Hawaii
The Police Department That Refused to Solve a Murder
In February—two months after The Atlantic reported on a Hawaii murder case that sent an innocent man to prison for 23 years—Barry Scheck, the defense-bar legend and a co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York, contacted a former FBI lawyer named Stephen Kramer to ask him for help finally solving the murder.
On paper, things finally seemed to be going well enough for the Innocence Project’s client, Ian Schweitzer, and his brother Shawn, both of whom were convicted in the 1991 death of Dana Ireland. After more than two decades behind bars, Ian was released from federal prison in January 2023 and officially exonerated; Shawn served more than a year in the ’90s, and his conviction was reversed, too, last fall. But the prosecutors and the police in Hilo—where Ireland, 23 and on vacation with her family, had been attacked, raped, and left for dead—continued to argue, or at least imply, that the brothers weren’t fully in the clear. After Ian’s release, Lincoln Ashida, the prosecutor in Ian’s criminal trial, said in a statement that “another trial, prosecution, and conviction is possible.” When Shawn was exonerated, Ashida again said, “We stand by every fact that is already in the record.” (Ashida did not respond to a request for comment.)
For the Schweitzers, this was about more than just clearing their names. It was about getting the authorities to own up to the avalanche of errors that had led them to go after the brothers in the first place. (It was also, not trivially, about a pending compensation claim against the state, plus the possibility of a civil-rights lawsuit; Hawaii law does not allow anyone to receive compensation for a wrongful conviction if a court hasn’t found them innocent.) But the Hawaii police and prosecutors’ office weren’t budging. For the Innocence Project lawyers, this left just one thing to be done: find the real killer themselves.
Stephen Kramer is best known for cracking California’s Golden State Killer case in 63 days. He and a partner made use of genetic genealogy to link DNA evidence from crime scenes with publicly available genetic information collected by companies like 23&Me. By cross-referencing such information with other facts, including age, ethnic background, and family trees culled from obituaries, social media, and even high-school yearbooks, investigators have now solved hundreds of cases, finding suspects who evaded the police for decades. After retiring from the FBI, Kramer co-founded Indago, a company that is developing AI-assisted software to speed up genetic-genealogy investigations. “If a person can look at an obituary or a census record, why can’t you just teach software how to recognize that, too?” Kramer told me. He envisions a day when police, with just a few keystrokes, can use genetic genealogy to find possible suspects in any violent crime that leaves behind DNA.
Thanks to a cooperation agreement with the state of Hawaii, the Innocence Project had access to the DNA evidence in the Ireland case—semen from Ireland’s remains, as well as DNA on a T-shirt found at the scene that was also soaked with the victim’s blood. Both samples were attributed to a suspect designated as “Unknown Male No. 1.” It took Kramer just two weeks, using his new tools, to find a possible match—someone who, ever since 1991, had been living less than two miles from the scene of the crime.
Albert Lauro Jr. has a rather modest social-media profile—lots of pictures of him fishing and hanging out with smiling family members. He has the most minor of criminal records—a shoplifting violation long ago. Hilo is a small town, but the Schweitzers have said they don’t know him, and nothing public connects him to them. His ancestry is mostly Filipino. So is the DNA of Unknown Male No. 1.
Kramer’s program had gone searching for residents of Hawaii’s Big Island who had Filipino ancestry and shared relatives with Unknown Male No. 1. “If it was a typical Hawaiian person who had a lot of Māori and other islander DNA, it probably would have been a lot tougher,” Kramer told me. When Lauro turned up in the database, Kramer’s team did more manual records searches to confirm that he was a plausible age—he would have been about 25 when Dana Ireland was attacked—and that he lived nearby. They even learned that he owned a pickup truck along the lines of what would have been needed to drive through the thick brush to where Ireland had been abandoned.
Ken Lawson, a co-director of Hawaii’s Innocence Project, told me his team was relieved that Lauro had been found, but outraged that it had taken so long. “We have 110 banker boxes of documents” on the case, he said—thousands of pages, all scanned and digitized, of police notes and interviews, transcribed testimony, and investigation notes. The police were so focused on the Schweitzer brothers, they never looked elsewhere. “You put [Lauro’s] name in a search,” Lawson said, “it never comes up.”
