UPDATE 4: Diane Schuler (Reprint)
Editor’s Note: As was the case with the article entitled “Diane Schuler: An Interesting Perspective”, an excessive amount of comments about “UPDATE 4: Diane Schuler” has caused a conflict with our WordPress software. The result has been that the page will no longer load properly for most people. To bypass that annoying problem, I have created a reprint of “UPDATE 4: Diane Schuler”, so folks can read and comment on it again. This should solve our problem until we reach 700 comments again….
HUSBAND OF DIANE SCHULER SUES NY STATE AND WARREN HANCE
from the article by Susan Donaldson James – ABC News
Diane Schuler was nearly perfect at everything she touched, until she drove the wrong way down New York’s Taconic State Parkway, slamming head-on into another vehicle and killing eight people, including her 2-year-old daughter, three young nieces and herself.
Now, on the two-year anniversary of the horrific crash, an HBO documentary, “There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane,” portrays the 36-year-old “super mom” as a control freak haunted by a dark past: Her mother abandoned Schuler when she was 9.
Just after the film aired Monday night, Schuler’s husband Daniel said he is suing the state and his brother-in-law Warren Hance, whose three daughters were victims.
Daniel Schuler claims the highway was badly designed and inadequately sign-posted, which enabled Diane Schuler to drive the wrong way into traffic, according to the New York Post. He also claims that the Chevy Trailblazer the family had borrowed from Hance, was faulty.
“It’s a terrible tragedy,” Tom Ruskin, who was hired by the Schulers to investigate the accident, told the Post. “His wife was drunk and high at the time of the accident that killed seven innocent people. You don’t keep suing people…If she was alive today, Diane would likely be in jail.”
In the documentary, which air every Monday night until Aug. 15, Filmmaker Liz Garbus attempts to piece together the psychological puzzle of Schuler’s state of mind before the 2009 accident, one of the worst in state history. Only her son Bryan, then 5, survived.
People who knew Schuler said she was a stable, devoted and trustworthy mother, not someone who would put others, especially her children, at risk.
But toxicology reports at the time revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 — the equivalent of 10 drinks — and considerable levels of THC from smoking marijuana.
The accident made national news. Schuler was canonized by her family, who challenged the autopsy results, and vilified by those who called her a reckless drunk and even a “scumbag.”
The film follows Schuler’s husband, Daniel, and her sister-in-law, Jay Schuler, who for two years have been trying to clear her name, insisting a medical emergency was to blame.
It strips away Schuler’s perfect veneer. Those closest to her say she hid the pain of her mother’s abandonment. Although her three brothers reconciled
with their mother, Schuler refused, according to her husband.
“She never complained about it,” one friend said on camera. “She never talked about it, almost like she wasn’t even there.”
Instead, Schuler earned a top salary as a cable-TV executive, was a take-charge wife, raised two impeccably dressed children and volunteered enthusiastically at their school.
“It’s a kind of fundamental perfectionism, so that life becomes unbearable in some ways,” forensic psychiatrist Dr. Harold Bursztajn told ABCNews.com. “After the fact, we can see the breakdown patients suffer when they feel they have to be great, otherwise they are no good.
“For someone like Diane, they try harder and harder and they will never be satisfied with being good enough,” he said. “But that was an impossible way to live and to be human at the same time.”
Friends said she smoked marijuana at night to help her sleep but that Schuler showed no signs of alcoholism. Indeed, they said, she hardly drank.
Bursztajn, a clinical psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School who was interviewed for the film, said when trauma doesn’t heal, it can have catastrophic consequences.
“Diane could not forgive her mother or herself,” he said. “She compensated in the present for what she lost in the past.
“It’s a puzzle,” Bursztajn added. “She was not someone who was mean. Not someone who was bad. And yet look what happened. It was a profound catastrophe.”
For the first time, filmmaker Garbus interviews eyewitnesses, first responders, investigators and medical and psychiatric experts and draws on surveillance footage, family photos, news clips and expert testimony to explore events surrounding the crash to see how things went so wrong.
It was Schuler herself who had appeared to have super-human powers. “She seemed to be good at whatever she attempted,” her friend, Sue Troccoli, said. “She was very good at her job, and she was a take-charge person, too.”
Psychiatrist Bursztajn said Schuler was the worst kind of perfectionist who learned to self medicate. Had she sought help, the tragedy might have been averted.
“The problem is, it doesn’t work for very long,” Bursztajn said. “Eventually, the fear, the shame and the humiliation come back.”
The day of the accident, Schuler likely was stressed about running late and tried to ease her physical pain with alcohol and marijuana, which led to disorientation and dissociation. “She lost touch with reality,” he speculated.
Most experts ruled out suicide. “That is not consistent with who Diane was,” Bursztajn said. “She was not someone who gave up.”
Dr. Carol Bernstein, associate professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, said, “the reality is anybody can snap.”
“A psychiatric disorder can affect all of us, even people who look like they are functioning very well.”
She cites the case of Leshanda Armstrong, a New York mother of four who drove her minivan into the frigid waters of the Hudson River in April, killing herself and three of her small children.
“People said she seemed so normal,” Bernstein said. “People have an idea in their heads that in order for someone to engage in bizarre behavior or take a risk or harm people, or attempt suicide, or, God forbid, even what’s going on in Norway, it means they are weird or strange, and people distance themselves.”
She warns that not all those who have upsets in life will end up like Schuler. But many are too embarrassed to admit psychic pain.
“Someone may be struggling and not feel they can tell the people they love until they are pushed to the point,” Bernstein. said “People suffer in silence.”
The lesson learned, she said, is that mental problems should not be stigmatizing and those who struggle should “feel free to communicate so we can see warning signs.
“When people feel burdened and depressed and hopeless,” she said, “it’s not shameful to reach out and get help.”
I’m fucking speechless folks….My God Daniel, your wife is responsible, one way or the other, for the death of Warren Hance’s three daughters, and you sue him? Do you have any shame at all?
You incredible bastard.
289 Comments »
Dude is still a fucking douche.
Just wanted to get that in quickly before the jumble of comments.
how stupid this piece of crap is and thank god the Hances’ have something to look forward to and to use their daughters last words as the title of this documentary is disgusting .. how sad that this man doesn’t just his damn big fat lying mouth and let the dead rest in peace..instead he has to keep rehashing shit to make his wife look innocent what bullshit and i hope he reads this..i hope that eventually his son reads all these things and sees him for what he really is…the poor boy is the only survivor of the MURDER committed by his own mother…how sad
Too bad that disgusting husband wasn’t with her in the car instead of those poor kids.
That man should be shot for prolonging the pain that his piece of shit child-killing wife caused.
Is it just a little ironic that during the family weekend trip there wasa swimming, camp fires, games, and no mention of tooth pain or distress from ms schuler. She then leaves the campground then suddenly has extreme pain? She was a smart woman supposedly, why did dhe not seek out an urgent care facility or go to the nearest hospital. In her head strong mind and I can do anything attitude, she chose vodka and pot to sedate? With her mini van full of kids and the other victims on the road that day she made that fateful drive the wrong way on the taconic. I recently went to a college graduation. There was a speaker that impressed me. She made a point if you SEE something that doesn’t look right SAY SOMETHING. I can’t get the visions of some of the witnesses at the rest area when they stated they wish they would Have DONE something when she was tailgateing honking and Trying to pass driving s on the shoulder. A big red flag would have been her with the aggressive driving, her throwing up and tje kids heads bobbing back and forth which witnesses observed. If this case taught me something, it is to speak up no matter how minuscule the situation. WHEN IN DOUBT CHECK IT OUT. Thanks friends
Are you nominating him for Biggest Douche in the Universe? John Edwards needs a seatmate.
Oops, put an ‘S’ on the end of his name. Though John Edwards isn’t much better. Add John Edward to John Edwards and, surprisingly enough, you get Daniel Schuler. Check my math.
OMG! Douchebag + Dickhead = Daniel Schuler!
I have been a certified alcohol and drug professional for over 25 years. Diane Schuler was NOT an alcoholic and her husband has been vilified for what people THINK is a husband in denial. He is NOT in denial. Diane Schuler did in truth and fact drink excessively and use Thc the day that she died. however, not to get high. If you look closely, you will see that she went into the gas station looking desperately for “pain medicine.” I know because I have been where she has been. Tooth pain can come and go at any given time if you have unfinished dental work. her tooth pain came back ferociously and she was not able to do anything but get momentary relief from the use of alcohol but when she used the thc in conjunction, thc makes toothache pain worse so the alcohol was being used a sip at a time just to alleviate the pain momentarily but she had to continue to use the alcohol to get ANY relief for that level of pain. I know as a professional in the field of addiction and going by everything she did in her life that she was NOT an alcoholic but had no choice but to seek momentary relief from the unbearable pain of tooth ache pain that can drive a person crazy, absolutely crazy when there is no relief in site. She did not have to display any sign of pain before but once it does come on, without relief, it will drive you crazy. I know this is what happened because it happened to me years ago and I did almost exactly what she did only I did not cause an accident and ended up in emergency room for pain.
25 years and you don’t know that the defining factor of alcoholism is if alcohol has EVER caused a problem? Once is enough, especially in this instance.
…lie much?
Hey, Harry here never said he was actually *good* at his job. In fact, he seems to be rather shitty at it.
I got your back, Harrison.
WHO CARES HOW CRAPPY HER CHILDHOOD WAS?!? Many people come from crappy broken childhoods, and they don’t kill anyone. STOP USING THAT AS AN EXCUSE!!!!! You can NEVER justify drinking and driving…EVER!!!
Absolutely! Since she felt she had to be super-human as the article mentions maybe she felt “super-human” when she was drinking and drugging. The saddest thing for me in this is that one of the kids called home to tell someone they were scared of their Aunt’s driving. That just makes me sick. What super-human person does that?? No excuse is right, no matter what the circumstances are….we all have problems and we all don’t go out and get boozed up and kill an entire clan of children. When will people like her husband learn that WE as human beings have to take responsibility for our actions no matter how horrible those actions are. I think that is all I am going to say without knowing more about the situation. I do hope all who lost their lives are able to rest in peace.
Has anyone tracked down her weed dealer? It would seem they would have a few stories to share.
Daniel Schuler speaks only in nouns, rarely in complete sentences, and rarely includes verbs. He appears to be lacking in critical thinking skills, and seems stunted somehow….as if he learned at an early age not to open his mouth too much so as to not let on that he’s not very bright. BTW, I doubt that Jay Schuler really got the irony of what she said in the documentary regarding her family not knowing that she smokes.
A few things about the documentary. When Daniel Schuler was on Larry King he was asked about the tooth! He then says that Dominic Barbara knows more about that then he does. How the hell does Babara know more about Dianes tooth then him? My quess is when they had their ridiculous press conference Barbara was flying out all these absurd medical conditions out of pure bullshit. What about the lump on her leg that was moving? Never mentioned in the documentary! What happened to the fucking Anbesol theory?
The family by their own admission states Diane was a POTHEAD.Daniel admits it but denies that she smoked that weekend, which we all know SHE DID! Who was Dianes pot supplier? Surely there are people that know the answer to that question.
So if any of those people that know the answers, why don’t you come forward and tell us all? Mr. Ruskin stated that he told Daniel Schuler April 2010 about the test results, yet Daniel is claiming that Ruskin just “dissappeared”. Daniel Sculer in order to continue his cover-up of his dead wife pretended through-out the whole documentary that he had no idea about the retesting! If he fessed up it would of jeoperdized his HBO money.
Remember the “where did the vodka bottle come from”? He had no idea…Jay Schuler said “not true”. Daniel later admits they drank that weekend. Just as we know that people know about Dianes drug connections there are also people that know where she purchased her liquor from. You didn’t see any investigation for any of those two factors! Again where was Danny Thursday night when he so clearly stated he went up to the campground Thursday only to get cought in a lie with his ezpass records. Did HBO challange him on that ? NO.
I have got to believe that most of the answers were on that last 8 minute phone call…all hell broke out that weekend..Daniel Schuler will never fess up. Unless someone finally has the balls to come forward and summit the true evidence of the life of Diane Schuler and the habits she had..we must keep digging. There are true facts yet to be revealed,witnesses yet to have spoken. We can only hope.
It doesn’t need to be proven who her pot supplier was, or where she bought alcohol. It’s in the toxicology report that she was drunk and stoned.
How does obtaining where she bought the booze and pot help this case?
8 people are dead. None of us are going to know for sure why. Was she that platered to drive the wrong way on a freeway? Did alcohol and pot trigger some kind of psychologial episode? Is it something no one has figured out yet?
Let’s stick with the facts. She was drunk. Incoherent (unable to dial her cell phone and left it on the side of the road) and speeding the wrong way on a freeway and now 8 are dead. Period.
To find the real facts like her buying the pot and vodka is one step to stop the total bullshit of how Diane was so perfect…got that? Perfect mothers don’t murder their children! Her family are all so “SURPRISED”
my fuckin ass.
They all chose to LIE…Maybe her drug dealer is someone close to her,
since the documentary only spoke to people who claim she was perfect obviously there are people that know how fucked up she was.
They are still enabling her even in death, how fucking pathetic.
Unless it’s a close family member buying her pot/booze, finding out which low-level drug dealer she saw and which liquor store she frequented will only verify that she did, in fact, smoke pot and drink more than Daniel is willing to admit to. And since most everyone has gotten pretty good at realizing everything he says is total bullshit I don’t think it’s horribly necessary to find her dealer/liquor supplier.
Yes it would be helpful to find her drug and alcohol sources. If you were able to locate where she bought her alcohol, you might find that she bought alcohol daily or By large quantities. If her pot supplier came forward with quantities that she bought, you might find that she was buying quantities that would allow her to smoke several joints daily. You might also find that she bought other types of drugs too. All of this would help to find out how much she drank or smoked. It will never bring back the dead but it could show how imperfect she truly was.
In reply to Johnny, speaking as a recovering alcoholic with a high profile career in a relatively small town (< 70, 000) there are surely people who knew I was under the influence at times, but I was also pretty careful not to buy booze from the same place more frequently than once a week and when possible (like at the grocery or big box stores) I bought other innocuous items to make a bottle of wine or hard alcohol seem like an "incidental" purchase. I mean, I really put energy into what people saw…I'm sure Diane did too.
Knowing her supply source will not very much enlighten us as to why she made such a crazy, unacceptable choice that day.
Also, it's pretty easy for emotionally sick people to hide behind the facade of busy, successful, working mother with two toddlers. (been there, done that; drunk and sober)
This is in response to Scrappy, I am also a friend of Bill W. nice to meet you. Actually there are lots of people that visit these board that know him. With that being said, I completely understand what you mean about hiding what others saw. Man, to get my DOC(pain killers) I’ve came up with many many different ways to lie/manipulate/deceive people and we become the master of manipulation.
I am in no way what so ever excusing Diane but what I am saying is that sometimes alcoholics/addicts hide/manipulate the people that was closest to them. If you never knew anything of a past/present drug/alcohol problem then they can easily fool you. Trust me I’ve done it many times, even when my family knew that I had a previous problem, I convinced them that I wasn’t using/drinking. Sometimes is hard to distinguish between the addict/alcoholics lies, after all they are great manipulators.
Thank you CRASH32! This is what I have been saying! Who cares about a pain in her tooth, leg or whever! FACTS ARE FACTS! EVERYONE CLOSE TO HER NEEDS TO STOP BEING IN DENIAL AND FACE THAT EITHER SHE WAS AN CLOSET ALCHOHOLIC/POTHEAD or THEY ABSOLUTELY KNEW SHE WAS BUT ARE TRYING TO COVER IT UP! OBVIOUSLY THIS WOMAN OR THE FAMILY WAS LYING! A HUGE BOTTLE OF VODKA IN THE CAR, SMOKING POT 15MIN -1 HOUR BEFORE THE CRASH! HER ADDICTION OVERCAME HER ON THAT DAY! THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED! END OF STORY! I HOPE SHE IS ROTTING IN HELL.
very well said — you covered it all and quite clear about what motivates the deaf dumb and blind who actually held out for the HBO rewards. Can’t blame HBO or interviewer who I’d heard only granted access to husband and sister-in-law by promising restrictive and obviously misleading slant if not full conclusion–and that stinks almost as much as greed and denial. Denial may have served to protect but long-since took over and destroyed any remains of a moral compass — husband needs serious help but followed by gag order. Sadly, his son stands to lose the most with a father who can’t be man enough to accept what stares him right in the face–God bless all of these true victims as he becomes an accessory as if he shared the wheel with his wife… thanks for all these very good comments–why can’t somebody get through to that thick headed baby.
anyone notice that in the Doc. they said she uses her maiden name Hance on her voicemail? I thought that was a little odd. seems this lady had a lot of problems. so sad.
This is just disgusting.
What is wrong with this entire family? Diane made a stupid, selfish, heartless, idiotic CHOICE! Nobody forced alcohol down her throat. She was fully aware she had a van full of CHILDREN. She chose not to care, for whatever reason, and killed 7 innocent people.
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHY.
Its obvious that her family doesn’t want to believe she just didn’t care. But those are the FACTS. She could have called family to pick the kids up if she was in pain. Or if she wanted to drink. There is no evidence of anything medically being wrong with her. She just CHOSE to put herself and her wants above everyone else, and this was the outcome.
I’m appalled at the husband. Your selfish bitch of a wife took their whole lives away! Can you imagine coming home to an empty house everyday, after being used to it being filled? He at least has one left!
Its the faulty CARS fault? Yes. Because the CAR got too drunk and high and drove itself onto the wrong way of a highway. Dianne was just an innocent victim. If there had been more SIGNS, the CAR could have realized it was going the wrong way, and turned around. Jesus. What a piece of shit this guy is. He belongs in hell right beside his perfect wife. ………………………and that alcoholic, drug addict car.
Seriously, right on! I have been following this story since it first happened. Diane may have been a perfect person nearly everyday of her life but none of that matters now. 7 people are dead because of her shitty decisions. Face it your wife is a slefish murderer man! Leave what’s left of the Hance family alone!
I must admit that i watched this HBO program… and i thought OMG what was wrong with this woman.. i really thought that she had some medical problem..i felt terror to be honest.. thats what HBO made you think… i couldnt believe that a woman got in her car with all those tiny children and did what she did…i couldnt drink 10 shots of vodka and smoke…. even if i had a headache or toothache.. i wouldnt have been able to drive in the first place.. if i was in so much pain all i would want to do is be in my bed… she looked fine when she went into the petrol station … she wasnt walkin like a person who was drunk..or stoned…i feel so sorry for the people who died… and all the families they left behind.. such a terrible loss… but i think this… she may have had a drink problem.. or a drug problem… but i really think the truth lies with daniel… your a scum bag (by the way)… for trying to sue the father of the children your wife killed…. your a disgustin piece of human garbage..i really wonder what your wifes life was like with you…
Not only that, also, this piece of shit is sueing the driver of the trailblazer that his pig dead wife also murdered…Can’t wait till your ass is dragged to court Danny Boy! I hope they depose you for the liar you really are!
i must have gone for over an hour and a half with blinkers on i swear… i cant believe it to be honest… im still in shock that a woman A WOMAN could get in a car with tiny little kids… drive down the wrong way down a highway with her little daughter and son… 3 of her beautifull brothers children and 3 wonderful men who were just on their way home to their familys who loved them… its all so terrible so awful and so sad my heart aches….. and then you have a total ARSEHOLE…. Trying to make money out of it… what has this world come to for gods sake
I can’t stop thinking about the poor children. They were in the back of that minivan, and at the very least the 8 year old would have KNOWN they were going the wrong way EXTREMELY fast. That’s what makes me sick, knowing the kids were scared absolutely to death.
closet blogger:
Since I actually contributed to the story that Daniel is suing the Bastardis by repeating something I read, I must confess that I actually can’t confirm this information in the court records. My bad.
If anyone can confirm that Daniel is actually suing the estate of Guy Bastardi, I would appreciate the clarification.
Also, I’ve read some legal blogs wherein lawyers discuss the six lawsuits currently on the dockets, and most say that they don’t believe Daniel’s suits against New York State and the Hances have a chance of making it to a jury. They predict they will be thrown out of court as frivolous.
They point out that the state actually acted very quickly to reinforce the already adequate signage on the Taconic Parkway off-ramp that Diane used to access the road.
