Star-Bulletin
Star-Bulletin photographer Dean Sensui, an experienced
cyclist, pedals the route Dana Ireland is believed
to have taken.

Re-enactments
shed light on
time frame

Dana Ireland's bicycle ride
and the drive to where she was
found don't jibe with Pauline's
account of events

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Frank Pauline told police Dana Ireland was struck by a car, placed in the trunk, driven to several locations, raped in a junk car lot, hit with a tire iron, driven to several more locations and finally dumped.

Although Pauline has changed his story and even recanted the confession, police based their investigation of the murder on his June 1994 statement.

But Pauline's version of events doesn't appear to fit in the time frame established by police and witnesses.

The Star-Bulletin conducted a timed re-creation of Ireland's bike ride and a timed drive from the spot where Ireland was struck to where she was found to determine how long it took for events to unfold.

The bike ride

Ireland was a physical fitness buff who rode a mountain bike to a friend's house in Opihikao. At 4:10 p.m., investigators say, she started her return trip. From the house to the point where she was struck measures a little more than 6.5 miles.

Dean Sensui, an experienced cyclist and Star-Bulletin photographer, pedaled the course that Ireland is believed to have taken. He completed the trip in 30 minutes, traveling 12 to 18 mph, depending on the condition of the road. Sensui made a couple of brief stops for a few seconds to adjust his bicycle seat.

Fourteen minutes after he started his ride he arrived at Pohoiki, where some accounts have Ireland stopping briefly to watch the waves.

Pohoiki is also the site of a surf spot where Pauline and brothers Shawn and Albert Ian Schweitzer were seen on Dec. 24, 1991, as a woman believed to be Ireland passed by on a bicycle, witnesses have told investigators.

Sixteen minutes after leaving Pohoiki, Sensui arrived at the spot on Kapoho Kai Drive where Ireland is believed to have been struck. Based on his times, Ireland was probably hit close to 4:40 p.m.

The Star-Bulletin team then drove a four-wheel-drive vehicle from the impact site to the Waawaa fishing trail where Ireland was found, a distance of five miles.

The road close to the impact site is paved, but about halfway to the fishing trail an unpaved section is rough and bumpy, with large potholes. A four-wheel-drive vehicle is not needed to maneuver along the unpaved section, but two-wheel-drive vehicles usually go slow.

At an average speed of 50 mph on the paved section and about 15 to 18 mph on the unpaved section, the trip took 11.5 minutes. That showed Ireland could have been left at the Waawaa scene at 4:51 p.m.

There is at least one key witness account that would support that time frame.

Ida Smith, the Waawaa woman who discovered Ireland and who is scheduled to testify at Pauline's trial, said she looked at her wall clock at 4:45 p.m., and shortly after that, she heard what sounded like tires screeching and then a cry for help.

The woman crying for help was Ireland, who was left for dead at a fishing trail near Smith's home.

The trip and the car

If the trip from Vacationland to the trail took 11 minutes, there would be little time to stop at the junk car lot, where Pauline said Ireland was raped.

Court documents indicate that police think the rape may have taken place inside the car.

That means investigators may not believe that Ireland was thrown inside the trunk after she was struck.

In a 1996 statement, Detective Steven Guillermo asked witness Alex Franchey, then 21, about changes in the interior of the 1957 Volkswagen Beetle owned by Ian Schweitzer. Franchey said the interior of the car had been changed after Ian acquired it.

Franchey also told Guillermo that when he saw Schweitzer's car on Christmas Eve 1991, it was purple. A week later, Franchey said, the car was painted "the ugliest yellow I ever saw." He said the front hood, apron and back rim were damaged. Franchey said Schweitzer had told him "he bang the dog."

Schweitzer's explanation about this to police was that he had traded just the shell of another Beetle and kept his interior.

Courtesy of John and Louise Ireland
3-year-old Dana on the patio of the
Irelands' home in Springfield, Va.

Tuesday, June 8 Blurred through the years is the real Dana. She lives on, though -- beautiful, shy, kind -- in the memories of those who knew her. The innocent. The indicted. Anatomy of a murder. The what and where of the attack. Who's who in the Dana Ireland tragedy. Wednesday, June 9 Help came too late for Dana Ireland. From the moment she was hit by her attackers' car until the time an ambulance reached her, more than two hours passed. Here's how minutes -- and a life -- were lost. Thursday, June 10 Life has gone on since the Dec. 24, 1991, attack. Memories have faded. Witnesses have scattered. But each twist and turn in the seven-year bid to bring to justice those responsible means fresh injury, not only to Dana's family but to witnesses whose lives have been put on hold by this on-again, off-again case.

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