Speaker 1: Diversion audio. A note this episode contains mature content and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence that may be disturbing for some listeners.
Speaker 1: Please take care in listening. July twenty sixth, two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine was the perfect summer day. It was a Sunday,
Speaker 1: and the highway was packed with families returning to the
Speaker 1: city from weekend trips upstate. Station wagons stuffed with coolers,
Speaker 1: camping equipment, and screaming children vied for their piece of
Speaker 1: the road. Frances Bagley and his wife Jean were one
Speaker 1: of the cars traveling on the freeway that day. They
Speaker 1: were returning home from a trip up to Delaware County
Speaker 1: when they noticed a red forward Windstar driving behind them.
Speaker 1: The car got closer and closer until it was right
Speaker 1: on their tail. The driver flashed her lights and honked repeatedly.
Speaker 1: Jean braced herself for a crash. As the vehicle came
Speaker 1: within a hard stopping distance of their back bumper. The
Speaker 1: Windstar swerved to the right. It tried to pull up
Speaker 1: onto the grassy shoulder and pass them. As the minivan
Speaker 1: edged off the road, the driver seemed to reconsider and
Speaker 1: dove back into traffic. There was something oddly precise about
Speaker 1: the driver's movements. She moved in and out of the lanes,
Speaker 1: almost as if she were doing it with a purpose.
Speaker 1: The Bagglies watched in horror as the other cars swerved
Speaker 1: out of her way, allowing the red minivan to zigzag
Speaker 1: its way down the crowded highway. Jean and Frances didn't
Speaker 1: catch a glimpse of the driver's face as she sped
Speaker 1: by them, but there were plenty of other witnesses who did.
Speaker 1: What they described was a middle aged woman with an
Speaker 1: oddly placid expression. She sat in the driver's seat with
Speaker 1: her back straight and her hands gripping the steering wheel.
Speaker 1: At ten and two, she looked forward, unblinking, focusing intently
Speaker 1: on the road in front of her. As one witness
Speaker 1: would later put it, she didn't stop, she didn't slow down,
Speaker 1: she didn't move. I thought it was some one who
Speaker 1: was dead set on killing themselves. Welcome to the greatest
Speaker 1: true crime stories ever told. I'm Mary Kay mac braer.
Speaker 1: To day's episode, We're calling Diane Schuller the Wrong Way Home.
Speaker 1: It's the story of an ordinary suburban mom who did
Speaker 1: something extraordinarily terrible and how the people who were left
Speaker 1: to pick up the pieces found themselves, asking the same
Speaker 1: question over and over again, why more after the break?
Speaker 1: When I listen to true chrome stories, even when I
Speaker 1: watch very fictional horror movies, I want an actual ending,
Speaker 1: no ambiguous was it all a dream? Closing scenes in
Speaker 1: fiction that's lazy writing. Nothing will get me to quit
Speaker 1: a TV show faster than a cliffhanger ending. It's not
Speaker 1: a cliffhanger. You just didn't finish the story, and that
Speaker 1: means you don't believe in your show enough to trust
Speaker 1: that your audience will return if you give them an
Speaker 1: answer to the question you've been posing all along. What
Speaker 1: they don't tell you unless you're in a writing class,
Speaker 1: is that real life doesn't have that tidy causality. Event
Speaker 1: A doesn't ever directly cause event B, and all conclusions
Speaker 1: have been chosen. You have to transpose the meaning when
Speaker 1: you tell the story, otherwise it's just a list of
Speaker 1: shit that happened. The example I always used when teaching
Speaker 1: creative writing was this, real life, the queen died and
Speaker 1: then the king died. In writing, the queen died and
Speaker 1: then the king died of grief. We add the causality
Speaker 1: when we tell us story, whether we mean to or not,
Speaker 1: fiction or nonfiction. The telling of the story is what
Speaker 1: makes the cause and effect. It's why the answer to
Speaker 1: who done it is so easy to spot after the fact.
