THREE

The DNA never lied. It never pointed to Ian, Shawn, or Frank—but to someone else entirely. As forensic experts unravel the evidence that put three innocent men behind bars, the case against them crumbles. The DNA, the tire tracks, the so-called bite marks—junk science and misplaced certainty stole decades of their lives. But if they didn’t do it…who did?

__

You can view the materials referenced in this episode at https://threepodcast.com/chapter-6-unknown-male-1

Please consider donating to Ian’s GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ian-schweitzer-after-wrongful-conviction.  

You can visit www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org and click the donate button to support them, their work and their clients. 

Amanda Knox’s new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning is available at www.amandaknox.com. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Dana Ireland, we encourage you to contact the Hawai’i Innocence Project at [email protected]. 

You can also contact Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300 and the Hawai’i Police Department at (808) 961-2380 or visit their website Hawaiipolice.gov to submit a tip.

A guilty verdict. A plea deal. A family shattered. Ian Schweitzer is sentenced to life, and his brother Shawn faces an impossible choice—fight for the truth or admit to a crime he didn’t commit. But with missing evidence and a system eager to close the case, the truth remains just out of reach. What if justice was never the goal?

__

You can view the materials referenced in this episode at https://threepodcast.com/chapter-3-family-feud

Please consider donating to Ian’s GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ian-schweitzer-after-wrongful-conviction.  

You can visit www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org and click the donate button to support them, their work and their clients. 

Amanda Knox’s new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning is available at www.amandaknox.com. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Dana Ireland, we encourage you to contact the Hawai’i Innocence Project at [email protected]. 

By 1996, because of pressure from Dana Ireland’s family and the media and the want to close this case for good, the police decided to send the case to prosecutors—despite DNA evidence excluding Ian and Shawn Schweitzer, as well as Frank Pauline Jr. But as the public scrutiny grows, so do the lies. Frank, hoping for leniency, spins a series of contradictory stories to the police and the press—before ultimately recanting on live TV and accusing the police of coercing his confession. In Chapter 4, Amanda Knox, drawing from her own experience, exposes how flawed science, false testimony, and prosecutorial egos can turn a weak case into a nightmare conviction.

__

You can view the materials referenced in this episode at https://threepodcast.com/chapter-4-the-prison-priest

Please consider donating to Ian’s GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ian-schweitzer-after-wrongful-conviction.  

You can visit www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org and click the donate button to support them, their work and their clients. 

Amanda Knox’s new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning is available at www.amandaknox.com. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Dana Ireland, we encourage you to contact the Hawai’i Innocence Project at [email protected]. 

You can also contact Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300 and the Hawai’i Police Department at (808) 961-2380 or visit their website Hawaiipolice.gov to submit a tip.

In Chapter 3, Amanda Knox takes you to Hawai’i’s Big Island to speak with Ian and Shawn Schweitzer and members of their legal team to understand how a confession, driven by deals and deception, could lead to their arrests. Despite a lack of forensic evidence, Ken Lawson of the Hawai’i Innocence Project helps break down how police tunnel vision and media pressure led to the brothers’ wrongful imprisonment and the battle to clear their names.

__

You can view the materials referenced in this episode at https://threepodcast.com/chapter-3-family-feud

Please consider donating to Ian’s GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ian-schweitzer-after-wrongful-conviction.  

You can visit www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org and click the donate button to support them, their work and their clients. 

Amanda Knox’s new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning is available at www.amandaknox.com. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Dana Ireland, we encourage you to contact the Hawai’i Innocence Project at [email protected]. 

You can also contact Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300 and the Hawai’i Police Department at (808) 961-2380 or visit their website Hawaiipolice.gov to submit a tip.

In a place where everyone knows everyone, during the early days of the investigation, police have no shortage of tips. Soon they turn their attention to three potential suspects: Frank Nasario, Anthony Torres and Roy Santos…but only a few months later, any hope that this case would be open and shut is dashed; none of the men’s DNA matches what was found on Dana Ireland or at the scene. Then, just when the Hawai'i Police Department think they have no other leads to explore, they conveniently get a phone call implicating who this man says are the real people who killed Dana Ireland.

__

You can view the materials referenced in this episode at https://threepodcast.com/chapter-2-the-aftermath/

Please consider donating to Ian’s GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ian-schweitzer-after-wrongful-conviction.  

You can visit www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org and click the donate button to support them, their work and their clients. 

