In East Hampton, Connecticut, a medium sized burg east of my hometown of Middletown, Cara L. Culbert drove her car off the side of the road. No big deal, you say, except according to the Middletown Press:

police had received a report of black Chevrolet Monte Carlo operating erratically on Route 66 at about 1:00 p.m. Saturday.

Police came upon the car off the right side of the road, the chief said. When the officer spoke to the driver, he said her speech was slurred and she appeared to be under the influence of some substance.

The officer administered a field sobriety test, which Culbert flunked, East Hampton Police Chief Matthew A. Reimondo said. She was then arrested and charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

A check of her vehicle uncovered a syringe and a small amount of marijuana.

This is not an unusual occurrence in the town of East Hampton, folks being arrested for DUI, as I can attest to myself. Being a recovering drug addict, I’ve attended many, many Alcoholic Anonymous meetings there and can say with a certain amount of confidence that there are more drunks and junkies per square mile in East Hampton than perhaps any other town in Connecticut.

But I digress.

Cara L. Culbert was also charged with possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and failure to drive in the right lane. Around 3:00 pm she was released to a friend on $5,000 bond for a pending court date. Her black Monte Carlo was impounded by police.

Her friend drove her home, where Cara wasted no time borrowing another car, a Chevrolet Cavalier, from a family member.

God must have been paying attention at this moment, and he wasn’t having any of that. He decided to play a little joke on Cara Culbert.

Just 20 minutes after she was released by East Hampton police, Culbert’s car crossed the center line and collided with an SUV just over the East Hampton town line in Portland. She died at the scene.

I don’t know about you, but when my wife read this part of the Middletown Press article to me, I could have sworn I heard Nelson Muntz laugh, “Ha! Ha!”

Unfortunately, the driver of the SUV, Kevin McKenna, was injured and had to be taken to Hartford Hospital. I couldn’t find any report on Mr. McKenna’s current condition, but I assume he will recover.

OK, now I have to be serious for a moment. I realize I was pretty disrespectful of someone who is dead and has family members who love her. As a matter of fact, I found her Obituary, which states that she is survived by a son. That’s sad. (See Obituary)

But what’s really sad is a grown woman, a mother, who is so wasted at one o’clock in the afternoon that she can’t keep her car on the road. What’s sad is that Cara L. Culbert got out of jail and chose to jump right back in a car and take off again, not much more sober than she was when she was arrested. What’s sad is that her friends and family members let her drive again two hours after receiving a DUI.

What’s sad is an young boy who will never see his mother again, never talk to her, never hug her, never be told that he’s loved by her. Yeah, that’s sad.

So I don’t apologize for choosing to use a little humor to bring attention to this stupid person’s even stupider actions. Never let it be said I wasted a chance to make people laugh. Who knows, maybe I was able to send a little message at the same time.

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Sadly, I have to report to you another case of a jackass doing just what I described in (a.) while several people, for reasons I will never understand, acted on (b.). One man in particular behaved in an especially outrageous manner in this regard, enough so that he almost earned himself a nomination to the PYSIH All-Star team. More on that later.

It all started innocently enough. Brittany Gonzalez, the 11-year-old daughter of Carmen Huertas, was halfway through a two day sleepover with six of her best friends on Saturday, October 8th, 2009. At around 7 PM, Carmen piled all 7 girls – all between the ages of 11 and 14 – and her 18-month old son into her Mercury Sable station wagon and headed to the home of her former boyfriend, who was hosting a birthday party for his niece Corinna Gonzalez. The six passenger wagon was so overloaded that three of the girls had to sit in the cargo area, where there are no seatbelts. In fact, there aren’t any seats either.

Although Carmen Huertas had told friends she would spend only two hours at the party, she started drinking cognac, and as soon as the buzz started kicking in, decided to stay a bit longer. In fact, it was midnight when she started loading up the car again for the ride back to her home in the Bronx, NY. By then she was visibly intoxicated, enough so that several people noticed it.

Brittany Gonzalez’s father and Carmen Huertas’ ex, Ernesto Gonzalez, was one of the people that noticed Huertas’ condition:

“”I been with her 10 years. I know when she’s been drinking. She wasn’t like drunk to the point of incapacitated, but I knew that the amount of liquor she drank, it was gonna hit her, it was gonna hit her sooner or later. It was gonna hit her especially on an empty stomach.”

“I pleaded with her not to drive and she said her man told me he was going to take care of it. He told me he had it, he said, ‘I got it, don’t worry.’”

Eduardo Henriquez went and spoke to Carmen Huertas, telling her she was too drunk to drive, but she refused to give up her keys. He finally gave up, but not before Mr. Henriquez grabbed his 18-month-old son from the car. Sadly, he did nothing about the other 7 children, according to his own stepdaughter, Brittany Gonzalez.

“He didn’t do anything. He just took the baby and left.”

Actually, Mr. Henriquez prevented three other young boys from getting into Carmen Huertas’ car. One of the boys who was also headed back up to the Bronx with Carmen Huertas – Ernesto’s son with Huertas, Ernesto Gonzalez Jr. – saw it happen where she’d parked the car two blocks from the party.

“He just like took the baby out the car and we just left.”

I don’t know how many kids Carmen Huertas planned on putting into that 5 passenger Mercury Sable station wagon, but by my count, if fate hadn’t intervened there would have been 13 people, including 11 children, a baby, and Carmen herself. Eduardo Henriquez tried to make some sense of it all;

“There would’ve been three more kids in that car. He (Gonzalez) wasn’t (thinking). Nobody was. The fault is on everybody, you can’t just blame one person… I didn’t step up, you know, I’m sorry. I apologize to everybody from the bottom of my heart, you know?”

The reason everyone was so upset that they did try harder to stop Carmen Huertas from driving while drunk with a carload of children should be painfully obvious to everyone by now. Yes, she crashed her station wagon. Yes, children were killed and injured. But the terror that these children went through at the hands of Ms. Huertas is what really qualifies her for a choice seat on the express train to Hell.