Speaker 1: We know what happened, so in retrospect we can build
Speaker 1: the narrative with relevant details and leave out almost everything else.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, journalism has to put the lead
Speaker 1: at the top. Leaving it till the end implies too much,
Speaker 1: and a plot is a creative device. Basically, there are
Speaker 1: no true stories. Life is too subjective to have three acts,
Speaker 1: or even five. If you want to be fatalistic, you
Speaker 1: could say that everything that happens is random. We get
Speaker 1: to decide the meaning based on how we tell the story,
Speaker 1: like Joan Diddyon said, and we tell ourselves stories in
Speaker 1: order to live. So we avoided telling this story about
Speaker 1: Diane Shuller for a while because the causality is so
Speaker 1: subjective that it seems to not exist. There are too
Speaker 1: many theories that leave too much unanswered, and that bothers me.
Speaker 1: But we're telling it now because this is an important
Speaker 1: story and it needs a conclusion. So bear with me
Speaker 1: as I walk you through what happened, because it did happen.
Speaker 1: Maybe you'll find a narrative thread that I couldn't see.
Speaker 1: When people describe Diane Schuller, the person they remember was
Speaker 1: a domestic machine. Diane took care of everything. She made
Speaker 1: sure the car got washed, the gutters got cleaned, and
Speaker 1: the kids got picked up from soccer practice, and she
Speaker 1: did it all with a smile on her face, without complaint.
Speaker 1: Diane was born in nineteen seventy three in Floral Park,
Speaker 1: New York. Floral Park is a quiet suburb on the
Speaker 1: eastern edge of Long Island. It's the kind of small
Speaker 1: East Coast town where everyone knows everyone, where people know
Speaker 1: their roles and they don't question them. Diane's mother left
Speaker 1: the family when she was only nine. Though she was
Speaker 1: the youngest child, Diane was the girl of the house,
Speaker 1: and that meant that the role of mother figure passed
Speaker 1: to her. She became the one who cleaned the kitchen
Speaker 1: and did the laundry, who took care of her three
Speaker 1: older brothers. If Diane resented all that responsibility, she did
Speaker 1: not show it. In fact, she seemed to take to
Speaker 1: the role. Diane liked being in control. Floral Park is
Speaker 1: the kind of town where most women are married with
Speaker 1: children by their early twenties, but Diane never dated much.
Speaker 1: For a while, it must have seemed like the whole
Speaker 1: marriage and family thing just wasn't going to happen for her,
Speaker 1: so Diane focused on other things. She spent a few
Speaker 1: years attending Nassau Community College, but dropped out after getting
Speaker 1: an administrative job at an East Coast television network called Cablevision.
Speaker 1: It was exactly the kind of move that an organized, efficient,
Speaker 1: take charge sort of person might make. At Cablevision, there
Speaker 1: was room for Diane to grow. Before long, she wasn't
Speaker 1: the assistant anymore. Someone else was assisting her. She moved
Speaker 1: up to the role of corporate accounting executive, and soon
Speaker 1: she was making six figures. Her life was going well,
Speaker 1: and then at a friend's wedding in nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: Diane met Danny. Daniel Schuler was handsome and fun. He
Speaker 1: loved camping and fishing, and he was on his way
Speaker 1: to becoming a public safety officer for the Nassau County
Speaker 1: Public Parks Department. But more important than any of that,
Speaker 1: he and Diane just clicked from the start. In one interview,
Speaker 1: Danny's mother described how Diane made all the decisions. Danny
Speaker 1: was like her eldest son. Look, it takes all kinds
Speaker 1: and if it worked for them, it worked for them.
Speaker 1: Diane and Danny bought a beige split level with a
Speaker 1: big yard and a small town of West Babylon. It
Speaker 1: was just twenty miles away from the house where Diane
Speaker 1: grew up. In two thousand and four, Diane gave birth
Speaker 1: to a son, Brian, and then two years later she
Speaker 1: had a daughter, Aaron. Diane settled into the role of matriarch,
Speaker 1: the same role she'd always played, only now it was
Speaker 1: her own house and her own family. Diane made sure
Speaker 1: that her kids never had to worry about their mother
Speaker 1: abandoning them. The house in West Babylon seemed like a
Speaker 1: happy one. There were parties and cookouts in the big backyard,
Speaker 1: picture perfect Christmases and Easter dinners, and Diane presided over
Speaker 1: all of it. She was the one who decorated the
Speaker 1: house and sent out the Christmas cards. She made Valentines
Speaker 1: for her brothers and nieces, photo albums for their in laws.
