The Hawai‘i Innocence Project (HIP), at the William S. Richardson School of Law, is at the center of a season of THREE, a podcast from Audiochuck, the production company behind Crime Junkie. Hosted by Amanda Knox, season 2 revisits the wrongful convictions of Ian and Shawn Schweitzer in the case of Dana Ireland’s 1991 murder.

This 10-episode season, which launched on March 13, 2025, explores the deep legal and emotional impact of the case on three families: the Irelands, Schweitzers, and Paulines. Through never-before-heard interviews and unprecedented access, the podcast sheds light on the decades-long legal battle that ultimately led to the exoneration of Ian Schweitzer in 2023—a fight in which HIP played a critical role.

“The Schweitzer/Dana Ireland murder case is arguably the most famous criminal case in Hawaiʻi’s history, and the fact that the men charged with the crime were innocent makes this the most high-profile exoneration in the history of Hawaiʻi,” said Kenneth Lawson, co-director of HIP. He added, “[HIP’s] dedication to seek justice, not only led to the exoneration of Ian and Shawn Schweitezer, but also directly led to finding the real killer.” HIP’s other co-director, Randall Roth, has criticized Big Island police and prosecutors for what he described as their “incompetence or worse” in this case.

Since its debut, THREE has already gained hundreds of thousands of listeners, reaching #1 in three Apple Podcasts categories: Overall, True Crime, and Top Series.

Season 2 (Murder in Vacationland) Overview

Hosted by Amanda Knox, Murder in Vacationland is a 10-episode deep dive into one of the most notorious, haunting, and institutionally flawed cases in the modern history of Hawaii: the 1991 abduction, sexual assault, and murder of 23-year-old Dana Ireland. It spotlights three families whose lives were permanently shattered by this tragedy, including the individuals who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned (Albert Ian Schweitzer, his brother Shawn Schweitzer, and Frank Pauline Jr.) before being systematically vindicated 30 years later. Kenneth Lawson and Randall Roth—acting as co-directors of the Hawaii Innocence Project—provide story background and legal analysis throughout the podcast.

Chapter-by-Chapter Narrative Summary

Chapter 1: Christmas in Hawaiʻi

The series meticulously reconstructs the horrific events of Christmas Eve, 1991, in the quiet, rural coastal area of Hawaii’s Big Island. Dana Ireland, visiting her family, borrowed her sister’s bicycle for a short ride. Along the way, she was struck by a vehicle from behind, abducted from the roadside, and driven to an isolated trail in a hard-to-reach area of the Vacationland subdivision. There, she was brutally beaten, sexually assaulted, and left for dead. Found clinging to life hours later, she tragically passed away early Christmas morning at a Hilo hospital. In this foundational chapter, Amanda Knox introduces Ken Lawson and notes the long crusade of the Hawaii Innocence Project (HIP). Ken cites inconsistencies in witness testimony as the starting point in HIP’s multi-decade quest for justice:  “Somebody’s lying, right? So go back and look… that’s how you start reinvestigating the case.” 

Chapter 2: The Aftermath

Panic grips the tight-knit Big Island community, law enforcement face intense, mounting pressure to find a culprit. Investigators track down numerous leads and polygraph identified suspects, but they hit a devastating dead end when none of the suspects’ DNA matched the DNA found on the victim’s body and clothing or at the scene.

Chapter 3: Family Feud

The case sits cold until 1994 when an incarcerated individual named Frank Pauline Jr. abruptly comes forward while facing unrelated drug charges. Attempting to trade information for leniency, Pauline spins an increasingly chaotic web of stories that eventually implicate himself and two local brothers, Ian and Shawn Schweitzer, with whom Pauline’s relatives have long feuded. Lawson and Roth point out how easy it was for a desperate individual to manipulate publicly known information to match what detectives wanted to hear. Big Island investigators manage to ignore the lack of forensic connections linking Pauline and the Schweitzers to the crime scene, and instead build their case on the volunteered testimony of incentivized prisoners.

Chapter 4: The Prison Priest

The Schweitzer brothers are painted as unfeeling monsters by local media, making an objective evaluation of facts difficult, if not functionally impossible.

Chapter 5: Inconclusive

Albert Ian Schweitzer consistently maintains his absolute innocence but is convicted of second-degree murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault, receiving a sentence of life in prison. His younger brother Shawn reluctantly enters into a tactical plea deal—confessing to a lesser charge, thereby avoiding prison.  From the public’s viewpoint, both brothers must be guilty; otherwise, why would Shawn confess?  Lawson and Roth explain why totally innocent people sometimes take plea deals out of pure survival instinct. This chapter also addresses the “junk science” that served to bridge massive gaps left by the absence of incriminating DNA evidence.

Chapter 6: Unknown Male #1

For nearly three decades, the DNA collected from the crime scene remains a quiet, undeniable truth. It does not match Ian Schweitzer. It does not match Shawn Schweitzer. It does not match Frank Pauline Jr. It belongs to a completely anonymous unknown party, designated in files as “Unknown Male #1.”  The original theory of a “group attack” is completely incompatible with the forensic footprint left at the scene.  Why did Big Island police and prosecutors try harder to identify “unknown Male #1?

Chapter 7: Hiding in Plain Sight

The true turning point of the entire saga arrives with the advent of a cutting-edge forensic tool: genetic genealogy. By uploading the profile of “Unknown Male #1” to public databases, HIP and its forensic genetics expert finds a match.  The individual is not a ghost or a transient visitor; he has long lived a relatively short distance from the Vacationland crime scene. For more than 30 years he’s lived freely and never questioned or otherwise investigated.

Chapter 8: Probable Cause

With the real killer identified, the legal battle shifts to forcing the state to reckon with its catastrophic mistake. This chapter explores the procedural hurdles, intense resistance from the prosecution, and bureaucratic walls built to protect past convictions.  Roth explains the concept of institutional “willful blindness” and explains it applicability to the Dana Ireland case.

Chapter 9: Factual Innocence

The climax takes place in 2023 in a Big Island courtroom. Armed with unassailable genetic evidence and a mountain of exposed procedural errors, Ian Schweitzer’s convictions are officially vacated, and he walks out of court a free man. A few months later, Shawn Schweitzer’s conviction is also overturned. The Schweitzer family are reunited after nearly thirty years of systemic failure.

Chapter 10: Justice

The final episode serves as a powerful philosophical reflection on accountability, healing, and the long-term scar tissue left behind by institutional failure and public corruption.

Murder in Vacationland Podcast Trailer https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three/id1728272114

Ch1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/christmas-in-hawaii-chapter-1/id1728272114

Ch2 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-aftermath-chapter-2/id1728272114

Ch3 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-feud-chapter-3/id1728272114

Ch4 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-prison-priest-chapter-4/id1728272114

Ch5 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inconclusive-chapter-5/id1728272114

Ch6 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unknown-male-1-chapter-6/id1728272114  

Ch7 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hiding-in-plain-sight-chapter-7/id1728272114

Ch8 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/probable-cause-chapter-8/id1728272114

Ch9 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/factual-innocence-chapter-9/id1728272114

Ch10 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/justice-chapter-10/id1728272114