Shortly after they left the party, Carmen, obviously stinging from everyone’s insistence that she was too drunk to drive, decided to take out her anger on the 7 girls in the car. She began speeding, reaching 70 miles per hour on surface streets. The girls begged her to slow down, and she replied by taunting them:

“If you think this is bad, wait until we get on the highway.”

“I don’t care about these other kids – only my (18-month-old) baby.”

“Who thinks something’s going to happen? Raise your hands. Who thinks we’re going to get into an accident?

Nice, huh? The worst one, In my opinion, was the crack about only caring about the baby – her daughter Brittany was sitting there right next to her and asked;

“What about me, Mom? I’m your daughter.”

Carmen Huertas reportedly did not answer. How could she? This really broke my heart, thinking about how sad Brittany must have felt when she heard it.

At 12:45 AM Sunday morning, the inevitable finally happened. Carmen Huertas was traveling on the West Side Highway in New York City at more than 80 miles per hour when, according to one of the passengers, 14-year-old Yismel Rosario:

“The car started swerving back and forth. I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ Then it flipped over. Gisele, Kayla and Leandra flew out of the car. Their eyes were closed. I got out of the car and went to my sister. I held her and said, ‘If you can hear me, nod your head.’ I told her it would be OK, that help is on the way.”

Brittany Gonzalez also described the crash;

“All three girls in the back just flew out when the trunk popped open because it just popped open when we flipped once. My friend’s seatbelt snapped. Leandra Rosado just flew out and she was the one in the woods.”

Leandra Rosado was also the one who didn’t make it. The eleven-year-old was rushed to Saint Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan, where she passed away within minutes.
Lenny Rosado, the victim’s father, took the news of his daughter’s death very badly;

“It was very hard, very hard seeing your daughter there – the only child laying down.”

“My only daughter, my life and my joy, taken away. She used to like to be called Lilly.”

One of the other girls who was ejected from the car, thirteen-year-old Giselle Rosario, remains hospitalized in serious, but stable condition with two broken legs. A third young lady, 11-year-old Kayla Sanchez, suffered a long list of painful injuries, including a fractured cheek, nose and left arm and is still a patient at New York – Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital. Brittany Gonzalez broke her left wrist, and the other 3 girls were treated and released at local hospitals for a variety of injuries.

Carmen Huertas broke her arm and was in stable condition at Harlem Hospital Center. She blew a .13 BAC on a Breathalyzer at the scene, and is now facing vehicular manslaughter and DWI charges. She was formally indicted and arraigned on Wednesday, October 28th, at which time she entered a plea of not guilty. If convicted on both charges, Huertas faces up to 15 years in prison.

Carmen Huertas family has been remarkably subdued during this horrible tragedy, being supportive of Carmen without being obnoxious and showing much respect for the victims and their families. I don’t know why this surprises me – I guess I’m still a bit shell-shocked from the Diane Schuler story.

Carmen’s Lawyer, on the other hand, one Steven Rubin, is a totally different animal. Mr. Rubin suggested Wednesday that because some of the parents of a few of the victims attended the same party that Carmen got drunk at, they are somehow share in the blame for the crash that injured their kids. I’m not talking about Eduardo Henriquez or Ernesto Gonzalez either.

“There is so much blame to go around but it’s all coming down on Ms. Huertas’ head.”

“Some of the parents were at the party that Huertas attended in Chelsea before the wreck – and they did not stop her from driving off with their kids”

How many of them knew she was drinking, or how much she had to drink, Mr. Rubin? Who’s turn was it to watch Carmen Huertas that night, anyways? I’m not going to rehash this whole story again, but I think if Steven Rubin tries to use this defense on a real live jury, they may get up and kick his ass in open court.

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The jackass pictured on the left, Christopher Swiridowsky, age 30, of Providence RI, took hit and run driving to a whole new level early Sunday morning when he fled the scene of an accident with one of his victims impaled on the windshield of his car. How fortunate for us that before he did this he took this ridiculous picture of himself and posted it on his MySpace homepage. Very fortunate indeed.

The incident started when a two-car accident occurred on Route 95 South inside the city limits of Providence RI. The Rhode Island State Police said the cars, driven by Jose Flores, 24, and Michael Abrames, 33, ended up blocking the far left lane. Christopher Swiridowsky’s car first struck the left rear corner of Abrames’ vehicle, pushing it into Abrames. Swiridowsky’s car continued on, striking Flores and a passenger in Flores’ car, Efron Trinidad, 28, causing Flores to become lodged in the windshield.

Christopher Swiridowsky then drove off, followed for a mile and a half by another motorist, Albert Garcia, who contacted the state police by cell phone. Swiridowsky got off the highway and eventually stopped the car in a parking lot, where he actually had the audacity to ask Mr. Garcia a most amazing question.

“I was chasing him. I stopped my car. That’s when he got out of his car and asked me ‘why are you following me?’.”

Well I’m not sure Chris, but it might be the bleeding man who’s sitting half way through your windshield. Just a guess of course.

After confronting Albert Garcia, Christopher Swiridowsky again left the scene, this time on foot. Cops found him hiding in a closet in the basement of his house and arrested him, according to the state police.

As you may have figured, Jose Flores is the worse off of the three injured men. He is currently being treated for life-threatening injuries in the Intensive Care Unit of Rhode Island Hospital. Efron Trinidad is also in the ICU listed in critical condition with numerous sever injuries. Michael Abrames was lucky – He was treated and released at Rhode Island Hospital.

Christopher Swiridowsky faces three counts of leaving the scene of an accident after injury and one count of obstructing a police officer. He was arraigned in Providence District Court and ordered held on $25,000 bail by Judge Michael A. Higgins, who also ordered Swiridowsky held Tuesday as an alleged bail violator stemming from a July drug charge he was facing.

A Big Thank You Goes To Jason’s Wife For Tipping Us Off To This Story. Way To Keep It In The Family There Guys

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By all accounts, Diane Schuler was a superb mom, doting on her daughter Erin, 2, and son Bryan, 5, and her husband Daniel was head over heels in love with her. It seemed that she had everything she could ever dream of, and the Schulers appeared to everyone to be a strong, happy family.