The New York Times reported that:
“On Aug. 7, (2009), the state installed “Wrong Way” signs about 100 feet down the long exit ramp that Ms. Schuler used to enter the parkway. Ms. Ackerman called the existing signage — two “Do Not Enter” signs and two “One Way” signs — “proper” and “fully in compliance” with state guidelines. But the new signs will “enhance drivers’ perception of existing traffic patterns,” she said.”
The actual speed limit on the portion of the Taconic Parkway where the accident occurred is 55 MPH. Some lawyers think that the “inevitable” award to the Bastardis might be somewhat reduced because it was verified that Guy Bastardi was traveling at 74 MPH at the time of impact.
The Bastardis actually filed suit on December 10, 2009, so that lawsuit has been around awhile. Jackie and Daniel filed their suits shortly before the two-year statute of limitations on “wrongful death” expired.
Here you go…
Another Claim in Wrong-Way Deaths of 8
By MONA R. LITT AND BARBARA LEONARD
ShareThis
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CN) – The husband of a woman who killed herself and seven other people, including four children, driving drunk and stoned the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway, has sued the estate of the man his wife crashed into and killed. Daniel Schuler also sued his brother-in-law, whose car Schuler’s late wife was driving and who lost his three daughters in the 2009 crash.
Diane Schuler, a 36-year-old Long Island mother, drove nearly 2 miles in the wrong direction on the Taconic Parkway on July 26, 2009, before crashing head-on into another car, killing everyone in both cars except Schuler’s 5-year-old son.
Schuler died with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces, ages 5, 7 and 9. Guy Bastardi, 49, was driving the other car, accompanied by his father, Michael, 81, and their friend, Daniel Longo, 74.
Toxicology reports indicate that Schuler had drunk 10 shots of liquor and had smoked marijuana. Investigators found a shattered vodka bottle in the wreckage. Schuler was driving the family to her home on Long Island after a weekend camping trip.
Schuler had borrowed a car belonging to her brother, Warren Hance, whose three young daughters all died in the crash.
Now Schuler’s husband, Daniel, on behalf of his dead daughter and the son who survived the crash, has sued the Office of the Suffolk County Public Administrator, as court-appointed administrator of his late wife’s estate. He also sued Hance and Roseann Guzzo, executrix for the Bastardis.
Bryan, now 7, is permanently disabled with severe injuries to his eyes, arm and legs, according to the 8-page complaint.
The complaint in Suffolk County Court claims that Diane Schuler and Bastardi were both driving recklessly on July 26.
Schuler says both drivers were in an “inappropriate physical condition and state of mind” and driving at “a dangerous, unlawful and excessive rate of speed.” Schuler also claims that each car was “in a state of disrepair.”
He seeks damages for funeral expenses and medical bills.
Criminal charges were never filed. Prosecutors said at the time that the charges died with Schuler.
The Schulers are represented by Kevin Grennan of Garden City.
Months after the crash, the Bastardis’ estate sued Schuler’s estate and Hance.
ABC News reported that Hance’s wife, Jackie, sued Daniel Schuler this week, the day after Schuler filed his lawsuit.
After the accident, Daniel Schuler defended his wife’s innocence and disputed the results of the toxicology report, claiming his wife did not abuse drugs and alcohol.
HBO this week aired a documentary about the crash, called “There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane.” The phrase is said to be the last words spoken by Hance’s 2-year-old daughter, Emma, when she called home just before the accident.
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Anyone know the penalty for driving 19 MPH over the limit in New York? Best I can find is $175-$385. That’s what any reward, if it is reduced for speeding, should be reduced by. I doubt they would have lived if Guy Bastardi had been driving at 55 mph. I doubt things would have been much different if both of them had been going at 55 mph. And as for the cars being in ‘disrepair’- unless one of the vehicles was accellorating out of control (doubtful) with no brakes to speak of, I think stopping was an option in those two miles for Diane.
KateTwo, I read that Daniel was suing the Bastardi estate also. Here’s the article:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/07/29/38574.htm
Ah, closet blogger beat me to it :). That’ll teach me to read without having enough coffee in my system.
Hi Kat,
I think the authors of this article may have been confused about exactly who is suing who . Although I believed them when I first read the article, I can find no confirmation of this lawsuit.
I’ve written the authors for clarification and if I hear back, I’ll post what they say. :)
Thank you, closet blogger.
This is the exact article that I read (that I took as gospel) when I reported that Daniel was suing the estate of Guy Bastardi.
However, it’s the only reference I can find to this particular lawsuit. I think that’s peculiar based on the plaintiff’s gigantic hubris in filing such a lawsuit. I would think that the legal community would be talking endlessly about his audacity.
I have truly read extensively about the Taconic court cases, and there’s no additional mention of this particular case. I find that odd.
I even searched all 257 “Schuler” plaintiffs listed on the New York State Unified Court System’s website. It’s possible, however, that the case hasn’t been assigned a case number.
I could contact the authors’ and/or their publication to request a source for their story. If I find anything, I’ll let you know.
It’s also possible that the authors of this story just got confused about who was suing who. I’ve seen many inaccuracies in stories written about the tragedy, this might be one of them, I don’t know.
But I want to find out. If anyone can confirm the story that closet blogger so generously found for us, I’m all ears. I’ll keep trying.
One thing I noticed about the gas station video, is how quickly she drove the van out of the parking lot. The van is nearly on two wheels when she spins it around, and then you can see she slams on the brakes as she tries to get back onto the highway. My gut reaction to seeing it, is it reminded me of someone who was driving while highly agitated.
Oh my goodness, I thought I was the only once that noticed that!!! YES!!! YES!!! She was already in a bad place!!!
This is what I think happened,
They were partying pretty heavily the night before, and they probably argued and it probably got nasty and out of control.
The next morning she was hung over, and on the ride home drank the rest of the vodka, 1/2 the bottle, then started looking to buy more, and stopped at the Sunoco station. In the documentry you see her fly into the parking lot storm into the store, walk to the end of the isle turn around walk back to the cashier and ask for something.
I’m thinking she said, “do you sell vodka?” No mam only beer, which you can see behind her, some kind of ultra light.
She leaves the store pissed even more now, and drives away on 2 wheels.
Then as far as the reason she got off the highway? To find an open liquor store. Then gets lost for a while, gets back on track goes through the too booth, pulls over gets out and tells the kids to stay in the car.
She went over to the jersey barrier and smoked a joint.
Now she is all fucked up, 11 oz of vodka, the weed, then drives away forgetting her phone on the barrier.
She sees what she thought was an on ramp and proceeds in the wrong direction, and we all know what happens next.
The whole family knew she was an alkie, thats why when they called 911 they were already covering it up, saying she had a medical emergency….. BULLSHIT!! They knew she was drunk right then, it was right after she was talking to her brother, calling him Dan, the stupid drunk bitch.
Rot in hell you fat fucking CUNT!!!!
I think you might be on to something.
Just doing a quick search, it looks like she might not have been able to buy liquor at that gas station that day. Just looking at the NY liquor laws, which I admit are a bit confusing, it seems like liquor sales are restricted until noon on Sundays, though beer can be bought after 8.
What I believe happened is a whole different story. I don’t have a clue why neither Tom Ruskin (investigator working for Daniel Schuler? yeah, right.) or the NYS police want this to be known. Diane Schuler, with the children, was missing for what, about 4 hours? I know where she was. Tom Ruskin has this information too. He told me he would send someone up to investigate. He never did. He said I shouldn’t talk to anyone about this. The New York State Police received a report at the Mayfield Barracks. What did they do with it? Nothing? Why would that be?
Fact – Diane Schuler left the campground with the children around 9:30 am. Fact – She took them to McDonalds for breakfast. The video clip made public from McDonalds shows her there. That IS Diane Schuler. The children told me they had breakfast at McDonalds. The Video clip from the gas station IS NOT Diane Schuler. This woman is somewhat larger, heavier,with a different hairstyle than Diane Schuler had that day, and wearing different clothing. Diane Schuler could not have been in that gas station at that time, She was in our store in Vail Mills, NY. She was wearing black or navy blue shorts, a pale pink t-shirt, a short black zippered hooded jacket (which she took off and put in the van shortly after she arrived) and sneakers. They arrived at our store around 11:30 am, just after I got there and were my 1st customers that day. She looked around at the pieces displayed on the porch for a bit while the 3 girls and bryan went inside. Emma kept coming to the door and saying “Aunt Diane! You’ve got to come in and see this!” Diane said that she would love to look around inside but her baby was sleeping in the van and she wasn’t comfortable leaving her out there alone. I told her that I would watch over the baby while she looked around and I stayed on the porch while she went inside. Bryan soon spotted a handpainted box filled with candy and said “Wow Mom! look at this! Can we buy it?” She said ” Aw, Byran, you just want the candy.” and he said “Yep” and ran out the door to the porch. Bryan turned around and ran right back in and said “Can I go out and watch Mom?” (We had 3 chainsaw carvers working in the yard at the time). She asked me if it was o.k. for him to go out there and I took him over to a safe watching place and asked my husband to watch out for him. I went back to the porch and Diane and the girls were picking out something for a gift for Danny. I heard them saying “Uncle Danny will really like that.” she asked Emma to go check on Erin while she made her purchase and the girls went out and Emma said that she was still sleeping and they sat on the steps to the porch near the van while Diane finished up inside. We talked for a bit after we had completed the transaction. Diane told me about some artwork she had created some years ago and asked how we managed to make a living as artists. I asked her if she believes in God and she said “Oh yes, where would we be without him.” “That’s how we manage” I said, “We don’t have much money but we have all that we need.” So, I am sorry if I am dissappointing anyone but I don’t believe that Diane Schuler is a “person you will see in hell”. Before she left I asked her if I could give the kids some honey candy that we would hand out to our customers. I told her that I thought it was made from raw honey. She said they would like that and I gave them each 2 pieces. Then I asked her if she would like some. She told me that she was very allergic to bees and asked if I thought it would hurt her. I said that if I was in doubt I wouldn’t try it as raw honey can be dangerous to someone allergic to bees. She said ” Oh, I’ve had honey lots of times. this won’t hurt me.” She took one and put it in her mouth and said “Oh, these are good.” I gave her a whole handful and told her to put them in her purse, they had a long ride home. As she was leaving the store I walked out with her carrying the gift she had bought for her husband. She then asked if I knew how far it was to the Taconic Parkway. I told her that leaving there we could be at the Taconic in about an hour give or take a bit according to traffic near Albany. She said to Emma “See it’s not that far. We’ll make it back in time for you” Then her phone rang and she told the person calling that she had been caught in traffic and they would be there soon and everything was fine. She said it was her brother and he was worried because they hadn’t arrived yet. She said that she didn’t know why she had felt that they had to come up to our place that day but that she just knew they had to come there and she was glad they did. Then everybody got into the van, Allyson and Bryan argued a little bit about who should hold the present they bought for Danny and Diane told them to take turns. It was just about noon then. They were all happy, Diane and the children were all happy. The girls had said that they had had a great time camping and were going to go again. I had just spent a good amount of time face to face with Diane Schuler and I know that she was not drunk and had not been drinking and she was not stoned. And none of the children were at that time even a little bit concerned about traveling with Aunt Diane. As she was getting in the van she noticed there was a liquor store next door. She asked me if I thought they were open yet. I looked at my watch and told they should be opening right about now. She said, and I am quoting her words, ” Danny likes to have a drink when he gets home from work and he is out of vodka. This is good, I won’t have to stop again later. We can just go home.” She drove over and parked by the liquor store and ran in and I watched the van with the kids in it from our yard until she came back out. I saw her tuck her package underneath the seat before she got in. And that is exactly where they found it, exploded from the heat because it was still sealed. Did anybody notice that it took them several days to find it there under the seat? The bottle was still where I had seen her put it when she came out of the store. Why doesn’t Mr. Ruskin want me to tell anyone this? And why did I feel threatened talking to him. Did anybody notice that it wasn’t until they found that broken bottle underneath the seat that everyone started calling her the drunk mom? Did anyone notice that her autopsy report stated her weight as 205 lbs. No way is that right. I think 150 is about right, 170 at the most. The only time Diane Schuler might have weighed 205 lbs. is pregnant and having gestational diabeties. I think that Daniel Schuler had good reason to doubt that report. Does anyone remember that there were 2 wrong way accidents on the Taconic that weekend? Why did we not hear anything about the other one except one radio news caster mentioning it one time? Why can’t I find any information on the internet about that one? I didn’t know Diane Schuler. I won’t say that I had never met her before because I had. A few months before that she had been driving by while working and pulled into our parking lot to see what we were about. She didn’t stay but 5 minutes and didn’t look inside the store but told us her name and said she would be coming back. And she did. On July 26th. She wrote me a check that day for her purchases, but Thomas Ruskin told me that he checked her bank records and no check made out to me came back to her bank. But I had no problems being paid for the check. The money came from somewhere. Diane told me that she was very allergic to bees, but Mr Ruskin said he checked that out with her family and they said she was not. Well, I believe her. And I have zero doubt about whom I was talking to that day. What do I think was “wrong with Aunt Diane”? She had an allergic reaction to the candy that I gave her and went into anaphylactic shock. I know from experience what that is like. First your mouth feels funny and your throat starts to close. Then your lungs and your stomach fill with fluid and you vomit, alot. you can’t speak and your blood pressure drops. You see white spots flashing in front of you eyes, more and more of them until you can’t see anything but white. cool air blowing in your face might help clear your vision a little bit, for a minute. Your head is pounding and your ears are roaring. You can’t breath anymore and you can’t vomit because your throat has swollen shut now so you are suffocating and drowning at the same time. And it happens just abouit that fast. You need help right now. You need a shot right now!. You are on the road with a car full of children. What do you do? You can’t think over the noise and pain in your head. Help is not going to get to you in time. You can’t even speak to tell someone you need help. Do you let the children watch you die right there on the highway and hope that the first person to come along is a good person? and that they don’t get out of the vehicle and hit by a car? Or do you think you might make it to a hospital and safety.
What I believe happened is a whole different story. I don’t have a clue why neither Tom Ruskin (investigator working for Daniel Schuler? yeah, right.) or the NYS police want this to be known. Diane Schuler, with the children, was missing for what, about 4 hours? I know where she was. Tom Ruskin has this information too. He told me he would send someone up to investigate. He never did. He said I shouldn’t talk to anyone about this. The New York State Police received a report at the Mayfield Barracks. What did they do with it? Nothing? Why would that be?
Fact – Diane Schuler left the campground with the children around 9:30 am. Fact – She took them to McDonalds for breakfast. The video clip made public from McDonalds shows her there. That IS Diane Schuler. The children told me they had breakfast at McDonalds. The Video clip from the gas station IS NOT Diane Schuler. This woman is somewhat larger, heavier,with a different hairstyle than Diane Schuler had that day, and wearing different clothing. Diane Schuler could not have been in that gas station at that time, She was in our store in Vail Mills, NY. She was wearing black or navy blue shorts, a pale pink t-shirt, a short black zippered hooded jacket (which she took off and put in the van shortly after she arrived) and sneakers. They arrived at our store around 11:30 am, just after I got there and were my 1st customers that day. She looked around at the pieces displayed on the porch for a bit while the 3 girls and bryan went inside. Emma kept coming to the door and saying “Aunt Diane! You’ve got to come in and see this!” Diane said that she would love to look around inside but her baby was sleeping in the van and she wasn’t comfortable leaving her out there alone. I told her that I would watch over the baby while she looked around and I stayed on the porch while she went inside. Bryan soon spotted a handpainted box filled with candy and said “Wow Mom! look at this! Can we buy it?” She said ” Aw, Byran, you just want the candy.” and he said “Yep” and ran out the door to the porch. Bryan turned around and ran right back in and said “Can I go out and watch Mom?” (We had 3 chainsaw carvers working in the yard at the time). She asked me if it was o.k. for him to go out there and I took him over to a safe watching place and asked my husband to watch out for him. I went back to the porch and Diane and the girls were picking out something for a gift for Danny. I heard them saying “Uncle Danny will really like that.” she asked Emma to go check on Erin while she made her purchase and the girls went out and Emma said that she was still sleeping and they sat on the steps to the porch near the van while Diane finished up inside. We talked for a bit after we had completed the transaction. Diane told me about some artwork she had created some years ago and asked how we managed to make a living as artists. I asked her if she believes in God and she said “Oh yes, where would we be without him.” “That’s how we manage” I said, “We don’t have much money but we have all that we need.” So, I am sorry if I am dissappointing anyone but I don’t believe that Diane Schuler is a “person you will see in hell”. Before she left I asked her if I could give the kids some honey candy that we would hand out to our customers. I told her that I thought it was made from raw honey. She said they would like that and I gave them each 2 pieces. Then I asked her if she would like some. She told me that she was very allergic to bees and asked if I thought it would hurt her. I said that if I was in doubt I wouldn’t try it as raw honey can be dangerous to someone allergic to bees. She said ” Oh, I’ve had honey lots of times. this won’t hurt me.” She took one and put it in her mouth and said “Oh, these are good.” I gave her a whole handful and told her to put them in her purse, they had a long ride home. As she was leaving the store I walked out with her carrying the gift she had bought for her husband. She then asked if I knew how far it was to the Taconic Parkway. I told her that leaving there we could be at the Taconic in about an hour give or take a bit according to traffic near Albany. She said to Emma “See it’s not that far. We’ll make it back in time for you” Then her phone rang and she told the person calling that she had been caught in traffic and they would be there soon and everything was fine. She said it was her brother and he was worried because they hadn’t arrived yet. She said that she didn’t know why she had felt that they had to come up to our place that day but that she just knew they had to come there and she was glad they did. Then everybody got into the van, Allyson and Bryan argued a little bit about who should hold the present they bought for Danny and Diane told them to take turns. It was just about noon then. They were all happy, Diane and the children were all happy. The girls had said that they had had a great time camping and were going to go again. I had just spent a good amount of time face to face with Diane Schuler and I know that she was not drunk and had not been drinking and she was not stoned. And none of the children were at that time even a little bit concerned about traveling with Aunt Diane. As she was getting in the van she noticed there was a liquor store next door. She asked me if I thought they were open yet. I looked at my watch and told they should be opening right about now. She said, and I am quoting her words, ” Danny likes to have a drink when he gets home from work and he is out of vodka. This is good, I won’t have to stop again later. We can just go home.” She drove over and parked by the liquor store and ran in and I watched the van with the kids in it from our yard until she came back out. I saw her tuck her package underneath the seat before she got in. And that is exactly where they found it, exploded from the heat because it was still sealed. Did anybody notice that it took them several days to find it there under the seat? The bottle was still where I had seen her put it when she came out of the store. Why doesn’t Mr. Ruskin want me to tell anyone this? And why did I feel threatened talking to him. Did anybody notice that it wasn’t until they found that broken bottle underneath the seat that everyone started calling her the drunk mom? Did anyone notice that her autopsy report stated her weight as 205 lbs. No way is that right. I think 150 is about right, 170 at the most. The only time Diane Schuler might have weighed 205 lbs. is pregnant and having gestational diabeties. I think that Daniel Schuler had good reason to doubt that report. Does anyone remember that there were 2 wrong way accidents on the Taconic that weekend? Why did we not hear anything about the other one except one radio news caster mentioning it one time? Why can’t I find any information on the internet about that one? I didn’t know Diane Schuler. I won’t say that I had never met her before because I had. A few months before that she had been driving by while working and pulled into our parking lot to see what we were about. She didn’t stay but 5 minutes and didn’t look inside the store but told us her name and said she would be coming back. And she did. On July 26th. She wrote me a check that day for her purchases, but Thomas Ruskin told me that he checked her bank records and no check made out to me came back to her bank. But I had no problems being paid for the check. The money came from somewhere. Diane told me that she was very allergic to bees, but Mr Ruskin said he checked that out with her family and they said she was not. Well, I believe her. And I have zero doubt about whom I was talking to that day. What do I think was “wrong with Aunt Diane”? She had an allergic reaction to the candy that I gave her and went into anaphylactic shock. I know from experience what that is like. First your mouth feels funny and your throat starts to close. Then your lungs and your stomach fill with fluid and you vomit, alot. you can’t speak and your blood pressure drops. You see white spots flashing in front of you eyes, more and more of them until you can’t see anything but white. cool air blowing in your face might help clear your vision a little bit, for a minute. Your head is pounding and your ears are roaring. You can’t breath anymore and you can’t vomit because your throat has swollen shut now so you are suffocating and drowning at the same time. And it happens just abouit that fast. You need help right now. You need a shot right now!. You are on the road with a car full of children. What do you do? You can’t think over the noise and pain in your head. Help is not going to get to you in time. You can’t even speak to tell someone you need help. Do you let the children watch you die right there on the highway and hope that the first person to come along is a good person? and that they don’t get out of the vehicle and hit by a car? Or do you think you might make it to a hospital and safety……
I can’t keep track of the most recent thread here….
