A local man killed himself after authorities pinned him to the horrific murder of a 23-year-old woman from Virginia that haunted the Hawaii community for decades.
Dana Ireland had ventured out for a quick bike ride on Christmas Eve 1991 when she was brutally beaten, raped and struck by a vehicle.
The 23-year-old – who had just moved to the Kapoho area of the Big Island after graduating from George Mason University – was found barely clinging to life on a fishing trail before dying in hospital on Christmas Day.
The case went cold for nearly a decade until 2000 when three Hawaiian men were convicted. In 2023, damning new evidence revealed Albert ‘Ian’ Schwietzer’s innocence. He had already served 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
On Monday, new DNA evidence was revealed from the 30-year-old crime identifying Albert Lauro, Jr., 57, as the real killer. Lauro was found dead in his apartment of an apparent suicide only days before his arrest, authorities said, Fox5 Vegas reported.
Dana Ireland, 23, had just moved to the Kapoho area of the Big Island a few months after graduating from George Mason University before her brutal murder Christmas Eve 1991
Albert Lauro, Jr., who was 25 at the time, was identified as the real killer
He was 25 years old at the time of the murder, and had been living on the island, authorities said.
Investigators collected DNA from seven separate samples. The samples included semen that was found on the victim’s body and on her clothes, and sweat and skin from a t-shirt were all tested.
They concluded that all the tests matched Lauro’s DNA.
The Hawaii Innocence Project worked with law enforcement and Steve Kramer of Indago Solutions on Ireland’s case.
Ken Lawson of the Hawaii Innocence Project said Kramer- the person who helped identify the Golden State Killer – used forensic genealogy testing.
‘He was able to go back to records, back to the 1700s here in Hawaii,’ Lawson told the news outlet.
In February, Kramer’s tedious research was able to rule out Lauro as the only potential suspect in Ireland’s murder. Those results still had to be sent to the FBI.
The FBI in collaboration with the Hawaii County police started surveillance on Lauro.
Last month, they were able to collect a fork he had used that was thrown out in a public dispenser. The fork was then sent to the lab for more testing, and came back as a match to ‘unknown male #1,’ that they had been searching for.
After the bombshell discovery, police conducted a search warrant for a cheek swab on Lauro taken July 19 which confirmed less than 48 hours that his was a match.
The statute of limitations had expired for rape, but it had not for murder.
Lauro, who suspected police were closing in on him, was later found dead in his home from an apparent suicide.
In a press conference Monday, Police Chief Ben Moszkowicz said the buccal swab ultimately confirmed that the DNA collected at the scene of Ireland’s murder matched Lauro, The Independent reported.
He said there was not enough probable cause at the time to arrest Lauro and defended the police’s decision not to arrest him on the day the cheek swab was retrieved.
‘We felt then and continue to feel that the presence of Lauro’s DNA at the crime scene was in and of itself not sufficient evidence to prove that Lauro intentionally or knowingly caused her death,’ Moszkowicz said on Monday.
The Hawaii and New York Innocence Projects represented the Schweitzer brothers. Lawson said Lauro ‘ took the easy way out. He didn’t spend a day in jail,’ he said, in part.
Attorney’s for the Hawaii Innocence Project – which helped exonerate Schweitzer last year– have called for a federal investigation into why police did not arrest Lauro, the Associated Press reported.
Moszkowicz said they will continue to investigate Ireland’s murder and are looking into Lauro’s cellphone and plan to speak to his family and friends from 1991, the year of Ireland’s murder.
‘We remain focused on Dana Ireland, a young woman who was brutally murdered. There is still a lot about this case that we do not know, and our investigation into this case continues to push forward,’ Moszkowicz said.
He added: ‘Our search for the truth is not over.’
Louise Ireland, Dana’s mother, gestures towards the last photo taken of her daughter, during a July 1999 hearing
University of Hawaii law school student Skye Jansen, left, and Hawaii Innocence Project co-director Kenneth Lawson pose with photos related to the 1991 murder of Dana Ireland
Ireland was planning to become a physical therapist.
On the day of her murder she was inviting a friend from the island to a Christmas party her family was having.
At the time of the brutal murder, a family friend told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Dana ‘suffered but she fought like hell to stay alive,’ SF Gate reported.
She added, ‘they took a perfect thing and totally destroyed it physically. Everything.’
In 2000, Frank Pauline Jr, and brothers Shawn and Albert ‘Ian’ Schweitzer were sentenced in the murder of Ireland.
Albert Schweitzer, who was facing a 130-year prison sentence, was the last of the trio to see freedom that took place in January 2023. His conviction was vacated that year.
Albert ‘Ian’ Schweitzer is pictured in January 2000, on the opening day of his trial
Schweitzer hugs his mother Linda moments after a judge ordered he be released
In 2015, Pauline was killed in prison by a fellow inmate. In 2016, his brother took a plea deal and released from prison after one year. In October 2023, his conviction was vacated.
According to a report, DNA evidence that was previously submitted in the case belonged to an unknown man, but all three of the convicted men were excluded as sources.
Lawson told the news outlet, the Schweitzer brothers ‘are happy that this person was finally caught,’ and added ‘they’re disappointed in the way it happened.’
