WEBVTT - Diane Schuler: The Wrong Way Home 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:16.279 Diversion audio. A note this episode contains mature content and 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.840 descriptions of violence that may be disturbing for some listeners. 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:30.040 Please take care in listening. July twenty sixth, two thousand 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:34.199 and nine was the perfect summer day. It was a Sunday, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.479 and the highway was packed with families returning to the 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:42.760 city from weekend trips upstate. Station wagons stuffed with coolers, 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.760 camping equipment, and screaming children vied for their piece of 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:51.599 the road. Frances Bagley and his wife Jean were one 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:55.480 of the cars traveling on the freeway that day. They 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.680 were returning home from a trip up to Delaware County 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:04.080 when they noticed a red forward Windstar driving behind them. 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:07.440 The car got closer and closer until it was right 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:12.160 on their tail. The driver flashed her lights and honked repeatedly. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.440 Jean braced herself for a crash. As the vehicle came 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.240 within a hard stopping distance of their back bumper. The 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.560 Windstar swerved to the right. It tried to pull up 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.320 onto the grassy shoulder and pass them. As the minivan 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.080 edged off the road, the driver seemed to reconsider and 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:37.280 dove back into traffic. There was something oddly precise about 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:41.240 the driver's movements. She moved in and out of the lanes, 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.000 almost as if she were doing it with a purpose. 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.760 The Bagglies watched in horror as the other cars swerved 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.080 out of her way, allowing the red minivan to zigzag 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.720 its way down the crowded highway. Jean and Frances didn't 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.120 catch a glimpse of the driver's face as she sped 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.360 by them, but there were plenty of other witnesses who did. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.280 What they described was a middle aged woman with an 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:12.720 oddly placid expression. She sat in the driver's seat with 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.520 her back straight and her hands gripping the steering wheel. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:20.800 At ten and two, she looked forward, unblinking, focusing intently 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.160 on the road in front of her. As one witness 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.760 would later put it, she didn't stop, she didn't slow down, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.000 she didn't move. I thought it was some one who 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:54.920 was dead set on killing themselves. Welcome to the greatest 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.560 true crime stories ever told. I'm Mary Kay mac braer. 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.640 To day's episode, We're calling Diane Schuller the Wrong Way Home. 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.600 It's the story of an ordinary suburban mom who did 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:13.040 something extraordinarily terrible and how the people who were left 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.440 to pick up the pieces found themselves, asking the same 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:22.440 question over and over again, why more after the break? 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.960 When I listen to true chrome stories, even when I 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:47.040 watch very fictional horror movies, I want an actual ending, 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:52.680 no ambiguous was it all a dream? Closing scenes in 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.640 fiction that's lazy writing. Nothing will get me to quit 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.400 a TV show faster than a cliffhanger ending. It's not 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.160 a cliffhanger. You just didn't finish the story, and that 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.400 means you don't believe in your show enough to trust 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.760 that your audience will return if you give them an 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.720 answer to the question you've been posing all along. What 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.200 they don't tell you unless you're in a writing class, 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:23.120 is that real life doesn't have that tidy causality. Event 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:30.240 A doesn't ever directly cause event B, and all conclusions 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:35.280 have been chosen. You have to transpose the meaning when 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.599 you tell the story, otherwise it's just a list of 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:43.440 shit that happened. The example I always used when teaching 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:48.320 creative writing was this, real life, the queen died and 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:53.520 then the king died. In writing, the queen died and 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:59.320 then the king died of grief. We add the causality 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:03.080 when we tell us story, whether we mean to or not, 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:08.840 fiction or nonfiction. The telling of the story is what 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.680 makes the cause and effect. It's why the answer to 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:18.600 who done it is so easy to spot after the fact. 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.719 We know what happened, so in retrospect we can build 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:27.119 the narrative with relevant details and leave out almost everything else. 