She cut her mother out of her life 27 years ago and never mentioned her to anyone. She got married and didn’t invite her mother (though pictures of her with her father exist), had children, yet her mother never met her grandchildren and she deprived her children of their grandmother. That may have been fine when the kids were very small, but they were getting a bit older, 2 and 5. What if the nieces, who were a few years older, were talking about grandma over the weekend, her kids would also be curious. They would not know Diane’s issues with this, it would be innocent children speaking. She could have been confronted with an obstacle she could not surmount, how to deal with her own kids asking about her mother. What would she say? She would have to come up with some explaination. It would bring it all back to her. The nieces could have been talking about some great time they had with grandma, or that they were going to see her soon, or anything about her in apositive loving way. This inevitable situation was a ticking time bomb in Diane’s life, she knew the day would come when she would have to allow her children the free will to see their grandmother; perhaps she could not face this reality.
Maybe Diane’s mother was to attend the upcoming play or dance recital or whatever it was they were talking about getting tickets for in the documentary. I mean how long could Diane’s whole family indulge her personal struggles? They must have put up with it at her wedding and other family functions if her mother did have a relationship with the rest of the family. It would take some juggling to always have to work around that issue to keep worlds from colliding. Maybe she told her brother he couldn’t invite their mother to the play and he stood up to her, not wanting to indulge her demands any longer.
Also, in the documentary Danny says he got a call to go to the hospital and that was the first he heard of anything. But on the police call, you can hear Warren Hance talking to Danny asking in a panic for information on Diane’s cell phone, so he was well in the loop already. It was telling that her cell phone was in the name Hance, as well as her voicemail saying Diane Hance. This was after being with Danny for 13 years and married for ’6 or 7 years’? This suggests she did not take him too seriously as a husband to say your name as Hance on your voicemail and that her loyalty was with her family and her father, whose surname name it is. In fact, it was Warren and his father who went out looking for her that day, Danny was home with his dog.
Hello Fuzzy Wuzzy,
The “most recent threads” here are spread out over five threads. I responded to your interesting theory on another thread.
It’s hard to keep things straight because of the high volume of comments due to the publicity hit for the website within the documentary. I’ve missed some interesting discussions here because I was on a different thread.
that makes a lot of sense, but it is sad that no one (well maybe the son might remember at some point) will really know why..
Very insightful Fuzzy Wuzzy. I agree. I have a theory: I’m wondering if perhaps Diane and her huband were seperating and just did not make it known to the family yet. The reason being is because like you had mentioned, why would her voicemail have her maiden name. Also, during the ride home when she started calling people, she never once called her husband. That’s odd….On top of that, why wasn’t her husband calling the police department? Instead her brother was? Plus, Diane was drivig for four hours! Wouldn’t you think her husband would’ve called her to see why she was taking so long? He never did! I really think she was having marital problems and her alcohol/drug abuse was getting worse and either he (her husband) knew and is covering it up or truly had no clue. AFterall, they worked totally different shifts. They were like two ships passing in the night. She could’ve been getting away with a lot and he would have had no idea.
I’ve pretty much figured that he was useless, and maybe she was sick of him. Maybe the thought of a broken home was too much for her to bear, in her ‘perfect world’, and this was a way that she could hurt him, her mother, and everyone that ‘failed’ her? Or, maybe she was just a selfish bitch who got snockered and stoned because she couldn’t handle her self-imposed pressure.
Either way, her husband is a PIG, and I sincerely hope that the other two families sue him before they lose the chance. They’ll get f-all, but at least it will prevent him from laying around getting larger on someone else’s dime anymore.
Ok, I can understand some bills still being in the maiden name…some of mine are in my maiden name because I never went to get my name changed legally yet…and I’ve been married 3 years, together for 6. I’ve just been lazy. However, everyone knows me as my married name- my email, facebook, phone ALL say my married name. Her SAYING her name was still Hance indicates that she either just didn’t want to take his name, or that they were broken up. Probably something she did over the weekend.
Been working for 55 years, married for 30 and use my maiden name for business. Why? Because I never bothered to change it, my stocks, my IRA, License,etc. Love my family and husband more than my own life, and my choice of names is a decision my husband and I agreed upon. Diane may have been a wacko but pls people, her choice of names is not the reason 8 people died. She had problems that were known and are hidden by hubby. He should take a polygraph test! He is a liar, a loser, and a big spoiled baby. U wonder why she drank? DANNY is the answer.
and please dont think for one minute that her releationship with her mother was the cause of her problem… my mother left me and my 2 sisters and 1 brother when we were tiny children… and to say we didnt have the best of lives is and understatment we have battled lots of things in our lives but still managed to be good honest human beings…
This may be the dumbest thing Danny has done to date. Of course, Warren and Jackie Hance have no choice but to countersue, or bring a cause of action of their own. Danny will have to testify, with no sleazy mouthpiece to cover for him. Perjury penalities apply, and the burden of proof is different in a civil case. No reasonable doubt, just a preponderance of the evidence presented. Perhaps the Bastardi and Longo families will get the answers they so well deserve once all the witnesses, including the Hances, tell all they know under oath.
I totally agree.
I think Danny’s pride will supersede any oath in his mind. I wouldn’t believe him, even under oath. Honor means nothing to the pig.
Danny will lie under oath. People lie under oath all the time.
Another Claim in Wrong-Way Deaths of 8
By MONA R. LITT AND BARBARA LEONARD
ShareThis
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CN) – The husband of a woman who killed herself and seven other people, including four children, driving drunk and stoned the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway, has sued the estate of the man his wife crashed into and killed. Daniel Schuler also sued his brother-in-law, whose car Schuler’s late wife was driving and who lost his three daughters in the 2009 crash.
Diane Schuler, a 36-year-old Long Island mother, drove nearly 2 miles in the wrong direction on the Taconic Parkway on July 26, 2009, before crashing head-on into another car, killing everyone in both cars except Schuler’s 5-year-old son.
Schuler died with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces, ages 5, 7 and 9. Guy Bastardi, 49, was driving the other car, accompanied by his father, Michael, 81, and their friend, Daniel Longo, 74.
Toxicology reports indicate that Schuler had drunk 10 shots of liquor and had smoked marijuana. Investigators found a shattered vodka bottle in the wreckage. Schuler was driving the family to her home on Long Island after a weekend camping trip.
Schuler had borrowed a car belonging to her brother, Warren Hance, whose three young daughters all died in the crash.
Now Schuler’s husband, Daniel, on behalf of his dead daughter and the son who survived the crash, has sued the Office of the Suffolk County Public Administrator, as court-appointed administrator of his late wife’s estate. He also sued Hance and Roseann Guzzo, executrix for the Bastardis.
Bryan, now 7, is permanently disabled with severe injuries to his eyes, arm and legs, according to the 8-page complaint.
The complaint in Suffolk County Court claims that Diane Schuler and Bastardi were both driving recklessly on July 26.
Schuler says both drivers were in an “inappropriate physical condition and state of mind” and driving at “a dangerous, unlawful and excessive rate of speed.” Schuler also claims that each car was “in a state of disrepair.”
He seeks damages for funeral expenses and medical bills.
Criminal charges were never filed. Prosecutors said at the time that the charges died with Schuler.
The Schulers are represented by Kevin Grennan of Garden City.
Months after the crash, the Bastardis’ estate sued Schuler’s estate and Hance.
ABC News reported that Hance’s wife, Jackie, sued Daniel Schuler this week, the day after Schuler filed his lawsuit.
After the accident, Daniel Schuler defended his wife’s innocence and disputed the results of the toxicology report, claiming his wife did not abuse drugs and alcohol.
HBO this week aired a documentary about the crash, called “There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane.” The phrase is said to be the last words spoken by Hance’s 2-year-old daughter, Emma, when she called home just before the accident
Emma was 8, iirc, it’s Erin who was two.
Though, that’s not YOUR mistake, closetblogger. Thank you for posting the article.
ForlornW, This is the article that states that Daniel is suing the Bastardi estate. I think the authors were not only confused about the names of the victims, but also exactly who is suing who.
I can’t (yet) confirm any lawsuit involving Daniel suing the Bastardi estate.
I’ve written to the authors asking for clarification.
If I hear back, I’ll let everyone know.
http://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/NYPIAB/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SchulerSupremeCourtSC.pdf
Daniel Schulers lawsuit.
I’ve uncovered a possible explanation why a lawsuit against the Bastardi estate is hard to verify. According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, in Daniel’s lawsuit against Diane’s brother, Warren, Daniel names as defendants Roseann Guzzo (Guy Bastardi’s sister and executor of his estate) and Diane Schuler’s estate.
So, there’s no “separate lawsuit” against the Bastardi estate.
And that means Daniel is actually trying to get money any way he can, even suing his own wife.
If anyone’s interested:
“Also on July 21, Schuler’s husband, Daniel, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in state Supreme Court against his brother-in-law, Hance’s husband, Warren, who owned the minivan and is alleged to have allowed Diane Schuler to drive it home that day.
That lawsuit also names as defendants his wife’s estate and Roseann Guzzo — executor of Guy Bastardi’s estate — who in late 2009, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Diane Schuler’s estate and Warren Hance.”
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110728/NEWS12/107280333/Sister-law-sues-Schuler-s-estate-wrong-way-Taconic-crash
Daniel is such an asshole. Every time I see that photo of him on Larry King (top of this page), I want to smack him across his stupid face.
Danny has no money left, he is likely suing his own wife’s estate to make a legal claim and prevent all the other lawsuits from taking his house away. It will languish in court for years with all the countersuits and bullsh*t claims he is making.
Barbera stole Diane’s $100K insurance money. Which i am confused as to why it was paid out considering the manner of death. He has to maintain all this innocence crap for insurance purposes too.
“The Nassau County district attorney is probing flamboyant lawyer Dominick Barbara for swiping $56,000 from the husband of the Taconic Parkway wrong-way driver, the Daily News has learned.
Although the high-profile attorney claimed he took the case pro bono, The News was told Barbara pocketed money due Daniel Schuler from his dead wife’s $100,000 life insurance policy – plus another $10,000 Schuler gave him. But when Schuler recently asked for the $110,000, he was told it was unavailable, according to one source. Only $34,000 went for legitimate legal fees and Barbara coughed up a mere $20,000 last week, the source said.
the person who i dislike the most is the sister in law, (jay) she seems to be in love with the camera and is seen all over the news, why is she with him? the children are not even her blood, they are her husbands brothers kids, jay, STAY AWAY FROM THE CAMERAS, YOU ARE DISGUSTING!
im tired…my eyes and my heart and soul hurts….and thats from what i have read….. not from 10 shots of vodka and a bag of weed…im a woman.. a wife and mother and a grandmother.. and i know what is right and what is wrong… bless all of these people who lost their lives through the sake of madness.. and the people who try to make money through this terrible mess … may you really rot in hell
New York State law does not put any blame on a driver that was going the right way and is hit by a wrong way driver head on, especially drunk and stoned. The fact is they also can not prove if the driver was speeding or sped up to try and get out of the way. I have to believe when the Bastardis attorneys get this Danny boy under oath they will crucify him.
If I were a lawyer I’d represent the Bastardi estate pro bono just the get the chance to publically rip Danny Boy a new one.
i look at it this way…… i love my four children i totally adore my 2 beautiful grandsons… i love my neice and my nephew……i would NEVER get into a car with them if i had one single drop of alcohol… i like to have a drink…and i have smoked a few joints here and there.im not irrisponsible… not out of control…. im totally aware of who ..where..and what i am. but the facts remain… she got into a car full of little ones… drank so much vodka that any normal person couldnt cope with… smoked weed…and killed…
i think she was in total distress with something… and no ratioanal thought could keep her from doing what she did… i do not condone this act but that was her way
we all need to learn from this because it really could happen to anyone at anytime anywhere
If you mean anyone anywhere could be hit by a drunk driver out of the blue, sure. If you mean any of us could drive drunk and slaughter 7 people – no. Nope. No, no no no no.
Thank you Forlorn. Even in my heavy drinking, self-hating days, prior to my children, I could never deliberately take another person’
s life. (And Diane, though out of her mind, seems to have made a calculated decision/ CHOICE)
Now that I have children, I could never bring harm to them deliberately, and would certainly not take it upon myself to kill my brother’s children in a fit of who knows what…
This lady not only had a problem with alcohol/drugs but had to have SEVERE mental problems. That is no damn excuse though to do what she did.
Thank God, while I was “out there” I never maimed/killed anyone. I tried to kill myself a few times but I’d never even imagine to kill someone else. Guess we know where she’s at.
New York State has comparative liability. That’s why Daniel Schuler’s summons and complaint was filed and served. If any of the adult victims involved were not wearing seatbelts, if any witnesses can claim excessive speed, if the vehicle was improperly maintained or any other mitigating factors are discovered, it reduces the amount of the award. It also reduces the amount of any damages Daniel Schuler and/or his auto insurance would be required to pay. In such an accident as this, it boggles the mind that any attorney would pursue such a cause of action. There are many instances where wrong way driving, or crossing a median and hitting an oncoming vehicle resulted in the operator at fault collecting damages. For example, if Diane Schuler is determined to be 99% at fault, Daniel can still claim 1% of any settlement or award for damages, and other victims would claim 99% of any settlement or damages. Sucks but there it is.
Daniel doesn’t understand the difference between having a right, and being right. Some ‘rights’ … aren’t.
http://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/NYPIAB/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SchulerSupremeCourtSC.pdf
Daniel Schulers lawsuit
This rather unprecedented at PYSIH.
I know what Diane did was wrong and her family should recognize that. But maybe it is time to drop this and let the innocent victims in this case rest in peace and let Diane be judged by her higher power for her crimes as they are.
Sweep it under the rug until the next DUI, and then sweep that one under the rug, just like this one?
No, this is about awareness now. Every time someone takes a sip, they should be faced with this possibility, right up until they surrender their keys for the night, then they can go back to what they want to do.
No more sacrifices on this particular altar please.
http://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/NYPIAB/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SchulerSupremeCourtSC.pdf
Schulers lawsuit
Who are the attorneys representing Daniel Schuler? On page six of the complaint, they call Erin Schuler ERIN M SHEA. Amazing!
http://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/NYPIAB/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SchulerSupremeCourtSC.pdf
Thank you, closet blogger!
Reading this and realizing that Daniel might score *some* money off of the estate of Guy Bastardi because Guy was exceeding the speed limit by 19 MPH is just too much to bear.
I simply can’t think about this.
I’m confused. Could someone clear this up? I’m reading the lawsuit, and in point 10 it says that Diane was ‘operating the same as an agent of, in furtherance of the business of, in the scope of employment of’ Warren Hance as the owner of his vehicle. Is Daniel trying to claim that she was doing some sort of job related duty when she was involved in the accident?
KHR, I think that might be “legalese” for Diane taking the responsibility of caring for the Hance’s three children that weekend.
Any one here speak legalese?
I would think that because Daniel has no legal standing with those children, it wouldn’t matter. Though maybe it’s because if Diane wasn’t ‘employed’ by Warren that he wouldn’t have as much cause to sue Warren over the car. But I’m no lawyer. Nor do I desire to be one.
I just finished reading it, and I think I had to physically stop my eyes from rolling. Danny Boy has some balls on him.
Now I wish the responding attorneys would have half the balls he does and respond with a copy of the police report and a piece of paper whose only point says ‘Fuck You’.
Sorry about the reposts….computer freeze!
No I didn’t say sweep it under the rug – I said they should recognize what she did – own up to it – let it be what it is for everyone to learn from. But it seems a lot of people here just want to keep name calling.
She did it, she can’t go to court, let God judge her, let the innocent rest in peace, and everyone learn from her horrific actions.
I didn’t mean for the issue to go away or the lesson that must be learned, only to focus on the lesson instead of name calling and move forward with this lesson in a positive way. Of course 3 families (and more) have been destroyed by her actions so how can you move forward and be positive? By focusing on the evil of drunk driving instead of the evil of Diane Schuler.
CarolynS, what you don’t understand is that all of our comments are made with the sole purpose of trying to convince Daniel to recognize what Diane did – own up to it – and let the rest of the victims families start to heal. You can’t heal from something like this if all you’re getting is lies.
I have nothing to learn from this. There is no lesson in this tragic event that should come as a revelation to any sane adult. What, “Don’t drive under the influence.”? What a novel concept! We’re not here to learn that elementary concept, CarolynS.
“how can you move forward and be positive? By focusing on the evil of drunk driving instead of the evil of Diane Schuler.” you have got to be kidding. Are you new? I mean at life, not at PYSIH. Focusing on the evils of drunk driving won’t bring light to this case, nor will it help the remnants of the families that Diane shattered start to heal. People focus on the evils of drunk driving from grade school, on. This case teaches us nothing new.
We’re much more focused on the evil of Daniel Schuler than we are on Diane. If Daniel had conducted himself as an adult human, this case would have been forgotten by most of the rest of the world about 4 months after it happened. Daniel owes these families the truth.
God gets to judge her, that’s fine. Daniel isn’t with God yet, so he’s ours. You don’t understand what we’re doing here. How ’bout you let God judge us, instead of doing it yourself?
Am I new, no – I’ve worked for the police for 21 years – since you were in diapers I bet. I have supervised high risk offenders including sex offenders and drug addicts and believe me 10 years of that makes you very worldly wise.
I don’t remember typing 1 word about Daniel so you can’t comment at all about me and my understanding about that. I said HER FAMILY should own up to her actions – is that not what you want too. The words “bitch” and “cunt” etc etc etc being used is completely inappropriate. All I was saying is that at some point – ABOUT DIANE – she was wrong, her actions were wrong, but focusing on the issue of drunk driving is more important than calling her names!
Definitely not all the comments are about Daniel vbecky = maybe you should go back and read them again.
It’s obvious you’re not a detective. I’m disgusted that someone who is in your line of work would have such a ridiculously laughable point of view. You’re trying to excuse a stoned, drunk driver who murdered 7 people with her car by refusing to see that a spade is indeed a spade. YOU, who have supposedly worked with criminal addicts… it boggles the mind.
I wish admin would read your posts. I’m sure he’d really enjoy you. You two have so much in common! Well, not really but enough that the conversation could be fantastic.
I am very flattered that you think I am so young. Really, that’s inadvertently sweet of you. I don’t know what world you’re wise in, but it’s definitely not this one.
It is tough to stomach the ideas you’re trying to throw at us, which is why you’re getting vomit in response to your posts. Have you read anything anyone else here has posted? Have you read about this case, checked any of the links or videos, read any of the evidence? Have you seen some of the ridiculous crap that’s coming out of some of your fellow apologists? You have TOPPED it! Brain-eating amoeba? And you’re SERIOUS?
Daniel is in her family, since you are unaware of that fact. He’s the person who is denying and suing.
You don’t deserve any respect for such blatant stupidity. No one here is asking you to like these posts, we’re not here to validate your vacuousness. It is not our responsibility to make you feel welcome here – it is your responsibility to think before you type if you want any sort of serious, civil response. Plenty of people have posted plenty of theories that actually have some basis in reality, and those people we discuss this case with. You? You’re not worth that kind of time because there is too much wrong with your thought process. You’re just wasting bandwidth.
We have collectively had it with insane theories, but the amoeba has got to take the cake. You win the award CarolyneS! Do I need to mention what the contest is?
vcbecky…calm down! While I completely agree with your point of view, your commentary can be a tad harsh and condescending to those that offer another perspective. I think that a more civilized approach might lend to more interesting dialog and encourage people to provide different perspectives, without feeling they are going to receive a smack down!
Sometimes the civilized approach does nothing more than confuse and infuriate the party who is being guided toward the truth. In this situation, a harsh blow to the frontal lobe is in order.
vcbecky can at times be a bit too intense in her condemnation of those who stand in the way of justice for the innocent. We should all be so flawed.
NavyCop,
“In this situation, a harsh blow to the frontal lobe is in order.”
I just completely LOL, nearly shot hot green tea out of my nose.
Thank you.
“I know what Diane did was wrong and her family should recognize that. But maybe it is time to drop this and let the innocent victims in this case rest in peace and let Diane be judged by her higher power for her crimes as they are.” CarolynS’s exact first post. Her other posts go on to expand on this ‘point’ as if we are the ones who do not get it.