But Diane Schuler was hiding a dirty little secret. She was a closet alcoholic – a binge drinker to be precise. Every now and then, for no reason in particular, Diane Schuler would drink. And drink. And drink. She would drink so much in such a short amount of time she would become delirious, and in time, unconscious. Diane also enjoyed smoking a little pot on occasion, and there were some reports I read that said she had insomnia and fired up a joint every night as a sleeping aid, but I couldn’t confirm that.

These drinking bouts were few and far between as far as I could tell, and there is some doubt about how much her husband either knew or chose to believe about his wife’s drinking problem. “I never saw her drunk since the day I met her,” said Daniel Schuler. My experience, and I have quite a lot of it, has been that you don’t live with a person for years and not wind up knowing everything about that a person’s drinking and drugging habits. On the other hand, there’s no saying how powerful Daniel’s denial actually was.

And that brings us to the morning of July 26th, 2009. The Schulers were wrapping up the annual family camping trip at Hunter Lake Campground in New York State’s Catskill Mountains. Everyone was in an upbeat mood as as Diane, Daniel, Diane’s brother, Warren Hance, and his wife packed up the Schuler’s red 2003 Ford Windstar minivan for the ride home to Long Island.

The plan was for Diane Schuler to take all the children and leave early, stopping at McDonald’s for breakfast along the way. There were no signs of trouble as she set off with her two children, Erin and Bryan, along with the Hance’s daughters, Emma, 8, Alyson, 7, and Kate, 5. At some point, Diane Schuler stopped to purchase a pain reliever at a convenience store, and reportedly there was still no signs of anything being wrong.

But shortly after that, as she drove down New York State Route 17 at the border between Sullivan and Westchester counties, something went terribly wrong. Diane Schuler got ahold of a 1.75-liter bottle of Absolute Vodka that the Schulers had brought up to the lake, and took a couple of healthy slugs from it. For the next sixty miles she drove aggressively enough that people would remember her minivan – She tailgated, she laid on the horn, she passed cars recklessly, shouting obscenities as she went by.

Witnesses also told New York State Police said the van was straddling two lanes, veering from one lane to another, and one witness said it appeared as if Diane Schuler were attempting to pass him on the shoulder of the highway. Another witness said the van drove across a grass divider at a service area on NY Route 87.

State police said while they can’t be absolutely certain the driver was Diane Schuler, the description of the vehicle and occupants and the time the incidents were reported “lead them to believe they are one in the same.”

Diane Schuler continued to hit that bottle of Absolute, and to hit on a joint while she drank. eventually, Diane started to feel a little, well, under the weather. She grabbed he cellphone and called her brother Warren, who from what I could gather was on the road 20 to 30 minutes behind her. She told him, she wasn’t feeling well, and she was sick to her stomach. She never mentioned the booze or the pot. He told her to pull over and wait for him – something about her voice told Warren his sister Diane was more than just sick. She told him she would be fine and continued on her way.

Warren Hance called his sister back. By now she had pulled over, Diane Schuler was teetering on the edge of drunken delirium. Again Warren ordered her to stay put – he would be there in just a few minutes, and he would drive them the rest of the way home. She hung up on him. He called back again and asked to speak to his oldest daughter, 8-year-old Emma. He could sense the panic in her voice.

“There’s something wrong with Aunt Diane!”

It get’s a little hazy here as to exactly what happened and in what order, but it is sure that Diane Schuler had again pulled over to the side of the road. Her niece had handed the phone back to her, or her brother called back again, I’m not sure which, and Diane had one last conversation with Warren Hance. She said something about having tunnel vision, which is very common in people who are extremely intoxicated. Warren begged her a final time to stay where she was – Diane Schuler tossed the phone out of the car and sped off.

At the intersection of Route 267 and the Taconic State Parkway, Diane Schuler finally made the fatal, tragic mistake she was almost fated to make that morning. She enter the Taconic going southbound on the northbound lanes. She never saw the “wrong way” and “one way” sign on the exit ramp she used to get on the parkway. She drove 1.7 miles like she was sober as a judge, straight as an arrow and centered between the white lines in the far left lane, until, at about 1:35 p.m., her minivan slammed head-on into a Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by Guy Bastardi, 49, and occupied by his father Michael, 81, and a close family friend, Daniel Longo, 74, heading to the regular Sunday family pasta dinner. Witnesses say the impact sounded like a massive explosion.

The Yonkers, NY, men never had a chance. All three were all killed instantly.

After the minivan crashed, it rolled down a hill and burst into flames. Passers-by pulled over and began pulling kid after kid out of the wreck, but it was a wasted effort. Erin, Emma, Alyson, and Kate were dead, as was Diane Schuler. Only little Bryan survived the crash with severe head injuries. One First Responder, the chief of a local volunteer fire department with 30 years of experience, said it was the worst scene he had ever witnessed. There were dead bodies, some seemingly much too small, laid out all over the Taconic State Parkway.

During Diane Schuler’s autopsy, it was determined that she had a blood alcohol content of .19 – more than twice the legal limit in New York State. Not only that, but she still had 6 grams of raw alcohol in her stomach. In other words, Diane Schuler was drinking right up until the moment she died, and her level was still going up. The Medical Examiner also determined she had smoked marijuana within an hour of her death at the most, but probably in the last 15 minutes.

In spite of the overwhelming evidence against Diane Schuler, the Schuler family circled the wagons and made a concerted effort to convince people that Diane wasn’t drunk when she destroyed most of their next generation. They said it was a stroke. They insisted that a lump on Diane’s leg must have been an embolism, and that it broke free, traveled to her brain and cause her symptoms of intoxication.

This one was my personal favorite; Diane Schuler suddenly developed diabetes (To be fair, she had some trouble regulating her insulin levels during her last pregnancy, but that cleared itself up after Erin was born), so she used the vodka to get her glucose levels corrected. I swear to god, Daniel Schuler’s lawyer, Dominic Barbara, spoke words to that effect at a press conference. The same press conference, I might add, that Babara came up with the great “Anbesol” conspiracy. He tried to convince reporters that the Anbesol topical pain reliever Diane Schuler was using for a painful abscessed tooth she had somehow cause a false positive reading for alcohol.