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:33.120 On the other hand, journalism has to put the lead 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.360 at the top. Leaving it till the end implies too much, 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:43.480 and a plot is a creative device. Basically, there are 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:47.960 no true stories. Life is too subjective to have three acts, 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.080 or even five. If you want to be fatalistic, you 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:55.800 could say that everything that happens is random. We get 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.400 to decide the meaning based on how we tell the story, 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.760 like Joan Diddyon said, and we tell ourselves stories in 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:07.400 order to live. So we avoided telling this story about 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.880 Diane Shuller for a while because the causality is so 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.560 subjective that it seems to not exist. There are too 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:20.000 many theories that leave too much unanswered, and that bothers me. 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.560 But we're telling it now because this is an important 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.320 story and it needs a conclusion. So bear with me 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:30.640 as I walk you through what happened, because it did happen. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:41.159 Maybe you'll find a narrative thread that I couldn't see. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.080 When people describe Diane Schuller, the person they remember was 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:52.479 a domestic machine. Diane took care of everything. She made 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.000 sure the car got washed, the gutters got cleaned, and 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.880 the kids got picked up from soccer practice, and she 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:04.000 did it all with a smile on her face, without complaint. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.920 Diane was born in nineteen seventy three in Floral Park, 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:16.040 New York. Floral Park is a quiet suburb on the 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.360 eastern edge of Long Island. It's the kind of small 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.880 East Coast town where everyone knows everyone, where people know 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.880 their roles and they don't question them. Diane's mother left 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.560 the family when she was only nine. Though she was 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.200 the youngest child, Diane was the girl of the house, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.800 and that meant that the role of mother figure passed 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.000 to her. She became the one who cleaned the kitchen 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.480 and did the laundry, who took care of her three 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:45.720 older brothers. If Diane resented all that responsibility, she did 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.360 not show it. In fact, she seemed to take to 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.800 the role. Diane liked being in control. Floral Park is 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:54.840 the kind of town where most women are married with 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.480 children by their early twenties, but Diane never dated much. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.240 For a while, it must have seemed like the whole 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.640 marriage and family thing just wasn't going to happen for her, 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.400 so Diane focused on other things. She spent a few 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.120 years attending Nassau Community College, but dropped out after getting 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.280 an administrative job at an East Coast television network called Cablevision. 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.040 It was exactly the kind of move that an organized, efficient, 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.920 take charge sort of person might make. At Cablevision, there 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.560 was room for Diane to grow. Before long, she wasn't 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.760 the assistant anymore. Someone else was assisting her. She moved 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.600 up to the role of corporate accounting executive, and soon 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.400 she was making six figures. Her life was going well, 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.320 and then at a friend's wedding in nineteen ninety six, 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:54.840 Diane met Danny. Daniel Schuler was handsome and fun. He 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.680 loved camping and fishing, and he was on his way 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.360 to becoming a public safety officer for the Nassau County 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.120 Public Parks Department. But more important than any of that, 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.840 he and Diane just clicked from the start. In one interview, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.880 Danny's mother described how Diane made all the decisions. Danny 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.400 was like her eldest son. Look, it takes all kinds 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.080 and if it worked for them, it worked for them. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.880 Diane and Danny bought a beige split level with a 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.000 big yard and a small town of West Babylon. It 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.400 was just twenty miles away from the house where Diane 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.000 grew up. In two thousand and four, Diane gave birth 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.080 to a son, Brian, and then two years later she 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.520 had a daughter, Aaron. Diane settled into the role of matriarch, 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.600 the same role she'd always played, only now it was 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.600 her own house and her own family. Diane made sure 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.000 that her kids never had to worry about their mother 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:59.400 abandoning them. The house in West Babylon seemed like a 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.000 happy one. There were parties and cookouts in the big backyard, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:08.320 picture perfect Christmases and Easter dinners, and Diane presided over 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.600 all of it. She was the one who decorated the 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.680 house and sent out the Christmas cards. She made Valentines 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.040 for her brothers and nieces, photo albums for their in laws. 