I don’t think we should have to take that with a smile from someone who has no idea what this website is about and no inkling of what Daniel is doing to keep this story alive. She’s so ignorant, that she thinks WE are the ones who are perpetuating the pain of the victims when we are the ones who are very loudly demanding that Daniel confess what he knows and lets the rest of the families find some peace.
She says she didn’t mention Daniel in any of her post, but it’s as if she has put actual effort into ignoring the fact that everything she’s writing is actually about Daniel. Daniel IS ‘her family’. Every post on here is about her, but also about him and how he just won’t let it heal! I have no patience for such fatuous posturing from a poster who hasn’t bothered to understand the entire point of this website, before she condemns and shakes her finger.
The ‘fact’ that she was a corrections officer who was working with violent offenders for so many years should have given her a more realistic perspective on humanity. I’m not saying that all corrections officers are assholes, but they don’t tend to be pushovers with ‘make peace not war’ in mind. At least, not the ones who’ve been on the job for 10 years. They know what kind of monsters are on the lose and rampaging through society. How someone with her supposed experience is able to post what she has been posting is beyond my comprehension. And I’m glad for that.
I’m all for judging, it keeps us all alive on a daily basis. Judge when you have the info, not before it. What I cannot stomach is someone who has the audacity to condemn any of us for judging based on facts, by judging us based on some pedantic, holier-than-thou standpoint that’s so off-base it’s not even the same goddamned sport! If any of us needs a saint to make us feel guilty and to teach us moral lessons, we can become Catholic.
If my antagonistic and unwelcoming posts serve to make people think before posting, and perhaps serve to deter the very stupid from posting at all, I suppose I should start asking for donations for the public service I am doing here. Send whatever you feel like donating to Max, to help pay for PYSIH. It’s the least I can do.
curious1, my tiny photo is next to my posts not for the sake of vanity, but so people can skim the comments and skip mine if they wish to. I suggest you make use of this amazing feature, as it will save you a lot of huffing and puffing in the future.
Bohring, I have comedic gems on occasion, perhaps because of a brain eating ameoba that tells me what to do. Glad to give you a giggle. :)
I equate you with Ann Coulter, madame. You choose your words carefully with the sole intent to shock, demean, and annoy which ultimately lead to an entire argument being lost all together. Unless your being paid thousands to post your comments on here you are accomplishing nothing but showing the world that you are a sad and bitter woman. Insult me if you wish. You can only make me feel inferior with my consent.
I find the use of name calling in this context quite appropriate. I’m certainly more offended by her actions and her husband’s behavior than I am by anyone calling her or him a cunt or a bitch. Or a cuntbitch.
Can I borrow cuntbitch ?
Thanks… :)
Oh no…we’ve been chastised for using CURSE WORDS!
Diane WAS a bitch. It is what it is.
What about the lessons to be learned by Daniel Schuler’s subsequent behavior?
Most on this thread were prompted by the news of his filing of a lawsuit against the Hances and Bastardis. He has been nothing but belligerent and provacative since his wife murdered eight souls. He files a lawsuit against the bitterly aggrieved innocents in this matter? What more could possibly be taken from them?
I was so shocked that this man (and I use the term loosely) had the gall to torment these already tortured people with this sleazy lawsuit that it prompted me to post for the first time.
What brought you here?
If Daniel Scheuler had a brain in his skull I’d be willing to bet that the conversation on this story would have tapered off and died shortly after the story was posted, like most stories on this site do. If he had protested HBO doing a special about his wife that mentioned this site we wouldn’t be getting the traffic here that we are. But Daniel is a douche bag who can’t shut his mouth, and so we’re talking about this case, and there’s no way to talk about the case than talk about Diane herself. We don’t have a dedicated ‘Daniel Schuler’ article, though I’m sure we could have a hell of a discussion if we wanted to.
Just chiming in to say that I really hate looking at his ugly fucking mug. He gives new meaning to the word denial. Doucebag.
They should both rot in hell! Typical American, it is everyone’s elses fault so let’s sue the world! In fact, the NY police should be posted every 10 feet on the highway to alert drivers if they are going the wrong way! Yeah – that’s the solution! Fuck him!
No, not “typical American”. If it was, we would not be so outraged.
Yes, thankfully Daniel Schuler is NOT a typical American. He’d be a jackass for his actions no matter where he lived.
I have never sued anyone in my life. I’m saving it for a really good one. ;)
A few lawsuit-happy assholes and their sue-crazy lawyers make the rest of America look bad. I’ve been in a couple accidents that weren’t my fault, and I’ve never asked for anything more than to not worry about my medical bills. One time I was pregnant, hit by a driver turning left on a red, and went to the ER just to be safe. A lawyer in the ER tried his hardest to get me to sign up for a lawsuit. You should have heard how relieved the other person’s insurance agent sounded when I told them the cost of repairing my car and what my medical bills amounted to, and said I’d settle for that. The check had a little extra ‘just to make sure’ but according to that lawyer I could have made a million. Those kind of lawyers are what’s wrong with America, not the decent hardworking people who want nothing more than to be in the same state, or as close to it, as they had been right before the accident.
This case has truly turned bizarre. Her husband sounds like an enabler.
At this point, I don’t think “enabler” is strong enough. I believe he’s always been that. I think he’s now just desperate and flailing out at everyone he can, to make Diane (himself by proxy) look innocent and upstanding.
He’s lost touch with reality. He cannot handle being alone with a child he doesn’t love and can’t relate to. It’s everyone else’s fault and by god he will prove it in a court of law!
You are right. Enabler is putting it mildly.
I watched the documentary, and I was struck when the childhood friend mentioned that Diane, the youngest and only girl, was EXPECTED at the age of 9 to take over her mother’s duties.
My feeling is on that last day, she was FED UP with being the caretaker. AGAIN she has to take all the kids, while her husband takes only the dog. Especially after watching the film, it made a potential murder-suicide a real possibility in my mind.
Does anyone know who is acting as the executor of Diane’s estate? Does Daniel have access to his wife’s accounts, or have they been frozen? I’m just wondering if Daniel is suing an estate he has control over.
Daniel was a SUPER enabler, now he is trying to avoid his guilt by pretending nothing ever happened, by convincing himself that he didn’t know about her nasty habits. My mother was a control freak, Diane sounds a lot like her. My mother drank and drove all the time. If you suggested that she couldn’t handle her liquor, she would take your head off, how dare you suggest she wasn’t in control! Diane sounds like she was in total denial to herself – she didn’t care how drunk and stoned she got because SHE knew she was ALWAYS IN CONTROL. Well, looks like she wasn’t.
I totally understand why Danny would want to clear his wife’s name and I agree with him. He doesn’t want his son to grow up thinking his mom was a monster and had purposely tried to kill him. It would be something that would scar him forever. The truth of the matter is that Diane was a good person who just made the shittiest mistake that was caused by constant stress and no one trying to help her. She cared about her children and her nieces and would have never done it had she been sober. Seeing as though she was this “super-mom,” Danny probably never offered to help her in any was and that led down to her downfall. Also the pain for her mom leaving her, she tried compensating for that, and overdid herself. The other shitty thing is that Danny is suing his brother-in-law, which is just beyond shitty. If anything he lost the most. And what I don’t understand in what possible ground can he sue him, does it even make sense? Oh, one more thing, the Bastardi family should not threaten Danny with a lawsuit so that he can finally admit the reality that his wife was indeed drunk and stoned, and therefore responsible for the deaths so that at least the Bastardi family can get some closure for their lost. The only reason he won’t admit anything and live in “denial” is for the very reason that if he admits anything he is liable for losing his case and everything else. Well this was rather long and whatever, rest in peace the poor dead people, and when we all get to hell we’ll ask her exactly what was going through her head.
She was a terrible mother, Annnna. She failed her children in the worst possible way. I hope you realize that what you’re saying is like telling us that Charlie Manson is a great guy before the Family, he just made some mistakes. And HE didn’t kill anyone himself!
How do I know that she was a terrible mother? Can you imagine getting stoned and drunk to the point that you no longer care about your kids? Can you really? Wouldn’t you pass out before all of your maternal instincts leaked out of your ears? She knew she was going to drive a carload of children, Annnna. So please, tell me why this wonderful person took the first swig? Why did she take the first drag? How in hell can you call her a good person and a good mother before or after the murders?
3rd time with this metaphor, but it’s the most appropriate one I can think of: A priest can spend his entire life ministering to the sick, consoling the dying, counseling married couples and being the embodiment of the Christian Ideal… but if he fucks a single altar boy, all of that wonderful stuff matters less than a fart in the wind.
Manson is personally responsible for at least one murder at his own hands.
- In happier news…the West Memphis 3 were released today. Off topic I realize, but I wanted to mention it.
Not sure if anyone else here followed it. I’ve been following for years, and this is the day I was waiting for.
Maelstrom, I just found out they were released. Finally!
I saw that, and was glad. I was ticked they had to do an Alford plea for it – they should have been cleared. :/ But I am rejoicing they are at last free.
Honestly, I had never heard about the West Memphis 3 until I saw the news about their release. But in the limited reseach I’ve been able to do since then I have to say I’m glad they’re out, but concerned because they still had to essentially plead that there was enough evidence to convict them, which isn’t going to satisfy all their neighbors/ possible employers as to their innocence. I hope they are fully proven innocent soon.
I’ve been following that one for years as well. So glad that they are finally free!
By Jove, you’re right!
Eh, Diane still has him beat!
And all at once, like the Brave Little Tailor, only drunken and awful.
…AAAAND you owe me a new keyboard. ;)
Hi: I have never been on a blog site ever,but I can not stay quiet.
I recently saw the documentary about Diane.Please take what I
have to say with a open mind.I am not taking any blame away
from her.She was totally responsible for this horrific tragedy.But
I will give you a perspective from an alcoholic’s point of view.No,I
have never driven while drunk or looked after children while drunk.
After the first time I woke up and could not remember anything I
did the day before I have only been drunk by myself.My children are
grown up and I didn’t start drinking until I was forty years old.I started
drinking when I found out my daughter who is deaf was also going to lose her eyesight(Ushers Syndrome).I had thoughts of suicide and told no one.I thought everyone would be better off without me because I
would not be able to cope with this situation without being drunk.One
day I woke up on the bathroom floor covered in blood and vomit.I had
drank and took of pills.I think I mitt have been unconscious for over
24 hours,but I am not sure.I must have fell and hit my head,but to this day I do not remember any of this.I was In a total black out
state from drinking a large amount of alcohol.I know this is hard for
someone else to imagine,but I have whole chunks of time from that period in my life that I do not remember.Just so you know that was
ten years ago.I starting seeing a Psychiatrist and straightened out.Sorry
bore you with my life story,but I am finally saying it for a reason.I think that Diane was depressed or had a psychotic break while under
the influence of drugs and alcohol.Please understand I am In no way
excusing her behavior.I wish she had been alone and only hurt only
herself.Alcohol floods your brain and lowers your inhibitions.Something
you would not do sober,you might do if you were drunk.I can only assume she wanted to kill herself.Even drunk you would not keep
driving straight into other vehicles and not even try to get out of the way.I think she was only thinking about herself and by the end wasn’t
even thinking about those poor children with her or anyone else.I
really believe that this is what happened and I agree with other people’s comments that she faced God’s judgement for the horrific
tragedy she caused.I also believe her husband knows way more then
he is saying.He hired a lawyer almost right away.Did he know she was
drinking that day or planned too.Why was he driving himself and a dog home and she was in a vehicle full of children!!!!!!!!!!!I lay huge
responsibility and guilt at his feet.One day he too will answer for his
actions.As I said before I am not taking blame away from her,just
offering my opinion based on my own actions in the past while under
the influence of alcohol.I have always accepted full responsibility for
my behavior.
I’ll be willing to admit that, in the three plus years since my daughter was born, minus the time since I found out I’ve been pregnant, I have over-indulged in alcohol a few times. Okay, I was falling down drunk on two occasions that I can remember. Each time I arranged for someone to take care of my daughter before I went out because I knew I would be drinking, and I knew that I would probably have no desire to get up and give into toddler whining in the morning.
But that second night, at three in the morning, a very bad thunderstorm had blown in. My daughter woke up terrified, and because I’m a light sleeper, even after drinking, I was the only one who heard her crying. Despite having less than an hour of sleep I got up, held her, and watched TV with her until the storm had passed and she had fallen back asleep in my arms.
I have known many mothers who have gone out and indulged in alcohol and/or pot. I have never known a single one who had done it when they knew they had sole responsibility over their kids. And I have never known one who had hurt their children, intentionally or unintentionally, while under the influence. That’s why Diane is a monster. She knew she had responsibility over those five kids, two her own and three she should have loved enough to care about their lives. She got selfish, be it from pain, stress, or whatever, smoked dope, drank vodka, and smashed into another car, killing four of those beautiful children in the most horrific manner possible and dooming her son to years of therapy and not just for his special need.
“She cared about her children and her nieces and would have never done it had she been sober. ”
That makes zero sense. At one point she WAS sober, and in her sober state of mind made a decision to drink and smoke pot while driving a van full of children. Sober people know very well that drinking and driving is a very dangerous act and the fact that she made a conscious decision to impair herself while in charge of the kids calls into question your statement above.
I would assume Daniel Schuler is the executor of Diane’s estate as he is her next of kin. I would also think that her estate and any assets they shared jointly, he would have access to. People don’t normally go after personal assets when there is insurance, but in this case the injuries were so catastrophic (death) that he is dangerously exposed. Especially depending on what the limits on his auto insurance coverage is, and whether or not they carried an umbrella policy,
I’m going to ask you, since you seem to have a better grasp than I do- what would suing, essentially, himself do? Is it a move to insure that he doesn’t lose all the money to the lawsuits from the other families? If there was a judgement do things get split equally or does someone get paid first/more?
I believe he is counterclaiming against his wife, rather than suing himself. He’s trying to get a piece of the “insurance pie”. They most likely have some kind of umbrella policy with their homeowners/and or auto insurance, so there is a chance that he can collect on behalf of himself, his son, and his deceased daughter. It was due to his wife’s negligence that they were hurt and/or killed, so he does have a cause of action, especially for the continuing care of his son and the pain, suffering and death of his little girl. He’ll be hard pressed to collect any damages from the occupants of the other vehicles, though. He’ll have to produce some kind of showing of culpable conduct on their part, and that won’t be easy to do. His attorney is banking on the counterclaim against his wife to hit pay dirt and recoup his 1/3 of any award, and he can’t sue her directly, he must counterclaim as part a lawsuit against the other insureds. If they are even deemed 1% liable for the death and injury of his children, he can collect that percentage of any award determined. His most realistic avenue to recoup any money would be the counterclaim against his wife.
Suing yourself is considered by some a “get rich quick” scheme. There are even “how to” books on the subject.
There’s a true story in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA: the city’s human resources director (a woman) sued the city claiming that the city administrator (a man) sexually harassed her for years. That’s really quite funny, since it was her job to protect city employees from sexual harassment.
Quote (in effect): “I didn’t do my job; therefore the city owes me money for being victimized by my own failure.”
The tragic part is the city settled out of court for $600,000!! You can’t make this stuff up.
Here’s a link for anyone interested in supplementing their income by suing themselves:
http://derekclontz.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/get-filthy-rich-quick-by-suing-yourself-it-works-says-expert/
I’m not encouraging this type of behavior! Post submitted tongue-in-cheek. Don’t rip me apart!
Never KateTwo, You and KHR and a couple of others become part of the gang
Thanks, Max. I have been banned from forums simply for telling the truth and supplying hard evidence that supports my truth. Sometimes the Truth is just too difficult to accept; I understand that now.
I know that would never happen here, and I’m grateful for this site, precisely for that reason. What you’re doing here is an extremely difficult, heart-rending task sometimes, I’m sure, and you have my respect for undertaking it.
I’m not going to rip you apart.
The idiot court systems that let people like this get away with this sort of junk? They need a good skull examination.
KHR, The case I described happened close to my home turf. It was all about money. It was cheaper to settle. (sigh)
That’s why I think there should be a level in the court system called the ‘no fucking way’ level. Like a grand jury, but they have to go through a rigourous screening process to prove they have common sense. They’ll be the first to read over the affidavits filed in the case, and if it lacks common sense or if the average person with common sense would look at it and groan ‘no fucking way’ it’s thrown out, burned, and never heard from again. No appeals.
There’s a lot of stupid, money-grubbing lawsuits filed in my area, too. But if I moved away from anywhere that had stupid behaviors and lawsuits I’d wind up alone on the moon.
PLEEEEEEEEEEASE ….any normal human being KNOWS this is nothing but a cover-up so all the family members that pretend that Diane couldn’t do this or I would of never known or there was a MEDICAL PROBLEM or she was so perfect are TOTALLY FULL OF FUCKING SHIT!!!
She is a drunk, she is a pothead there were NO 911 calls AT ALL other then the motorists on the taconic…FUCKING PERIOD!!!!! All this bullshit from the family is just that…FUCKING BULLSHIT…Drunk Fucking drivers KILL people, innocent people,and all those family members that are trying to cover up for this SICK DRUNK STONED BITCH are nothing but enablers. Yes its sad what this fucking drunk did, but what is also sad is that the family members are trying to coverup the TRUTH….May god seek the true victims of this coverup JUSTICE…
You’re right, any NORMAL person would know this is a cover-up, but what we usually get here is a flaming idiot who can’t get it through their addled minds that someone would CHOOSE to do this.
Danny and Jay seem to be very much in denial about Diane and what happened. They didn’t like the toxicology results from the autopsy done by the state, so they hired someone to send it to an independant testing facility, along with a sample of her DNA so they could verify that it was, in fact, her. They got her medical records and were trying to pull out four year old incidences as evidence that she was having a medical problem. Even with those results the documentary mentions that they’re still trying to get her exhumed for another autopsy. They have to be in denial, if they flat out said ‘She was drunk and high, we knew she was a drinker, we knew she smoked pot, I did XYZ that morning and it might have driven her over the edge’ it would destroy any counter-suits they have and would give ammunition to the lawsuits against them. Danny boy would probably wind up broke and have to do something with his life to support his family.
Couldn’t have said it better! This family is just making it so much worse for themselves. Just admit “SCHUELLER FAMIlY AND FRIENDS “that Diane abused drugs and alcohol to the point that she murdered innocent children and cicilians! Period!
I’m sorry- I made a typo. I meant to type “Civilians”, not cicilians.
What really intrigues me is the stock people put in the witnesses, i.e. the gas station/convenience clerk, the employees at McDonalds and the owner of the campground. They all claim she did not seem intoxicated in the least. What else would they be expected to say? There is every reason for these people to claim she seemed fine, not just to reduce their exposure legally but to present themselves in a somewhat decent light. How would it behoove them to say “Yeah, she was hammered and we sent her on her way”? At the very least, it makes them look like callous assholes. I don’t understand how anyone could put any credence in their recollection of her demeanor.
And the surveillance video? Just tells me that this was a chick who was used to functioning while two sheets to the wind. I don’t think something happened to precipitate her bender, she probably wouldn’t even have called it a bender, perhaps just a little hair of the dog.
I’d be willing to bet between the gas station attendant, the McDonalds employee, and the campground owner, and any other various people that Diane was around that day, that if one of them thought she was pissed and about to drive away with five kids in the car, there would be ONE person, at least, who would have called the cops. The campground owner came across as the type of woman who cares enough about children to not let a visibly intoxicated person drive off with a carload of them.
Oh, and that couple who Diane followed into the rest stop… you could tell by the looks on their faces as they were interviewed that they regret not doing something more. If I saw a person puking on the side of the road I would not automatically assume drunk, maybe illness, and since I’ve driven with the flu and really bad morning sickness I wouldn’t assume that just because they’re throwing up they aren’t fit to drive. And if I were one of that couple I might assume that she was following close and honking in an attempt to get me to move so she could attempt to make it to a bathroom instead of tossing cookies on the side of the road, which isn’t a fun experience. I think if they thought she was completely drunk they wouldn’t have hesitated to call, because I can tell they feel guilty for not doing so in the first place.
What did Diane see in Daniel to marry him? He has no great job, no personality. Every time he’s on TV he has the same dull facial expression. I saw the documentary, he and his sister in law are so in denial. Their investigator said she was high and drunk too. What more evidence do they want?
They have to fight the results. His lawsuit depends on it. She’d still be culpable if she had had a stroke and done what she did, but less so.
I’ve been wondering why Diane married him, too. Even his own mother admits he’s a giant man-child who doesn’t do responsibility well. Hell, at the end even Jay seemed frustrated at how little he actually does.
