding Dana severely injured and bleeding in a densely wooded area. Now after being struck by the car, which police now believed was strategic and intentional, Dana had been abducted and moved to a remote location that made it extremely difficult for anyone to find her. Now she was found in the dense brush along a lightly traffic fishing trail in Wawa. Now, it's been said, Vava or Wawa. I'm not sure which one, but we're going to go with Wawa. And this is right along the coast, and close to the easternmost tip of the island.

Now, bleeding extremely badly, Dana was rushed to the Hilo Hospital in Hilo, the largest community on the island, and about an hour north of where she had been found. She was admitted for emergency surgery immediately, but she had a broken pelvis and had lost an excessive amount of blood. At just 5 feet 4 inches tall and about 100 pounds, the blow from the car proved to be too much for her frame, and sadly shortly after midnight, around 12.25am, 23-year-old Dana Ireland succumbed to her injuries while still on the operating table.

Her official cause of death was blood loss, and a family friend who had been visiting for the holiday told a local paper that the perpetrator quote, took a perfect thing and totally destroyed it physically. Everything. She suffered, but she fought like hell to stay alive. What was supposed to be the perfect tropical Christmas for the Ireland family turned out to be a complete nightmare. Local police began their investigation by focusing first on the car that had struck her and

setting the type of tire tracks and the direction in which they hit her. Now the car, which they believed to be a pickup truck, had approached Dana head on and she was biking east toward her family's rental home. Three witnesses near the crime scene at the time the collision occurred reported seeing a pickup truck in the area around the same time. They were specifically looking for an older model blue pickup truck, by the way.

The car had been seen on the opposite side of the road driving the opposite direction, but had slowed down upon spotting Dana and then veered to the right, given the sharp change in direction by the tires, and struck her alongside the road. So this seemed like somebody very much did this on purpose. Yeah, it was intentional for sure. Like usually you would think they would have veered in the opposite direction to not hit her, but they did not do that. So, as Dana was incapacitated, her attacker left her belongings there and quickly threw her into the car before driving off with her. Within hours of Dana's death, the lead detective on the case attempted to locate the vehicle, stopping every pickup truck he and his fellow officer saw, and visiting households that he

knew owned one. They were specifically looking for one that had sustained cosmetic damage from the collision, of course, likely to the front right side of the hood. So this would make it hopefully a little bit easier to spot which truck had hit Dana. And remember, in this area again, there's only about 120,000 people. Yeah, so we were in, obviously that's a lot of people and maybe a lot of them have pick up trucks because of the ruralness, but it's also not mass. Yeah, like, you know, we were in it obviously that's a lot of people and maybe a lot of them have pickup trucks because of the ruralness, but but it's also not Mass yeah like it you know we were in we're on an island here So one man Frank Nessario lived in a nearby neighborhood and he was known to drive a pickup truck He was believed to have two

Accomplices if he was guilty although their names were not announced accomplices if he was guilty, although their names were not announced. But for reasons unknown to the public, Frank was released from suspicion early on in the investigation, so they either didn't have enough to believe that he was the killer or he just had a really good alibi or something. Now in the shocking aftermath of Dana's murder, the community rallied around the Ireland's. And nearby residents held a meeting to discuss further safety and security measures that they could be taking. And while the investigation was underway, Sandy and her parents flew back to Virginia with

Dana's ashes, and that's where they laid her to rest. And back in Hawaii, a memorial was held in Puna as well. So they did a celebration for her there, but then they wanted her buried in her home state. So Sandy pleaded with the island to come forward with any information, just feeling like somebody must know something, right? And she said that she wanted her sister's attacker, quote, taken out of the community, not killed or anything like that, just so others won't be hurt.

Which is a very thoughtful thing to say, even. And one reporter penned, quote, evil things aren't supposed to happen in Hawaii. It's paradise, you know? In the days following the shocking murder, fingers were pointed and blame was assigned when it was reported that medical staff and police were slow to the scene of Dana's discovery.