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.480 She made most of the money, paid the bills, cooked dinner, 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.400 and took the kids into bed, all without a word 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:30.480 of complaint. After all, Diane liked being in charge. She 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:32.800 was good at it, and she had to be good 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:43.760 at it. In July of two thousand and nine, Danny 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.600 and Diane planned to take their two kids and three 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.920 nieces on a camping trip up to Hunter Lake Campground 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:54.600 in the Catskills. The nieces were the three daughters of 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:59.559 Diane's older brother, Warren Hants. There was eight year old Emma, 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:05.000 seven year old Allison, and five year old Katie. Diane 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.360 was always close with her brother Warren and his wife Jackie. 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.760 The two families often spent time together, but the Hants 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:16.079 adults were not exactly camping people, which same, so they 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.120 decided to sit the trip out. Diane was going to 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.920 borrow Jackie's larger car and drive all five children to 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.840 the campsite on her own. On Friday, Danny left early 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.839 to set up the camp site. A few hours later, 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.280 Diane drove to the Hanses to pick up their three girls. 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:39.280 Diane and the kids piled into Jackie's red Ford Windstar, 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:44.920 and Jackie Hans waved goodbye as they drove away. Jackie 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.640 was prone to anxiety, so perhaps it wasn't surprising that 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:53.160 she felt a pang of nerves when she learned Warren 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:57.440 and Diane's father would not be joining the trip. She 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:01.520 dismissed the thought as irrational. The campsite was only a 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:06.320 few hours away, and besides, Diane was one of the 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:26.160 most responsible people she knew. Jackie could trust Diane. The 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.800 last weekend of July two thousand and nine was a 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:34.040 beautiful one. Danny, Diane, and the kids spent it fishing, hiking, 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.920 and swimming in the lake. When Sunday rolled around, they 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:43.160 were tired, happy, and ready to go home. According to Danny, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.040 he woke up around six am and went down to 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.560 the dock to clean out his boat. Diane was up 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.560 around seven cleaning, packing, and doing what needed to be 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.440 done so they could hit the road before traffic got bad. 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.640 By nine point thirty they were ready to leave. Danny 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.360 got into his truck with the dog. Diane and the 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.000 kids followed behind in the minivan. The owner of the 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:10.920 campground bid them goodbye. She remembered hugging Diane, and everything 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:16.400 seemed perfectly normal in a way. This moment when Danny 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:21.080 and Diane's path diverged is where the mystery begins. What 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:28.000 exactly happened after that point is anyone's guess. While many 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.640 of the events of July twenty sixth, two thousand and 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:34.640 nine remain a mystery, there are some things we can 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.000 piece together from the various people who encountered Diane Schuler 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.880 that day. Danny headed straight home and put in a 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.400 load of laundry, while Diane and the kids stopped for 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.720 breakfast at a McDonald's about fifteen minutes from the campsite. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.920 Diane bought breakfast for the kids and coffee and an 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:57.520 orange juice for herself. The employees at the McDonald's remembered 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.280 Diane her son Brian, wanted to order chicken nuggets, but 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.079 they didn't serve them that early, so Diane asked to 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.960 speak to a manager. It seems like Diane was unusual 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:10.000 for and I want to speak to the manager type, 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.679 because according to the employees, she was perfectly reasonable. She 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.840 was polite, sane, and sober, just determined to get some 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.440 chicken nuggets for her son. Diane and the kids were 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.040 in and out of the McDonald's within half an hour, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.560 no small feat for a single adult with five children. 