I’d love to know what they’ll do if they do have Dianes body exhumed and all tests still come back the same? I don’t think anything will make them happy or believe what really happened.
I’d be willing to bet that if they had Diane’s body exhumed and the results were the same they’d place the blame on decomposition, and say that any medical evidence had decayed by now.
I agree
I don’t understand why this particular case is generating so much controversy and there is such a big deal about it. This web site posts stories that give ME nightmares, children being beaten to death, newborns being raped to death, and we’re all fixated on an adult woman who was drunk and high and did what some mentally fucked up people do – she killed people to hurt others and killed herself at the same time while she was fucked up on drugs and alcohol.
And how many family members of convicted baby rapers and abusers are there that swear their family member is innocent and was framed, etc?
This is the same shit, different day and I can’t figure out why everyone is so wound up?
The regulars on this site seemed content to leave some nasty anti-Daniel posts when Diane’s name showed back up and left it at that. I think most of the regulars of the site hadn’t forgotten what Diane did, but had moved on to the baby rapists and other such demons. Yeah, there’s still the mystery and the speculation, but it was old news.
What happened was the HBO documentary hit, about the same time the ‘Interesting Persepective’ article was posted. So the regulars got a new look from a long time reader, and we had a bit more to talk about, but it was the new people coming just because they saw the site on the documentary and felt the desire to come in and put in their two cents. And, of course, with the new traffic comes the trolls and the Schuler-supporters, and that gets debate going and people riled up and posting more. In point out this site as a source of Diane-haters in the doc Jay and Daniel told people exactly where to go to either support Diane to a bunch of people who didn’t really want to hear it, or to vent their horror and anger at someone who took seven innocent lives with her own.
I’d be interested to see the numbers of people who had gone from the Diane story back to the other reaches of the internet, and who stuck around to check out the other stories. It’s not an easy website to digest. I came when I was thinking about Benjamin Sargent once, and it took me a couple months to get the stomach to work through the rest of the stories.
Too bad HBO doesn’t run a special on the kids that are abused and beaten to death by their own parents. Maybe then people will be more likely to call the cops when a little girl is covered in bruises or a baby is suffering from broken bokes from “falling”.
I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
It took me a while to get through most of the stories, and they hit me at odd times. This morning on the way into work I thought about Lauren and gagged. Dianne was obviously an incredibly selfish and unhappy person – it’s not different than the kids who shot up Columbine, take out as many people as they can and then take themselves out. She made the splash she (allegedly) wanted to.
I agree. Diane was a horrible person who took innocent lives because she was unhappy with hers. I feel like Diane is taking all the attention away from other victims in other stories. It’s horrible what happened to those little ones and the men in the other car. But I feel like Diane has taken over this site. It seems to be all about her.
The Diane Schuler reprint has gotten 107 comments in 2 days yet the story under it about two innocent children being horribly abused has gotten 14 comments in 3 days.
I just hope that the victims in the newer stories who we should be thinking about are being thought about and not looked over because Diane Schuler is a hot topic at the moment.
I just feel like she shouldn’t be getting anymore attention from us and Danny epsecially should not be getting anymore attention….it seems he thrives on that.
This guy has long since crossed the line from denial into psychosis. He’s 5150 with this. Seriously.
The Bastardi family reaction to the HBO special:
http://taconictragedy.com/HBO_Documentary.php
I agree with your original theory: murder-suicide. Does it matter if she was an alcoholic or not? Most people who get behind the wheel impaired are not chronic alcoholics, just regular people who made a bad choice.
Can we find the script to add a “Like” button?
I am getting sick of the bs. She killed innocent children in a horrible manner with her actions. Enough with the excuses, which is precisely what the whole series is about, as well. Fuck it. Just say it point blank. She smoked pot and drank the night away, then decided to assume the responsibility of putting all these children at risk. Thus, she is guilty of killing them and herself. End of story.
Happy to be back after bout a year, though. I guess the q’s attacked my desktop and I just got my lappy and net back. Wahoo!
May the bitch burn.
There’s nothing new with people witnessing a crime and doing nothing about it. I’m sure many more people might have seen Diane vomiting, driving erratically or other suspicious behavior who have never been identified. I grew up hearing my uncles tell stories of a women named Kitty Genovese, who was murded in Queens, New York amid dozens of witnesses in their apartments who heard her screams for help and not one could muster the energy to help her, call the police or do anything proactive at all. So it doesn’t surprise me that the witnesses in this case look out for themselves first, notwithstanding the young children in the car. Especially the camp ground owner, who has every reason to claim Diane seemed fine.
Some very few people (probably not too many more than two) did ignore Kitty Genovese. Other people DID call the police.
Most of the people who saw something couldn’t tell what was happening, and as the attack took place in two different places, those that saw something didn’t see all of it.
One man leaned out his window and yelled for her murderer to leave her alone, at which point the murderer ran off and Kitty fled to her apartment. She wasn’t calling for help at that point, though she’d already been stabbed, and no one saw her get stabbed.
All most people saw was two people standing close to each other and yelling.
Kitty Genovese does show that some people will ignore a crime, but it also shows most people will try to help, if they know what’s going on.
Er, Kitty fled to her apartment building. She was raped and murdered by her attacker, who returned to find her there, in the back lobby of that building, which is why most people had no idea what happened.
They thought they’d stopped a possible attack on a young woman, and had no idea she’d been stabbed already, or that her murderer returned and found her to continue his attack.
My two uncles were NYPD at the 102nd precinct, they’ve told this war story to anyone who would listen for almost forty years. They told me the block had quite a few bars, so there was always the sound of late night drunks. Even with that, most of the witnesses they interviewed who heard her cries for help were in the building across the street, and only two called it in. When interviewed after the fact, most felt the assailant had been scared away. The desk sergeant who took the intitial calls classified it as a domestic dispute, and my uncles said that this kind of call in the early sixties wasn’t followed up on or taken very seriously. I have never, ever heard she made it into the building, though. As a kid, I always remembered them saying the door was locked, and she couldn’t get in. That she was attacked and murdered again because she couldn’t run in to the apartment building, and that the killer wqs emboldened enough to come back and finish the job because of the lack of response. Maybe they got it wrong.
I’m sure the lack of police response helped the murderer decide to go back to find her. But as they said, in those days, presumed domestic abuse wasn’t considered an emergency necessitating immediate police response.
But you’re exactly right – people thought it was a domestic. And no one saw her get stabbed, iirc. And there were definitely at least two people who purposely ignored her – one being a neighbor who heard the final attack.
Everyone takes away from it the idea no one helps, but people DID try to help her. There were no “38″ as commonly reported who ignored her.
I don’t think poor Bryan will have a happy life and/or have a normal one, look at his father! He doesn’t even want him! Aunt Jay seems to be the one doing things for him and she’s a loon!
It really bothers me that there is so LITTLE personal accountability anymore. Anyone does anything wrong, and there’s gotta be someone else to blame it on. Guy murders his wife and kids? He was picked on in school. Woman drowns her children? Oh she was sexually abused when she was a kid. Diane Schuler gets drunk and high and kills 7 innocent people? Oh her mom left her when she was young, she had no help, too much responsibility….blah blah blah.
Fact is, there’s something in everyones life that could be used as an excuse to do crappy things. It still doesn’t make it okay to do them. Things happen, and they suck, but you get the hell over it, be it with therapy, or whatever. You don’t use it as an excuse to disregard human life, or to inflict pain on someone else.
Diane Schuler wasn’t drunk and stoned 24/7. By all accounts she was sober when the morning started out. That indicates she made a CHOICE. She knew she was responsible foe 5 innocent children’s lives. She knew that it was a bad idea to get behind the wheel of a 2000 lb plus vehicle stoned and drunk. She was not a stupid person, so I’m also assuming she realized there would be other innocent people on the roads.
And yet, for whatever reason, she CHOSE to do what she did. As big of a douche canoe as her husband is, he didn’t force her to drink, or smoke. Her mother had nothing to do with her choices that morning either. We are all ADULTS. We all know what’s right and wrong. How about we all take responsibility for our own actions. That’s what I’m going to teach my kiddo anyway.
However I do believe daniel schuler will be right next to his wife in hell. Greedy, hearthess bastard.
Well put. I agree with all of it 100%. Maybe if society used the same amount of energy and time they use to make excuses for these scumbags on just flat out getting rid of them all the world would be a safer place!
I completely agree. I’ve been a “lurker” on this site for a while. I can’t even begin to count the number of cases where someone was hurt or killed, children too, by someone who was givin a “second chance”. Or third. Or fourth. Its beyond rediculous. Bullet+brain=problem solved.
That’s one of the reasons I love this site. I think it’ll bring to light some of the problems our society has today. I can’t imagine reading these stories and still remain convinced some people deserve another chance.
This story is an inspiration to me
I am going to sue
1. The knife company because I can cut myself
2. The electric company because I can electrocute myself
3. The great-great-great-great grandson of the guy who built my house because I slipped on the stairs
4. The post office that delivered the letter telling Obama what I really think of him
5. Charmin – I rubbed my ass too hard and it hurts
6. Coke A Cola – I am over weight
7. McDonalds – I am overweight
8. Boston Market – I think I are pigeon
9. Classical Condos – I slipped on a stairway there when it was a high school
10. PVTA – A connecting bus left too early, I had to wait
11. MBTA – the Harvard – Alewife tunnel is too noisy, gave me a headache
12. My parents – my allowance was too small, I missed oit on things in life
13. My sister – I could have had a bigger allowance had she not been born
14. My X-fiancee – what ever happened to the ring that she was supposed to return?????
15. My cats – they scratched me
16 The Catholic Church – because everyone else is…..
Add to the list
All my English teachers – I made a mistake on #8
I’m going to sue myuself since I am my own worst enemy.
Can I sue you too?????
Make it a class action suit so I can sue you too!
We’ll get about $10 each, the lawyers about $100,000 each!
Also wanna sue (see table below
Group Song Stuck in my head
The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star ‘Oh-a Oh-a”
“Radiioooo Staaaarrrrrarrarara”
Star Light Express Afternoon Delight “AAAAFTernoon Deeeeelllliiiight”
Blue Oyster Cult Don’t Fear the Reaper – The high sound near the end
John Denver Grandma’s Feather Bed It was not 9 feet tall
Sugar Hill Gang Rapper’s Delight Still can’t remember all the lyrix – makes me look so white
The maker of this software that messed up my table by removing extra white space – racist bastard!
Because you mentioned John Denver, I now have “You Fill Up My Senses” stuck in my head. For that, I shall sue you.
I’ve gained a pound. I’m suing this site for putting extra stress on my heart. It’s really creating stress or me…. unbearable…. oh no… I’m getting a twitch. I’m going to go ‘insane’, get drunk, smoke some pot, and drive my truck into every dumb asshole who deserves hell on this site. And none of it will be my fault *twitch twitch*. I’m suing damn it!
Damn people are dumb!
I’ve been thinking a lot about this story since reading the articles on PYSIH and watching the HBO docco and I have come to the conclusion that we won’t hear the truth or anything close to it for a long time because the people that do have an idea will not speak up and the only person present during the ordeal was probably too young to understand and then suffered a brain injury.
But…I have a pretty strong hunch that Bryan will be the one that ends up filling in the blanks one day.
I know he received a brain injury but I reckon he will either start to remember bits and peices about what occured and with maturity be able to understand better what was going on with his mum that day.
I also think that eventually it will all be too much for Danny and he will end up spilling his guts to his son..maybe enlighten him as to what the 12:08 phone call was all about…then with the helpful prodding of a “Where are they now” style show all will be revealed…
Brain injury memory loss doesn’t really work that way, though. If he doesn’t remember because his brain was injured at that moment, he will never, ever remember that.
If he doesn’t remember because he was traumatized, that’s different, but the brain injury piece is too big to ignore. Everyone’s brain is different, but injuries caused by car accidents like this tend to mean the brain was too wounded at that moment to store the actual memory, in which case it’s just gone, forever. It wasn’t stored.
Perhaps, a blessing in disguise!
I do not believe I’d want to remember being trapped in the van, buried beneath my dead or dying cousins after all the fear they all went through even before the accident. I agree, probably a blessing.
While I am curious, of course, as to the exact circumstances of Diane’s behavior and choices that day, I don’t want to know so badly I’d ever wish for that child to remember exactly what happened. I mean, I doubt anyone does.
I’m curious as well. What was Diane saying and doing while she was doing all these crazy actions? You’d really like to know but not in a way a child would have to remember them. It will be a mystery.
Yeah,I get you forlornW,I wouldn’t want him remembering the aftermath of the crash and I can’t discount the fact he had a major head injury, but going by what he says- “Mummy’s head hurt and she couldnt see” and “I flew out of the car like superman”-he does seeem to remember a bit.
I also have the feeling that if Danny did have any influence over Diane doing what she did it will eventually come out and Bryan will probably be the one who is told.
Shannon, his statement that he “flew out of the car like superman” shows just how little he does remember. Bryan was not ejected from the car-he was found in the van under the other girls.
Because of his brain injury, his age, and the fact that he has family members around him who are discussing the case, Bryan’s version of events will never be believable. Not because he is being deceptive, but because his memories are completely unreliable-his brain was injured, he is a child who is very vulnerable to “suggestion” by those around him. In short, we can never believe a word that comes out of that boy’s mouth because he is incapable of remembering the event with clarity.
I’ll dare to disagree, not to be a prick, but rather highlight my experience with liars.
They repeat it to themselves
They choose to hear nothing else
It becomes their truth
They force it on others
It becomes some of their truth as well
Example
I would bring my daughter back to her mother at 6:00 p.m.
And yet I I was blamed for her falling asleep in school the next day…
The reality
Her mother would get our daughter back at 6
THEN
Drive for 3 hours picking up her other daughters
SO
My dauh=ghter never got to bed until 10
YET
everybody blamed me
BECAUSE
Tori fell asleep in school
…….
So……..
The child will be programmed
The father chooses his “truth”
They will be a force
They will not stop
They will blame the world
They will have their sympathizers
In their hardened hearts, Diane will always be on a pedestal
And each time one of us say something, they will raise the pedestal higher…..
How do you add your pic to this site!!??
Did you make a wordpress account? If you make a wordpress account with the same information as you use here, you should be able to upload a picture there to your wordpress profile, and it will show up here. That’s what I did.
Ok,Thanks
I’ll try anyways haha
I see you! Nicely done.
Thanks!! haha
Are you naturally horizontal? :D
LMAO! No! Just in this pic haha
Are you planking?
Yes, yes I am haha
The family has never been able to explain the toxicology… .19 BAC and high levels of THC in her bloodstream. Good mother? Nice person? All of that is irrelevant against the facts and the science.
As for all their theories… absessed tooth, brain eating fungus, etc… none have a basis in facts or reality. The family should be ashamed of themselves.
This family would sell one of us the Brooklyn Bridge and think nothing of it…..
Ava Braun (Hitler’s wife) saw a good person, failed to see the monster.
Maybe Diane was a quite drunk
A fun drunk
Or a closet drunk; buzzed with others, but gets hammered alone…
Or they are all drunks…..
Happily buzzed together
Black out memories of being hammered……
I have been following this story from the beginning and it still makes me mad.There is no such thing as a perfect person and she may have been to her family and those around her,but the tests don’t lie.She was drunk and high and if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of the other drivers on the road near her,more lives would have been lost.She made the wrong choices that day but for the healing to really start for everyone involved,there should be no lawsuits which seem to be very insensitive and will not change anything.There is a little boy trying to recover from this who lost his mother,sister,cousins and his safe family unit as well as his childhood,he should be everyone’s focus now.It could be your own family that is dealing with this and wouldn’t you want your loved ones to have a little respect?
Daddy wants cash
Honestly this is a huge deal nothing should be swepted under the rug Dianne was retested, her test came back the same but still the family claims she was so perfect, no ones perfect, people really needs to stop trying to cover up tragedies like this, this is so wrong, it is what it is Dianne was under the influence 8 people died. God knows peace be with the entire families. Mysteriously Dianne had tooth aches, coffee, alcohol, drugs,head aches problems of her mom leaving her at age 9yrs old I think suicide was her motive an her husband don’t know how to handle it so he protects her but still he’s hiding something.
SUICIDES don’t pay out on insurance policies…. ACCIDENTS do.
That’s not true. Some policies will pay suicide benefits if the policy is held long enough. They were married over 10 years, that’s long enough.
You are correct, that’s the law in Pa anyways. I think if a person has a policy for 5 yr.s then commits suicide the spouse/family will get paid.
Daniel Schuler is an opportunistic douchebag. If there is a hell, Diane is perpetually driving the wrong way down the Taconic killing her family…If there is a heaven, all of the people Diane killed are there outside of her reach and resting peacefully….Danny Schuler should disappear with the rest of his ugly burned out denying family…Perhaps they could just get into two minivans and drive head-on into each other and be done with it…..
Diane is a nice person
Repeat after me
Diane is a noce person
She is perfect
They are wrong
Say it with me
She had a reason for all the drugs
A fungus in her brain fermented …. that explains the high BAC
The State of New York should have signed the road better
Seriously the only medical emergency is the fact that she needed detox more than anybody will admit.
Well put Fred. It’s everyone’s fault except the person who committed the deed. Diane was a SAINT…Danny is a GENIUS….All the deceased are just AFTERTHOUGHTS….especially the Bastardi family who were doing nothing except legally driving down the highway…Strange I never heard anything from Danny regarding them…..I’m surprised he doesn’t sue them for striking his wife’s vehicle…the sorry POS….
^^^^He is suing them for that very thing…says their “excessive speed” was a contributing factor to the accident.
Yes, Horseshoe, is correct.
It’s legal maneuvering to try and score some money from the insurance companies for the Schuler household.
Daniel filed the suit on behalf of his daughter that was killed and his son that was injured, and he’s suing his wife’s estate, Warren Hance’s estate and Guy Bastardi’s estate through his sister, Roseann Guzzo, executrix of guy’s estate (in this suit, there’s another against the state).
It all deals with “proving fault in personal injury accidents.” There’s this rule:
“Most accidents happen because someone was careless. The basic rule is: If one person involved in an accident was less careful than another, the less careful one must pay for at least a portion of the damages suffered by the more careful one.”
Since Guy Bastardi was actually exceeding the speed limit by 19 MPH at the time of the accident (I truly don’t think it would have changed the outcome if he was going the speed limit), some lawyers on their blogs think Daniel might have a chance at an extremely low percentage of the insurance payouts.
At least that’s what Daniel’s lawyer, Kevin Grennan, is banking on. And I don’t use the word “banking” lightly. His website boldly claims that they don’t file “frivolous” suits, so he must think he has a chance of scoring something.
After all, 1% of 20 million dollars is still $200,000!
Here’s the source for the “rule” quote above, if anyone’s interested. This particular site has other links to other interesting legal information that pertain to the six legal suits associated with this case:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/proving-fault-personal-injury-accidents-29535.html
As far as I’m concerned, the courts are the only arena left for any kind of closure on this case.
All we can do here on PYSIH is correct the many misconceptions about the case, point out the facts, dismiss the apologists (I usually leave this task for the many qualified, long-term top commentators here) and wait for any new information that comes from the court cases.
I’m hoping for protection for the Hance family and some kind of meaningful closure for the Bastardi family; I have deep empathy for their situations.
Did anyone catch on the Documentary at the end: Jay Schuler is standing outside the office building in the city after conferring with the ME, and she’s lighting a cigarette and says, “This is the first time my family is going to know that I smoke… no one knows..” So Jay is good at keeping secrets. Why couldn’t Diane have been keeping secrets too? Looks like the women in the family have vices that no one else knows about! Being a functional alcoholic to relieve her stress is not out of the realm of possibility. Especially if she was so “SUPER” in appearances as everyone around her portrays her to be. Let’s face it, she needed the drink to cope. She had OCD (control freak). She drank on an empty stomach. (Daniel said they just had coffee before they left camp, and she only purchased coffee and OJ at McD’s) She drank in excess that day, and started to feel it… hence the witnesses stating the appearance of her vomitting alongside the road out side the van.
If I was married to that selfish, immature moron, I’d be drinking too.
Here’s another thought…Maybe the family should consult with John Edwards or another medium to try to contact Diane and the girls and find out what TRULY went on in that van that morning.
But then again, I don’t think they want to know…. and if they did, would they share the TRUTH with everyone, or keep it to themselves as they are now about Diane’s darker side.