Daniel Schuler sobbed and begged and pleaded with us to believe that his wife hardly ever drank. He told reporters that he never once saw her drunk or high. His beautiful, perfect wife was no alcoholic.

Not once did he mention the Bastardis, The Longos, or even his in-laws, the Hances, nor did he offer any condolences. Daniel Schuler had no tears for the victims.

Meanwhile, the Longos and the Bastardis were in hell. Not only did they have to deal with the grief of losing their loved ones, they now had to watch this farce play itself out in the media. Roseann Guzzo, Michael Bastardi’s daughter, said the Schulers’ denials came as “a blow” to the family.

“It’s like we’re being victimized all over again. I feel numb.”

Warren Hance and his wife chose to split from Diane Schuler’s family after this performance, instead forming a bond with the Bastardis and Longos as the three families mourned their dead.

The final insult came on August 29th, when a private investigator hired by Diane Schuler’s husband, Daniel Schuler, who obtained the findings of the Westchester Medical Examiner, said there is no evidence of cirrhosis of the liver or other diseases common to alcoholics.

Investigator Tom Ruskin said the lack of evidence of long-term alcoholism backs up the claims of “dozens upon dozens” of people who said she did not have problems with alcohol.

“To take that leap of faith, to believe that this woman took 10 shots, possibly in a 48-minute period – certainly defies logic – defies common sense and substantiates to a certain sense the family’s story, the witnesses’ story, that this is inconsistent with her personality.”

What Mr. Ruskin failed to mention was that the Autopsy report also failed to show any signs of the ailments Diane Schuler’s family is trying to use as excuses for Diane’s behavior on the day of the crash. And there is nothing that explains away the .19 BAC, the 6 grams of alcohol still in her stomach, and the extremely high levels of THC in her bloodstream.

And then there were Diane Schuler’s co-workers, who told the New York newspapers that she would drink after work on a regular basis. She had a favorite watering hole where she would enjoy a few of her favorite drinks, screwdrivers, or course, made with vodka and orange juice. Some said in the last two months Diane Schuler’s drinking had picked up, as she expressed some unhappiness with her marriage and her career.

As I researched this story, and read about the machinations the Schulers went through in there attempt to absolve Diane of any blame for what amounts to the murder of 7 innocent people, I felt like I was reading some of the ridiculous comment we get on PYSIH by family members, defending people who are so painfully guilty it dumbfounds most of us that these people can believe the things they are saying. Then I realized how they do it.

An open minded person – one who is looking for the truth – collects as many facts as he can, and draws a conclusion from those facts. He uses his experience and knowledge to discount false leads and bogus information, and hopes he comes up with the truth. Because that’s what the goal is, isn’t it, to find the truth?

Now, folks like Diane Schuler’s family, they go about things differently. They start at the end – they already know what the answer they’re looking for is. They’re desperate to get the facts to back up their “conclusion”. So they find hired gun “experts” to interpret evidence with their slant, pay lawyers like Dominic Barbara, who are willing to say and do anything if the price is right, to work for them. They ignore any evidence that doesn’t fit into their “answer”.

In my opinion, there is no room for argument. Diane Schuler may not have been a full blown alcoholic yet, but she was well on her way to becoming one. And there is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind, anyone who doesn’t have an agenda that is, that she was wasted out of her mind when she caused the death of those four little children and those three innocent men.

As I close out this story, I’d like to remind the Diane Schuler’s family about a few things that seem to have slipped their minds in their rush to salvage Diane’s reputation.

Erin Schuler, aged 2; Emma Hance, aged 8; Alyson Hance, aged 7; Kate Hance, aged 5; Michael Bastardi, aged 81; Guy Bastardi, aged 49; Daniel Longo, aged 74.

Remember them?

09/04/09 – UPDATE: DANIEL SCHULER AND DOMENIC BARBARA APPEAR ON LARRY KING LIVE

Daniel Schuler and Dominic Barbara have been at it again. On Monday night, September 1st, the pair appeared on Larry King Live and once again denied Diane Schuler was drunk when she drone the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway and slammed in the Guy Bastardi’s SUV head-on, killing herself and seven others, including 4 children aged 8 and under.

This was all brought on by the release of Diane Schuler’s final autopsy results, which showed no signs of long term alcohol abuse. As I stated before, it also showed no signs of a stroke, diabetes an embolism, or any of the other ridiculous medical excuses the Schuler family has tries to use to excuse Diane’s behavior before in the hours before the crash.

Diane Schuler’s Autopsy Report

Now Diane Schuler’s family wants her body exhumed for a second autopsy. From what I have been hearing from experts, this is an excellent development. There are so many ways this can blow up in the Schuler’s faces, and nearly no chance of producing the results they are hoping for. This video explains it very well:

As you can see, the family of Guy Bastardi, Michael Bastardi, and Daniel Longo are getting more and more vocal. I’d wager a bet that these are people you do not want to get riled up. My advice to Diane Schuler’s family right about now would be to back off. But they won’t. They’re hell bent on proving Diane was the second coming of Mother Teresa. I think there in for a major disappointment, especially when those hair follicle tests come back. I almost pity Daniel Schuler when the reality hits him in the face – It won’t be a pretty sight.

The pictures, from top to bottom:

1. Diane Schuler
2. The remains of the Diane Schuler’s minivan
3. The minivan from another angle
4. The Hance family. The three girls are, L to R, Kate, Alyson, and Emma
5. Daniel and Diane Schuler, with Erin and Bryan. Bryan has fully recovered from his injuries.
6. Daniel Longo
7. Michael Bastardi
8. Guy Bastardi

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I spent last winter on the border of North Dakota/Montana—and if facing a Michigan winter didn’t lead me to this conclusion, then North Dakota winters certainly would have. Being bitterly cold is by far one of the most dreadful positions I have ever been in.