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.040 The next record of their journey comes from a gas 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:36.040 station at eleven Diane stopped at a Sonoko and went 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.600 into the Minimore to ask if they stalked tylan al 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.360 or aspirin. The clerk told her they didn't have anything, 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:47.720 and Diane left without incident. The clerk remembers her seeming normal, 0:14:48.400 --> 0:15:00.120 just like everyone else. There's a video of Diane and 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.680 walking into the mini mart, grainy footage of her striding 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.920 confidently into the store and surveying the aisles of chips 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:11.120 and candy. She does seem normal, but then you can 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:15.200 never quite know what's going on under the surface. At 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:20.360 eleven thirty seven, Emma, the oldest of Diane's nieces, called 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.320 her father on Diane's cell. She told him they hit 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.960 traffic and would be getting home later than planned. Then, 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:33.360 at twelve oh eight pm, Jackie Hans called Diane to 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.560 ask what time they'd be arriving. It was an ordinary conversation. 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.400 They chatted about logistics, Diane asked about getting tickets for 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.400 a play that Emma was in. After a few minutes, 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.560 they hung up. Jackie wasn't worried, as far as she knew, 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.200 there was no reason to be. But the next time 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.480 Emma called her mother, there was very clear cause for concern. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.280 When Jackie picked up. Emma said there's something wrong with 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.920 Aunt Diane. Jackie could hear her other daughters crying in 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.200 the background. She asked Emma what was going on, but 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.400 the eight year old was too upset to give her 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.720 a real answer. Before Jackie could get any more information, 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.160 Diane took the phone from Emma. She told Jackie that 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:24.480 the kids were just playing around, being silly. Diane's words 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:29.680 sounded slurred as she continued talking. Jackie noticed that her 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:35.360 sentences were incoherent. Jackie was growing increasingly panicked. She asked 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.720 Diane to give the phone back to Emma, but Diane 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:43.560 ignored her. Soon the call was cut off. Jackie's husband 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.960 and Diane's brother, Warren, arrived home just as the call ended. 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.920 He called Diane back right away. They stayed on the 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.560 phone for eight minutes as Diane drove through a toll 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.120 booth and then pulled over at a rest stop. Warren 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.760 told his sister not to go anywhere. Then he got 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.080 her to hand the phone back to Emma, who read 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:08.280 him the nearby road signs. Warren thought they must be 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.760 just beyond the tappan Zee Bridge, near the village of Terrytown. 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.200 It was only forty five minutes away. He told Diane 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.840 to stay where she was he was coming to get her. 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:25.560 That was the last time anyone ever spoke to Diane. 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.160 Half an hour after Warren left his house, calls flooded 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.479 into nine one one. There was a woman driving seventy 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.919 five miles an hour down the Taconic State Parkway and 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:45.719 she was going the wrong way. The north and southbound 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.919 lanes of Taconic State Parkway are separated by a wide, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:55.000 grassy median. The road wasn't made for cars going seventy 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.919 or eighty miles an hour, and it's obvious the narrow, 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:07.080 twisting highway has a reputation for being a scary road. 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.840 For whatever unknown reason. After the call with her brother, 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:18.640 Diane exited the freeway headed back north. She drove fifteen 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.679 miles in the opposite direction of her home before entering 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:27.560 the Taconic State Parkway at one thirty three pm via 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:32.760 an exit ramp. People who witnessed her driving said that 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:36.320 her expression was almost serene, that she drove in a 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.800 straight line without swerving or veering off course. Diane raced 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:45.119 down the two lane highway for almost two miles, unfazed 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.439 by the honking cars that lurched out of her way 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:52.080 as she barreled down on them. Finally, one of those 0:18:52.080 --> 0:19:06.879 cars didn't make it out of her way. Guy Bastardi 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.840 was driving up to his sister's house in Yorktown Heights 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.920 for dinner along with his eighty one year old father 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.720 and a family friend. Seven miles from their destination, a 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.040 GMC driving in front of them swerved out of the 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:26.040 way to avoid Diane's minivan. There was no time to react. 