After Kramer shared his findings with the Innocence Project, he brought the information to the FBI, which said it would work with the Hawaii police to obtain an abandoned DNA sample from Lauro—something he might discard in a public place that the police could surreptitiously grab and test.
But the Innocence Project lawyers were nervous: How could they know that the police would take this new suspect seriously, given how determined they still seemed to stand by their old suspicions of the Schweitzers? “We were certainly worried,” Scheck told me, “that when they eventually arrested [Lauro] and interrogated him, that they would try to, through leading questions or something, to get them to implicate our clients.” The lawyers wanted to closely monitor the police investigation, but the prosecutors’ office abruptly said it was no longer going to abide by the cooperation agreement, and stopped sharing information on its progress.
Sometime in the spring, the police followed Lauro. When he discarded a fork in a closed food container, they snagged it, and brought it to a lab. Sure enough, Lauro’s DNA was a perfect match for Unknown Male No. 1.
The Schweitzers’ team learned about it only days later. They then demanded that any questioning of Lauro or search of his house be videotaped. They wanted the police to isolate Lauro right away, to keep him from fleeing, destroying evidence, or committing suicide. The prosecutor, Mike Kagami, said in response that he thought the suggestions were “good ideas.” But the only way to compel the police to do anything was by going to the U.S. attorney’s office or the attorney general’s office, both of which refused requests by the Schweitzers’ team to step in. A motion in the case quotes an email from Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez saying that she’d passed the lawyers’ “concerns and proposals” on, but was “assured that the Hawaii County Police Department is capable of handling the investigation of Unknown Male #1, and that they are committed to doing so in a thorough and impartial manner.” The Innocence Project was officially locked out.
On July 19, the Hawaii police contacted Lauro and asked him to come to a local station to answer some questions about the Ireland case. During the conversation, which was videotaped but has not been made public, Lauro is said to have admitted that he had sex with Dana Ireland the day she died, but denied killing her (even though the DNA test indicated it was his T-shirt that was soaked with her blood). The Schweitzers’ lawyers believe he might have planned to say this ahead of time, because the statute of limitations for rape—unlike for murder—had long expired.
The police then asked Lauro if they could get a sample of his DNA by swabbing his cheek. He said yes. The police collected the sample and—despite his already being proved a match, and despite his admitting that he’d been with Ireland in her final moments—they let him go home.
The Schweitzers’ team didn’t know that Lauro had been interviewed until July 24, when the lab came back with another positive match. They were apoplectic. “They should have arrested him for murder,” Scheck told me. Even if Lauro had simply abandoned Ireland after she was injured, wouldn’t that be enough to justify second-degree murder?
The report from the police showed that Lauro was not in custody, and that his home hadn’t been searched. The prosecutors refused to tell Lawson and Scheck where Lauro was, on the grounds that the investigation was ongoing. But it had been several days, and Lawson knew that if Lauro wasn’t in jail, there was one other place he might be.
On July 26, Lawson called the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office. He bluffed: “Can you tell me when the body of Albert Lauro is going to be released for burial?”
The officer who took the call put Lawson on hold. Then he came back and asked for the last name again. Lawson spelled it for him. “You got a pen?” the officer said. He gave Lawson the name of a detective and the number for a police report about “an unintended death.”
Albert Lauro Jr. died by an apparent suicide on July 23, a day before the Schweitzers’ lawyers even knew that he’d been brought in for questioning. Lawson could easily understand what would drive a person to do that: “With his family, how do you live with that?” he said to me. “How do you tell your grandkids, ‘Yes, I’m the one that did this to Dana’?”
In court, the police and prosecutors have continued to stonewall the judge and the Schweitzers’ lawyers, citing an ongoing investigation. “There are a lot of other investigative avenues, techniques, search warrants that we have been working on that we plan to continue working on,” Hawaii Police Department Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz said at a July 29 press conference.