Especially knowing that she died of blood loss, you know, it was a timing issue. Time sensitive. So it took 41 minutes between when she was reported to be bleeding out in the brush along the Wawa fishing trail, and about an hour until they had actually reached the hospital, and Dana was able to receive medical attention. So almost two hours. Yeah. So by the time the ambulance had gotten her to the hospital, it was 7.56 pm.

So this actually made it almost three hours between when she was struck by the vehicle and when attention was able to be administered. And doctor said sadly that she likely would have lived if so much time hadn't lapsed. However, the responding emergency medical technicians argued that the remote location was extremely difficult to reach in an ambulance.

So the scene where Dana was found was as much of a mystery as the scene where she was struck by the vehicle. In the brush that she was rescued from, investigators found a blue Jimmy Z brand T-shirt, which they believe the killer may have been wearing, drenched in Dana's blood, along with a men's black tennis shoe. And the autopsy revealed even more horrifying details about this entire ordeal. Dana had been sexually assaulted before her death. In addition to the shoe and the t-shirt, her attacker left his DNA on her body and at

the scene where she was found, and a bite mark was found on her left breast. It wasn't until an employee at the hospital noticed remnants of her murderer's DNA on the sheets of her hospital gurney that they knew what she had suffered before her fate was finally decided for her. In addition to the DNA pulled from the t-shirt, the crime scenes and the bed sheets, vaginal swabs were taken, ensuring they had enough to match with her attacker if he were in the national codeus database.

So it appeared that this whole thing was not some, you know, accident, oops, I struck her with my truck. I mean, obviously we know that from the tire tracks, but now we know that she was sexually assaulted and that is probably the motivation for it. Right, and you know, this helps also rule out, like you're saying, if this had been an accident, and then they just tried to cover it up so that they wouldn't go down for it. Like this is like somebody purposefully hit her and then they sexually assaulted her. Like this was, this was very purposeful purposeful right for lack of a better words. I'm just gonna repeat that one. I also want to mention,

Kodis did start in 1990. It started as like a project and obviously it got better over the years, but in 1991 it was still not really something that was being heavily used. And so this is not super reliable right now anyway. And of course her killer was not in Kodas. So they also examined the bite mark and they were able to have an idea of what the teeth and jaw alignment of her murderer would have been. But even with all this, they had no suspects following Dana's sudden death. They received hundreds of leads, but none of them led to Dana's killer. Even though the search was confined to an island, with just over 100,000 people at the

time, it would be two and a half years before investigators saw any movement in the case. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, they received a confession. So before that quick break, we were talking about how there was no movement in the case for about two and a half years, and then finally, someone made a confession. So on June 20th, 1993, two and a half years after Dena's murder, there was a major breakthrough. A man seemingly unconnected to the crime who was serving jail time for an unrelated drug offense confessed to the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of Dana Ireland. Frank Pauline Jr. was a Hawaiian man who had been in and out of the prison system on drug charges in the years leading up to and following Dana's death.

He also implicated two of his friends, brothers Albert Ian Schweitzer and Sean Schweitzer, claiming that they were with him in the car that day, assisting in the abduction and disposal of Dana Ireland. So on the day of the crime, Frank recalled driving around with Albert and Sean in his 1957 Volkswagen Bug and spotted Dana riding her bike home. He claimed that he acted on impulse and struck her and then had the brothers help in getting her into the car and to the second location where she was assaulted and left with grave injuries. Because the self proclaimed killer was already behind bars, the investigation

was really slow moving. And this is of course interesting because he's saying that this happened in his very or his, you know, almost 40 year old bug and not a pickup truck. So, everybody was looking for a pickup truck, but it happened to be a bug. I mean, those who know what a Volkswagen bug looks like that is like very different from a pickup truck,

like, extremely different cars. Yeah, but also like, if you were driving around with your friends and one of your friends just randomly struck a person like on purpose Why would you go through with helping them sexually assault and dispose of a woman's body? I mean, we've seen this in other cases before but also just knowing that Frank himself was in and out of prison Like maybe his buddies were two. Maybe they just weren't yeah, they just maybe they were just all all three of them

We're just pieces of shit. I mean, it feels like if you do partake in something like that, you are a piece of shit. So you and I wouldn't do that, but these guys are obviously not good guys if what this man is saying is true. So in July of 1994, investigators sought the help of a forensic odontologist who is especially trained

dentists tasked with identifying remains using dental records or matching the teeth marks on victims with their criminals. You know, and they needed this to match the bite marks left on Dana's breast, with one of these three men to see if this dude Frank is telling the truth. But strangely, there was no match to any of them. And then, in January of 1996, Frank recanted his confession, claiming that he had lied to get out of the awa who prised in that he had been in on drug charges, saying that his life was being threatened by fellow inmates.