Anyone who didn’t know the ugly wrinkled up sister-in-law didn’t smoke is a moron. She’s been smoking for years. Her face is dried and sere, her lips are wrinkled….during the interview in her house I could see a pack of cigarettes in the background to her right…This is a family of liars and opportunists who are making the lives of alot of innocent people miserable….And as far as I’m concerned the whole lot of them need to be on PYSIH….and the sooner they get there, the better….
I said the same thing! How in the world did she have the gull to say that and then at the same time say NO! I KNOW Diane wasn’t a drinker! What a bunch of shit!
Finally! Someone mentioned the Jay ‘No one knows I smoke..” sentence. I couldn’t believe my ears when she said that in the film. When I heard that, I thought “yep, they are in denial”. If Jay thinks no one knew she smoked she’s dillusional. Her facial skin texture, not withstanding, her clothes, her house, her hair would all reak of smoke. I thought it was an appropriate ending to the film. ‘My family doesn’t know I smoke.’ = ‘We all saw that Diane smoked pot and drank excessively, but no one really “knew” it.”
I think that was HBO’s subtle intent to let us know that they, too think the Daniel Schulers of the world are quite transparent. I think the whole story is horrible. Daniel is pulling at strings to finance his life. Using his injured son as bait is sad. I also think that that little boy is going to have an even harder “row to hoe” as we say in the South having a father like Daniel to raise him. It’s no wonder that towards the end of the film, they mention that the boy is now in therapy after acting out in school.
Thank God for the teachers etc who probably insisted that the child het therapy.
Even though we may never know the truth, we are all pretty astute about this case and we ‘know’ that Diane Schuler was hell bent on a murder/suicide mission that fateful day. One does not drive for 2 miles speeding the wrong way on a busy freeway, in a straight line, with hands gripping the steering wheel.
Impaired one might drive a few hundred yards before one hits something and stops. That would have been a much more believable scenario.
I watched this documentary last night. Like many, I had seen the headlines when the accident happened and thought what a horrid tragedy it was. I hoped to learn more watching the documentary however realized there were no new answers nor explanations.
I found it hard to believe Diane would become impaired to the level she was yet continue to drive. She obviously knew how much she was drinking and/or smoking. She had to know she was going to become incredibly impaired and would not be able to safely drive. After ingesting an amount of Vodka, she could feel herself becoming impaired, WHY didn’t she stop? Why would she have taken such an emormous risk with the children and others on the road? As my husband commented after hearing her friends speak, “Diane had to be in control and on this day it was no different.” She herself made those terrible decisions that day.
I realized if it were hard for me to comprehend, it’s certainly understandable the family would be in denial as well. Who would want to admit their wife, sister-in-law, friend etc had made such a terrible decision? None of us of course. The sad part is, after the toxicology results were confirmed – more than once – and by more than one medical professional, the family members refuse to accept the results. It’s no longer denial, grief or sadness. It’s DENIAL of facts.
While I’m sure this is incredibly painful for the family, at some point they must face reality. Diane was high and she was drunk. She made a choice in allowing herself to smoke pot and drink that day. To drive in an impaired state, endangering the lives she was entrusted with, and that of many other strangers who shared the road with her that fateful day. Fact. They will never know why she made so many terrible choices on that day but for their own well being, and the well being of all involved, they should seek professional help with coming to terms with this tragedy, learning to accept the facts and helping the sole survivor Bryan to emotionally heal in the best way possible. It is not helpful to this young boy that his own Father and others around him continue to deny/doubt the toxicology results and attempt to blame an unknown cause for this accident. If you don’t like nor accept facts, you cannot simply deny it- what is this teaching Bryan?
I am truly shocked to read here that Daniel is now suing NY state AND Mr. Hence? That’s utterly dispicable. This man lost every one of his children at the hands of your wife and you now sue him? My God! Your wife’s choices led you where you are today and though it may be hard to accept, punishing others and attempting to collect money in any amount will not heal your heart. It will only blacken your soul. Mark my words ….. if you collect one single dime — and I don’t think you will, your soul is damned and you will live every single day more miserable than the one before. Remember Daniel – Pigs get fat, Hogs get slaughtered. That applies in several instances in this tragedy, don’t you think?
I’ll pray for you and your son. I hope you find the healing you need to move ahead in life, in a positive direction. God help you if you don’t.
Diane was clearly drunk and stoned. However, the pieces still don’t fit. She wasn’t driving as though she was drunk. There was no swerving. In fact, one witness said that she was driving straight but reckless. Also, it is clear that she wasn’t a good person. She was controlling, selfish, etc. However, she never seemed to lash out violently until this day. She was on some sort of mission. Kind of like when people kill their children because they believe Satan has taken them over. A nervous breakdown is possible but those usually don’t motivation you to get back in the care and drive with the intent to kill after you’ve been vomiting. Her mission was to kill herself and the kids and the mystery is what caused her to go suddenly from a non-violent bad person with issues to a murderer. That is a pretty big leap and that is why this case is so fascinating and won’t go away.
I posted my comment earlier on a reply to an August 19 th post.I am
new to this and was not repling to anyone.I was only trying to
give my opinion after seeing the documentary.I respect every one’s
right to their opinion.It is a free country.I just hope I didn’t
offend anyone.Like I said before I am not trying to take away any
blame.This is the first time I have openly spoke about my own
experiences with alcohol and mental health issues.Everyone in life
will have to answer for their actions.Me included.
I don’t recall being offended by you, Melanie. Welcome to PYSIH.
I am glad I didn’t offend you,but I am curious to know what you thought about what I said?It is 2:00 in the morning and I am having
an anxiety attack about baring my soul for the first time.I should have said that I had my children very young.by the time I was drinking they were teenagers and spent weekends at their Dad’s or at their
friends houses.I spent many years making excuses why their
friends couldn’t stay at our place.But I spent my weekends binge
drinking and trying to obliterate myself.I made excuses to my
friends whose children were way younger then mine why I could
not babysit them.Even my brother’s children.I could not take
the chance that I would be drunk and responsible for anyone other then myself.I don’t want to talk about this case anymore after
today.But I remember her husband saying that they drank and smoked
pot on the weekend.They had five children under the care of two
adults who were impaired.Even then something could have gone
horribly wrong.I am sure her brother never would have left his
children in their care if he knew this.I can’t imagine the pain and grief he and his wife have had to endure.Or the other family that was destroyed that day.So much grief and pain.I hope on this site we
are able to talk about other issues.I live with someone who doesn’t
want to talk about anything that is difficult or uncomfortable.It is so refreshing to talk to other people about issues that we are outraged about and can not fathom how this things happen.I hope to hear your
feedback.I am a big girl and can handle the truth.
Nope! Not offended! Thank you for your contribution, Melanie.
Offending people sometimes generates much-needed debate. Difficult subjects like this one are never a ‘sit down over tea and scones’ kind of thing.
As ForlornW said, welcome to PYSIH.
Hi: vcbecky.Where are you?I have never done this before.I did not
know that I could voice my opinion on this web site.I am curious
to know what you think about what I said.Sorry I replied on your
August 19 th post.It was not a response to what you said?I love
people who speak their mind.Like I said I responded to the earlier
post and today.I am totally new to this.I love that someone told
me about the Memphis 3.I saw a show on American Justice about
this case.I think Johnny Depp was the commentator.It was so
scary that is what the justice system did.Please get back to me.
I unlike others would like your opinion!Just so you know,everything
I posted I have only told one person.A Psychiatrist who has to keep
my secrets.This is so enlightening to me.Let’s talk about other things
too.Sorry If I misspelled anything.I have OCD and always want everything to be perfect.Looking forward to hearing from you.
CeeMarx says:
August 31, 2011 at 7:22 am
Finally! Someone mentioned the Jay ‘No one knows I smoke..” sentence. I couldn’t believe my ears when she said that in the film. When I heard that, I thought “yep, they are in denial”. If Jay thinks no one knew she smoked she’s dillusional. Her facial skin texture, not withstanding, her clothes, her house, her hair would all reak of smoke. I thought it was an appropriate ending to the film. ‘My family doesn’t know I smoke.’ = ‘We all saw that Diane smoked pot and drank excessively, but no one really “knew” it.”
I think that was HBO’s subtle intent to let us know that they, too think the Daniel Schulers of the world are quite transparent. I think the whole story is horrible. Daniel is pulling at strings to finance his life. Using his injured son as bait is sad. I also think that that little boy is going to have an even harder “row to hoe” as we say in the South having a father like Daniel to raise him. It’s no wonder that towards the end of the film, they mention that the boy is now in therapy after acting out in school.
Thank God for the teachers etc who probably insisted that the child het therapy.
Even though we may never know the truth, we are all pretty astute about this case and we ‘know’ that Diane Schuler was hell bent on a murder/suicide mission that fateful day. One does not drive for 2 miles speeding the wrong way on a busy freeway, in a straight line, with hands gripping the steering wheel.
Impaired one might drive a few hundred yards before one hits something and stops. That would have been a much more believable scenario.
I just watched the Garbus doc and had to rewind that point when Jay says “no one knows I smoke”. Let’s pretend for a moment that her voice/skin doesn’t betray her habit, nor any other reasonable give-aways her family could pick up on(the smell of cigarettes, for example) … I just found it so interesting that a woman with what she believes to be a secret found it so impossible to believe that someone else could have a secret – for example: Diane with her drinking problem….Couldn’t we all just imagine Diane under different circumstances saying the exact same thing with a spliff in one hand and a vodka-cran in the other: “my family doesn’t know”…….Anyway – that 10 second scene just blew me away with its many implications.
I just watched the Garbus doc and had to rewind that point when Jay says “no one knows I smoke”. Let’s pretend for a moment that her voice/skin doesn’t betray her habit, nor any other reasonable give-aways her family could pick up on(the smell of cigarettes, for example) … I just found it so interesting that a woman with what she believes to be a secret found it so impossible to believe that someone else could have a secret – for example: Diane with her drinking problem….Couldn’t we all just imagine Diane under different circumstances saying the exact same thing with a spliff in one hand and a vodka-cran in the other: “my family doesn’t know”…….Anyway – that 10 second scene just blew me away with its many implications.
This is a documentary that really gets under your skin. Of course it’s obvious what a loser the husband is. Especially towards the end when Jay is getting fed up with his lazy parenting skills, stating that he doesn’t even work all day. That reminded me of his work schedule which is 6pm to 1 am. Now how would he know if his wife drank regularly? Not that I believe a word he says… just the way he speaks you know damn well they probably fought a lot. I’m sure they did at that camping trip. Plus why wouldn’t a husband follow his wife home? That is what married couples do if they go somewhere in two vehicles. Especially with five kids in tow.
Another aspect of the story is that they talked a lot about her mother abandoning her at age nine. Then we find out her brothers reconciled with her but Diane refused. That would cause a lot of animosity between siblings for sure. Her brothers oldest daughter was nine. People like Diane are so full of anger especially from gaining so much weight. She was probably miserable with her marriage. It may have been an awful weekend. She may have had a fever/infection from the rotten tooth. I just can’t stop thinking that she could have done this on purpose. All that anger and wanting to make others miserable too. People do sometimes commit suicide by car. I’m sure she felt herself getting wasted, if she didn’t intend to do something extreme like this, wouldn’t she slow down on the vodka? It’s almost like she was purposely chugging screwdrivers and smoking pot to give her the ability to do this intentionally. I guess we’ll never know. The youngest survivor wouldn’t be able to understand her behavior that day. We don’t know the level of resentment towards her brother and husband. She could have been pissed at both of them and wanted to get the last word.
Feel sorry for the three girls that no longer live, do not be so quick to excuse their father. “She called her brother two hours before to say wasn’t feeling well”, quote from state police on 7/27/09. There were two hours of shit going on that day before the crash. Parents are responsible for their children’s safety, and there is no record of a 911 call. Tragic mistake, doesn’t change the end result. Hance lying and not talking to police has given Daniel the opportunity to go on and on about his wife. Hance should have stepped up and said she was drunk, I thought I could stop her but… He lies so people do not address that he could bear any blame. If that wasn’t true, he would have been knocking on Schuler’s door looking for answers too, like “why did you leave her there?”, he can’t do that because he took the five phone calls that day not Schuler. Pathetic to worry more about the consequences he would face after losing his children and to let this story go on and on! Both men pathetic. Feel for the lost children, the adults all knew she drank.
Victory12,
I find it hard to believe that Warren really “knew” 2 hours before the accident that Diane was drunk. This implies that Warren “knew” his daughters were in serious danger and he just allowed that condition to exist. If I “knew” the person in charge of my children’s care was intoxicated and intending to get behind the wheel of a vehicle with them inside, I’d be out the door before the conversation was over to pick them up myself. Your comment implies to me that you feel Warren Hance was okay with the risk Diane was about to take with his children. I firmly believe it was a casual “I’m not feeling so good” type of conversation, like where one lays down and takes a nap when they are done with errands. Not to mention, regardless of what Warren’s choices were, there is no way in HELL Jackie Hance would have allowed that condition to exist. This idea you present is not new however it is just another deflection of blame from Diane to someone else. Someone else has to be responsible besides Diane. This is not a correlational study in which a relationship between two or more variables is being established. It is plain and simple that Diane made poor CHOICES and 7 lives were lost because of those CHOICES. It wasn’t Warren’s choice to get behind that wheel, drunk, with children…not Warren’s choice at all.
Like many of you, this story really got under my skin. When I heard about the documentary I was very interested in learning more about the crash, as well as hearing from the victims’ families. What struck me the most was something Diane’s best friend said, which was something to the effect of ‘when she was mad at you, you knew.’ Hearing those words hit me like a freight train. Diane was a woman with extreme control issues, which is exactly why she married such a manchild like Daniel. Danny grew dependent on his breadwinner wife Diane, and even agreed to have children that he did not want as long as Diane took care of them. He was easily handled by Diane, and that is the way she wanted it. I can’t help but think someone who had such a need to be in control would also be accustomed to hiding her vices in order to control other people’s perception of her. Now, I won’t bother to speculate on why Diane began drinking that morning, but I will say that I highly doubt it was the first time she drove intoxicated. In fact, I think driving drunk and aggressively was common for Diane, but due to her control issues was not something that her friends or family were acutely aware of. So when Emma called home and told her parents that her aunt was sick and Warren asked her to stay parked Diane was infuriated at the implication that she was not in control. Because she is so careful to control what she allows others to know about her, her family believes she truly is sick, but Diane realizes if they catch up to her they will know she was drinking and driving with children in the car. Diane feels her control slipping and abandons her cell phone to prevent more calls and or the police tracking her location. She takes a few hits from her pipe to ease her stomach, gets back in the car, and continues to drive. At this point Diane is drunk, high, angry at her niece for tattling on her, upset that her brother is trying to find her despite her insistence that she has it under control, paranoid that the police are looking for her, and all too aware that she will be charged with a dui (or worse) if caught, so she begins driving away from where her family expects her to be. Eventually Diane drives onto the exit ramp of the Taconic and drives south for 1.6 miles in the north bound passing lane. Witnesses commented that Diane was driving ‘pin straight,’ with purpose, as though she were exactly where she intended to be, and I believe she was. Afterall, when Diane was mad at you, she made sure you knew it.
The people I feel for the most are the 7 people Diane killed to make her point, Bryan, the Hance, Bastardi, and Longo families, and Jay Schuler. Sure, it does seem weird that Jay and Danny continue to fight for Diane, but this is a woman they loved, who appeared to them to be a wonderful mother. As the forensic psychiatrist explained, they refuse to believe Diane knowingly drank, smoke and crashed because Diane was not a bad person in her interactions with them. As outsiders whose first knowledge of Diane was hearing that she was drunk/high when she killed 7 other people it is easy for us to see that the most likely answer is that she drank and smoked; it is easy to be cynical of those you don’t know. Daniel Schuler lost my sympathy when he declined to follow Diane and the kids home to help her out, and earned my scorn when he lamented that he has to care for his surviving son. Jay Schuler is enabling Daniel’s awful attitudes and behaviors, but I think her heart is in the right place, and I’m glad that Bryan has an aunt that loves him.
I hope that Diane’s family one day finds peace and comes to terms with what she did, and that the other victims and their families get closure as well. That’s my two cents anyway. :)
I have not watched the documentary…do they discuss somewhere that Diane asked Daniel to follow her and he declined to do so? I have two views about that, one being I can’t see Diane, who was always so in control, asking to be followed and two, if she actually did ask and was denied, that could have set off or added to a bad mood for her. If she really wasn’t feeling well as she stated in her call to Warren earlier that day, maybe she DID ask Daniel for help and he declined…sometimes I feel a LITTLE bad for Diane…especially since all of Daniel’s antics since her death. I can only imagine what kind of life she had living with him…maybe she just felt she’d be better off dead and so would her children…it doesn’t explain any premeditated thoughts to killing her nieces though…I dunno..just random thoughts I’m having…
Great post; I agree with you 100%.
Based on watching the documentary 3 times and what the accident reconstructionist said, I have my own theory of what happened which I detailed in the original version of this thread and it doesn’t bear repeating if only because it is overly long and involved, but another comment I made there does: as was said to Daniel and Jay Schuler, “The PREVAILING ISSUE will always be” the alcohol and the pot (emphasis mine). World without end, amen.
It’s been said that an addict’s family sees only the behavior and not the reasons, but here it’s pretty obvious that these people see only the reason and not the behavior, which regardless of reasons why or the rest of Diane Schuler’s life was pretty reprehensible. That said, I do think it was an accident, albeit one caused by gross negligence and irresponsibility on the part of Diane Schuler, that stemmed from her anger over being “caught” by the kids drinking and smoking pot and them being able to telegraph that to a family member. I do also think she was a closet drinker and/or addict and may have been at the tipping point of an intervention by family members for some period of time. I can say these things because I myself am an addict and there were some signs that were obvious to me that these people are denying things for a reason… not the least of which was pausing the documentary at the point where they were looking at her pharmacy report and taking a good look at it myself. I think the poor woman needed help she was clearly not getting, and for THAT I am sorry for her… but it doesn’t excuse her behavior or her negligence, and certainly it doesn’t excuse Daniel’s reprehensible behavior one iota.
Warren Hance loaned Diane his 2003 Ford Windstar Limited minivan, not a Chevrolet Trailblazer. The Trailblazer was driver by the Bastardi family.
I too was obsessed with the HBO documentary and watched it 2 or 3 times. Since it was definitely biased and only people who spoke good things abouit Diane were shown in the documentary, I would wonder if maybe she had a horrible migraine or something (yes, medical) to cause her to act the way she did. I did not read any reports of Daniel Schuler suing anyone (I’m way up here in western Canada!) so naturally, I believed all the reports of Diane not being an alcoholic, according to her hubby & Jay.
Anyway, I read somewhere, maybe on PYSIH or another blog that she
actually had a favourite “watering hole” and very frequently, after work, would go and pound back a few screwdrivers before going home!
Did anyone else read or hear about that?
Sure changed my opinion of her!
Hi, first time poster here. I didn’t read through all the comments to this artical so please forgive me if I repeat anything. I came across this site today.. (and feel late doing so) I have watched the HBO Doc about this case about 3 times now. Each time I did, things just didn’t sit well with me.
I can’t say I agree with your point about her motive, I also can’t say you are wrong either. Since clearly there are facts that are being left out for us, and thus causing us to come up with our own conclusions. However, I wanted to express my feelings about things if that’s ok.
There is no lie that she was clearly drunk. Why she chose to drink is something we all might never know.. Be it family problems, emotional with husband, or tooth pain. The woman though, had a very controlling personality. Some say that she could have been upset that her husband was just like another kid, and I oddly feel that she probably picked to be with him because of that fact. He was someone she could very easily control. I can believe that if he started to stray from her, and wanted to leave her, It would be news she wouldn’t be able to handle because that would be something and someone she couldn’t control. Maybe they were trying to sort things out that weekend? Who knows. The fact that he drove off and left her to deal with the kids sounds like a typical situation that happened all the time with that family. Danny didn’t want to deal with kids, and pit stops, so he just went on ahead and let Diane (the woman who LOVES to control everything) deal with all that.