The Schweitzer brothers have been asked not to comment for now. Their lawyers are petitioning the court for an immediate declaration of innocence for both brothers, and for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to investigate the police for letting their first real lead in a decades-old murder case slip through their fingers.
The Hawaii Police Department did not reply to a request for a comment, but said in a statement this week that “based on what the investigators knew at the time, there was not enough information to establish probable cause to arrest Lauro Jr. for murder.” Lawson pointed out, however, that Shawn—who was never accused of injuring or assaulting Ireland—was charged with second-degree murder for “leaving her in peril without seeking help.” If that was enough for Shawn, why not for Lauro?
The police chief told CBS News that any suggestion that his department had sabotaged the case was “abjectly false, 100 percent not true.” But both Scheck and Lawson can’t help but believe that, until the very end, the police were determined not to admit they had been wrong about the Schweitzers. They told me that of all the terrible things that have happened in this case—the years the Schweitzer brothers spent in prison, the decades of stigma they lived through, when everyone they knew believed they were murderers—this latest chapter is among the most outrageous. After condemning innocent men whose DNA was nowhere near this case, they said, the police have now let the man whose DNA was on the victim escape trial.
The police “wanted [Lauro] to flee or die so that they weren’t embarrassed,” Scheck told me. “We told them” not to let Lauro get away—“again and again and again. And we told the U.S. attorney’s office and we told the AG, and we told them directly in front of the judge, and [the police] went ahead and did it anyhow. So what does that tell you? It’s one of the ugliest, ugliest stories you can imagine.”
Hawaii
Alaska Shakes Up Hawaii Travel Again With New Southern California Route
Alaska Airlines continues to expand its Hawaii network with a significant new route connecting Honolulu (HNL) and California. This latest addition reflects Alaska’s fast-growing influence on Hawaii travel. It raises intriguing questions about the competitive dynamics of leveraging Hawaiian Airlines, which already flies this route, with other potential players in the wings.
Alaska Airlines expands west coast-Hawaii options.
Starting June 12, 2025, Alaska Airlines will begin operating daily flights between Honolulu and Ontario (ONT), California. Hawaiian Airlines already serves this route, which uses its A321neo narrow-body. Before this announcement, Hawaiian was the only carrier that connected the Inland Empire to the islands.
Alaska’s move doesn’t clarify what could happen next, including Hawaiian possibly ending its flights, shifting to seasonal service, or both carriers maintaining dual operations. We’re sure to learn more about that soon. Upon checking, we see that both airlines have Ontario on their schedule through November 30.
One fascinating aspect is that we previously understood Alaska had planned to leverage the Hawaiian brand for all flights touching the islands. It isn’t clear if that will continue to be the case.
Aviation observer Ishrion Aviation first reported this new route. It highlights Alaska’s recognition of the growing potential of Southern California’s smaller airports. Ontario International Airport and the entire Inland Empire may become increasingly vital hubs for Hawaii travelers seeking to avoid the off-putting congestion of LAX. With its convenient location and super easy access, ONT and neighboring San Bernardino offer a fascinating advantage for Hawaii travelers in the region. BOH editors travel frequently between Hawaii and the Island Empire, which has also piqued our interest.
Strategic implications for Southern California and Hawaii.
This new route is a smart move for Alaska Airlines as it seeks to strengthen its hold on Hawaii-bound travelers from secondary airports in Southern California. ONT’s proximity to San Bernardino (SBD)—where Breeze Airways has hinted at potential Hawaii flights—adds another layer of intrigue.
Could Alaska’s expansion be a preemptive strategy to solidify its presence and counter any future competition from Breeze, which has yet to confirm Hawaii routes and must first obtain ETOPS certification? It also hints at Breeze perhaps being more of a Hawaii aspirant than we even realized.
In December, Alaska pointed to Ontario as part of its Hawaiian-Alaska integration plans, stating that ONT would likely be included in the next group of airports to share facilities between the two airlines.
