Identical Twin Yoga Teachers Plunge Off Cliff in Car
GRACE: Did 37-year-old yoga expert, Alexandria Duval, intentionally drive her beautiful identical twin sister off a 200-foot cliff, plunging the Ford Explorer on to a rocky shore?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Identical twin yoga teachers were in their Ford Explorer when it suddenly plunged 200 feet off a cliff, killing one sister and injuring the other.</s>LAWRENCE LAU, BOY SCOUTS CHAPERONE: ... she floored it and was in a rage as she sped past us.</s>GRACE: Joining me from "The Maui News", Chris Sugidono. Chris, thank you for being with us. I`m stunned about the entire scenario. And there has been a lot of discussion, this is not a second-degree murder. But in your jurisdiction, second-degree murder is causing the death, knowingly and intentionally, causing the death of another. Chris, is there any suggestion that this woman, Alexandria Duval, broke? That she hit the brakes, that she tried to steer away from the cliff? Any suggestion of that, Chris?</s>CHRIS SUGIDONO, "THE MAUI NEWS" STAFF WRITER: Well, reading the probable cause report, there were no attempts of any braking during the event, and a witness did report that the driver appeared to be in a rage, and the woman sitting in the passenger seat, which was Anastasia, was pulling the hair of Alexandria, who was driving the car, right before Alexandria made a sharp left turn and plunged to the rocks below.</s>GRACE: Trying to get her to slow down would be my guess. Joining me right now, special guest, Alan Akina, who actually saw the crash aftermath. Alan, thank you for being with us.</s>ALAN AKINA, SAW CRASH AFTERMATH: You`re welcome.</s>GRACE: Alan, what did you see?</s>AKINA: So, the situation was that I`m a Boy Scout leader there in Hawaii and I had my Boy Scout troop camping about 200 yards away from where the accident took place and it was actually my two leaders and two of my scouts, my 15-year-old Boy Scouts that witnessed the entire scene. So, they were the last ones to see them that go off the cliff. And your person that you just had on is absolutely right, they did not brake. There was no braking that took place. And, you know, those roads there in Hana are very, very narrow. In some places they allow one car to go at a time and in most places, when you go two at a time, is very tight. So, it`s hard to navigate but, you know, this is a very traumatic situation, being there on the scene. I mean, to see what happened and to get reports from some of the locals that were in the area that made their way down that 200-, 300-foot cliff before any of the fire department or police department got there. They came up and gave us the report and it was just gruesome to hear what the scene looked like inside the car.</s>GRACE: We are looking at the wreckage of that 2016 Ford Explorer right now. Can you describe the scene once the twins, once Alexandria, drove the Explorer off the cliff? What was the scene, Alan Akina?</s>AKINA: OK. So my two leaders were driving the van going toward Hana and they came around the bend and they saw this car, this Ford Explorer stopped in the middle of the road. And it had its hazard lights on and so they pulled up because they couldn`t go around it because the roads are so tight, so they stopped about 40 feet away and they witnessed two girls fighting. They said, we saw two girls fighting, screaming and we saw hair being pulled. Now, here`s the interesting thing was that the hazard lights were on. And after a bit of fighting and screaming and pulling of the hair, the driver had the presence of mind to actually turn the hazard lights off and put the car in drive and then floored it. And they zoomed past our van and probably 60 feet after that, made a quick left and it went through, like a 3-foot high rock wall and then took off over the cliff. So, I know the preliminary reports are coming back that, you know, she attempted murder. But after we -- after I interviewed my leaders and my scouts and we had time to process it that night, we thought there might be another angle to it because, you know, who, in their right mind, would kill themselves? Basically, you are going off a 200- to 300-foot cliff, you are going to die. It`s a miracle that she survived at all. You are going to die. So, the one thing that we thought, and here`s why. All of my leaders and scouts, and there were two other tourists that were behind our van that saw the incident. All of them could not confirm that there was someone sitting in the passenger seat. Even the local that went down to the car, he said that the other girl was in the backseat and he couldn`t find a pulse on her. So, what we thought was, hey, you know what, maybe she was in the backseat and they were fighting and they pulling hair -- everyone knows they were pulling hair but to pull her hair, you would reach between the driver and passenger seat. And so you would actually be pulling sort of toward the right. If you are pulling toward the right, your natural reaction to get out of someone pulling your hair would be to go the opposite way. So she had to pull left, maybe when she pulled left accidentally turned hard left as well. So, you know ...</s>GRACE: And interesting, along that train of thought to Corporal Dwaine Parker, accident reconstructionist, the so-called black box of the Ford Explorer is likely going to show what witnesses say, that even if she had turned left, by accident, she never tried to brake, Corporal Parker?</s>CORPORAL DWAINE PARKER, ACCIDENT RECONSTRUCTIONIST: Yes, that`s correct, Nancy. And your guest that just came on, his theory of being pulled back to the right and her reaching up to grab the steering wheel for bracing herself would allow you the ability to turn left of the steering wheel. That is a plausible case. And the data from the black box thus shows that the steering wheel was turned and that the vehicle went in that direction and that there was no braking applied. If she`s being pulled to the right, perhaps her body is now out of alignment from sitting within the driver`s compartment and her leg extended and hitting the gas pedal and at that point she has no presence of mind to even hit the brake pedal or capability to hit the brake pedal. So I think that the fighting, the domestic dispute, between the sisters is going to play a big part in the ...</s>GRACE: I think you are right. And there`s so much more to it. Matt Zarrell, you`ve got the reports from eyewitnesses that say they had been fighting all day long, that the perpetrator was apparently jealous of her identical twin sister. Jealous over what, I`m not sure. That they had been living the high life off of their yoga membership, their class students and they absconded with all that membership money. And they were having financial fights. I mean, look at this yoga studio. It`s packed with students. Not only that, she refused to talk to police, EMTs or the hospital staff about what happened. And she tried to flee the jurisdiction, Matt Zarrell.</s>MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Yes. She tried to flee multiple times. The police checked with the TSA and the airport. She tried to get to the West Coast multiple times. The other thing that the cops are going to focus on is multiple witnesses saw rage in Duval`s eyes as she hit the gas and took off over the cliff. That could play a significant role in this case.</s>GRACE: And she is headed straight for a preliminary hearing at this hour. To Dr. Bradley Marcus, chief medical examiner, Richland County, joining us tonight. Dr. Marcus, how is it that the driver, the sister, Alexandria Duval, who changed her name. Her name used to be Alison Dadow, why did she just hurt her arm and she`s in a sling while the sister, formally Ann Dadow, now Anastasia Duval, I mean, they ditched their names and legally got a name change so nobody could really trace them. Why does she die of head trauma and the perp just has her arm in a sling, Dr. Marcus?</s>DR. BRADLEY MARCUS, RICHLAND COUNTY CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, it depends, you know. I`m not sure if one or the other was not wearing a seatbelt or not because that can play a significant effect on injuries sustained in the crash and she could have been in a position where the air bag went off or something and she was protected inside of the vehicle.