Amanda Knox’s new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning is available at www.amandaknox.com. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Dana Ireland, we encourage you to contact the Hawai’i Innocence Project at [email protected]. 

You can also contact Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300 and the Hawai’i Police Department at (808) 961-2380 or visit their website Hawaiipolice.gov to submit a tip.

On Christmas Eve in 1991, Dana Ireland is found tucked away in a secluded, hard to get to area of the Hawaiian subdivision, Vacationland barely clinging to life. When she finally arrives at a Hilo hospital, the damage is too severe and they declare Dana dead at 12:25am on Christmas morning. 

In 2023, the audiochuck team set out to tell you the story of what happened to Dana Ireland and how three men were convicted of her murder. Then in 2024, everything changed. 

In Chapter 1, Amanda Knox takes you through everything that happened on December 24th, 1991 and why this story is very different from the one we were originally going to tell you.  

__

You can view the materials referenced in this episode at https://threepodcast.com/s2-episode-1/

Please consider donating to Ian’s GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ian-schweitzer-after-wrongful-conviction.  

You can visit www.hawaiiinnocenceproject.org and click the donate button to support them, their work and their clients. 

Amanda Knox’s new memoir, Free: My Search for Meaning is available at www.amandaknox.com. 

If you have any information about the abduction and murder of Dana Ireland, we encourage you to contact the Hawai’i Innocence Project at [email protected]. 

You can also contact Crime Stoppers at (808) 961-8300 and the Hawai’i Police Department at (808) 961-2380 or visit their website Hawaiipolice.gov to submit a tip.

For over 30 years, the murder of 23-year-old Dana Ireland haunted the island of Hawai‘i, leaving behind a tangled web of suspicion, betrayal, and unanswered questions. Three men were convicted. The case was closed. Justice was served. Or so everyone thought.

Hosted by Amanda Knox - an exoneree, journalist, public speaker and best-selling author - this Season of THREE takes you deep into a case that was never as simple as it seemed. Through never-before-heard interviews and unwarranted access, we’ll walk you through this notorious crime and how it impacted three families - The Ireland’s, The Schweitzer’s and The Pauline’s all in very different ways. And the shocking discovery that changed everything.

Someone got away with murder. Until now. 

This is THREE Season 2: Murder in Vacationland. Listen starting on 3/13 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Justine and Holly ask an FBI profiler and a clinical psychologist their burning questions about Shelia and Rachel and the pathologies of juveniles who murder.

Morgantown attempts to heal. What, if anything, can be learned from the senseless murder of Skylar Neese?

Rachel and Shelia adjust to life behind bars. Ten years after her sentencing, Rachel comes up for parole. Will one of Skylar's killers go free?

Shelia and Rachel finally appear in court; Holly flies down to Morgantown to cover the proceedings.

As prosecutors build their case from Rachel's shocking confession, Shelia keeps up with her social calendar. Dave and Mary finally get some answers.

A last ditch effort to extract information from Shelia goes awry; Rachel returns to the scene of the crime.

It's a bleak Christmas for the Neeses, who go to extreme lengths to find their daughter. An examination of the past reveals warning signs.

As law enforcement circle Shelia and Rachel, a group of digital vigilantes begin to kick up dust. Officers learn more about the girls from their private journals.

July 6, 2012, the first day without Skylar, was complicated. After a strange summer, Shelia and Rachel return to University High School for their junior year.

Star City, West Virginia. Sixteen-year-old Skylar Neese disappears into the night, just after the July 4th holiday, 2012.

After midnight on July 6th, 2012, three teenage girls walked into the thick Appalachian woods somewhere along the Mason-Dixon line. Hours later, under the glow of a nearly full moon, only two walked out. 

The very last time Dave and Mary Neese saw their only child Skylar was in a grainy black-and-white video. In it, she's sneaking out of her ground-floor bedroom in the middle of the night, her purse over her shoulder, her brown hair swinging as she hurries across the small parking lot to a waiting car. 

What happened to Skylar Neese has become gothic American lore: the odd girl out in a vicious teenage triangle. But in the ten years since that fateful night beneath the West Virginia stars, a fuller portrait of what happened has emerged. From award-winning journalists Justine Harman and Holly Millea comes a gripping 10-part series featuring Skylar's family, closest friends, and law enforcement who lived the case— and are still living it. 

“Harman and Millea interview Skylar's family and close friends, as well as investigators on the case, about the chilling dynamic at the heart of this teen triangle — and how it reached its sinister pinnacle.” – Mashable, The 20 Bests Podcasts of 2024