HONOLULU (AP) — A man who was identified as a new possible suspect in the killing and sexual assault of a Virginia woman who was visiting Hawaii more than three decades ago killed himself recently after police took a DNA swab from him, attorneys contend in court filings.
Authorities zeroed in on the man, whose name has not been released, in recent months and got a DNA sample from him off of a discarded fork. He killed himself last week after police went to his home to test the sample against a swab taken from him in person, Innocence Project lawyers say in court documents filed Sunday.
The DNA work represented a major development in a case that made headlines last year when Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, who had been incarcerated for more than 20 years for the killing, was released based on new evidence. Dana Ireland’s body was found on Christmas Eve in 1991 on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Schweitzer was one of three men who spent time behind bars over her killing, but he always maintained his innocence. A judge is expected to rule Tuesday on a motion to officially exonerate him.
Schweitzer’s attorneys took the police to task on Monday, alleging that they intentionally botched the investigation into the man who died last week by not taking steps to ensure that he didn’t flee or kill himself after they obtained his DNA. They suggested that because of the man’s death, the truth about what happened to Ireland will never come to light. They also demanded a federal investigation, as well as all communications related to the DNA work.
“We knew that he had a family. He had a good life,” Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck, who is assisting the Hawaii Innocence Project in Schweitzer’s case, said Monday of the man who took his life last week. “It’s well known in law enforcement circles … if you have DNA on a guy and you know he committed the crime, that if you do not bring him into custody, there is a serious chance that the person will flee, destroy evidence or kill themself.”
Hawaii police spokesperson Denise Laitinen declined to provide an immediate comment, but said the department would issue a statement and hold a news conference later Monday.
The push to find out who killed Ireland gained renewed traction after the January 2023 release of Schweitzer, who was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 130 years in prison. Innocence Project lawyers who took up his case argued that he didn’t match the DNA on a T-shirt found near Ireland. The shirt didn’t belong to Ireland but was soaked with her blood and contained DNA from an unknown man.
Even though Schweitzer was released, his legal team and prosecutors have continued to quibble over whether he’s actually innocent and deserves compensation for his years behind bars.
Schweitzer’s Innocence Project attorneys tracked down a DNA match with help from Steven Kramer, a retired FBI attorney and federal prosecutor who led the genetic genealogy team that solved the Golden State Killer case in 2018. Kramer found a match, based on genetics, ancestry, age, and address history, among other factors.
The match, according the recent court filing, lived less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from where Ireland’s body was found along a fishing trail in a remote part of the Big Island, would have been in his mid-20s at the time and owned or had access to a pickup truck that would have left the tire marks found at the scene.
Innocence Project attorneys looked up his Facebook page and saw that he was still an avid fisherman and would have been familiar with the trail where Ireland was found.
On Monday, the attorneys called for a federal investigation into why police didn’t arrest the suspect, even when they had probable cause to do so. In their filing, they ask for police and prosecutors turn over all communications about the decision not to seek an arrest warrant after the DNA from the man’s fork was tested. They also want to know why he wasn’t arrested before or after police took the DNA swab.
A 2023 petition filed in the quest to release Schweitzer, the last of the three Native Hawaiian men who remained imprisoned in the killing, outlined the case, which was one of the Hawaii’s most notorious.
Ireland, who was 23 years old and visiting from Virginia, was found barely alive in the bushes along a fishing trail in Puna, a remote section of the island. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten, and later died at Hilo Medical Center. The mangled bicycle she had been riding was found several miles (kilometers) away and appeared to have been run into by a vehicle.
The killing remained unsolved for years.
A man named Frank Pauline Jr., who claimed to have witnessed the attack, told police that Schweitzer and his brother, Shawn Schweitzer, attacked and killed Ireland. But he was interviewed at least seven times and gave inconsistent accounts each time, eventually incriminating himself, leading prosecutors to indict Pauline as well as the Schweitzers.
Pauline and Ian Schweitzer were convicted in 2000. Shawn Schweitzer took a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping — and receive credit for about a year served and five years of probation — after seeing juries convict Pauline and his brother in 2000. Pauline died in prison.
The Schweitzer brothers “are happy that this person was finally caught,” said Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project. “They’re disappointed in the way it happened.”
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