Crash survivor charged in twin’s death
Authorities say sisters argued before SUV sped off cliff in Hawaii
At the beginning of the decade, Alison and Ann Dadow were well-known yoga entrepreneurs who drove matching Porsches, as identical as they were, around West Palm Beach, Fla. In late May, the 37-year-old twins plunged over the edge of a cliff in Hawaii and fell 200 feet in a Ford Explorer, which crumpled like an old soda can when it hit the slick, jagged rocks peeking out of the Pacific Ocean below.
Ann, sitting passenger, was pronounced dead at the scene. Alison was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and on Monday, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of her sister. She’s been ordered to remain in jail without bail, according to court documents obtained by the Washington Post.
Sometime before moving to Hawaii, the two assumed new identities under the names Alexandria and Anastasia Duval. It’s unclear when the twins assumed new identities or if they legally changed their names. Court documents refer them by both names. For the sake of clarity, The Post will refer to twins by their given names, Alison and Ann Dadow.
On the afternoon of May 29, the two were cruising along Hana Highway, which snakes around the east coast of Maui for about 64 miles, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Despite the gorgeous scenery, an argument had allegedly grown between them, according to court documents.
Lawrence Lau, who was chaperoning a Boys Scouts troop outing, claimed to have come across the white SUV sitting motionless in the middle of the highway. According to court documents, the passenger was pulling the driver’s hair.
“You could tell that she was very violently swearing at somebody else in the car,” Lau told KHNL. “She was mad and when she took off, it was in a rage. So she floored it and was in a rage as she sped past us.”
Alison allegedly drove straight off the cliff.
Alan Akina, a contributor to “Wake Up Today,” told KHON he also witnessed the accident.
“They just sped up, drove right past our van and turned off the cliff,” Akina said.
According to the Explorer’s airbag control module, the car experienced a hard acceleration and no braking, even after it crashed into and over the rock wall on the side of the highway and plummeted to the rocks below, court documents state.
Alison was arrested at the Seaside Hotel last Friday, after she attempted to fly out of the Hawaii.
“We had information after she was discharged from the hospital she attempted to fly out of the jurisdiction Wednesday night,” Maui Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Emlyn Higa told the Associated Press. The court documents state Alison had a flight booked to the West Coast.
Todd Eddins, Alison’s defense attorney, told the Washington Post she did have a flight planned but it was back to upstate New York to attend a funeral for her sister with her grandmother, “to be confronted by the only maternal presence she had left,” as the twins’ mother died when they were young.
“All we know is she was trying to leave the state,” Higa said. “We were afraid she would try to leave the country as well.”
Eddins called the seconddegree murder charge “extreme and cold-hearted.”
“They were extremely close, even by identical twin standards,” he told The Post. “(Alison) did not try to harm herself or the person she most loved and was closest to in the world.”
Alison has pleaded not guilty, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.