I don’t agree with her deliberately doing this as a murder/suicide. I got the feeling that she thought she was in such control of everything, that she could drink and smoke and think “I can do this and still be in control” Again, why she needed to drink and smoke, I wont say because I don’t know. Something made her do that. She did seem angry in the video at the gas station. Both inside the store, and leaving it. She walks in quickly. Barely looks for something. Asks the clerk something, then leaves and peals out. Now, if someone wants to go and use the abscess tooth theory let me tell you that I have had 2 abscess teeth before. It is the type of pain that stops you dead. Both times I had it, I was curled up in a ball, screaming in pain and crying for hours. It is not the type of pain you can ignore and pretend you are fine with. If I were driving and got that pain, I would stop at -every- store to find meds. I wouldn’t walk in, ask if clerk had anything, and leave. I would stay and see if he couldn’t look for something. But that’s me. I don’t need to be in control. If she indeed had an abscess tooth, it would have been -very- obvious. But no where, in that pain, would i think that me trying to deal with this pain meant more then the lives of my loved ones. If the only thing I had left for the pain was to drink, I wouldn’t drive. My need to be in control of everything would have been less powerful then my kids, my loves ones. So -why- she drank and kept going if she were in pain, just doesn’t make any sense. So I don’t know if I buy that part of it. Plus.. if you have abscessed tooth, you can see it in an autopsy. It’s puss around a tooth root or coming out of an swollen area in the gums next to the tooth. It’s a lot of puss.. you can’t miss it. So her having an abscessed tooth seems to not hold much water with me.
Honestly though, I think it was her need to always be in constant control that was her downfall. I think she was upset about something and drank, smoked, to deal with it, while also thinking she was in such control that she could do these things and continue with the day. She was ignorant to the idea that the alcohol would get her -that- drunk that she just lost it completely. Argued with family. I can totally understand a drunk person leaving a cell phone somewhere. So her leaving it behind might not mean as much as some of you might think it means. Yes it’s very strange that it was left behind, but if she was sooooo drunk, i believe she could have been on the phone fighting, closed it, ended the call. Delt with the kids, or got distracted by shit in her own head, and left it there. Not saying that’s what happened, but saying that it might have been one reason.
However, nothing even being that drunk and out of it, sits right with me when people talk about her actions getting onto the highway the wrong way. I’ve seen drunk drivers driving. You can tell they are drunk. It’s almost imposable for anyone drunk to follow a straight line. So the fact that she was able to get in the fast lane and stay straight for over a mile without hitting the middle median grass or anything.. is remarkable. Actions like that totally open the door for the theories like this website has some up with. I don’t understand how she could do that.. and maybe a part of my heart and brain wont let me truly believe someone would do that.. but.. I am aware.. she could. And it’s sad.
oh and ps. to HBO showing Diane’s dead body. I was not shocked by this. HBO is known for showing the most rawest after effects of events. This means dead bodies. If they are doing a documentary about something that involves death, they almost always show the dead person, or crime scene. So I was not shocked that HBO showed her after she died. How HBO got the ok to show those pictures.. .well that’s a whole other story entirely.
All that being said… the actions that are being made by her husband are beyond sickening. But what I find most tragic is that poor little boy who survived. Someone really needs to step in and watch him carefully. I have a really bad feeling about how his father is going to raise him. It’s not a good environment at all… Though I don’t want any child to be taken away from their parents.. I strongly feel he should be taking away from his father and placed in a better home. I know there are families out there who want to help! HECK I have a friend who is trying to adopt a more older kid, who has had some rough times.. She wants to give a kid a better life.. (but the adoption people are being jerks about it..) So honestly.. there are more loving people out there for this boy.. then his own father. It hurt me so much to watch Danny act like he didn’t even care about his son. And the son seemed distant with him! The part where he and his son are on a walk.. Danny puts his hand down to try and hold Bryan’s hand.. and he goes to reach for it, then pauses, and finally refuses and doesn’t hold his hand. It was a tiny moment.. but it spoke volumes to me. I hope people are keeping an eye on this kid. A close one. I would hate to hear something bad happening later where he is upset about his mother and father and he didn’t feel loved. The sister in law at least seems to care about Bryan.
Diane was not high nor drunk 1 when she left 2 was at the gas station 3 nor mcdonalds – SHE SUDDENLY BECAME DELIRIOUS, PSYCHOTIC, DISORIENTED – SHE WAS DRUGGED, likly by HER HUSBAND who admitted to his sister in law that HE NEVER WANTED CHILDREN AND RESENTED his life raising HIS ONE REMAINING CHILD, BRYAN – THAT CHILD IS IN GRAVE DANGER!!!!!!!!!!! You read it here first – that child is in grave danger – when Diane called Hence sounding strange and out of it and the HBO doc reports Hence says she mistakenly called him Danny – NO, I THINK SHE WAS TELLING SOMEONE DANNY DID THIS TO HER, she was aware that she was in serious distress and was clearly calling out and misdialing to attempt to call others – WHY THIS WOMAN DID NOT CALL 911 OR continued after being aware she was in distress and stopping several times CAN ONLY BE ASCRIBED TO DELERIUM and hallucinations – DANNY DID THIS HORRIFIC THING – KILLED THE KIDS HE NEVER WANTED AND WIFE he perceived was in control and overbearing…..DANNY DID THIS
You make only one accurate point here, that Danny did cause this to happen. But it was his cheating ways and how he lied about where he was on Thursday night, he was not at the camp like he said. His lies caused her to commit murder and suicide, but he did not drug her.
1. moms with no prior history other than total responsibility DO NOT BECOME FREAKS IN AN INSTANT
2. ALL WITNESSES AND COPS say she was SOBER when she left, when she stopped at both gas station and mcdonalds – so, do we seriously think this maticulously responsible woman took a chug of vodka with 5 kids in the car? and anyway,
3. alchohol nor alleged marajuana account for the SUDDEN ONSET OF FREAKISH DELIRIUM
4. acc to the sister in law, this piece of cr–p d-bag Danny “HATES HIS LIFE” raising alone HIS ONLY SURVIVING child – that is a remorseless cold hearted KILLER
5. Diane called Hence’s and said “danny” – they accounted this to delirium, but i think she was as a lot of victims do when dying, she was telling Hence that DANNY WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT WAS HAPPENING
THE COPS FAILED TO STOP THIS VAN WHEN THE EARLY CALLS FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS CAME IN – THEY HAD EVERY MOTIVE TO FUDGE THE TEST RESULTS TO COVER THEIR A—-
COPS ADMIT – DIANE WAS SOBER when she left and in several stops – Do we seriously believe she chugged 10 shots of vodka and got high IN THE CAR??????????????????? around the children, WHO btw were astute enough to call immediately when they sensed something was wrong???????????? NO WITNESSES SAW HER WITH A BOTTLE OF VODKA at the rest stop nor anywhere else….
THERE WAS SOMETHING IN THE CAR THAT SHE INGESTED, something was very very out of norm and WRONG
what????
Cops never admitted anything of the sort. How would they know if she wsa sober or not?
The calls to the police only came from her brother, not friends and they camne after the crash, they could not have stopped it.
Your story makes no sense, if she ingested something in the car why would they have to fake the results? No witnesses saw her with the bottle, but it was found in the car with her.
Look, this story fascinated and saddened me from the get go. I watched the documentary over and over and over again. I have a crimminal justice degree and these type of incidents can be solved even if they are as mysterious as this one. My theory:
I believe Dianne Schuller committed suicide. I feel she was very upset with her brother because the girls (Warren and Jackie’s girls) where talking about their Grandmother that weekend. Perhaps when Dianne spoke with Jackie on the phone she inquired if her Mother was to be attending the play.
Remember Dianne was furious with her Mother and had some kind of deep seated anger that was never properly addressed or treated. Dianne ulitimately took her Mother’s place at home at the time of the divorse. She was playing a game she was not going to win. She attempted to split the family and was successful at doing so for a long time. However over a period of time her brothers had a relationship with their Mother they had forgiven her or atleast came around that they wanted a relationship with her. Dianne’s Mother reached out time and again to Dianne but with no avail.
Dianne was extremely upset that her Mother would be attending the play. She spoke with Jackie about it on the phone. Dianne was a control freak. She did not get her own way. She was angry. She did this out of anger and spite. She had issues she had depression and she committed murder.
I agree 100% with you.
“I See Things that Others Cannot” — this post is thought-evoking for me. Never looked at it that Dianne was enraged her estranged mother was going to begin to become a force in her children’s lives, since she was already an important part of the 3 niece’s lives.
But wouldn’t most people with control issues decide not to attend the Play to avoid her Mother? Certainly, if Dianne was this control freak, she must have had other scenarios to keep her mother out of their lives.
Why would she kill herself over that?
By the way, I am starting to believe she did commit suicide since her driving was perfect (just going the wrong way, of course) the last few miles. But do any others have an opinion on Dianne not getting her own way and killing everyone because she was out of control, as “I See Things that Others Cannot” sees it. That’s some food for thought.
Unfortunately, the truth won’t be know.
You don’t play chicken for almost 2 miles. Diane was drunk, lost, and stoned. End of Game
@Adam Diane got behind the wheel and drove. Hance didnt force her to drive, shit, maybe Diane acted all ‘hey lets be a great family let me do something nice for you relax a bit more’.
What gas station doesn’t have ANY type of pain reliever? I mean sure not 1 brand, but I can’t recall ever walking into one and not finding any and ive had to before.
I have massive migraines (well before i finally got med’s) and when i had a migraine come on and had to stop and get something & I have never been in a gas station without some kind be it tylenol, advil…. Ive also had to pull over so i didnt throw up all inside my car because the pain became so massive. NEVER would I of made the connection to drink to relieve a pain…
@NOPERPSATLARGE although I don’t think this is what happened, I would actually prefer this (well not for the surviving child). The douche daniel seems like he could do that.
And as for my comment, I think Jay and douche daniel are going to eventually get married. From the documentary it seemed SO creepy the way Jay kept inserting herself into everything and was everywhere with him. Although maybe not with the complaining about him she did about him near the end.
This whole thing blows. :(
I think she stopped for a map. As you said, Tylenol would be available there. I believe Diane Shuler got lost. “Got her head turned” as we hunters say. Once that happens, ask anyone who’s ever experienced it, you no longer have a grip on your sanity. You will walk in circles for days. You throw away your compass, claiming to yourself out loud that ” This GPS is wrong and cannot be trusted.” A clue came to me when one of her friends, on the documentary, said Diane had not trusted GPS once before. DS then compounded her lost feelings and panic with weed and booze. Which made her even more lost. She may have even believed the cars coming at her were going the wrong way.
Did anyone else notice in the documentary when Bryan was looking through the photo album that “daddy” made (I’m sure he didn’t really make it), there was a picture of Erin holding a beer bottle. A two year old, holding a beer bottle. And that bastard Danny has the nerve to go on television and say she didn’t drink, they didn’t drink, what nonsense!!
I need to chime in on this guys. Not from the point of the family or anyone else, but rather to toss one more strange stone in to the fire.
How many of you have ever driven on the Taconic? I have to admit that I have. As far as highways goes, it’s a nightmare and should be ranked as one of the nations most dangerous roads.
They call it a parkway, but it has no instersections, just on and off ramps. Then suddenly it has intersections and lights. Get my point? There is no shoulder to it, rather it’s just like the street many of us live on. Hard curb without even enough room for a pedestrian let alone a vehicle to be pulled off to the side.
Two loanes wide mostly with a steel guardrail down the middle and approx 18-24 inches seperating opposite direction traffic. No concrete walls, no median with a dip in the middle, nothing but a metal guardrail and maybe 24 inches.
Why do I bring this up? Because I lived in Yonkers, not far at all from the spot this happened, on the day that it happened. Yonkers is just barely north of NYC and for most purposes you can say it’s part of the city. In the largest city in the world, the city immune to human suffering this stopped everyone as quick as the Towers did when they happened.
She is responsible for what she did, the dealer is responsbile, the party who sold her the alchohol is responsible. But so is the state of new york for the way they build that road. Had the road been built like other highways then the vehicles she hit might of been able to veer out of her way. Instead they were stuck in a fatal game of chicken with a woman who was blown out of her mind.
Fuck the schulers, they don’t even deserve a capital letter on their name, and fuck the state of New York. Make highways that give people a chance to avoid death when it barrels towards them like this.
HBO was stupid to get involved with this terrible tragedy. 7 innocent lives were taken. HBO you can do much better then this docu. The kids were playing at McDonalds and Super Mom went and smoked the pot. Thats my guess when she lit up that hemp. Also why not get a nice extra large cup of Orange Juice goes down easy with vodka. Remember as a my hunch she made a giant cocktail for the ride home while the kids are within site at McDonalds. Diane’s best time to have burned that pot was there. Also why did her husband not follow in tow. I’m married with kids. I have done the road trip in 2 cars before. I can always remember following or taking the lead but ONE THING I NEVER DID was go different ways. I say she got drunk lost her bearings of where she was and yes Ive been on the Parkway Titanic and some exits are confusing but if your drunk your gonna miss that Do not enter sign. With hubby well ahead and with the dog something doesn’t sound right. I say Diane lost her mind and never was coherent after 12PM. Daniel why were you not following those kids? Thats my debate. Did they have a fight no one saw that weekend, and Diane was still trying to spell it out. So instead she got Trashed and Burned. Daniel your never gonna be at peace unless you except the truth. So quit being a baby find another wife and move on.
I watched the documentary twice because I was so horrified by the denial of Daniel and his sister in-law. It was quite clear they were covering something up with their fanaticism in clearing her name.
They were obviously afraid of being sued for her actions and losing money from her life insurance policy etc.
If you look at this whole disaster with open eyes, it is Daniel who should go to hell. Unfortunately there isn’t one that could contain the evil that emanates from him and his wife who intentionally killed her own child, her brother’s children and three innocent men.
Until I watched the documentary I never imagined such a group of evil psychopath’s could have ever existed.
Amend that to say Daniel should JOIN her in hell and then we will be in agreement.
Sorry his lazy ass may not be able to hold on to the insurance money. Perhaps he will have to learn to live on what he makes like so many other real people do.
I don’t believe that this was a suicide…Ever try to take the keys away from a hardheaded drunk??? Their fine…they can make it home, they did it before…bla bla bla. I don’t think she was a closet alcoholic but would drink often and was able to hide it…and normally functioned well while drunk.
I think she had a hangover from the night before and decided to have a few drinks to clear her head. I also think something was bothering her and her erratic driving at the beginning was from anger, so she drank more. I think this problem came out during one of the phone calls after she drank to much and why the brother set out to find her. But I also think she was so fu*ked up by that time that she decided she could still make it home, but got lost. Than realized she made a wrong turn and became neglectful (because she was hammered) when trying to correct her error, and turned on to the exit ramp when trying to reverse her direction as she was heading back south toward home. The determined driving stance she exhibited as reported by witnesses before the crash tells me she was prob at blackout and trying to focus on staying in one lane, ignoring her surroundings.
The poor kids were prob scared to death for those two miles and may have tried to tell her…but the hardheaded drunk doesn’t want to heat it, especially from children…they are always right. I know drunks like this and they will fu*en kill you rather than admit they are doing something wrong…because by admitting they are doing something wrong would be admitting they are drunk and out of control. Ask a bartender how hard it is to cut off a drunk…they will want to fight you for another drink, totally unreasonable people…And this mother was at that stage, unreasonable!
If she had smoked pot first than had a few drinks, 1) she would not have drunk so much. 2) She would have drove more cautiously. Since she smoked after being drunk the pot hit her like a hammer, and her throwing up at the rest are tells me she smoked after having a good drinking buzz going. Look at what the experts say about mixing these two drugs.
From the controlling description of this woman’s personality we all know what she was like to be around, a nag and a hag…always bitching, always right. I think the husband knew she could get like this sometimes and was probably worst when she was drunk. She may have been that way the night before, as to why he just split with the dog the next day. I don’t think he thought she would drink on the way home and endanger the children…but what ever was bothering her the night before was festering, plus the hangover. The reason he lies about her drinking is because of the lawsuits…he is in survival mood.
Another thing…I think she was a dangerous driver even if she did not have a few drinks in her fat ass, we all know the type, “GET OUT OF MY WAY!!” as they pass you while flipping you the bird, use the shoulder during a traffic jam, go first at a stop sign…ME, me, me.
I first heard about this accadent in 2009 when it happen and tought like therest of us on what a tradgety. But aft hearing more about it and thern seen the hbo doc I realise Diane was a fat scack of shit!!…she is the most worthless peice of garbage that I’ve heard about in a long time…so what she had a hard childhood..shit a lot of us did thrs no excuse to fuking let it bulid up to the point whree she murders 7 inconent people and her fuck pussy balless faggot husban not jus leting the memory of tht cunt and the lives of the other good people she burtiatly killed is just fucking sad you and your wife are the pure scum of the earth and I hope the devil is making that fat discusting whore puss filled cunt suck his big red dick for enterty!!…you should just kill your self and go get what is comming to you like your fat gutterslut wife!!!..I saw on hbo that they read theys comments and I hope they read this one too…and fuck you to the cunt sis in law….I hope you and him die very slow!!!!!
wowsi, lol, loads of comments, wonder why,un=h oohh thats right, no debate on this one, she was ripped to the tits and didn’t want to get caught!!!! I know if I felt that shitty I’d be GLAD if someone came to get me..not getting caught was worth the risk of killing her and her brother’s kids. WHY else would she drive on, feeling like shit? There’s just not enough slammin the guilty button for this one, pisses me off anytime the topic comes up.
One reason everyone is interested in this case, well I think, is everyone on this website drives (note, I just mean driving not Diane-style driving). We sort of have to trust that people like her will stay off the road! Because if you meet them on a blind curve going 85 mph in a big van there is just nothing you can do unless you are very, very lucky.
So, most of us drive. Those who don’t probably regularly ride in vehicles. Clearly, people trusted Diane to drive their children. I do think we are trying to determine why they trusted her. Did they have a good reason? Was she normally a safe driver? The documentary didn’t address that. If they think the Sunco video proves it, the unedited version most certainly does not. I am interested to know if that was normal or abnormal driving for Diane. It kind of fits the personality they all ascribe to her.
A lot of people come on here and yell at everyone “I am sure you all have driven while drinking.” I don’t think that. But, I do think most everyone has been in a situation where they had been drinking and either planned in advance not to drive or decided later not to drive (taking a cab, staying put, even walking home instead).
A lot of us wonder why she was greeting the day by getting wasted. It is really abnormal to have ten drinks before 1:30. It is doubly abnormal to be out driving in that condition. To be driving a mini van full of kids is, I thought, pretty rare. But, Diane reveals that… maybe not. Maybe there is a certain type of person who will use those trappings to only feign innocence. Did all of the people who swore she was sober really think so or was it just because you don’t see too many drunks at 11 a.m.?
Then there is the secret-keeping aspect. i do understand her family getting the samples retested and confirmed that they were Diane’s. At first, I believe many people believed that indicated it was because they knew how abnormal what she’d done was for her (I mean the drinking and driving part). But, now it seems they were only in deep denial and she had done this before, just not to this extreme (which is still very wrong that she made that choice).
So, then the question becomes why? After research, it appears the answer it merely that was the decision she made that day. It doesn’t appear to be that she accidentally ingested the alcohol. No, she poured it and drank it. But, at first it looked like there was a mystery.
The fact anyone ever believed it was mysterious reveal, fortunately, how abnormal she was even as she pretended to be normal. unlike many child murderers chronicled on this site, she was able to blend into the crowd. She was able to convince people, it seems, that she shared their morals when she just knew she ought to pretend.
We can learn some things from her… perhaps people who post here know them already (sincerely intended), but not everyone does. Such as her abandonment at age nine which was really her mother leaving her father and Diane refusing to allow her mother back into her life. Diane’s stubborness made it harder on her and people around her let her do it for almost thirty years. (I am not giving Diane a pass, she is still at fault for the vehicular homicides and more.) Everyone who knew her just accepted that she didn’t want to talk about anything ever.
For any person who sees themselves in Diane, they need to see.. one can only suppress things for so long. People like Danny and Diane’s friends need to learn to talk to people. Danny was all set to set Bryan on the same road by not giving him an avenue to discuss his trauma.
Perhaps the psychiatrist who said Diane wouldn’t kill herself was going too much from her family’s information. Maybe the answer was Diane would only kill herself in a manner that could look like an accident to some people. (It doesn’t really look accidential for long and the only reason it ever did was most people want to drive in a manner that will allow them to get home unscathed. So, briefly, people may have thought surely she was the same.)
It also shows that families can hide things even from themselves. The photo of Erin (age two) holding a beer bottle that was in Bryan’s keepsake photos. Why was that photo even made? was drinking so common in their family that it was their version of normal? If so, that contrasts pretty sharply with the picture of themselves that they have attempted to paint. Given they willingly showed that to HBO just shows they have no idea that people who really are light drinkers do not have alcohol around their kids and don’t take photos of two year olds with beer bottles. My parents were non-drinkers. It would have upset them if ever there had been a beer bottle around for me to put my hand on.. beer just did not exist in our house. They never talked about it either. it did not interest them. It would be as strange as it would be for a person in a high-rise apartment to own a riding mower. But, in the Schuler house, no matter what they say… alcohol was mundane. Pot probably was as well.
