On Christmas Eve in 1991, Dana Ireland is found tucked away in a secluded, hard to get to area of the Hawaiian subdivision Vacationland, barely clinging to life. When she finally arrives at a Hilo hospital, the damage is too severe and they declare Dana dead at 12:25am on Christmas morning. In 2023, the audiochuck team set out to tell you the story of what happened to Dana Ireland and how three men were convicted of her murder. Then in 2024, everything changed. In Chapter 1, Amanda Knox takes you through everything that happened on December 24th, 1991 and why this story is very different from the one we were originally going to tell you. Follow and listen to Season 2 of THREE wherever you get your podcasts! ---Please consider donating to Ian’s GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ian-schweitzer-after-wrongful-conviction. You can visit www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org and click the donate button to support them, their work and their clients. To buy Amanda Knox’s new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning, click HERE. If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Dana Ireland, we encourage you to contact the Hawai’i Innocence Project at [email protected]. You can also contact Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300 and the Hawai’i Police Department at (808) 961-2380 or visit their website Hawaiipolice.gov to submit a tip.
Chapter 1: What led Ashley Flowers to investigate Dana Ireland's case?
Hi, Crime Junkies. It is Ashley Flowers here, and I am popping in to share something new with you that actually stemmed from something that is a bit of a throwback. I think all of you know by now that Britt and I are on the road for Crime Junkie Life Rule number 10 tour. It has been a complete blast, a wonderful seeing all of you who've come out to the stops we've made so far.
I can't wait to see more of you soon. But this thing today, what I'm about to tell you, this actually stemmed from our very first tour in 2019. The case we told then was wild, filled with twists and turns. But you guys know me, and when I get in, like I get into all the craziest rabbit holes, like even over the smallest details.
Well, in the case from our first tour, there was a suspect who had Googled this term that had nothing to do with the case we talked about. This suspect had Googled Dana Ireland autopsy photos. Now, I had never heard of Dana Ireland. And like I said, it had nothing to do with the case we were talking about. Why is he Googling this? So I kept digging and digging. I just had to know more.
And thus, the years-long journey of exploring Dana Ireland and her case began. This case is one that has so many layers and you can dive into all of the details on our latest season of the podcast, Three. This season is hosted by someone I'm sure you crime junkies already know, Amanda Knox.
She's going to walk you through the case, through how three men were convicted of Dana's murder, and through the many costs that she knows firsthand come when the justice system gets it wrong. And as our team was on the ground reporting in Hawaii where this case took place, an update came that changed everything.
And because you all are my crime junkies and I know you want to be the first in the know, I am sharing the first episode of this season of Three with you right here, right now. So take a listen and then head over to the podcast Three. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts and you can listen to the second episode that also dropped today.
Again, just search for Three wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Chapter 2: Who is Ian Schweitzer and why is he significant in this case?
It's 9.21 a.m. on Tuesday, January 24th, 2023. And a man named Ian Schweitzer is standing in a courtroom in Hilo, Hawaii. He's not a total stranger to this feeling or to the criminal justice system in general. He's been here before. But this time, it's for very different reasons. Over 23 years ago, Ian was convicted of a crime he firmly asserts he did not commit.
And for almost two decades, the Innocence Project has been trying to help him prove it. Ian's team, including the legendary Barry Sheck, who co-founded the original Innocence Project in 1992, well, they would spend the next seven hours stating their case in front of Judge Kubota.
Chapter 3: What role does the Innocence Project play in Ian Schweitzer's case?
Your Honor, this is a critical day in Ian Schweitzer's journey towards justice. It started on October 4th, 1997, when he was arrested and jailed for the sexual assault and murder of Dana Ireland. He has insisted on his innocence for all who would listen for 26 years. 9,243 days marked by fear, confusion, isolation, sorrow, anger, despair, terror, and now hope.
Ian never stopped, hoping that this injustice would be corrected. The family has been ridiculed, shunned, treated like pariahs in their community. But none of the Schweitzer's ever gave up hope that there would be a day of justice that would arrive. As Dr. King famously said, after the five-day march from Selma to Montgomery, truth crushed to earth will rise again. No lie can live forever.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. We want to thank the court in particular for the wisdom, guidance, and patience that you've had with all of us over this entire proceeding. We rest.
His family, yeah, filled up the courtroom. And what was odd is, it's a lot of times, you know, when you have someone charged with a serious crime, you know, some departments of public safety overflow the courtroom with deputies, right? Like, this is a scary person, right?
So when we first get there, I mean, they are extremely mean to the attorneys, very mean to one of our volunteer attorneys, very mean to the family members. These are the deputies, right? who believed, at least from my perception, believed that Ian was guilty. And the hearing, as you said, lasted all day, and they had to stay there. They, being the deputies, had to stay there all day.
And you could see the more that they heard that evidence, the nicer they started becoming with the family members. The more they heard that evidence, right, the more human they seemed to become.
That's Ken Lawson, the co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project. They have been looking into Ian's case since around 2006. But when Ken started in 2010, he took it over, and ever since, he's been damn near determined to prove his client's innocence. But no one had predicted that today would be the day. Especially not Ian.
I think he knew that he was supposed to be coming back for a hearing. He didn't know that he was coming back so soon because he was in quarantine. The Department of Public Services has to fly out to get him and bring him back. And they were saying because of the COVID rules that he would have to stay in quarantine there.
And then when he came back here, he would have to be quarantined in the jail before he could even come to court. The next question was, are we going to get a judge that's going to listen?
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Chapter 4: What was the outcome of Ian Schweitzer's court hearing?
My amazing team broke down everything and just step by step just knocked everything out. My belief was the hand of God was going to indicate me. I had God's team.
