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Woman arrested in N.Y. for twin sister’s death

Grand jury warrant charges Alexandria Duval with second-degree murder

Alexandria Duval appears in Wailuku District Court on June 8. The 37-year-old was arrested in Albany, N.Y., on Friday on a Maui County grand jury warrant charging her with second-degree murder in the death of her twin sister, Anastasia Duval. Anastasia Duval died in a May 29 crash when a 2016 Ford Explorer driven by Alexandria Duval went off a cliff onto a rocky shoreline about 4 miles south of Hana town, police said. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

A woman whose twin sister died when their sport utility vehicle plunged off a 200-foot cliff near Hana was arrested Friday in New York on a Maui County grand jury warrant charging her with murder, according to a source close to the case.

Alexandria Duval, 37, was arrested in Albany by New York State Police, the source said.

The grand jury warrant was handed down Oct. 28 charging Duval with second-degree murder in the death of her twin, Anastasia Duval. She died at the scene of the May 29 crash when the 2016 Ford Explorer driven by Alexandria Duval went off the cliff onto a rocky shoreline about 4 miles south of Hana town, police said.

Witnesses said there was screaming and hair-pulling in the SUV before the driver made a sudden sharp left turn into a rock wall and continued over the cliff. Police traffic investigators reported the accelerator of the vehicle was pushed to the floor, and there were no signs of braking before the plunge.

Alexandria Duval suffered minor injuries and had to be extricated from the vehicle after she was found in the driver’s seat with her legs pinned against the steering column, according to police. Anastasia Duval, who was in the back seat, sustained severe head trauma and bleeding and didn’t have a pulse, police reported.

Bail for Alexandria Duval was set at $3 million on the grand jury warrant.

She now faces extradition proceedings to be brought back to Maui.

A few days after the crash, Duval was arrested and charged with murder. But a Wailuku District Court judge dismissed the charge at a preliminary hearing June 8, saying there was insufficient evidence to support the charge.

In August, Duval was arrested on drunken-driving charges in New York after nearly striking a vehicle operated by a state police investigator, according to The Associated Press. Her blood-alcohol content was reported to be 0.26, more than three times the legal driving limit. She was released from jail after posting $5,000 bail.

Alexandria Duval, who is also known as Alison Dadow, and Anastasia Duval, who had been known as Ann Dadow, were successful yoga instructors in Florida before going out of business in debt when a reality TV project fell through, according to published reports. They moved to Utah and opened a yoga studio before moving to Maui, where they lived in a five-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Haiku.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.

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