Frank also claimed that he was simply attempting to help his brother, John González, who was about to stand trial for drug charges. He hoped that by sharing valuable information with police that may help solve a cold case, he could obtain a lighter sentence for his brother. And he remembers John, the brother, mastermining the plan, telling Frank to watch the news and keep an eye out for any updates pertaining to the Dana-Irland investigation in order to glean more information about it. Yeah, so that they could come up with, you know, a more believable lie here. Totally. In September of 1998, investigators finally tested the vaginal swabs that they took from Dana after assault against samples from the three men

And none of them matched the profile. So that obviously says a lot too They don't the teeth marks don't match and the DNA doesn't match right? So the next month which was October of 1998 the charges against the brothers were dropped for lack of evidence Which meant that the only evidence connecting any of the men to the crime was Frank's confession. Based on this, it would be extremely difficult to convict any of the men of the murder of Dana Ireland, but police and Hawaii state prosecutors had a new plan to propose that a fourth person was involved, which would account for the stray bite mark and the DNA that was found at the scene. So yeah, it seems like they're,

they're really trying to figure out how it could be Frank and his buddies and how to make this theory work and just meaning that somebody else had to be there too, but are they reaching or is this factual? Let's find out. So the court documents stated, quote,

police and prosecution have consistently believed a fourth person may have been present and participated. So with this anonymous fourth perpetrator as a scapegoat, the state proceeded with the separate trials against Frank, Albert and Sean. Now on August 27, 1999, Frank Pauline Jr. was convicted of the abduction, rape, and second-degree murder of Dana Ireland, and he was sentenced to 180 years in prison. Because of the lack of evidence and the complete absence of direct evidence such as DNA, prosecutors relied on character witnesses to testify against him. Now, one man, Shane Kobayashi, had been in prison for sexual assault and received a sentence reduction of 10 years down to 3 years in exchange for testifying against Frank Pauline Jr.

The prosecution also claimed that Frank's Volkswagen bug had been repainted around the same time as Dana's death, and that the blue shirt found at the scene drenched in Dana's blood was believed to belong to Frank. On February 5, 2000, so this is almost 10 years after Dana's murder, Albert Schweitzer was convicted as well, and he was sentenced to 130 years in prison for his apparent involvement in the crime. In his trial, the prosecution relied on the testimony of a key witness, a fellow inmate and felon, Michael Ortiz, who took the stand, claiming that Albert himself had told him

in prison that the men had accidentally run down Dana with their car and took advantage of the vulnerable position that she was in to assault her and leave her for dead. And finally, in the case of Sean Schweitzer, on April 17, 2000, a plea deal was reached when Sean agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for five years' probation. Although he passed a polygraph test regarding the incident, the judge upheld the sentencing, and on May 9, 2000, he confessed to watching Frank and Albert murder Dana. He did not mention the involvement of a fourth person and actually blamed Frank in particular for the kidnapping and sexual assault, And in the case of the DNA sample,

the prosecutor just claimed that the DNA sample had given a false reading because it was too small and that he still believed it to be Frank's DNA. But what's so interesting here is that there was still no match for the bite mark. Yeah, so it's like, you know, obviously they did take the DNA almost 10 years earlier when maybe they wouldn't have been able to take more because the advancement of technology.

You know what I mean? There was such better DNA testing in the late 90s than there was in 1991. So maybe that kind of messed things up a little bit. Could have been, yeah. Or they're just reaching and saying, well, we still think it's his even though there wasn't a match. Right. You know what I mean? So it could be one of those situations as well. Yeah.