Speaker 1: She made most of the money, paid the bills, cooked dinner,
Speaker 1: and took the kids into bed, all without a word
Speaker 1: of complaint. After all, Diane liked being in charge. She
Speaker 1: was good at it, and she had to be good
Speaker 1: at it. In July of two thousand and nine, Danny
Speaker 1: and Diane planned to take their two kids and three
Speaker 1: nieces on a camping trip up to Hunter Lake Campground
Speaker 1: in the Catskills. The nieces were the three daughters of
Speaker 1: Diane's older brother, Warren Hants. There was eight year old Emma,
Speaker 1: seven year old Allison, and five year old Katie. Diane
Speaker 1: was always close with her brother Warren and his wife Jackie.
Speaker 1: The two families often spent time together, but the Hants
Speaker 1: adults were not exactly camping people, which same, so they
Speaker 1: decided to sit the trip out. Diane was going to
Speaker 1: borrow Jackie's larger car and drive all five children to
Speaker 1: the campsite on her own. On Friday, Danny left early
Speaker 1: to set up the camp site. A few hours later,
Speaker 1: Diane drove to the Hanses to pick up their three girls.
Speaker 1: Diane and the kids piled into Jackie's red Ford Windstar,
Speaker 1: and Jackie Hans waved goodbye as they drove away. Jackie
Speaker 1: was prone to anxiety, so perhaps it wasn't surprising that
Speaker 1: she felt a pang of nerves when she learned Warren
Speaker 1: and Diane's father would not be joining the trip. She
Speaker 1: dismissed the thought as irrational. The campsite was only a
Speaker 1: few hours away, and besides, Diane was one of the
Speaker 1: most responsible people she knew. Jackie could trust Diane. The
Speaker 1: last weekend of July two thousand and nine was a
Speaker 1: beautiful one. Danny, Diane, and the kids spent it fishing, hiking,
Speaker 1: and swimming in the lake. When Sunday rolled around, they
Speaker 1: were tired, happy, and ready to go home. According to Danny,
Speaker 1: he woke up around six am and went down to
Speaker 1: the dock to clean out his boat. Diane was up
Speaker 1: around seven cleaning, packing, and doing what needed to be
Speaker 1: done so they could hit the road before traffic got bad.
Speaker 1: By nine point thirty they were ready to leave. Danny
Speaker 1: got into his truck with the dog. Diane and the
Speaker 1: kids followed behind in the minivan. The owner of the
Speaker 1: campground bid them goodbye. She remembered hugging Diane, and everything
Speaker 1: seemed perfectly normal in a way. This moment when Danny
Speaker 1: and Diane's path diverged is where the mystery begins. What
Speaker 1: exactly happened after that point is anyone's guess. While many
Speaker 1: of the events of July twenty sixth, two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine remain a mystery, there are some things we can
Speaker 1: piece together from the various people who encountered Diane Schuler
Speaker 1: that day. Danny headed straight home and put in a
Speaker 1: load of laundry, while Diane and the kids stopped for
Speaker 1: breakfast at a McDonald's about fifteen minutes from the campsite.
Speaker 1: Diane bought breakfast for the kids and coffee and an
Speaker 1: orange juice for herself. The employees at the McDonald's remembered
Speaker 1: Diane her son Brian, wanted to order chicken nuggets, but
Speaker 1: they didn't serve them that early, so Diane asked to
Speaker 1: speak to a manager. It seems like Diane was unusual
Speaker 1: for and I want to speak to the manager type,
Speaker 1: because according to the employees, she was perfectly reasonable. She
Speaker 1: was polite, sane, and sober, just determined to get some
Speaker 1: chicken nuggets for her son. Diane and the kids were
Speaker 1: in and out of the McDonald's within half an hour,
Speaker 1: no small feat for a single adult with five children.
Speaker 1: The next record of their journey comes from a gas
Speaker 1: station at eleven Diane stopped at a Sonoko and went
Speaker 1: into the Minimore to ask if they stalked tylan al
Speaker 1: or aspirin. The clerk told her they didn't have anything,
Speaker 1: and Diane left without incident. The clerk remembers her seeming normal,
Speaker 1: just like everyone else. There's a video of Diane and
Speaker 1: walking into the mini mart, grainy footage of her striding
Speaker 1: confidently into the store and surveying the aisles of chips
Speaker 1: and candy. She does seem normal, but then you can
Speaker 1: never quite know what's going on under the surface. At
Speaker 1: eleven thirty seven, Emma, the oldest of Diane's nieces, called
Speaker 1: her father on Diane's cell. She told him they hit
Speaker 1: traffic and would be getting home later than planned. Then,
Speaker 1: at twelve oh eight pm, Jackie Hans called Diane to
Speaker 1: ask what time they'd be arriving. It was an ordinary conversation.