They probably thought they were all sneaky and sly about it, but Diane’s brother’s kids were older than hers. Had Diane tried to pass her and her husband off as people who didn’t have alcohol around to her brother? if so, her nieces would have broken that story wide open. Then, they would have described behavior that her brother would have instantly recognized as drunk/high.
Diane’s refusal to be honest with herself was the personality trait that led her into the trouble. I am leaning toward the idea that she was considering suicide as early as McDonald’s or the campground. But, I think she could have been talked out of it. She wouldn’t have made it easy, but it might have been possible.
so, i think the case is a peek into how much some people will hide things and deny things. there are things to learn from it. her family probably needs to give up on Diane’s innocence because she wasn’t. But, they need to learn from her that it is better to go ahead and bring things out and talk about them.
would they have been disappointed if Diane had told them she was a heavy drinker? of course. But, they could have dealt with her better. They could have decided that someone besides Danny had to always be present when she was babysitting. That she didn’t need to be responsible for driving duties.
jay, for example, seems to have been so busy “hiding” her smoking that she was happy to think of everything at Danny and Diane’s being a-o.k. Even though there were plenty of signs for what they have said that she wasn’t doing that well. She could still go to work and get her kids fed and dressed, but otherwise she was slipping. Again, that isn’t an excuse. Weaker people in that family do not need to gang up on the take charge people. They are stressing Jay out now.
She seems much more willing to talk about her problems than Diane and I am not making excuses for Diane. i am just saying maybe they need to try to learn from what she did to their family, the Bastardi family, the Longo family, and the families of other innocent people haunted and traumatized by what Diane selfishly did that day.
But, unlike some of these people who are written about, there was a time when it could have gone another way for Diane. She wasn’t dipping babies into hot sinks of water and going shopping. So, she did have some level of sanity about herself that maybe could have been reached before anyone died. So, that’s why people talk about her more. She had at least a little in common with normal people. Or she seems to have. But, as much as she hid.. it is possible she did not.
Still, the reason a lot of people want to talk about her is the horror that she took her crazy, literally, to the streets and made a lot of innocent people deal with her problems, forever. So, even people driving by saw it going up in smoke as she and her victims were pronounced dead.
I don’t know.. I don’t really even know anyone like Diane any more, but I have met a lot of people like her in the past. They are horrid people to deal with most of the time. If they can see the truth in Diane maybe they will get it into their brains that they are not right about every single thing and get help while they can.
All the test show she was drinking and that pot was in her system. If the test show then why in the world through the first part of the documentary they keep saying “She shows no signs of being intoxicated”. Well my theory is she was a drinker because if she can have that many drinks and seem sober then was a habitual drinker- NO MATTER WHAT HER FAMILY SAYS. She could have been a closet drinker- hiding it from her family (I had one in mine I know). And her husband is an IDIOT! SEVERAL people died and his wife KILLED THEM! And now this idiot husband wants to SUE the peoples family in the crash that died. This world is sick and her husband needs to accept his wife was drunk and high the day she KILLED ALL OF THESE PEOPLE!
I will also add I believe she drank the night before and that could have been in her system hence why she went into the gas station looking for pain meds.
Does that Fathead Danny Schuler hear one word coming out of anyone’s mouths or is a brain a very basic organ that he lacks? Diane had booze AND hash in her system when she drove down the Taconic Parkway the WRONG WAY! This had nothing to do with the roads, the vehicles or the unfortunates she killed. The documentary “There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane” was a total farce. There has been no factual evidence that anything was wrong with her aside from her own poor habits. If she drove 2 miles and didn’t notice the cars driving in the other direction at 55mph why would she notice a wrong way sign. It was particularly nauseating when Jay Schuler tried to claim that they’re trying to canonize Drunky Diane “for the victims’ families” because they don’t want them to have to think that a drunk driver killed their loved ones. Her son of a bitch husband is suing the families of her victims. That is a victim beyond a victim. The repair or disrepair of their vehicle had nothing to do with that drunk hitting them head on at over 55mph. This man needs a gag order or at least to be taught what responsibility is. The Longos, Bastardis and Hances shouldn’t have to suffer any more than they already have but he just has no brain, no conscience and no soul.
I don’t think she was an alcoholic~ Pot smoker yes! I think that Diane and her husband had a fight he took off with the dog. Leaving her with 5 kids. I don’t think she was drinking early that day, I think she was fuming. In anger, she decided to kill herself and take those children with her! ” I’ll show him” In psychology we refer to this as the “suffering hero” people can have these thoughts it takes a real piece of work to actually act upon them.
She decided to get drunk and high and crash that car instead of dealing with her problems and letting people see that she was not “perfect”. I believe she started drinking rapidly and that is why she became sick and was spotted vomiting x 2 just prior to the crash. I don’t think she had a tolerance for alcohol.
She left that phone at the side of the road to prevent anyone from stopping her or helping her.
No one alcoholic or not would consume 10 shots of vodka and get high while transporting children if they are not intentionally meaning to harm those kids. “Supermoms” know better than that!
Diane knew better than that! She was selfish and in pain and decided to end her suffering but didn’t want to feel a thing, so she got drunk/high first. She wanted to punish someone.
Those children felt everything, fear, panic, helplessness, and unlike Diane (who was so intoxicated she may have blacked out before the actual crash) Those children experienced everything up until their deaths. Her son says he flew like superman~ I wonder if he was so afraid that he had one of those “out of body experiences” that children have been known to have during intense trauma? His mind simply would not allow him to process what was happening.
Crying children, beeping cars and flashing headlights did not detour her from her goal. Drunk or not she should have had some kind of response yet witnesses say she pushed on without hesitation that was no accident. That was cold and calculated and you don’t need a psychology degree to see that.
As for Daniel and Jay sickening ~ have you had enough of blaming everyone else yet? Have you had your 15 minutes of fame? Are you ready to accept your responsibility for what happened that day?
Yes I think you have some blame Daniel you pushed her buttons you knew how to upset her and you did and 7 innocent people paid the price for that. How do you sleep at night?
One more thought at 8 or 9 years old Diane’s niece would have been able to identify that her Aunt was drinking alcohol, and she may or may not have mentioned that to her father. Thought would have triggered the fear of her brother and his wife, and prompted them to go to the police, encourage her to stay put, and attempt to reach her on the road. It would also explain why the police were attempting to track by her cell phone.
I don’t recall at any point someone suggesting that they send an ambulance to the so called “medical emergency” that she was supposedly having. As nurse, I would think that would be done. As a family member I would insist upon it!
I am not suggesting a “cover up”, I am just not certain that anyone thought it was a medical emergency including the police. I believe they knew she was drinking and driving with children in the car.
The police viewed this as a criminal act and that is why they were attempting to reach her and why she felt she had reached the point of no return.
Story has haunted me since seeing the HBO documentary and wondering where I was on Earth when it happened years before ?? Compelling article and just some thoughts to add or note what’s already been said so well. Especially peculiar and very terrifying, too, were the descriptions given by witnesses on 9-1-1 calls and later interviews of Diane Schuler’s dead-on death-grip and precision as she made it those 1.7 miles going on the wrong direction but maintaining possession of the far left lane (her left was it?) which would mean her potential victims’ far right and certainly the less aggressive sort of travelers, possibly even timid and only adds to the malicious nature of what is already an unthinkable offense. What caused this pattern or the change from what sounded like swerving and honking and children’s heads thrown from side to side in the back seat–tragic and chilling but made more so when conveyed by that couple who rightfully mourned their lack of any action that could have changed that day for 10 times the number who lost their lives for good. So WHY the concentration that so profoundly affected most of those witnesses–if not every single one who stressed this point and used words like ‘hell-bent’ or ‘determination’ or ‘hands rock-hard on the wheel’ … and goes with the suicide and punishing aspect as well. Punishing her brother who did allow the mother back into his life, his wife for having a mother and grandmother to her beautiful daughters? and not to mention a husband who contributed more than pedestal gazing and 5 ways to say ‘perfect wife and mother’; punishing useless husband, once-abandoning her own daughter/now grandmother and I suppose the rest of the world too, Diane Schuler, because the horrors of that day and the fact that we need something/anything to make sense because we are so haunted and disturbed by the images of a spastic entrance and exit of the convenience store, a pathetic plea for attention in rocking a minivan out into traffic, and then the heart-wrenching sobs from those 1st 2 men who tried to save kids but not before a huge and bloated murderer nearly crushed their feet and temporarily–even seconds that may have counted–blocked the way to rescue pure innocence and the world deserved better on this day. Thankful for all these thoughtful people who share thoughtful ways to try to come to grips with a story that may never loosen its own.
I watched the doc. on HBO….. I prayed the whole time that it was some freak medical problem. It left me with a few unanswered questions. Why her husband didnt call to find out what was taking so long? Why she was driving around for four hours and ended up way off track? And one of the biggest questions on my mind is.. How (with ten shots and having smoked pot) was she driving with such purpose, “calm, straight, and very fast” per witnesses she missed just before the crash? I’m not sure I would be able to walk, let alone CRANK a car! As for the husband.. I CAN NOT believe he is trying to sue these families that have lost so much! I will never forget seeing the faces and sadness in the voices of the men who tried to save them. God bless those babies and men who died. Daniel and Jay you are both quite pathetic.
To all here from a 1st-time poster, and much later after this terrible event took place, thanks for all the insightful comments and knowledge you’ve all taken so much time to express and provide.
As far as any and/or all lame, false excuses or true reasons for her actions that day in 2009, the fact remains that Diane Schuler ALONE is both legally and morally responsible.
And just as most of you (as I certainly do) seem to all agree on the person solely responsible, it is unfortunately true that as much of a truly shitty excuse for a father, husband and human being Daniel Schuler has so far shown himself to be, I believe he will likely win many of his cases…because he was not legally nor morally responsible. So, as much as may most of us commenting on this site might wish he could be, he also cannot be used as an excuse for the actions of his wife and the horrible, tragic results. I absolutely hate the fact that Daniel may profit in any way, but ‘his’ estate nor his vehicle are involved.
How absolutely sad and angry I am for all the families devastated by this woman’s destruction of so many precious and innocent lives! I cannot either not feel also the unfair and additional devastation of the Hances that it was their vehicle this women used in the commission of these murders. And, as much as I have my doubts, I really hope for little Bryan’s sake that Daniel grows up and mans up and truly will come to love, want and treasure his son and not just go looking for another woman to support him and in order to “unburden” him of the responsibility of his child, the one I’m sure he, like too many others who I fear ,unfortunately, seem to so selfishly only want the pleasure ln the physical act that creates the child. Many, though not all, people who truly never want children, IMHO, are not the kind who can truly love or care for anyone but themselves and certainly are not “marriage material” for anyone who does. So, ladies out there, watch out for this guy as I believe he’s likely already ‘prospecting’ for another replacement breadwinner and mommy. But, as I’ve previously stated, for Bryan and him alone at this point, hope for the real longshot of Daniel becoming a truly loving father and unselfish adult. ?! For the families who have edured so much heart and soul-numbing pain, my prayers for peace and joy where and whenever in their lives they may again find it.
Oops! Sorry to owner/administrator{s] of this site as I omitted a couple of important parts [just numbers] which rendered my email “un-emailable” So, will just submit it again. Thanks for your efforts here and keep rockin’!!!1
Welcome to the PYSIH! Hope you enjoy your stay as much as most of us have…It’s kinda like Hotel California here, you can leave the site anytime you wish, but what you find here will probably haunt you and make you want to be a better person. Or at least make you want to hunt down the perpetrators and do the world a few dozen favors!
I recently saw this documentary again and decided to take a look at what people are saying. I am positing the following “theory” of a medical condition that I have never seen discussed on any of the discussions and chats I have read. I know there was alcohol and THC in her system and evidence of alcohol and I believe she was under the influence at the time of the accident, but the accounts of her having vision problems and her weird behavior sound very familiar to me. The medical condition I am talking about is called a Migraine Aura or a Complicated Migraine. I know a great deal about this because I have suffered with these for years. I will let all of you do your own research on the various medical sites so you can see all the possible symptoms, but I will share with you what happens to me when I get one of these bizarre things. When they start, I usually realize that things in my line of vision look slightly off or crooked. I generally pick up a piece of paper with writing on it and will realize that I can’t see all of the words on the page. If I’m looking at myself in a mirror, I might not see my whole face. This small blind spot progresses into tunnel vision where I can barely see anything. Mine last for 30 minutes. It is extremely frightening and all of the symptoms of this disorder mimic a stroke, however, there is no evidence of the event on a CAT scan or MRI. The problem can sometimes be related to circulation, but there many headache doctors now feel it is more electrical in nature – similar to a seizure. Additional symptoms that I have only experienced a few times (thankfully) include numbness of the hands or face, the inability to speak with complete slurred gibberish coming out of my mouth – even though my brain knows what I am trying to say, weird smells and tastes that aren’t there and what I can only describe as a “neurological storm” where I am have difficulty keeping it together. If I begin to get one of these while I am driving, I immediately pull over and call my husband or other family member to let them know where I am. I am lucky that I usually don’t get an actual headache following the aura, but many people get blinding headaches, throw up, act bizarre, etc. It’s just a thought. I would be interested to know if anyone who knew Diane knew if she had migraines…
Even if she was having a migraine aua, it doesn’t explain or excuse the presence of the THC and alcohol at such high levels (or at all really) present in her system. As Danny and jay were explicitly told, “The prevailing issue will always be” the drugs and alcohol. In other words, she could have had a migraine, a stroke, a toothache, a tumor, or all of the above– it’s irrelevant. She drank, she smoked, she drove, she crashed– she (alone) is responsible. It doesn’t matter WHY. It matters that it happened. Nothing about her medical history or state of mind erases the culpability; her behavior caused the accident.
I understand the angry comments, if it were my family I would be upset angry half crazed etc. But to attack her husband? C’mon leave this man alone. He has a son to raise, he has a lot of challenges in the future and defending his wife endlessly shouldn’t be one of them. Time to move on.
Not sure if Jackie on may 19 was trolling or serious. If serious, oh my good god in heaven. If trolling, well Played, ma’am.
Perhaps David should concentrate on raising his child and getting a decent job or a less pricy lifestyle instead of suing the victims of his wife’s cannonball run. They have truly suffered enough. They are totally blameless while his culpability is certainly obvious to anyone who has read the details of this tragedy.
Defending his wife shouldn’t be on his to-do list period. There is no defense for what she did. However, he has kept himself out there, searching endlessly for something to absolve her of blame and trying to hold the state and even victims responsible. If he wants a quiet life, fading into obscurity, he should shut his mouth and get on with it. Otherwise, it seems to me he may actually be courting this type of criticism because I can’t believe anyone could be so obtuse as to think his lawsuits are justified. He’s not ultimately responsible for what SHE did, but he is ultimately responsible for continuing to blame everybody but her instead of accepting scientific test results, apologizing, and doing a fade.
Fat, drunk and high is no way to go through life … the windshield maybe, but not life.
Daniel Schuler is a small little fat fuck who has not an ounce of manhood in him. This little fat germ will get his. I pity his poor son that had a fat cunt drunken bitch of a mother and a bigger, fatter cunt of a Father.
He is not a man he is a selfish, little mouse. A bug. A little scum that I would knock through a wall and not give a second thought. The eyewitnesses showed more grief than fat Danny the cunt.
I hope his son grows up and exterminates this little bug. This fat fuck gets angry at his son grieving?
I hope you read this Danny. I hope you know the world thinks you are shit. Respond to this so I can tell you how to get in touch with me. I live on Long Island you pussy punk.
R.J,
I agree every word u said, so true, and AMEN TO THAT !!
What does everyone in Long Iand think about this guy ??
Call me crazy, but I believe Diane Shuler got lost. “Got her head turned” as we hunters say. Once that happens, ask anyone who’s ever experienced it, you no longer have a grip on your sanity. You will walk in circles for days. You throw away your compass, claiming to yourself out loud that ” it’s wrong and cannot be trusted.” A clue came to me when one of her friends on the documentary said she had not trusted GPS once before. I believe she traveled the wrong way on the parkway purposely while thinking/believing in her own lost irrational sense of direction..Believing that she was going the right way, she needed to double-check so she stopped at the gas station for a map. They didn’t have one, as most don’t. Thanks. CSB
Mike Jr. says:
April 14, 2013 at 5:25 pm
This message is from Mike Bastardi Jr., son and brother of the victims Diane Schuler murdered…please read my book it is now available on e-book at amazon.com…The Taconic Tragedy A Son’s Search for the Truth…the HBO doc was a complete one sided bizzare story. I truly appreciate it. Thank You all for your continued support. Mike Jr.
Reply
This is a horrible tragedy. Diane had some kind of medical problem, not alcohol or pot.
God bless all the families involved and sweet Brian.
Just watched the HBO Doc and it was the first time i heard of this tragedy. I read a bunch of the posts on this site, and there was one really long one posted back to back by “chris” on feb 17, 2013. If you read my post, read that post. It is easy to find, really long. got me thinking… this person is telling the truth, or they are a really good story teller with nothing better to do with their lives.
I think Chris is spot on with one exception…. the vodka (that she had to buy for her husband) er… well maybe it did but maybe she bought two…she probably had a reaction to the candy, pot and alcohol. Otherwise why would they find pot and alcohol when they tested her.
If it walks like a duck….
(by the way Chris~ thanks for sharing)
Alcohol kills something near 17,000 people a year in motor vehicle related accidents A YEAR..And that doesn’t include the devastation it creates in people lives EVERY DAY. I see some of you want to jump on the “Pot” bandwagon here and lay some, or even all, of the blame on that. To even try to equate the use of pot into the same category as alcohol is asinine and I suspect your one of the millions who want your whiskey sours and won’t give them up no matter what the cost to you or anyone else while quickly wanting to demonize someone who uses pot( or any other drug for that matter as NONE are worse than alcohol!) If you really want to jump on a bandwagon to stop the demise of what drugs do to people everyday maybe you should start with your beloved alcohol.
On the other hand, judging by the people I’ve met weed turns into a total douchebag. pros and cons
What a horrible tragedy. I just watched the re-air of the HBO documentary on CNN. As much as it is tough to accept, sometimes people who are otherwise very responsible make terrible choices. There’s just no way around the fact that Diane was very intoxicated. The confirmed medical tests show that. As difficult as it is, Daniel is only making things worse by litigating the case even after he knows the truth. Nobody else was at fault except Diane. You just cannot do what she did when there are children in your care. She should have pulled off the road and called someone for help. Urgent care, a relative, anyone.
I think Chris must be mistaken, Vail Mills is about 2.5 hrs north of the campground they stayed at, and from Vail Mills to the Taconic Parkway is another 2 hrs. If they left Vail Mills at 11:30 or 12 as Chris states, there is no way they would be to the crash site by 1:35 pm.
This story iss soo sad, i think the only person that should of parished , should of been and only DIANE SCHULER !!!! she derserves to be where she is now, my heart goes out to thw 2 families the has been effected by this selfish act that was caused by one and only DIANLE SCHULER……May the Hance and the Bastardi family find peace and love again, and know that they now have angels around them , as for Bryan, i really think that someone should step in raise the boy, someone who wants and adores kids, as Daniel stated, he never wanted kids, thats sad as a father of 2 would say that on national tv,only to have his son read and see this once he gets older, i truley believe Daniel knew all along what hes wife was up too the drinking and the smoking pot etc , and D
I THINK DANIEL IS MISSING SOME SCREWS UP THERE !
Daniel, if anything , u should be upset for losing ur daughter on the hands of ur wife, and 6 other ppl and if ur not, then ur just as messed up as she is, Diane is a drunk and a stoner, she did not have a stroke like u seems to think so, your just trying to cover up your wife, Daniel knowes exactly what took place the day , on the doc , not once have u mentioned ur daughter, that u lost and your 3 nieces, all u talk about is ur drunk , stoner wife u married, who took 7 lives, come on, wake up !!!!!
someone should remove bryan from daniel’s care, as he stated, he nevered wanted kids, and now hes stuck with one, boy poor, my heart goes out to him a relative of theirs should step in and raise bryan, so at least he will be loved and he will know its ok to cry for mommy and baby sister erin…