And strangely, for such a small area, we actually covered another case that happened just around the corner from Capoho, in the Nonavale estates neighborhood, which was episode 231, which covered the disappearance and probable murder of Sequoia Vargas. Now, Sequoia was also a young woman who was assaulted, abducted and likely killed,

although her body was never found. Sequoia disappeared in 1993, less than two years after Dana was killed. And for such similar crimes in the same neighborhood, and within a few years of each other, it's possible that these two crimes could be connected. Another possible connection is a similar crime that happened on the same Christmas Eve that Dana was attacked and abducted. 23-year-old Charles and Inidencia had met a young woman at a local cocktail bar for drinks

before abducting her, assaulting her, and beating her with a tire iron. The woman who remained anonymous later sobbed, quote, he hit me so many times. Although she did survive the ordeal, she was knocked out by the repeated blows and required stitches on her head in addition to other bodily injuries. Now, it's possible there is no connection, but the timing is extremely odd.

The article about Charles and the article about Dana were even printed side by side in the Honolulu advertiser. And it was never confirmed by the news nor the police, but multiple articles cited that in addition to having been hit by a car, Dana may have been struck with a tire iron, so if that's true, that is incredibly bizarre, but again, it has not been confirmed. Years later, in 2015, after the murder of Meredith Kertcher and the false imprisonment of Amanda Knox, we have not covered that case, but I know so many of you know it well.

A group of retired judges formed judges for Justice, which is an organization with the goal of freeing wrongfully convicted prisoners. Now they took on the task of researching and documenting the tedious details of Dana Ireland's case in a 14-part docu-series on YouTube, going into just alternate theories not explored by law enforcement, who seemed hellbent on convicting the only three men on their radar which is like I said earlier it seems like they were just trying to make this puzzle piece fit saying oh well this was not confirmed DNA but we still think it's it's Frank's and oh well since none of this is matching somebody else had to have been at the scene

instead of just thinking maybe none of them really did this. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of strange that they are just like really pinpointing these guys and saying like, oh yeah, it was these guys plus like this random other fourth person when it's like, okay, maybe it wasn't those guys and maybe, you know, it was someone else entirely. Yeah, and that's the problem we see in so many cases is sometimes police get really fixated on a certain person or certain people and they try to make the crime fit their narrative instead of the other way around well i think frank kind of helped with that you know obviously admitting to the

crime yeah i mean that always makes things difficult if he falsely confess because we do see that a lot especially with people who are already in prison and they're just trying to get different privileges by confessing. So, that's always really shitty when that happens. So, I obviously understand why they would look into Frank because he confessed. Yeah, and it just really muddied the waters here. But still, obviously because there was such a lack of evidence, judges for justice actually sought to exonerate Frank Pauleyn Jr., Albert Schweitzer

and Sean Schweitzer altogether. And they also posed the theory that Dana's killer may have known her and been eyeing her or even stalking her since she had moved to Hawaii. And maybe they just simply took advantage of the opportunity that was presented when she was alone on her bike. And unfortunately, I mean, we may never know exactly what happened and whether Frank, Albert, and Sean were involved or not. But that same year as the formation of judges for justice came to be in 2015, 42-year-old

Frank Pulling Jr. was murdered in prison. Shortly after he was convicted of Dana's murder, Frank was transferred to a prison in New Mexico as part of this like prisoner redistribution program, because prisons in Hawaii are limited in space and resources, and it's more expensive on average to house, which makes sense. So he was originally transferred to Arizona at first, and then eventually settled in New Mexico. And shortly before his death, he actually lodged a complaint that he felt unsafe, and was being threatened by one of the prison officials, claiming they told Frank that he was going to a place where he, quote, won't get out alive.

he was going to a place where he quote, won't get out alive. Then on April 27, 2015, Frank was doing laps in the outdoor recreation yard when he was struck from behind by a fellow inmate with a rock covered in a green shirt and died after three blows to the head. Now inmate Daniel Hood claimed he murdered Frank because he quote, thought Pauline was a snitch and he walked around like he owned the place. However, something that the timing and the murder were not a random act of violence.

