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TWIN POWER YOGA
Twins Alison and Ann Dadow ran Twin Power Yoga in West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens in Florida. Ann Dadow was killed on May 29 in Maui.
TOM JOHNSON VIA AP
A vehicle sat at the bottom of a cliff off Maui’s Hana Highway on May 30. Alexandria Duval, who is also known as Alison Dadow, was driving the vehicle when it plunged off the cliff May 29, and was charged with second-degree murder in the death of her twin, Anastasia Duval, also known as Ann Dadow, who was in the passenger’s seat.
THE PALM BEACH POST VIA AP
In this Oct. 12, 2011 photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, stand in the window of their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla.
THE PALM BEACH POST VIA AP
In this Oct. 12, 2011 photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, are seen at their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Identical twin sisters Alexandria and Anastasia Duval always lived together, played together and worked together, operating what were once two of the hottest yoga studios in the Palm Beach, Florida, area. They called the business Twin Power Yoga.
They would finish each other’s sentences, and while they had boyfriends, their sibling relationship seemed to come first.
But after a reality TV project fell through, the two descended into a cross-country spiral of business failures, debts, arguments and drunken run-ins with the law that all came to a tragic end last week, when their SUV plunged off a 200-foot cliff on Maui’s rocky shore during what was described as a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel.
Anastasia, 37, was killed, and Alexandria was arrested and jailed on second-degree murder charges, accused of deliberately causing her sister’s death.
Leslie McMichael, who became the sisters’ spiritual adviser after meeting them at a Kabala center in Florida, called it a horrible turn of events.
“They were beautiful twins with so much life. They were so funny. They were such a machine together that people would stop and watch them,” she said.
Authorities said Alexandria was behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer on May 29 when witnesses saw the sisters arguing on Maui’s Hana Highway, a perilously narrow, twisting route along a scenic stretch of coastline. A witness cleaning a family gravesite on the highway shoulder told police that he heard a woman screaming in the vehicle and that the passenger was pulling the driver’s hair and the steering wheel.
The SUV accelerated, made a hard left turn and crashed into a rock wall, then went over the cliff, authorities said. Anastasia was pronounced dead at the scene. Alexandria was hospitalized in critical condition but appeared in court Monday with her arm in a sling.
The twins had been fighting and drinking earlier on the day of the crash, Federico Bailey, Anastasia’s boyfriend, told the Maui News. He said they had gone camping together for the Memorial Day weekend.
The sisters’ relationship involved distrust and constant fighting but also love, he said: “When they drink, their personalities change.”
Alexandria’s lawyer, Todd Eddins, disputed the allegations against her, saying she “did not try to harm herself or the person she most loved and was closest to in the world.” He called it a “heart-shattering” tragedy for the sisters’ family.
Before they changed their names from Alison and Ann Dadow, the twins ran two popular Twin Power studios in Palm Beach County, Florida, from 2008 to 2014.
Brett Borders, a former student of theirs, said they held the best yoga classes he has ever taken. “They were very good at picking and training yoga instructors. They were very consistent. The best teachers around. It was just very high quality,” he said.
The sisters were living large, with fancy cars, before they suddenly closed the studios and bolted town, leaving behind bewildered customers and friends and many debts. Employees and vendors complained they hadn’t been paid, and customers’ memberships were rendered worthless.
McMichael said their downfall began after they were approached by reality television producers who wanted to feature them on a show.
They had outgrown one of their studios, in well-to-do Palm Beach Gardens, but instead of annexing a neighboring storefront as planned, they were persuaded by the producers to lease space on the priciest, trendiest street in West Palm Beach, McMichael said.
They were banking on the TV income to make it work, but then the show fell through and they were stuck with a lease they couldn’t afford, she said.
“They were all but in. They had set up their lives around” the show, McMichael said. “When it didn’t happen, they were in too much debt.”
The sisters moved to Utah and opened a yoga studio in the high-end ski town of Park City in 2014. They had several run-ins with the police during the two years they lived in the state, and faced charges including drunken driving, intoxication and leaving the scene of an accident.
In January 2014, they were kicked out of a restaurant when their drinking got out of hand, according to police. Officers said the twins fought with each other and with police who arrived after their car slid into a ditch. Hair-pulling was also involved.
