Solved cold cases in Hawaii
2 documented cases.
Dana Ireland
Dana Ireland, a 23-year-old woman visiting the Big Island of Hawaii from Virginia, was struck while riding a bicycle on a remote road in the Puna district on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1991, then kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and beaten and left along a fishing trail in the Waawaa area, where she was found gravely injured; she died early on Christmas Day at Hilo Medical Center. Three men, Frank Pauline Jr. and brothers Ian and Shawn Schweitzer, were prosecuted and convicted in 1999 and 2000 on the strength of disputed jailhouse and informant testimony, even though DNA evidence had excluded all three; all three convictions were later overturned, with Ian Schweitzer freed in January 2023 after roughly 23 years in prison and Shawn Schweitzer exonerated in October 2023. In 2024, investigative genetic genealogy identified Albert Lauro Jr., a Big Island man who had lived within about two miles of the crime scene, as the source of the unknown male DNA recovered from Ireland and the scene. Confronted by investigators in July 2024, Lauro died by suicide days later, before any arrest.
Toshio Kawano
Toshio Kawano, 58, and his wife ran the Moiliili Bakery, a small liquor and sundries store on South King Street in Honolulu that had kept the name of the bakery it once was. On the evening of September 26, 1977, he was tending the store alone when he was shot in a gunfight with two would-be robbers. He wore a gun in a holster, against his wife's wishes, because of earlier robberies, and he died at Queen's Medical Center a few hours later. There were no eyewitnesses and, the Star-Bulletin reported, police had no suspects and could not find any witnesses. In 2000, in a plea agreement over an unrelated purse snatching, Aaron Meyer told authorities about his part in the shooting, and later that year Melvin Kumukau also made a statement. In August 2001 Honolulu police told the family they were pursuing charges against two suspects. The state attorney general's Cold Case Unit, created in 2004, took the case, and an Oahu grand jury indicted both men for murder on December 14, 2006. In January 2009 each pleaded guilty to manslaughter and first-degree robbery and received a 20-year term. The state said the men went to the shop to rob Kawano of his collection of samurai swords. His family said they had closure, although neither man was convicted of murder.