Because strangely, on April 26th, the day prior to Frank's murder, the Hawaii Tribune Harold published a story about the Hawaii Innocence Project, who's taken on the case of attempting to exonerate the three men convicted of Dana Eierlin's murder. And the very next day, Frank was dead, but Frank's brother John does not believe that this was happenstance, and John told a news outlet later, quote, it doesn't add up. It's just too coincidental how that came out to the public, and then he gets murdered like that.

And the man who murdered Frank, Daniel, was charged with first-degree murder as well as possession of a weapon by a prisoner. Albert Schweitzer is still in the midst of serving his 130-year sentence, but he is actively seeking exoneration with the help of the Hawaii Innocence Project. Ken Lawson, the co-director, actually worries about the harm that judges for justice will do to the investigation and the possible release of his client saying, quote, This really bothers me because you have an organization like judges for justice who pro-claims that he is for actual innocence and who claims that he protests and despises prosecutors

and police, who falsely accused people of crimes they didn't commit, and here he is doing the exact same thing with absolutely no evidence. And the more information you give the real perpetrator, the more likely it is that he or she may be able to flee the island, or try to come up with the reason why their DNA is uncertain evidence. So we don't want the public to know what evidence is being tested.

In August of this year, a judge, so this year is 2022, for those who are not listening right away, a judge in Hawaii ruled to unseal sensitive documents about the case in the defendant's lawyer's attempts to exonerate the men. The prosecutor handling the case responded with, quote, �Since his, Albert Schweitzer's conviction, legal teams have raised concerns and sought post-conviction relief. These matters are still pending disposition.

We have cooperated with the Hawaii Innocence Project throughout their investigation and continue to share information. I think the most important thing here is that they find the truth. I mean, I get it. I don't know these men personally, so I can't speak to their character. But again, it really muddies things up when there's a false confession. Because right now, they need to find the real killer no matter what like through DNA. Well luckily they do have DNA and it's just crazy that there has not been a match made. But just like I said maybe this is somebody who did know her and who took this opportunity and they don't have a criminal record because we see that a lot too. We're not

everybody who commits crimes has committed a crime before, even if it's something like murder. So it really does seem to me like this was intentional, even though these guys are saying, and Frank is saying that they hit her by accident and they use it as an opportunity, but it feels like somebody really did purposefully hit her to me just based on the tire track evidence. So it's so

difficult because it seems like we're so close because of the DNA we just need a match so you know what's you know it's really shitty though is that if the Schweitzer brothers were not involved in Frank's just like the only one implicating them and they they were never involved like that sucks for these guys you know what I mean? Like this is like oh Frank's like oh yeah, my friends were involved too and they're like, what are you talking about?

They're like wait, what? Yeah, it's just like you said, I mean false confessions make things so much more difficult which is what feels like happened here. And I just hope that they are able to get, maybe they can do genealogical testing and get a match that way because a match would really help solidify what the truth is.

But back to Dana. So in the wake of her death, as many families do, the Ireland's enacted a scholarship. The Dana Ireland Memorial Scholarship Fund at their beloved daughters Alma Mater, George Mason University. Dana's father John passed away in 2000, and her mother Mary Louise followed in 2016, living to be 92 years old. The three share of family plot in Virginia, and John became a victim's right advocate after Dana's death and worked with legislators to lift the statute of limitations on violent

crimes. A book about the crime called Murder and Paradise, written by Chris Luce, followed in 2003. If you have any information about the abduction, assault, and murder of Dana Ireland, please call Hawaii State Crime Stoppers at 808-961-8300. Or, right to the Hawaii Innocence Project at contact hip at HawaiiInnocenceProject.org. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into.

We know it's the holidays, happy Hanukkah, if you celebrate happy almost Christmas, it's a fun week, I hope you guys enjoy it with family or friends or whoever you're celebrating with if you're able to. And if you're not with anybody, then our hearts are with you. And we just appreciate you for listening. We love all you guys so much. We're actually almost at our four-year anniversary. I just remember, that's in like 10 days.

Yeah, 10 days and four years of going west. So thank you guys so much. And please share this episode. I really just want this case to see justice. I really hope that DNA can help bring it to that place. And yeah, again, thank you guys for listening and thank you for sharing. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

1.5% 1.5% you