You’ll recall that Hawaiian previously served Ontario using widebody aircraft before it brought the A321 to the route. BOH editors confirm having traveled on HNL-ONT when it was still a widebody flight and enjoyed ONT’s convenience. Alaska’s move to re-focus on this market with more narrow-body service aligns with the broader trend of airlines leveraging smaller, less congested airports to appeal to Hawaii leisure travelers seeking convenience.
This route offers an additional, traveler-friendly alternative to reach the islands for Hawaii visitors from the Inland Empire and surrounding areas. Alaska is positioning ONT as a key gateway for Hawaii-bound travelers while expanding its dominance in Southern California.
Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines before full integration.
Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines maintain a partnership with Alaska as owner as they work toward full integration under one operating certificate later this year. This relationship is increasingly being leveraged as Alaska strategically expands its West Coast network.
The addition of the HNL-ONT route showcases Alaska’s abilities in this area, integrating its Boeing 737 MAX and Hawaiian’s Airbus A321neo fleets while utilizing Hawaiian’s widebody aircraft for strategic long-haul reach.
This evolving dynamic is reshaping Hawaii travel, with Alaska drawing on both companies’ capabilities and assets to strengthen its dominance in the market. As the integration progresses, travelers can look forward to more streamlined operations and expanded route possibilities under Alaska’s leadership.
What Hawaii travelers can expect.
Alaska’s entry into the HNL-ONT market brings both opportunities and questions. The increased competition still lies ahead and may lead to lower fares, making Hawaii more accessible to residents of Southern California. However, the sustainability of the two airlines operating daily flights on this route remains uncertain and will be revealed over time.
A new era of Hawaii travel.
Alaska Airlines’ addition of the Ontario to Honolulu route highlights its commitment to reshaping Hawaii travel. By leveraging the two fleets, Alaska is expanding its network and redefining competition in the Hawaii travel market. For travelers, these changes bring increased choices and the possibility of better pricing while raising questions about how the industry will adapt.
As Alaska continues to expand its dominance, it’s clear that Hawaii travel is entering an entirely new era where convenience, competition, and strategy play pivotal roles.
We welcome your input and insights.
Photo Credit © Beat of Hawaii.
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Hawaii
Valleywise Health burn center treating 6 people injured in Hawaii NYE firework tragedy
Tesle truck blows up in Vegas: Police trace Cybertruck route
The Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas had gasoline cannisters and large firework mortars, according to police.
Storyful
Six critically burned patients arrived in Phoenix from Hawaii on Saturday night, following a New Year’s Eve firework tragedy that left three dead and over 20 injured.
The six patients, who are in their 20s and 30s, are in critical condition and have burns covering 60% to 80% of their bodies, said Valleywise Health chief clinical officer Dr. Michael White.
White said all six have a good chance of survival and that Valleywise Health does not expect more patients to be flown in.
Hawaii’s only burn center is located on Oahu where the incident took place, but beds are limited. White said the Diane and Bruce Halle Arizona Burn Center in Phoenix, Arizona’s only burn center and one of the largest in the country, has the ability to help.
“When the call is made, we’re more than happy, if we have the capacity and expertise, to help these patients,” White said.
According to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, the six were chosen due to the severity of traumatic injuries and burns sustained during the incident. Green authorized a C-17 military transport to fly them into Phoenix and it arrived at Sky Harbor International Airport around 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
On X, Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego applauded Phoenix Fire’s efforts to transport the patients from Sky Harbor.
Phoenix fire officials collaborated with both state and federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, to ensure the patients were transported to Valleywise Health safely.
“This shows our dedication to saving lives beyond our state borders,” a Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson said.
Among those flown into Arizona was a mother of a 3-month-old.
On the cusp of New Year’s Day, three people died and over 20 were injured from a firework explosion around midnight in the Aliamanu, also known as the Salt Lake, neighborhood near Pearl Harbor and Honolulu on Hawaii’s third largest island.
What caused the explosion?
In a Jan. 1 press conference from the Honolulu Police Department, authorities said a person lit a firework “cake” containing around 50 individual aerial fireworks that somehow tipped over, shooting into other crates also filled with fireworks and resulting in the fatal explosion. Authorities estimated fireworks recovered at the scene cost tens of thousands of dollars.