I remember being a child and getting ready to go outside to play in the winter wonderland of my backyard—my mom had a checklist of things my brothers and I had to wear. We started out with thermal underwear, next came jeans and a sweater, then came the snow pants and winter coat. We always finished off with mittens, boots, scarves, and a hat or face mask. Every time, we complained because it was so heavy; but, every time we were so thankful because even with all the gear we always caught a chill and had to tread inside after about 45 minutes or so and warm up in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa.

I won’t even fathom a guess what it would have been like to be a newborn baby girl wrapped in a cloth and shoved in a plastic bag thrown in a snow bank in Northern Illinois during December and left to face the elements alone.

Let me take you back to Friday December 17th, 2004 and tell you a story.

At a time of year when the smell of Christmas is in the air and the only bad thoughts running through your head are, “what if Santa can’t get down the chimney”, a 13 year old girl let her dog out for a run. The dog came back carrying a piece of bloody cloth; she thought it was odd and went to investigate. Lying in a snow bank on the side of Will Road, about a mile north of Yale Bridge Road in Rockton, Illinois, she found more bloody clothing and something discarded in a white trash bag. She did the smart thing and ran home to call the police. She did not touch the bag.

Police responded to the scene on the cold crystal clear evening and found the unthinkable. Wrapped in the bag was a baby girl, who appeared to be a full term newborn. Even police officers who thought they had seen every grotesque crime possible broke down in tears.

An autopsy was completed on the infant over the weekend and results were released on Monday December 20th, 2004. The autopsy determined the infant was full term and weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 ½ inches long; she was born alive. The infant named Baby Crystal by investigators, died from exposure. Something completely avoidable.

Investigators blanketed the area and questioned residents near the dumpsite, no one knew anything. Questioned in the initial investigation was Katie L. Stockton, 24; her parents lived on Will Road. Katie did not live in the residence at the time of the crime; she lived with a boyfriend in Rockford, Illinois. Stockton denied the child was hers and no one knew if she had been pregnant.

The public paid for Baby Crystal’s funeral and the investigation stalled. The case was at a stand-still, but definitely not forgotten. Nothing new came until a year later when it was revealed that Baby Crystal had cocaine in her system and tested positive for Hepatitis B (a viral infection of the liver caused by sexual contact with an infected person or the sharing of contaminated needles or instruments).

The only description of a suspect that they had came from a witness who thought she saw a female with black hair driving a red sedan, something similar to a Grand Am or Cavalier, near the scene. The witness wasn’t certain of exactly what she saw because it was dark.

Police checked medical records of female inmates for the previous year and found that 75 were pregnant and 40 of those tested positive for Hepatitis B. They spent weeks checking into these leads; which took them nowhere.

The case lay dormant for months.

After the murder of Baby Crystal, Katie Stockton continued living her life. Not on the straight and narrow. Katie, now 28, has multiple traffic violations on her record, as well as multiple felony arrests and convictions (View Katie’s arrest record here). The most serious charges came forth in August of 2008.

On the 11th of August, she applied for an Illinois State ID card by presenting false documents to a government agency. She was using an altered ID card making it seem as if she was her aunt. She was charged with Presenting False Info for an Illinois ID and Possession or Display of an Altered ID card, both criminal felonies. These charges were ultimately dropped, but they give a little insight into what kind of person she is.

On August 19th, 2008, Katie was charged with forgery. She wrote a check on the aforementioned aunts bank account (maybe the aunt shouldn’t have dropped the earlier charges; just a thought). In September of 2008, she pled guilty to forgery and was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 2 years probation. The court ordered her to give a sample of her DNA within 45 days of sentencing (it is state law in Illinois that all convicted felons submit a sample of their DNA).

In October, she failed to comply with the DNA order. By December 2008, she was out of jail and on probation and still refused to give a sample even though she was ordered to do so by her probation officer. It was the same story in June of 2009. On June 26, 2009, the States Attorney’s office filed to have her probation vacated for failure to comply with the DNA order. There was a court date set for July 13th, Katie appeared in court and denied all allegations. I don’t know what she was denying, since the prosecutor could prove she didn’t submit a DNA sample. The court ordered her to appear again on August 3rd, after they had a chance to look over the case history. She failed to show and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

On August 4th, 2009, Winnebago County States Attorney office charges Katie Lin Stockton with the two counts of murder for the 2004 death of Baby Crystal. One count for intentionally leaving the infant in freezing conditions and one count for knowing death would result in those conditions. Winnebago County Sheriff, Dick Meyers, would not disclose any information regarding evidence leading the charges. He would not confirm or deny whether DNA evidence played a part. The Kansas City Star is reporting that the Kansas City PD, who was assisting Winnebago County in the investigation, say DNA is the link.

On August 5th, Katie was found in Kansas City, Kansas in a hotel. It is unclear whether they tracked her down by using her Facebook page which announced her whereabouts as “being on vacation in Kansas City” or from an anonymous tip. In October 2008, Katie had her probation modified to allow her to visit family and shop in Wisconsin. The court allowed the travel mostly because she has a 9 year old son who resides with his father in Janesville, WI.

Though she had permission to travel to Wisconsin there is no information available stating that travel to Kansas City was permitted. Prosecutors have stated in the media that she was fleeing because she knew arrest was imminent. Katie was arrested at the Kansas City hotel by the FBI. The following day, she waived extradition and went back to Winnebago County voluntarily, where she is being held on a one million dollar bond.

Ms. Stockton appeared in court on August 17th, 2009 for the petition to vacate her probation hearing. Judge Steven Vecchio postponed the hearing at the request of Katie’s public defender, David Doll. He stated that he had only received the case on Friday the 14th and needed time to prepare. Mr. Doll also asked Judge Vecchio to combine the cases, but the Judge left that decision up to Judge Joseph McGraw, who is handling the murder case.

Upon Katie’s arrest earlier this month, authorities realized that they had access to Katie’s vehicle which had been in impound following a traffic stop in mid 2008 where she was driving on a suspended license. The vehicle was left on the side of the road and impounded at a later date. Police investigators and prosecutors decided to search the vehicle, a 1993 blue Saturn, for possible evidence in the Baby Crystal case. This was the same car she was driving in 2004.