Speaker 1: They chatted about logistics, Diane asked about getting tickets for
Speaker 1: a play that Emma was in. After a few minutes,
Speaker 1: they hung up. Jackie wasn't worried, as far as she knew,
Speaker 1: there was no reason to be. But the next time
Speaker 1: Emma called her mother, there was very clear cause for concern.
Speaker 1: When Jackie picked up. Emma said there's something wrong with
Speaker 1: Aunt Diane. Jackie could hear her other daughters crying in
Speaker 1: the background. She asked Emma what was going on, but
Speaker 1: the eight year old was too upset to give her
Speaker 1: a real answer. Before Jackie could get any more information,
Speaker 1: Diane took the phone from Emma. She told Jackie that
Speaker 1: the kids were just playing around, being silly. Diane's words
Speaker 1: sounded slurred as she continued talking. Jackie noticed that her
Speaker 1: sentences were incoherent. Jackie was growing increasingly panicked. She asked
Speaker 1: Diane to give the phone back to Emma, but Diane
Speaker 1: ignored her. Soon the call was cut off. Jackie's husband
Speaker 1: and Diane's brother, Warren, arrived home just as the call ended.
Speaker 1: He called Diane back right away. They stayed on the
Speaker 1: phone for eight minutes as Diane drove through a toll
Speaker 1: booth and then pulled over at a rest stop. Warren
Speaker 1: told his sister not to go anywhere. Then he got
Speaker 1: her to hand the phone back to Emma, who read
Speaker 1: him the nearby road signs. Warren thought they must be
Speaker 1: just beyond the tappan Zee Bridge, near the village of Terrytown.
Speaker 1: It was only forty five minutes away. He told Diane
Speaker 1: to stay where she was he was coming to get her.
Speaker 1: That was the last time anyone ever spoke to Diane.
Speaker 1: Half an hour after Warren left his house, calls flooded
Speaker 1: into nine one one. There was a woman driving seventy
Speaker 1: five miles an hour down the Taconic State Parkway and
Speaker 1: she was going the wrong way. The north and southbound
Speaker 1: lanes of Taconic State Parkway are separated by a wide,
Speaker 1: grassy median. The road wasn't made for cars going seventy
Speaker 1: or eighty miles an hour, and it's obvious the narrow,
Speaker 1: twisting highway has a reputation for being a scary road.
Speaker 1: For whatever unknown reason. After the call with her brother,
Speaker 1: Diane exited the freeway headed back north. She drove fifteen
Speaker 1: miles in the opposite direction of her home before entering
Speaker 1: the Taconic State Parkway at one thirty three pm via
Speaker 1: an exit ramp. People who witnessed her driving said that
Speaker 1: her expression was almost serene, that she drove in a
Speaker 1: straight line without swerving or veering off course. Diane raced
Speaker 1: down the two lane highway for almost two miles, unfazed
Speaker 1: by the honking cars that lurched out of her way
Speaker 1: as she barreled down on them. Finally, one of those
Speaker 1: cars didn't make it out of her way. Guy Bastardi
Speaker 1: was driving up to his sister's house in Yorktown Heights
Speaker 1: for dinner along with his eighty one year old father
Speaker 1: and a family friend. Seven miles from their destination, a
Speaker 1: GMC driving in front of them swerved out of the
Speaker 1: way to avoid Diane's minivan. There was no time to react.
Speaker 1: Guy's car collided head on with Diane's minivan in a
Speaker 1: blast of tearing metal. The Windstar rolled down the grassy
Speaker 1: slope beside the highway and burst into flames. Guy bas
Speaker 1: Stardi's car was flung in the opposite direction. It skidded
Speaker 1: across the two lane freeway and was hit by the
Speaker 1: stun driver of a Chevy Tracker. The occupants of that
Speaker 1: car escaped with only minor injuries, but seven of the
Speaker 1: nine people and the other two cars were killed on impact.
Speaker 1: Five year old ca Katie was rushed to the hospital,
Speaker 1: but she died soon after her arrival. The only survivor
Speaker 1: was Diane's five year old son, Brian. The media frenzy
Speaker 1: began almost immediately. By eleven PM, reporters arrived at the Bustardes' home.