“It looked like a war zone,” Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon Hao said during the press conference.
Videos posted on social media appear to show dozens of fireworks exploding in a massive, bright blaze, with plumes of smoke rising in the air. The blast appeared to explode on a resident’s front lawn, along a dense neighborhood street dotted with parked cars.
Twenty-three adults and three children were seriously and critically injured in the explosion, though the estimate does not account for those who admitted themselves into the hospital, authorities said. Two women died at the scene and a third passed away a few hours later.
“Make no mistake, it was a bomb … it was a firework bomb,” Gov. Green said.
Most people injured sustained burns, but injuries also included those caused by shrapnel that were “gruesome,” said Honolulu Emergency Services Department director Dr. Jim Ireland at the press conference.
Honolulu police said the person who lit the fireworks, as well as those who potentially supplied the illegal ones, may face criminal prosecution pending the investigation.
A fourth person died due to an unrelated firework incident in the Kalihi area about six miles away.
‘Best left to the professionals’
Fireworks are fundamentally dangerous, Dr. White from Valleywise Health noted. “They are explosive devices. (There’s) risk for burns and risk for injuries such as this,” he said.
In Phoenix, any firework that is designed to shoot off the ground is illegal and can carry a misdemeanor charge, fines or jail time, according to Sgt. Brian Bower with Phoenix police.
Fines for illegal fireworks vary per city:
- Avondale: $1,000.
- Chandler: $1,000.
- Gilbert: $1,000.
- Glendale: $1,500 on first offense, $2,000 on second offense.
- Goodyear: $1,000.
- Mesa: First offense $500; each subsequent offense between $1,000 and $2,500.
- Peoria: $750.
- Phoenix: $1,000.
- Queen Creek: $1,000.
- Tempe: $1,000.
- Tolleson: $250.
- Scottsdale: Minimum fine of $275.
- Surprise: No less than $150, no more than $1,000.
Cities also can hold residents liable for fire damage and emergency responses related to fireworks use. “Fireworks should be left to the professionals,” White said.
Multiple GoFundMe pages have been started to aid those who were injured or died in the New Year’s Eve incident.
Hawaii
Hawai'i New Year's fireworks toll rises to four with death of toddler
A three-year-old boy has become the fourth person to die after a massive explosion of fireworks at a home in Honolulu, Hawai’i on New Year’s Eve, according to a US burns doctor.
The blast killed three women and injured more than 20 people, with many suffering from burns to most of their bodies.
The US military flew six of the injured people from Honolulu to Phoenix, Arizona for treatment on Saturday because Hawaii’s lone burns centre doesn’t have the capacity to care for all of the victims.
The incident has since sparked renewed calls from Hawaii’s leaders to crack down on the state’s vast illegal fireworks trade by introducing enhanced enforcement and bigger penalties.
Kevin Foster, the director of the Arizona Burn Center, said in a press conference on Monday local time that the six victims flown to Arizona were aged in their 20s or 30s and were suffering from extensive burns.
“The smallest [injury] is about 45 per cent of total body surface area, almost half of the body burned, and the largest is just under 80 per cent of the body surface,” Dr Foster said.
He said many required emergency surgery before they could be flown from Hawai’i.
In addition to the burns, almost all of the victims are suffering “projectile injuries” caused by explosive particles that flew through the air, according to Dr Foster.
The doctor said all six patients were showing good vital signs, but they may not be able to resume a normal life for up to a year.
At least four of the patients are expected to remain intubated in medically induced comas for months, and some of them could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident.
“There’s something uniquely and particularly horrifying about being burned, especially from this type of injury,” Dr Foster said.
Hawaii’s diverse population has long celebrated New Year’s with fireworks, but in recent years, professional-grade aerial explosives have been growing in popularity even though they are illegal for amateurs.
Honolulu authorities say a person attending a party lit a bundle of aerial fireworks, which fell on its side and shot explosives into two crates that contained additional explosive items.
Video of the resulting explosion shows a rapid series of blasts shooting fireworks in the air and around the front of a house.
AP
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