It is the judgment of this court that the new DNA evidence, the tire tread evidence... The bite mark evidence and Sean Schweitzer's recantation conclusively proves that in a new trial, a jury would likely reach a different verdict of acquittal. So therefore, the conviction of Albertine Schweitzer for murder in the second degree, kidnapping, and sexual assault in the first degree is hereby vacated.
51.
51. Okay. The question is, how do you make up for that lost time? And I'll give you a bit of advice. You live roughly one-third of your life. You've got one-third of your life ahead of you. You can live it being angry and resentful at the process or the people that put you there, or you can live it with a new freedom, all right?
I suggest that since you have your whole family here, you hug and love your family and live a fulfilled life and make the best of the next one-third of your life. So after we conclude this proceeding, the family of Mr. Schweitzer are allowed to come across the bar. No one else is allowed to come forward to greet Mr. Schweitzer. Mr. Schweitzer shall be released from his shackles immediately.
In a matter of hours, Ian Schweitzer is free. Well, sort of.
It's a feeling very few people understand. Being charged and convicted of a crime you didn't commit. While his story played out a little differently, Ian's brother Sean is also one of those people.
I took my deal and I got out and I was supporting my family. It's a... Shitty that I had to do that, but you better have taken it. You better have taken it. I would have been sitting in the cell right by him if I didn't do that. That's the way I felt.
And so am I.
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Chapter 5: How did Amanda Knox become involved in telling Dana Ireland's story?
If you had told me a month ago that this is where this path would have turned, I would have called you a liar and said there's no possible way.
But to understand how we got here, you have to understand what has transpired in the 33 years since Dana Ireland was murdered. I'm Amanda Knox, and this is 3, Season 2. Murder in Vacationland.
We're asking you to come with us to the Big Island to hear the untold story of what really happened to Dana Ireland and how her death impacted the lives of three families, the Irlands, the Schweitzers, and the Paulines.
We also had DNA on our side. It didn't matter.
We didn't even have the car. We didn't even have a car. Guilty to proven innocent, huh?
No, it ain't Schweitzer's. Like I said, I just said that because that's what the detectives wanted.
Chapter 1, Christmas in Hawaii. It's December 1991 in a small town, Kapoho, located on the eastern end of what's known as the Big Island of Hawaii. It's not the place most mainlanders think of when they imagine the Hawaii islands. It's quieter, slower, serene, the ultimate tropical paradise, and often called one of Hawaii's best-kept secrets.
And within Kapoho, there is this little subdivision called, almost too perfectly, Vacationland. At around 5.30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, a local woman named Ida Smith had just gotten home from running some afternoon errands and is settling back when she hears something strange. The call of a hawk? No. She realizes what she's hearing is not bird calls.
It's sounding more like a girl who is calling for help. Ida quickly follows the direction of the faint screams, which take her towards a vacant house near her property. And then she sees her. About 80 to 90 feet down the narrow gravel roadway towards the waterfront, surrounded by bushes, is a young woman in desperate need of medical attention.
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Chapter 6: What recent developments have occurred in the Dana Ireland case?
But when Sandy and her boyfriend Jim were driving over to their parents' rental house around 5 p.m., they saw something on the side of the road that caught their attention. A crowd of people all gathered around what looked like the scene of an accident. Sandy went from curious to terrified when she recognized the crushed bike lying in the road.
It was her bike, the one she had just let Dana borrow a couple hours earlier. Next to it was Dana's wristwatch, the band completely broken, a foot-long chunk of blonde hair, and a single white athletic shoe, still tied. Sandy and Jim rushed to her parents' rental, which was just minutes away, to tell them what they saw, and they all headed back to the scene.
But when they arrived, Dana's mom, Louise, saw what was going on, assumed Dana had been involved in some kind of accident, and so the family headed over to the local hospital in case she showed up. But they never imagined she would show up like this. They watch in shock as the doctors do their best to save Dana. But she is just too far gone.
A little after midnight on Christmas morning, Dana dies after hours of attempted lifesaving measures. Her cause of death, exsanguination, or blood loss, due to multiple traumatic injuries of the head, neck, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. In Dana's autopsy report, Dr. Charles Reinhold notes a disturbing amount of injuries.
Dana's chest, back, arms, legs, and face were covered with abrasions, cuts, and bruises. Her collarbone and pelvis were fractured. She had extensive hemorrhaging in her heart, lungs, stomach, and bladder. But the doctors find something even more disturbing and which can't be explained by a car accident. a bite mark on her left breast, and the presence of semen.
So while Dana's family is reeling from her sudden death, police scour not just the one, but the two scenes related to Dana, which are about five miles apart. The first scene is on Kapoho Kai Drive, where Dana's bike was discovered. They find tire impressions in the dirt.
They make plaster casts of the tracks and take several pictures of tire marks, including a single deep gouge mark on Kapoho Kai Drive, which larger double tire tracks lead into. Detectives identify the gouge mark as the point at which the bicycle tire was driven into the road from the collision. They find Dana's black bicycle seat on the side of the road near the tracks.
Once finished at the collision scene, detectives head five miles away to the Waawaa Fishing Trail, where Dana had been found. She was about 80 to 90 feet off the main road in the bushes, just off the right side of the trail. Leaves surrounding her were bloody, too, as if she'd been placed or possibly thrown there in an effort to conceal her.
Her jean shorts and her missing white avia tennis shoe are found nearby. But there's more. There's a child's black McGregor shoe, the left one only, and two white socks stuffed inside. There's also a blue-colored T-shirt, size large, with a print of a station wagon and the Jimmy Z logo, which was a popular brand at the time, especially on the Big Island.
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