Speaker 1: The following morning, a media mob gathered outside the Hans's house.
Speaker 1: Donations to the families came flooding in, including nearby restaurants
Speaker 1: that provided food for the Hans girl's funeral. Thousands of
Speaker 1: people attended the wake, and a local priest pulled strings
Speaker 1: so that the girls could be buried right away alongside
Speaker 1: their aunt and cousin. Reporters questioned whether there was enough
Speaker 1: signage at the exit ramp. A few speculated that Diane
Speaker 1: may have been trying to kill herself, but for the
Speaker 1: most part, those covering the crash did not blame Diane.
Speaker 1: She was painted as a loving and responsible parent. As
Speaker 1: far as anyone could see. Diane was just as much
Speaker 1: a victim as anyone else, which leaves the question why
Speaker 1: did this happen? Maybe there weren't as many wrong way
Speaker 1: signs as there could be, but there were signs. Why
Speaker 1: didn't she try to pull off the road when she
Speaker 1: realized she was going the wrong way? Why did she
Speaker 1: go fifteen miles in the wrong direction? How did she
Speaker 1: end up on the Taconic in the first place. As
Speaker 1: the investigation proceeded, a different story started to emerge. Investigators
Speaker 1: soon managed to track down witnesses who encountered the forward
Speaker 1: Windstar earlier in the day. They spoke to one couple
Speaker 1: who remembered seeing the car around eleven thirty am, just
Speaker 1: half an hour after Diane was at the Sunoco station,
Speaker 1: seeming perfectly normal. Several drivers saw the minivan honking, aggressively,
Speaker 1: tailgating other cars, and zigzagging between the lanes of traffic. Then,
Speaker 1: at eleven forty five, just fifteen minutes before that very
Speaker 1: ordinary conversation with Jackie Hans, a couple reported seeing the
Speaker 1: car pulled over by the side of the road. Diane
Speaker 1: appeared to be standing beside it, vomiting into the grass.
Speaker 1: Another couple reported a similar story from a half hour later.
Speaker 1: Diane pulled over with her hands on her knees, apparently
Speaker 1: throwing up. And there was another clue. After accident, reconstructionists
Speaker 1: moved the seats from the minivan, they found a broken
Speaker 1: vodka bottle. Then came the autopsy report. According to the report,
Speaker 1: Diane's blood alcohol content was zero point one nine percent,
Speaker 1: well past the legal limit of point zero eight. There
Speaker 1: were six grams of undigested alcohol still in her stomach,
Speaker 1: and a high level of tetrahydrocannabinol. That's THHC, the part
Speaker 1: of pot that gets you high. The conclusion reached by
Speaker 1: the medical examiner was that Diane consumed the equivalent of
Speaker 1: ten drinks that day and smoked within an hour of
Speaker 1: the crash. After the details of the autopsy came out,
Speaker 1: the backlash was swift and fierce. People were furious with
Speaker 1: Diane Schuler. The New York Post reported rumors that Diane
Speaker 1: was a drinker and her marriage was on the rocks.
Speaker 1: They claimed the campground where Danny and Diane took the
Speaker 1: kids was a known party spot. Hateful messages from people
Speaker 1: all over the country filled Danny's social media feed. The
Speaker 1: Bustardi family thought Diane was a murderer and suspected that
Speaker 1: Danny knew she was drinking. They wondered if the Hanses
Speaker 1: could have known as well, if that was why they
Speaker 1: drove to get Diane rather than immediately calling nine one one.
Speaker 1: Danny was an ordinary guy, and suddenly he was thrust
Speaker 1: into the spotlight. He needed someone to help him handle
Speaker 1: the national media machine. Enter Dominic, Barbara Dominic, Barbara was
Speaker 1: a Long Island lawyer famous for defending high profile clients.
Speaker 1: At least at the time, that's what he was known for.
Speaker 1: These days, he's remembered for his multiple arrests for extortion
Speaker 1: and assault. Of everyone in this story, he's the only
Speaker 1: one who strikes me as a true villain. Up until
Speaker 1: he got involved, there was some tension between the Hanses
Speaker 1: and Danny Schuler, but things got so much worse after
Speaker 1: Dominick entered the picture. As Jackie hans put it, quote,
Speaker 1: that's when the small rift between our families became a chasm.