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:30.560 Guy's car collided head on with Diane's minivan in a 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:34.960 blast of tearing metal. The Windstar rolled down the grassy 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:39.800 slope beside the highway and burst into flames. Guy bas 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.879 Stardi's car was flung in the opposite direction. It skidded 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.879 across the two lane freeway and was hit by the 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:51.040 stun driver of a Chevy Tracker. The occupants of that 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.960 car escaped with only minor injuries, but seven of the 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.120 nine people and the other two cars were killed on impact. 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.840 Five year old ca Katie was rushed to the hospital, 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.280 but she died soon after her arrival. The only survivor 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:11.160 was Diane's five year old son, Brian. The media frenzy 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:16.840 began almost immediately. By eleven PM, reporters arrived at the Bustardes' home. 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.680 The following morning, a media mob gathered outside the Hans's house. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:27.280 Donations to the families came flooding in, including nearby restaurants 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.480 that provided food for the Hans girl's funeral. Thousands of 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.280 people attended the wake, and a local priest pulled strings 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.080 so that the girls could be buried right away alongside 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:42.359 their aunt and cousin. Reporters questioned whether there was enough 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.119 signage at the exit ramp. A few speculated that Diane 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.879 may have been trying to kill herself, but for the 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.360 most part, those covering the crash did not blame Diane. 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:57.080 She was painted as a loving and responsible parent. As 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.239 far as anyone could see. Diane was just as much 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:05.080 a victim as anyone else, which leaves the question why 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.440 did this happen? Maybe there weren't as many wrong way 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.760 signs as there could be, but there were signs. Why 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:14.760 didn't she try to pull off the road when she 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.560 realized she was going the wrong way? Why did she 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.560 go fifteen miles in the wrong direction? How did she 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:26.040 end up on the Taconic in the first place. As 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:31.840 the investigation proceeded, a different story started to emerge. Investigators 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.840 soon managed to track down witnesses who encountered the forward 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.520 Windstar earlier in the day. They spoke to one couple 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.439 who remembered seeing the car around eleven thirty am, just 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.160 half an hour after Diane was at the Sunoco station, 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:51.080 seeming perfectly normal. Several drivers saw the minivan honking, aggressively, 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:56.360 tailgating other cars, and zigzagging between the lanes of traffic. Then, 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:59.920 at eleven forty five, just fifteen minutes before that very 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.639 ordinary conversation with Jackie Hans, a couple reported seeing the 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.080 car pulled over by the side of the road. Diane 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.160 appeared to be standing beside it, vomiting into the grass. 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.400 Another couple reported a similar story from a half hour later. 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.320 Diane pulled over with her hands on her knees, apparently 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:26.440 throwing up. And there was another clue. After accident, reconstructionists 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.639 moved the seats from the minivan, they found a broken 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:35.680 vodka bottle. Then came the autopsy report. According to the report, 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:39.680 Diane's blood alcohol content was zero point one nine percent, 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:44.280 well past the legal limit of point zero eight. There 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.640 were six grams of undigested alcohol still in her stomach, 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:53.920 and a high level of tetrahydrocannabinol. That's THHC, the part 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.199 of pot that gets you high. The conclusion reached by 0:22:57.200 --> 0:23:00.760 the medical examiner was that Diane consumed the equivalent of 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:03.879 ten drinks that day and smoked within an hour of 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:25.760 the crash. After the details of the autopsy came out, 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:30.040 the backlash was swift and fierce. People were furious with 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:34.760 Diane Schuler. The New York Post reported rumors that Diane 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:37.320 was a drinker and her marriage was on the rocks. 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:40.720 They claimed the campground where Danny and Diane took the 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:45.560 kids was a known party spot. Hateful messages from people 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:49.480 all over the country filled Danny's social media feed. The 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:52.879 Bustardi family thought Diane was a murderer and suspected that 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:56.400 Danny knew she was drinking. They wondered if the Hanses 0:23:56.440 --> 0:23:58.679 could have known as well, if that was why they 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.159 drove to get Diane rather than immediately calling nine one one. 