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Fatal Fall: Unraveling The Duval Twins' Crash · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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On the twenty ninth of May twenty sixteen, a Ford Explorer suv was driving
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down Hana Highway in Maui, Hawaii. The sixty four mile long Hanah Highway
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is often nicknamed the Road to Hanna and is a popular scenic drive, with
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more than fifty bridges to drive over, surrounded by waterfalls and a native forest.
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Several witnesses watched as the suv suddenly swerved off the road, taking a
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sharp turn and plummeting two hundred feet to the bottom of a cliff. Emergency
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services were called and quickly arrived on the scene. They found two people inside
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the car somehow, despite the two hundred foot drop. The driver had only
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sustained a couple of injuries. However, the passenger had not been so lucky
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and was pronounced dead at the scene. The two occupants of the suv were
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identified as thirty seven year old twin sisters. The deceased passenger was Anastasia Duval,
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and her twin sister, Alexandria Duval, had been behind the wheel.
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The Duval sisters had been born in Utica, New York, in nineteen seventy
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eight, but as children they had gone by different names which they decided to
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change together. As adults, Anastasia had been named Anne and Alexandria had been
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named Allison. The twins remained close throughout their childhoods and teenage years, especially
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after their mother passed away when they were both only five. As young adults
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and estate, Asia and Alexandria moved to Palm Beach County, Florida, and
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used their shared passion for health and wellness to start up a yoga studio together,
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which they called Twin Power Yoga. The business venture was a success,
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and soon they were running multiple studios. They quickly became well known in the
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local area for driving around their matching Porsches, and they had a reputation for
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being eccentric and outgoing in the community. One year, the twins were approached
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by a producer who wanted to make a reality television show about their lives.
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Both Alexandria and Anastasia were excited about the potential of a TV show, and
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when the producers advised them that they should rent a much larger and more expensive
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studio space to film in, the twins agreed. However, the plans for
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the show ended up falling through, and the sisters quickly found that they could
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not afford the rent for the new studio. Before they knew it, they
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were in a significant again amount of debt. According to Leslie McMichael, who
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worked as a spiritual advisor to the twins, the reality show falling through was
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when the twins' lives really started to spiral downwards. By twenty fourteen, Alexandria
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and Anastasia decided to close Twin Power Yoga studios overnight. They blindsided their employees,
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who were left without jobs and never received their final paychecks, and also
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ripped off their loyal customers who had prepaid for expensive memberships. The Duval twins
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reputation in Florida was now shattered, and a local gossip site even referred to
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them by the nickname the Terrible Twins of Yoga. Instead of making amends,
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the pair decided that they would relocate to make a new life in Park City,
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Utah. They even decided to write a book, which is why they
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legally changed their first names to officially become Alexandria and Anastasia Duval. While living
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in Park City, the twins tried to get back into the yoga and wellness
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industry, opening one small studio in the area. However, they hadn't been
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able to leave their financial failures behind when they moved away from Florida. They
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were still significantly in debt, and each of them owed around one hundred and
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fifty thousand dollars, which neither of them could afford to pay back. In
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the end, they had no other choice but to file for bankruptcy. The
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twins time in Utah is also when they really began to fight with each other.
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They had personality differences that caused them to clash often. According to their
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spiritual advisor, Leslie, Anastasia was more timid and the sweetest, kindest,
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most level headed person you would ever meet, whereas Alexandria was more controlling and
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had a big, dominant personality. The difference between the twins was magnified when
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they got drunk, and in Utah they got drunk a lot. In January
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twenty fourteen, they ended up being banned from a local restaurant for getting too
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intoxicated and causing a scene. They also got into a car accident where their
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car ended up in a ditch after they started fighting behind the wheel. When
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the cops arrived at the scene, they tried to stop Alexandria and Anastasia from
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pulling each other's hair out, the twins fought with them too. By the
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end of twenty fifteen, the twins had relocated again, ending up in Hawaii
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on what they described as a religious quest. However, their journeys towards peaceful
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spirituality didn't appear to be working out for them. Only a few weeks after
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they got to Hawaii, both of the sisters were arrested for quote terroristic,
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threatening, and disorderly conduct. Regardless, they eventually settled into life in Hawaii,
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moving in with their boyfriends so that the four of them could all live
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together in Maui. Romantic attachments had always been hard for Anastasia and Alexandria because
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of their codependency. They had never really lived with anyone apart from each other,
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and they found it difficult to find partners who understood their close bond.
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Their spiritual advisor stated, Alexandria and Anastasia realized that love was not in the
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future because they were so codependent, adding that she would joke that the only
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people who would understand them were a pair of male twins who would understand that
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they needed to be together. On the weekend that the crash took place,
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Anastasia was meant to be on a romantic camping getaway with her boyfriend Frederico Bailey.
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However, Alexandria hadn't wanted to be left out, so she invited herself
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on the camping trip as well, causing an argument between her and Anastasia.
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At one point during the trip, Frederico was left alone while the twins went
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somewhere without him. He noticed that they were in a much better mood when
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they returned, but then realized that they had gone out to buy alcohol and
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now they were drunk. Fredrico was upset by this. He knew Anastasia had
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a drinking problem and she was a completely different person when she was under the
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influence. One of Anastasia's previous partners had described the twins as being great people
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when they were sober, but the minute they started drinking, they were like
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Jeckyl and Hide. Frederico took a moment to himself, trying to calm down,
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and when he came back, the twins had driven off in the suv.
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Shortly afterwards, the vehicle plummeted off the cliff. Investigators spoke to several
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people who had watched the incident, and from the way the witnesses described the
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crash, it became clear that it may not have been an accident at all.
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Multiple people agreed that they had heard the twins yelling at each other as
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they drove past, and it sounded like they had been arguing about something.
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Several witnesses had also seen Anastasia reach over from the passenger seat to grab Alexandria's
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hair, and they also believed that she had been trying to take hold of
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the steering wheel before the suv swerved off of the cliff. Alexandria had accelerated
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quickly before pulling the steering wheel all the way to the left. It didn't
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appear that she had tried to slow down when she realized the car was going
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off the road. Instead, she sped up and had driven off the cliff
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intentionally. Based on the evidence of the scene, investigators confirmed that Alexandria had
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made no attempt to break On June third, twenty sixteen, the police located
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Alexandria Duval staying at a hotel in Maui. She was placed under arrest for
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her sister's second degree murder. Although Alexandria was initially held without bail. Only
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five days later, the murder charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence,
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and she was released back into the community. However, despite the judge
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ruling that there was insufficient evidence, prosecutors working on the case were still able
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to bring it to a grand jury. In October two thousand sixteen, Alexandria
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was indicted by the grand jury, causing her to be arrested a second time.
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She was in New York at the time of her arrest and transported back
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to Hawaii, where her bail was set at three million dollars. In February
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the following year, she was released on bail. Alexandria's attorney filed to have
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her case dismissed, but when it was denied, Alexandria then decided to waive
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her own right to be tried by a jury. At her trial in twenty
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eighteen, Alexandria's attorney argued that the crash had been nothing more than a tragic
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accident, claiming that Alexandria was heartbroken by the loss of her sister. Despite
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the eyewitness reports and the evidence of an extremely dysfunctional relationship between the twins.
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The judge presiding over the case found that Alexandria was not guilty of her sister's
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murder. That's ten Minute Murder for today brief and binge able true crime.
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