Speaker 1: On August sixth, Dominic called a press conference where a
Speaker 1: deeply grieving Danny spoke about his late wife. He described
Speaker 1: Diane as a perfect wife and mother, an innately responsible person,
Speaker 1: and the love of his life. When he talked about Diane,
Speaker 1: Danny's expression softened, and it was easy to believe that
Speaker 1: he meant everything he said. But it definitely wasn't what
Speaker 1: the grieving families wanted to hear, And what they found
Speaker 1: especially infuriating was what he said at the end of
Speaker 1: the press conference. He said, listen to this. My heart
Speaker 1: is clear. She didn't drink. She's not an alcoholic did
Speaker 1: you get that I go to bed every night knowing
Speaker 1: my heart is clear. That sentence, more than any other,
Speaker 1: enraged the Hands and Bustardi families, and it stoked the
Speaker 1: media's fascination with the case. Over the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: Dominic Barbara lined up a series of media appearances for
Speaker 1: Danny and his sister in law, Jay Jay was married
Speaker 1: to Danny's brother, but she was always close with Danny
Speaker 1: and Diane, Aaron's godmother, and after the crash, she took
Speaker 1: up the cause of being Diane's defender. Every interview only
Speaker 1: seemed to make things worse for Danny's reputation and inflame
Speaker 1: the animosity between the families. The Bustardes in particular, were
Speaker 1: frustrated by the pace of the investigation into Danny's possible
Speaker 1: knowledge of Diane's drinking. Once they learned that there would
Speaker 1: be no grand jury hearing, the family decided to file
Speaker 1: a civil suit against Diane's estate and Warren Hands. The
Speaker 1: case against Warren Hants might seem uncalled for, but apparently
Speaker 1: the Bustardes needed to include them in the case because
Speaker 1: the mini van had belonged to Warren. Before the case
Speaker 1: could go to court, Danny filed his own suit against
Speaker 1: the State of New York and against Warren Hants. Danny
Speaker 1: was more certain than ever that his wife had knowingly
Speaker 1: drunk ten shots of vodka and then gotten into a
Speaker 1: van with five children. Now claimed that the highway's poor
Speaker 1: construction and lack of signage contributed to the accident, and
Speaker 1: that the mini van Warren loaned Diane was in a
Speaker 1: state of disrepair, making Warren quote vicariously liable. To me,
Speaker 1: this lawsuit feels like the last grasp of a desperate man.
Speaker 1: He was suing the state for building bad roads and
Speaker 1: Warren for loaning them a faulty car. Danny was also
Speaker 1: trying to get another medical examiner to exhume Diane's body,
Speaker 1: and he wanted to retest the results from the toxicology report.
Speaker 1: From what I can tell, there was nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: the car, and the road had plenty of signs. Danny
Speaker 1: did eventually get the toxicology results retested, and they came
Speaker 1: back the same, But it didn't matter. All that mattered
Speaker 1: was that Danny was doing anything and everything he could
Speaker 1: to avoid facing the truth. There are plenty of theories
Speaker 1: about why what happened happened, one of the most popular
Speaker 1: theories will call the tooth absess theory. Dominic Barbara said
Speaker 1: that about a year before the accident, Diane was having
Speaker 1: severe tooth pain. She went to a dentist and was
Speaker 1: scheduled for a root canal, but left the dentist's office
Speaker 1: before the procedure could be completed. Diane didn't like accepting
Speaker 1: help or admitting that she was in pain. She was
Speaker 1: the kind of person who believed in toughing it out.
Speaker 1: If she was still in pain after that visit to
Speaker 1: the dentist, she didn't tell anyone, but that didn't mean
Speaker 1: nobody noticed. In the weeks leading up to the accident,
Speaker 1: friends and family members noticed Diane rubbing or holding her
Speaker 1: lower jaw. If Diane did have an absessed tooth, and
Speaker 1: if that infection spread to her brain, which I know terrifying,
Speaker 1: it could have caused confusion and difficulty seeing. Maybe Diane,
Speaker 1: in a state of delirium, grabbed the bottle of vodka
Speaker 1: thinking it was water, or maybe she tried to use
Speaker 1: it to numb the pain from the abscess. After all,
Speaker 1: she did stop for pain relief at the Sunoco. I
Speaker 1: don't understand this mentality at all. But some people believe
Speaker 1: that being on no medication is a moral statement. I
Speaker 1: again don't personally understand that at all, especially because if
Speaker 1: you're around these people then you have to hear about
Speaker 1: their discomfort. This martyrdom is for the final record, completely unnecessary,
Speaker 1: because you are suffering for nothing. According to her friends
Speaker 1: and family, Diane was definitely one of those people who
Speaker 1: avoid medicine, and if she was trying to buy a
Speaker 1: pain relief, then something was very wrong. This brings up
Speaker 1: another of the theories about the crash, the idea that
Speaker 1: Diane may have suffered some kind of stroke or aneurysm.