What the investigators hoped to find and what they actually found were two completely different things.

Hopes of finding blood, hair, or fiber evidence fell by the wayside when they came across two additional infant corpses wrapped in cloth and plastic bags buried in the trunk. On Tuesday August 18th, a forensic pathologist and forensic anthropologist will conduct autopsies on the infants to determine how long they had been in the trunk, cause of death, and relation (if any) to Katie Stockton. It appears the bodies were in the trunk when the vehicle was towed; but it must be confirmed. I am expecting additional charges to be filed in the near future; not in 4 ½ years.

People who went to school with Katie have spoken with the media and some have acknowledged that they thought she was weird and wouldn’t put something like this past her. Some have said its hard to imagine someone you sat next to in class ever doing something like this. Some people have come forward stating that when the murder first happened in 2004 and she was questioned she just laughed it off as a joke. An old neighbor of hers said he can believe she did it simply based on the way she took care of her son when he was in her custody. He said the boy was extremely thin and always hungry; he fed him almost daily and believes that’s all he got to eat. A testament to her wonderful parental skills.

Though this case is basically hinging on circumstantial evidence right now; I will bet all the change in my wallet that the all the circumstantial evidence will turn out to be true as the day is long that this lady is one sick baby murdering cookie. I will continue to follow the story; and I am close enough to the Chicago area I may just travel for a few hearings and possibly even the trial.

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25 year old Katherine Nadal of Anahuac Texas, and her boyfriend Camden Gothia, were facing a disagreement on whether or not to get their newborn son circumcised. As many parents do, they could not see eye to eye on some key issues regarding their 5 week old son Holden. Katherine insisted that she wanted their son to be circumcised, while Camden refused to allow it, saying he thought it would be too painful. Things weren’t looking too good for baby Holden from the get-go. His parents were on the verge of a breakup, and his mom was a habitual drug user who had just finished an unsuccessful stint in rehab.

Katherine Nadal was by all accounts a popular honor roll student during her time at Anahuac High School, where she graduated in 1999. She had lots of friends and was looking forward to a bright future. Shortly after graduating however, things didn’t exactly go the way everyone expected them to. Katherine started experimenting with drugs, but managed to hide it from even her best friends. She had been arrested twice on drug related charges, though both were later dropped. When she met her boyfriend, things started to look up for Katherine. She gave birth in 2007 to an adorable baby boy named Holden Gothia. But shortly after Holden was born, Katherine landed back in rehab. Gothia recalled an incident where Katherine had taken their newborn son to a drug den while he was at work, after telling him that she was going shopping with friends.

Nonetheless (and this is a recurring theme in cases like this, no?), on the night of March 13th 2007 Gothia left his 5 week old son with Katherine while he went to work. The couple had been arguing once again about whether or not to circumcise their son, with Katherine taking frequent breaks to inject cocaine. What was about to transpire pretty much ensured there would no longer be cause for this argument ever again.

Late that night, rescue workers responded to a call from Katherine’s apartment. A baby had been injured and was losing a lot of blood. The sight that met them makes me very glad I’m not in the medical field. 5 week old Holden Gothia was turning blue. He was not crying, only making slight movements as blood gushed from a gaping wound where his genitals used to be. As rescue workers desperately tried to save the baby’s life, Katherine stood by and watched emotionless and strung out.

She told the team that the dog had bitten off her baby’s genitals while she was asleep. When they found the dog- a 6 pound miniature dachshund and probably the LEAST likely dog to inflict that kind of damage, they could find no evidence to support her claim. The dog had no blood in it’s mouth, and no blood anywhere on it’s fur or paws. Katherine told rescue workers that there was a torn and bloody diaper that would show where the dog had attacked baby Holden, but no diaper was ever found. When investigators pressed her for more information, all she had to say was “I assume it was the dog, because I didn’t do it.”

Baby Holden was rushed by ambulance to the local hospital. A neighbor was there during the commotion and actually had to tell Katherine to get in the ambulance and go to the hospital with her baby. Once her son was in surgery, Katherine kept asking doctors how long the procedure was going to take, and left shortly thereafter to meet her friend at a bar.

Is anyone else seething with anger right now? I am.

Well, Holden made it through and lived, but his genitals were never found. That’s right, they never found the severed body parts.Weighing only 9 pounds at the time of the attack, he lost half of his blood and will require medical care for the rest of his life. Medical examiners noted that the site of the injury was made by a “sharp instrument” and was cut into a neat square. Clearly there is no way that a dog could have caused that kind of damage. Katherine was arrested and charged with injury to a child, a first degree offense. She faces life in prison if convicted. Bail was set at $100,000 which Nadal thought was extremely unreasonable.

On August 10th 2009 the trial began in Houston, Texas. Defense attorneys for Nadal said that they intend to prove to the court that Holden’s injuries could have indeed been caused by the family’s miniature dachshund, and that they will bring in a team of experts to prove it. Allen Isbell, Nada’s defending attorney told jurors that his client couldn’t possibly have committed such a horrible act, because investigators never found a sharp instrument in the apartment, and that when police looked into the kitchen sink and garbage disposal, no DNA or blood evidence was found. Well, they never found the baby’s genitals either. Just sayin’.

Prosecuting attorney Denise Oncken says the evidence is all there, and she is prepared to prove there is no way a 6 pound miniature dachshund dog could have done what Katherine Nadal is claiming happened to her 5 week old child. The medical investigation, doctor’s accounts from the night he was taken in, and witness accounts of Nadal’s drug use all point to a woman who didn’t care about her child in any kind of way. A woman who couldn’t be bothered to put down the crack pipe long enough to parent her baby, and who threw a drug induced hissy fit after an argument with her boyfriend. A woman who left the hospital while her son was bleeding to death in the next room to go have a beer. When Nadal was drug tested after the incident, cocaine and methadone was found in her system in addition to some kind of tranquilizer.

