Alexandria Duval ran her SUV 200-feet off a Hawaiian cliff and killed her twin Sister, Anastasia. Most well-known for their successful yoga business, the closer one looks into their past, the more bizarre the story becomes.
Born as Ann and Alison Dadow, the twins were just 5-years-old when their mother died suddenly. Their father, a doctor, indulged his twins and older daughter, Amy, as they grew up in Hartford, New York. As high schoolers, they were given thousands of dollars, and wore designer clothes, including Chanel and Armani.
Strangely, as their older sister attended public school, the twins, Ann and Alison, were sent to the private Roman Catholic school, Notre Dame.
“They had an oddly close bond,” said one of their former high school friends, “I don’t think anyone really knew them — I don’t think they let anyone really know them — and they were left to fend for themselves in their own home.”
In high school, Ann and Alison were loners who mostly kept to themselves, rarely dated, and even showered together daily. They were both cheerleaders and joined the Navy JROTC in high school. They hoped to become neurosurgeons.
“They didn’t seem to have separate ambitions,” said the friend. “If anything, Ann was the more grounded, mellow one, and Alison was a little wilder.”
The path of destruction blazed by two blonde yoga twins led them both off a cliff: https://t.co/TNYP3hY5Ku pic.twitter.com/H49UL2ZT9F
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 8, 2016
According to friends, Ann and Alison Dadow liked to party, smoked cigarettes and marijuana, and drank regularly.
“When they drink, their personalities change,” friend Federico Bailey said. Despite their partying nature, reportedly, they still did very well in school. Friends said they were brilliant. The girls had no serious boyfriends in high school. Everything they did, they did together and there didn’t seem to be room for anyone else.
The family moved from New York to Florida and the girls attended college there. Ann and Alison eventually moved to Palm Beach where they started Twin Power Yoga in Palm Beach Gardens in 2008. They opened a second yoga studio in downtown West Palm Beach three years later. The twins had planned to open a third yoga studio in Boca Raton.
Things seemed to be going well for Ann and Alison Dadow. They lived in a luxury 16th floor apartment in West Palm Beach, drove matching Porsches and spent a lot of money on Worth Avenue, Palm Beach’s millionaires’ row. However, the twins were living beyond their means. When a reality show proposal fell through, they were in over their heads. They fled Florida, their debt, their yoga businesses, their employees, and their customers.
@amyschumer Please do this as a ripped-from-the-headlines made-for-tv thriller where you play both twins. https://t.co/R6ySKfzrz9
— Paul Soter (@PaulSoter) June 7, 2016
Ann and Alison Dadow resurfaced in Utah at an upscale ski resort and opened yet another yoga studio. As adults, alcohol has played a large part in the descent of their once-promising lives. They had five separate arrests in Utah related to alcohol. The twins had racked up charges including driving under the influence, fleeing the scene of an accident, driving without insurance, disorderly conduct, public intoxication, assault on a police officer, and interfering with an arrest. During one incident involving a car accident, police found Ann and Alison Dadow fighting and pulling each other’s hair.
It seems that alcohol is a family affair. Their older sister, Amy, still living in Florida, assaulted their wheelchair-bound father, John Dadow, and is now on probation. John Dadow used his lifeline button to summon for police.
“Her physical actions have become more abusive such that I now fear for my safety as I’m in a wheelchair and I’m unable to physically defend myself and run away.”
“She came to the house intoxicated and started verbally abusing me, stating she would never leave the house unless I gave her $100,000,” John Dadow, now 67, said in a report asking for a protection order against his oldest daughter.
In 2014, the twins recreated themselves and changed their names to Alexandria and Anastasia Duval. They each filed bankruptcy for about $150,000 each, which included their 2013 Porsches.
Murder charge dropped against twin in cliff-plunge death https://t.co/sYRVxC1RNi
— KYW Newsradio – NOW ON 103.9 FM! (@KYWNewsradio) June 9, 2016
Anastasia and Alexandria Duval moved to Hawaii in December of 2015 and their bizarre antics followed them. Anastasia Duval showed up at a homeless shelter on Maui, claiming she had been robbed while staying at a luxury resort. She gave a false name and just wanted the shelter to give her cash, which they could not do.
Authorities said Alexandria Duval was driving on Maui’s Hana Highway, a dangerously narrow twisting route on high cliffs above the ocean. Witnesses said they could see the twins fighting in the car, pulling each other’s hair. The SUV accelerated then made a hard left turn. The white Ford Explorer crashed through a rock wall and went over the cliff. Anastasia was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Chicago Tribune . Alexandria was hospitalized but released. Alexandria had been in custody since last Friday after she allegedly tried to leave Hawaii upon her discharge from the hospital. She was jailed on a second-degree murder charge, accused of deliberately causing her sister’s death. Alexandria Duval appeared in court Monday with her arm in a sling.
According to the Daily Mail , charges against Alexandria Duval in the death of her twin sister were dropped on Wednesday after Judge Blaine Kobayashi determined their was no probable cause that she purposefully killed her twin sister, Anastasia Duval.
Defense attorney Todd Eddins said Alexandria [Alison] Duval was grateful for the judge’s decision and wanted privacy to grieve for her sister.
“The judge understood the factual and legal circumstances. He got it right. Alison did not harm the person she was closest to and loved the most in the world. While she is grateful the court ruled as it did, she is traumatized by her sister’s death, her near death, and the government’s accusation.”
[Photo by Maui County Police Department/AP Images]