Speaker 1: Most types of strokes would have been detected in the autopsy,
Speaker 1: but there is one kind that doesn't cause permanent damage.
Speaker 1: Dominic Barbara suggested that Diane could have suffered a transient
Speaker 1: ischemic attack, a condition caused by a blockage of blood
Speaker 1: flow to the brain. This kind of attack usually only
Speaker 1: lasts for one or two minutes, but in very rare
Speaker 1: cases it can last up to twenty four hours. It
Speaker 1: can also cause confusion and disorientation. As with the tooth
Speaker 1: absess theory, this attack could have caused Diane to drink
Speaker 1: the vodka by mistake. These theories are both possible, but
Speaker 1: they're not exactly plausible. They don't explain the marijuana in
Speaker 1: Diane's system or the reason that the vodka bottle was
Speaker 1: in the car in the first place. But there's one
Speaker 1: explanation that stands out above all the others because it
Speaker 1: does account for those things. That's the theory that Diane
Speaker 1: struggled with a substance abuse problem. In this theory, Diane
Speaker 1: didn't drink ten shots of vodka during that last hour
Speaker 1: of the day. She'd been drinking since she stopped at
Speaker 1: the McDonald's at ten am. She drank vodka because it
Speaker 1: was easy to hide. And Diane always hid her problems.
Speaker 1: She hid tooth pain and emotional pain. And if she
Speaker 1: did have a drinking problem, I'm guessing she would have
Speaker 1: hidden that too. If you subscribe to the theory of Ockham's
Speaker 1: razor the idea that the simplest solution is the most
Speaker 1: accurate solution, then yeah, she had a substance abuse problem.
Speaker 1: And let's be honest here. As fun as it might be,
Speaker 1: life is not an Agatha Christie novel. No Owl knocked
Speaker 1: her down the staircase, and OJ did it in this
Speaker 1: version of events, Diane drank throughout the day, but if
Speaker 1: she did, no one agreed to it in court. In
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, all of the Taconic State lawsuits were settled privately,
Speaker 1: they talk about the case died down, and the families
Speaker 1: who had been impacted by the crash went back to
Speaker 1: their separate lives. When we hear this story, we want
Speaker 1: to think that there's some crazy explanation for Diane's behavior.
Speaker 1: It's always hard to see someone in a caregiving role
Speaker 1: as a killer, even if it is anavertent. We prefer
Speaker 1: a story that portrays her as a victim rather than
Speaker 1: the very complicated, damaged person she really was. But the
Speaker 1: truth is there's no version of this story where Diane
Speaker 1: isn't complicated. Thank you to Jackie Hans for her book
Speaker 1: I'll See You Again. That book, along with the film
Speaker 1: There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane, was a great help
Speaker 1: in writing this episode. Other sources include The Taconic Tragedy,
Speaker 1: A Son Search for Truth by Genie Bustardi, and several
Speaker 1: news articles. All of these sources are linked in our
Speaker 1: show notes. If you want to learn more, join me
Speaker 1: next week on the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever. Told
Speaker 1: for the bizarre story of Rebecca Vance. Vance was a
Speaker 1: woman whose beliefs took her deep into the conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: rabbit hole. That rabbit hole led her, her sister, and
Speaker 1: her teenage son into the Colorado wilderness and left them
Speaker 1: there to die. And the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever
Speaker 1: Told is a production of Diversion Audio. Your host is
Speaker 1: me Mary Kay mcbraer and this episode was written by
Speaker 1: Zoe Luisa Lewis. Our show is produced by Emma Dumouth
Speaker 1: and edited by Antonio Enriquez. Our theme music is by
Speaker 1: Tyler Cash. Executive produced by Scott Waxman.