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:06.479 Danny was an ordinary guy, and suddenly he was thrust 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:10.040 into the spotlight. He needed someone to help him handle 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:16.440 the national media machine. Enter Dominic, Barbara Dominic, Barbara was 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:20.880 a Long Island lawyer famous for defending high profile clients. 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:24.400 At least at the time, that's what he was known for. 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:28.320 These days, he's remembered for his multiple arrests for extortion 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:32.359 and assault. Of everyone in this story, he's the only 0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:35.920 one who strikes me as a true villain. Up until 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:39.000 he got involved, there was some tension between the Hanses 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:42.520 and Danny Schuler, but things got so much worse after 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:47.200 Dominick entered the picture. As Jackie hans put it, quote, 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:51.919 that's when the small rift between our families became a chasm. 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:55.879 On August sixth, Dominic called a press conference where a 0:24:55.920 --> 0:25:00.000 deeply grieving Danny spoke about his late wife. He described 0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:04.359 Diane as a perfect wife and mother, an innately responsible person, 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:08.640 and the love of his life. When he talked about Diane, 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:12.320 Danny's expression softened, and it was easy to believe that 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:16.320 he meant everything he said. But it definitely wasn't what 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:19.840 the grieving families wanted to hear, And what they found 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:23.399 especially infuriating was what he said at the end of 0:25:23.400 --> 0:25:28.280 the press conference. He said, listen to this. My heart 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:32.080 is clear. She didn't drink. She's not an alcoholic did 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:34.720 you get that I go to bed every night knowing 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:38.680 my heart is clear. That sentence, more than any other, 0:25:39.280 --> 0:25:42.760 enraged the Hands and Bustardi families, and it stoked the 0:25:42.800 --> 0:25:46.919 media's fascination with the case. Over the next few weeks, 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:51.760 Dominic Barbara lined up a series of media appearances for 0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:55.760 Danny and his sister in law, Jay Jay was married 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:58.480 to Danny's brother, but she was always close with Danny 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:02.960 and Diane, Aaron's godmother, and after the crash, she took 0:26:03.000 --> 0:26:07.879 up the cause of being Diane's defender. Every interview only 0:26:07.920 --> 0:26:11.280 seemed to make things worse for Danny's reputation and inflame 0:26:11.359 --> 0:26:15.679 the animosity between the families. The Bustardes in particular, were 0:26:15.760 --> 0:26:19.040 frustrated by the pace of the investigation into Danny's possible 0:26:19.119 --> 0:26:22.640 knowledge of Diane's drinking. Once they learned that there would 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:25.800 be no grand jury hearing, the family decided to file 0:26:25.840 --> 0:26:30.720 a civil suit against Diane's estate and Warren Hands. The 0:26:30.800 --> 0:26:34.480 case against Warren Hants might seem uncalled for, but apparently 0:26:34.880 --> 0:26:38.320 the Bustardes needed to include them in the case because 0:26:38.359 --> 0:26:42.120 the mini van had belonged to Warren. Before the case 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:45.359 could go to court, Danny filed his own suit against 0:26:45.400 --> 0:26:49.879 the State of New York and against Warren Hants. Danny 0:26:50.000 --> 0:26:53.560 was more certain than ever that his wife had knowingly 0:26:53.680 --> 0:26:56.720 drunk ten shots of vodka and then gotten into a 0:26:56.840 --> 0:27:01.720 van with five children. Now claimed that the highway's poor 0:27:01.800 --> 0:27:06.040 construction and lack of signage contributed to the accident, and 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:08.800 that the mini van Warren loaned Diane was in a 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:15.320 state of disrepair, making Warren quote vicariously liable. To me, 0:27:15.480 --> 0:27:18.760 this lawsuit feels like the last grasp of a desperate man. 0:27:19.480 --> 0:27:22.320 He was suing the state for building bad roads and 0:27:22.359 --> 0:27:26.160 Warren for loaning them a faulty car. Danny was also 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:29.760 trying to get another medical examiner to exhume Diane's body, 0:27:30.480 --> 0:27:34.119 and he wanted to retest the results from the toxicology report. 0:27:34.920 --> 0:27:36.879 From what I can tell, there was nothing wrong with 0:27:36.920 --> 0:27:40.359 the car, and the road had plenty of signs. Danny 0:27:40.440 --> 0:27:43.800 did eventually get the toxicology results retested, and they came 0:27:43.840 --> 0:27:47.360 back the same, But it didn't matter. All that mattered 0:27:47.480 --> 0:27:50.399 was that Danny was doing anything and everything he could 0:27:50.720 --> 0:28:02.120 to avoid facing the truth. There are plenty of theories 0:28:02.200 --> 0:28:07.080 about why what happened happened, one of the most popular 0:28:07.119 --> 0:28:12.480 theories will call the tooth absess theory. Dominic Barbara said 0:28:12.480 --> 0:28:15.440 that about a year before the accident, Diane was having 0:28:15.480 --> 0:28:18.920 severe tooth pain. She went to a dentist and was 0:28:18.960 --> 0:28:22.159 scheduled for a root canal, but left the dentist's office 0:28:22.240 --> 0:28:26.800 before the procedure could be completed. Diane didn't like accepting 0:28:26.840 --> 0:28:30.600 help or admitting that she was in pain. She was 0:28:30.640 --> 0:28:33.520 the kind of person who believed in toughing it out. 0:28:33.680 --> 0:28:35.720 If she was still in pain after that visit to 0:28:35.760 --> 0:28:39.440 the dentist, she didn't tell anyone, but that didn't mean 0:28:39.480 --> 0:28:43.080 nobody noticed. In the weeks leading up to the accident, 0:28:43.320 --> 0:28:47.040 friends and family members noticed Diane rubbing or holding her 0:28:47.120 --> 0:28:52.560 lower jaw. If Diane did have an absessed tooth, and 0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:56.920 if that infection spread to her brain, which I know terrifying, 0:28:58.080 --> 0:29:03.440 it could have caused confusion and difficulty seeing. Maybe Diane, 0:29:03.520 --> 0:29:06.440 in a state of delirium, grabbed the bottle of vodka 0:29:06.520 --> 0:29:09.240 thinking it was water, or maybe she tried to use 0:29:09.280 --> 0:29:12.120 it to numb the pain from the abscess. After all, 0:29:12.200 --> 0:29:16.080