Witness accounts during this trial are not making things look good for Nadal, either. One of the rescue workers on the scene that night, Dean Zalesnik, broke down in tears during his testimony when asked to describe the baby’s injuries. When describing what he saw when he looked at the baby he said “…just red flesh, nothing there.” When describing the baby’s wound, Zalesnik told jurors the cut was “very clean, like someone had cut it with an instrument. Very straight.” Another witness Tressa Shanley (who is currently serving time for drug possession) told jurors that she had been out on a cocaine run the night before the incident and that Katherine had asked her to pick up some cocaine for her as well. She testifies that later that night, she found Katherine and baby Holden in the bathroom. Katherine had a syringe stuck in her arm, and there was a bag of cocaine in the pocket of Holden’s diaper bag.

The trial is expected to last about a week. Katherine Nadal is pleading not guilty and stands by her story of “the dog did it.”. Meanwhile, baby Holden Gothia is living with his his aunt, Camden Gothia’s sister. He is still undergoing treatment for the horrible start he had in life. His father sees him regularly, but both he and Nadal have relinquished their parental rights. Gothia said that he visited his son while he was in the hospital, talking to him and letting him know that he was not alone. That’s all well and good, it’s just kind of too bad that he left his son alone with someone who was on drugs while he went to work.

2 year old Holden is making steps towards recovery, but will never be the same. He will require extensive cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, and is most likely going to be deformed for the rest of his life. A fund has been set up in his name to help make a dent in his ongoing medical expenses. Medicaid has denied covering any medical costs because his surgeries are considered “cosmetic.” He has suffered bone malformation as well. The Woodforest National Bank has set up a fund for Holden, and donations are accepted at any location.

Katherine Nadal can rot in jail and burn in hell for all I care. The fact that she left the ER that night while her son was on the brink of death to go have a beer shows her true character perfectly. She is a lying, manipulative, useless excuse for a mother and human being and I can only hope she gets what is coming to her in jail.

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This is twenty-four-year-old Thomas Scott Grobbel, a man so drunk, police allege that he played bumper cars with a guard rail in a McDonalds drive through, a short time before he decided to go drive his car through the back of this mini-van.

Yeah, that used to be a mini-van before Thomas Scott Grobbel rammed it, rolled it, and kept right on keeping on up, up and away on the off ramp heading for his destination. I should throw in words like, alleged, or the accused, but I don’t feel like it. The person he killed and the two people he’s probably crippled for life probably don’t feel like it either. I wonder why this makes me so mad? What does this remind me of? What is this strange bile-like feeling I have when I look at a mini-van full of people killed and maimed by a drunk 20-something in a truck?

The incident started on July 22nd, 2009 at around 1:30 AM, when Grobbel stopped at the drive thru of a McDonald’s in Royal Oak, Michigan. While he was waiting, Grobbel, wearing a green Jagermeister T-shirt, bragged to the kid at the drive up window about how drunk he was. After he received his Big Mac and Fries, he proved it by driving his late model Chevy Silverado pickup over a concrete parking barrier.

Thomas Scott Grobbel jumped onto nearby I-696 westbound, where he nearly ran another driver off the road. He then tried to exit the highway and slammed into the rear end of a Ford Aerostar van which had slowed to the 35 mile per hour speed limit on the ramp. Police estimated Grobbel’s speed at impact was 95 miles per hour. The four men in that van, Andrew Gene Ross, 23; Ross’s father, Andrew Gene Doran, 45; Jared Nicholas Charest, 25; and the owner and driver of the van, Michael William Myke, 33, never knew what hit them.

Andrew Ross was pronounced dead at the scene. Andrew Doran and Jared Charest were both severely injured in the crash and taken to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where they are listed in serious condition. Michael Myke was lucky – he only received minor injuries and was able to walk away from the wreck.

Thomas Scott Grobbel also lucked out and wasn’t hurt badly. The first police officers who arrived at the scene knew this because Thomas Scott Grobbel was nowhere to be found. In the tradition of drunk drivers everywhere, especially the ones who cause accidents that kill people, our boy Tommy took off as soon as he realized how much trouble he was in, and it took cops, with help from a Coast Guard helicopter, four hours to find his drunk ass. Even then the police say Thomas Scott Grobbel was still highly intoxicated.

Thomas Scott Grobbel faces nine felony charges: operating while intoxicated causing death, manslaughter with a motor vehicle, failure to stop at the scene of an accident causing death, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing injury, two counts of felonious driving, and two counts of failure to stop at a serious accident causing impairment. He was arraigned Tuesday, August 4th, in Michigan’s 44th District Court in Royal Oak. Royal Oak District Magistrate Donald Chisholm ordered Grobbel held in the Oakland County Jail in lieu of $1 million cash bond.

Chisholm said he agreed with Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Carmine Defranco that Thomas Scott Grobbel presented a risk to the community and was a flight risk because he left the scene of the crash.

“Based on the severity of the event and based on the substantial amount of time between the crash and before you (decided) not to be forthcoming, it shows an attempt to evade the consequences of your conduct.”

You tell him Justice Chisholm.

After the arraignment, a visibly grief-stricken Greg Strube, Grobbel’s uncle, summarized the feelings of several of those attending the proceeding, many too overcome by emotion to talk to reporters.

“A lot of lives have been affected by this. It’s really tragic and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of all those affected.”

If you aren’t disgusted enough with Thomas Scott Grobbel, it turns out he had his license suspended five times from May 2006 to December 2008. Grobbel had a valid license at the time of the accident, but had previously been charged with disobeying a stop sign, driving without proof of insurance and for involvement in a separate three-vehicle crash.

What a guy!

You know, maybe it’s that I’m starting to become precognitive! Maybe I’m preparing myself for his family and friends who try to call this “an accident,” “a mistake,” or “how sorry he is.” There’s one way for Thomas Scott Grobbel to show how sorry he is. Show up in court, plead “guilty as sin,” beg for the stiffest sentence imaginable and spend the rest of your useless life trying to make sure this won’t happen again until something finally works!