The sisters had a close bond but struggled with alcoholism as their Park City studio floundered, said Utah lawyer Craig Chlarson. They never mentioned their success in Florida, but never seemed like they’d purposely hurt or take advantage of anyone, he added.
The twins legally changed their names in Utah in 2014 to write a book together, according to court documents. Both women filed for bankruptcy around the same time and reported around $150,000 in debts each, including two 2013 Porsche Boxsters.
Looking for a new start, they moved to Maui in December and planned to open yoga studios, according to Alexandria’s attorney. But they were soon charged with disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening over a Christmas Eve incident.
Their rowdy behavior doesn’t tell the twins’ full story, said McMichael, the spiritual adviser.
Referring to them by their previous names, she described Alison (later Alexandria) as outgoing with a “big, dominant personality” and a tendency to drink too much sometimes, and called Ann (Anastasia) “the sweetest, kindest, most level-headed person you would ever meet.”
McMichael said the pair, whose mother had died when they were 5, always lived together and put their relationship ahead of their boyfriends.
“They realized that love was not in their future because they were so co-dependent,” she said. “I would joke that the only people who would understand them were a pair of male twins who would understand that they needed to be together.”
AP Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.
They sound like grifters, always on the make. Too bad they ended up here, now our taxpayers will have to support this murderous loser in prison.
The underlying theme here, is alcohol, and mental illness, is a devastating combination. Even just one of them alone, is harmful enough, but to combine them…
I think it’s unlikely a prosecutor will be able to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that she purposely drove off the cliff with the hope of killing her sister. Since the accused was driving and witnesses saw her twin grab her hair and the steering wheel, how can anyone say for sure that it was her intention to go off the cliff and kill her sister? It’s a ridiculous assumption, it could very well be the other way around. No one knows for sure what happened except Alexandria and she was probably drunk.The prosecutor better have more than just a few witnesses that saw them fighting before the car went over the cliff.Negligent homicide maybe but murder?
Tragic
If sites published articles only using the mugshot photo no one would give two craps about this. The cracked out, whacked out, homeless looking thing in the mugshot photo would bury this story where it belongs. The bottom of a 200′ ravine.
I’m sure no pun was intended with the title of the article.
Fascinating story! Thanks for all the coverage. Can’t wait for the movie that will inevitably be made!
Twins basically plunged into a reality move caused by the Hana Hwy.
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Movie
“Leslie McMichael, who became the sisters’ spiritual adviser after meeting them at a Kabala center in Florida, called it a horrible turn of events.”
“Leslie is known as a “Clairaudient” and “Clairsentient.” She hears & feels spirits communicating and her life purpose is to communicate the words and sentiments to the people who need the message.”
I wonder if this is the same Leslie McMichael.
Spiritual advisor, life coach, snake oil salesman, carpetbagger – all the same.
Yup and she’ll give you a psychic reading by phone for only $60. Honest.
She would give you a lot more than that, but the price was 160.????
let’s get back to real news: whose ripping us off, where are we going to put all these people draped on the sidewalks, real estate affordable housing rip offs…etc.
With the Oahu train to nowhere we all know exactly who is ripping is all off…
Not sure if this is good publicity for the State of Hawaii but I think it is. As long as their SUV was not defective or the highway did not have any safety flaws, Hawaii, especially Maui, should be getting major publicity around the world that the craziest, drunkest, wildest people on the run, had it all then lost it and bent on self-destruction hang out on Maui. See you there or be square. The millions spent by HTA with Hawaii taxpayers dollars don’t even come close to the kind of visitor increasing publicity this story is generating.
This is nothing more than the cautionary tale of two criminally-prone spoiled brats who counted their chickens before they hatched, swindling their customers, moving to greener pastures in the wake of their destruction, changing their names to cover their past, drinking out of control that supposedly changes their personalities, and their inability to accept failure at others’ expense. And now, the antics of the surviving twin will result in Hawai’i taxpayers being on the hook for the costs of their meltdown, investigation, judicial proceedings including, in all likelihood, her defense), and subsequent incarceration. God help her in the Hawai’i Womens’ Correctional Facility. If I had the say-so, I’d be putting her on suicide watch myself.