As if the unsolved rape and murder of Dana Ireland on Christmas Eve 1991 on Hawaii island couldn’t get any sadder, recent developments have managed to compound the tragedy. Now, Big Island police and law officials must disclose recent actions and information: To explain how an emerging suspect in the cold case was brought in for questioning last month, released, then committed suicide a few days later.

The case is one of Hawaii’s most notorious crimes — the murder of Ireland, 23, visiting from Virginia when she was brutally attacked — which also saw the wrongful conviction of two brothers, then their dramatic exoneration years later.

A major breakthrough in Ireland’s unsolved killing came in February, when sleuthing by California DNA- genetics research firm Indago led Hilo police to Albert Lauro Jr., a 57-year-old Hawaiian Paradise Park man whose DNA had been found in Ireland’s body and at her crime scenes more than three decades ago. Police were able to make a DNA match off a fork Lauro had discarded — but after bringing him in for questioning on July 19 and taking a cheek swab for more DNA, they inexplicably released him. Lauro committed suicide at his home four days later.

That’s now set off considerable, valid scrutiny over why Lauro wasn’t detained, as well as the police’s one-hour interview with him and related surveillance.

It’s also prompted a court filing by the men wrongly imprisoned for years in this case — Albert “Ian” and Shawn Schweitzer — for police to preserve and disclose all communications involving Lauro, including the taped interview and surveillance actions. The brothers were exonerated last year, thanks to work by the Hawaii Innocence Project, but certainly are entitled to full evidence of their innocence. And the public deserves to know how recent events in this case were handled, when answers about Ireland’s murder finally seemed within reach after decades of bungling.

In their filing, the Schweitzers’ attorneys called the investigation into Lauro “a complete abandonment of best practices and basic fundamental principles of justice. … We urged them repeatedly to get arrest and search warrants to prevent (Lauro) from fleeing, destroying evidence, or killing himself. … If (Lauro) had been taken into custody and put on suicide watch after his DNA was collected, he would still be alive. If (Lauro) was still alive, the circumstances surrounding Ms. Ireland’s murder could have been further investigated and revealed.”

Those are all crucial points, and Hilo police must account for its investigation and actions involving Lauro. Indago co-founder Stephen Kramer told Star-Advertiser reporter Dan Nakaso that when its “genetic genealogy” research helped identify “Golden State Killer” suspect Joseph James DeAngelo in 2018, DeAngelo was detained by California investigators after questioning, and placed under suicide watch. He is now serving life in prison.

The Schweitzers’ motion for the police’s Lauro interview and surveillance was to be heard in a Hilo court today. Given the history of blunders in this case as well as high interest — it’s again making headlines, including nationwide on USA Today, ABC News and the New York Post — public transparency of all of the police’s Lauro- involved communications is essential.

Justice for Dana Ireland, a young woman out biking on Christmas Eve 1991 when violently attacked then left for dead on an isolated road, has long been elusive; it is now virtually impossible.

Big Island police must reveal how their actions led to the events that unfolded over the past weeks, allowing a possible prime suspect to elude answering for this cold case; further, their taped interview with Lauro could provide clarity needed for the falsely accused Schweitzer brothers. That modicum of revelation and truth, at the very least, is owed after three decades of failure in bringing Dana Ireland’s killer to justice.