If you are the family, friend, pet rooster, or sheep he met in a pasture one day, please go look at some of the other posts we have on this site. Yes we know we can’t send Thomas Scott Grobbel to hell, yes we know that we don’t know him, and we don’t care. If you plan on using the Bible, read it first, cover to cover before you try to use it in a comment, and be prepared for the worst verbal beat down of your life. This is inexcusable.

UPDATE – 08/10/2009

There’s been some question about whether the occupants of the van which Thomas Grobbel slammed into while driving drunk were drunk themselves, and if they all possessed either suspended or restricted licenses. Michael Myke, the driver of the van, gave an interview to Cheryl Chodun of WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit, where he answered those allegations:

So apparently Myke at least had a restricted driver’s license, and everyone in the van had been drinking. What this has to do with these men being rammed from behind at 95 miles per hour, or how it in any way lessens Thomas Grobbel’s responsibility is something I am unable to answer, but since some people wanted to know the truth, I dug up this video.

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Donta Cradock’s mother, Vanessa Cradock, said that he has been in and out of juvenile facilities since he was 13 years old, and had convictions for Armed Robbery and Grand Theft Auto. Recently he was being held in a Pittsburgh lockup for a 2006 armed convenience store holdup where he racked up an unbelievable list of charges in an attempt to steal a sixpack of beer (See Court Records). He was given a pass around Easter time for a visit home, but mom said he refused to go back.

Ivan Rodriguez was also on the lam, after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to appear for a preliminary hearing on charges involving a stolen car (See Court Records). Between the two stepbrothers, there was a total of 13 arrests.

On the evening of June 10th, Cradock and Rodriguez were sitting in a borrowed silver Pontiac in the Feltonview neighborhood of Philadelphia when they noticed another young man getting onto a Yamaha motorcycle. In a fateful decision, the two predators decided they were going to steal that motorcycle.

At the same time, about a mile away on Third Street, Latoya Smith sat on her stoop, rocking the stroller that contained her baby daughter Remedy. Nearby, her niece Aaliyah Griffin, 6, and her new friend, Gina Marie Rosario, 7, were playing jump rope and sucking on blowpops.

Around 7:30PM, Cradock and Rodriguez cruised up to the unsuspecting biker, flashed a .357 Magnum and allegedly demanded the man’s bike. Rodriguez hopped on the Yamaha and sped off, while Cradock fled in the Pontiac.

Neither man noticed they were being watched. The witness quietly followed Cradock and, when he noticed a Philadelphia police officer on patrol, flagged the officer down and pointed out Cradock and the Pontiac.

The veteran officer followed Cradock he weaved from the outer to inner lanes, until Cradock stopped in traffic near Fourth Street, which merges with Third Street at the intersection. The patrolman, a couple of cars back, instructed Cradock over a loudspeaker to get out of the vehicle.

Instead, Cradock jumped the median, turned left and sped down the street, striking some other vehicles along the way. He then lost control of the car and slammed into the porch stoop of a house on Third Street.

The same stoop where Latoya Smith and the three children were.

Aaliyah Griffin and Gina Marie Rosario were killed instantly. Remedy Smith, two days shy of her first birthday, was hurled from her stroller and died a short time later in at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Latoya Smith lasted a bit longer – she made it to Thursday, when she also succumbed to her injuries.

There were no skid marks at the crash scene, indicating that Donta Cradock never tried to brake.

Police released a tape of the radio calls as the officer followed Donta Craddock up until he rode up on the scene of the accident. You can hear that tape, and follow the tragic events as they happened, by viewing the following video.

The online newspaper Philly.com described the reactions of neighbors and family members, and described the victims:

“When I close my eyes, I can see the little girl in half. I can’t take this,” said Abby Aponte, a block captain who lives kaddy-corner to where Cradock crashed.

On 3rd Street yesterday, relatives wasted no thought on the destructive duo.

They sobbed and embraced as they remembered the girls and accepted well-wishers’ condolences.

The older girls were new friends; Aaliyah lived on the block, while Gina Marie, who lived in Kensington, was there to visit her grandmother.

Brieanna Richards, Gina Marie’s aunt, remembered her as a “girlie girl” who loved princesses and “High School Musical” while still appreciating the antics of World Wrestling Entertainment.

Aaliyah was a kindergartner excited to start first grade and ride the school bus in September, relatives said.

“She loved coloring and writing her name and numbers,” her grandmother Vanessa Boyer said. “She was proud to do it.”

Aaliyah, nicknamed “Pooka,” had a younger brother and sister on whom she doted.

“She took very good care,” Boyer said. “She loved her sister and brother. She would play with them and make faces at them to make them laugh.”

Boyer and her family moved to the street six months ago. She said that she didn’t often let Aaliyah play on the sidewalk because the street was unsafe.

“We were looking for another place to live, because everyone was telling us they had shoot-outs [and] robberies [here],” Boyer said.

Smith’s sister surveyed the memorial yesterday and sobbed.

“I just want them back,” cried Porscha Canada, 18, who lost a 3-year-old niece in a 2007 car accident and her 18-year-old brother to gun violence in 2005. “[I take it] day by day. It’s a day-by-day thing.”

Latoya “loved that little girl,” said Boyer, adding that Smith was always with her daughter.

Cradock was injured and arrested at the scene, and a gun was found in the car, police said. He remains hospitalized, paralyzed from the waist down.

Ivan Rodriguez was arrested at his nearby home, where several weapons were found. Officers were attacked by a dog at the home and had to shoot it but didn’t kill it, said police, who recovered two shotguns, two handguns and a rifle there.

Donta Craddock and Ivan Rodriguez were both charged with four counts of murder. The men also are charged with robbery, conspiracy and related offenses. They are being held without bond.

Photographs, from top to bottom:

1. Donta Craddock and Ivan Rodriguez
2. Latoya Smith
3. Remedy Smith
4. Aaliyah Griffin
5. Gina Marie Rosario
6. Photo of the accident scene. You can just make out the beginning of the porch stoop that the victims were sitting on and around to the immediate left of the car’s bumper.

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