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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Okay, if you're on YouTube, you can obviously tell that we're in a different set and you will find out why in Garrett's 10 seconds today. Yes, you will. So, if you follow us on social media, you will know that we were just in Nashville. First of all, it was our first time to Nashville and it's a pretty awesome city. Yeah. I
I don't know. We didn't really have any expectations because I don't know much about Nashville, but it was super fun. Yeah, neither of us had ever been there. And honestly, I don't know if we just live under a rock. I didn't even know that was like a thing. I didn't know that that city was that city. You know what I mean? I mean, I've heard about it. I knew it was super like music focused and so on and so forth. I didn't even know that. I didn't even know that. It was super fun. We had a good time. We went to Nashville. I surprised Peyton, took her to a concert of someone that she really likes and
We had a really good time. Yeah, I went to the Olivia Rodrigo concert and it was just last night. So if my voice is kind of eh today, that's why it's because I was singing Olivia Rodrigo all night. Also, we had some good food. We did. We had some really good food there. Everywhere we ate while we were there was good. Where did we? Oh, Hattie B's. It sounds horrible, but I thought Hattie B's was going to be overrated.
But it was so good. Well, because you hear so many people talking about it. You're like, there's no way it could be that good. It was some of the best chicken I've ever had. Oh, it was. Hands down. It was good. We ended up going to the hockey game. Oh, yeah. We went to the Preds game. That was super fun. Scored some good tickets. They lost, but that's okay. Playoff hockey is super fun. If you're not, if you've never like been to a hockey game live, even if you don't like hockey, you need to go to a hockey game. Yeah, it's definitely an experience all on its own. We love going to hockey games. I did go golfing. I did good.
Peyton thought I was gonna do bad but I did good no I didn't do that good you said you did okay yeah actually I did okay for not going for a while so other than that we're kind of recording a little earlier so we haven't had a full week for my 10 seconds uh
Oh, we didn't even say why we're in a different studio. Oh, yeah. Because after Nashville, we flew to California just to see family for a couple of days. And we ended up needing to record here because I was surprised about Nashville. So we didn't get recorded before. So, yeah, that's why we're in a different studio. But we will be back in our studio in no time. Other than that, the last thing I want to say is Peyton and I went and saw the new Doctor Strange. Oh, yeah. It was good. It was really good. If you haven't seen it, I mean, I thought it was good.
I did too. Peyton and I really like Marvel movies though, so if you haven't seen it, go and see that. Yeah, it was good. Other than that, I know it was kind of a combined 10 seconds today, but that's okay. Hey, all we do is spend time together. It's true. So I just want to remind everyone about our Patreon before we jump in really quick because Patreon is ad free. So if you're ever wanting episodes without ads, you can go check that out at patreon.com slash murderwithmyhusband. We have another free...
full length true crime bonus episode coming out this month too so if you want to check it out go do it all right so our case sources for this week's episode are wikipedia all that's interesting.com newyorktimes.com medium.com emt bravo.net and hbo there's something wrong with aunt diane i assume this is about aunt diane you would be assuming right just starting there
Okay, so back in 1934, there was a bus on its way from Brooklyn to Sing Sing Prison in Austin, New York. The bus was occupied by the Young Men's Democratic League of Brooklyn, which was
Basically, they were going to visit the prison. Apparently, this wasn't that rare back in the day, although now it sounds a little strange. There was actually a lot of sporting and civic groups who would take the visit to the prison to actually play against the prison's football and baseball squads.
But this specific day, remember we're in the 30s. This specific day, there was roughly a caravan of seven buses, but the bus in the rear, like towards the back, had been having problems all day long on the drive. It had stopped multiple times for repairs.
During the drive, the bus turned down Main Street, which is kind of a downhill street, and the bus carrying roughly 44 people hit speeds of 50 miles per hour going down the hill when its brakes went out.
The bus drove up the local train station ramp. So it was like driving where the trains are and eventually rammed through a steel pipe fence and flew off the ramp, landing 30 feet away in a lumber yard. But from the time that the bus broke through the fence and landed in the lumber yard, it had caught on fire, like literally engulfed in flames.
And then they landed in the lumber yard. So the fire spread instantaneously because it's wood. Passengers could be seen attempting to flee the bus in any way possible through the exit, through the windows. But most of them were sadly on fire as they were trying to escape the bus.
It was definitely a grisly scene, one that most people hope to never have to witness. Luckily, there was a river next door. And so passengers were able to run from the bus and run directly to the river. That's so sad. Yeah. And some were able to actually get the flames out.
200 firefighters reported to the scene. This was back in the 30s. And locals came out to help. And if you think about it, the tools that we have now can help with fires a bit. But back then, it was super dangerous. And it's not like everyone could just throw on a fire suit and get to work. Even the firefighters in the 30s basically wore just raincoats.
Although everyone did what they could, 21 people ended up dying in the bus crash. Out of how many people were in the bus? 40. Wow. So over half. Yeah, over half. It was awful, horrible, and went down in history as Westchester County's worst automobile accident. We're in New York. It was a car accident.
It basically stayed that way for 75 years. The panic it had caused, the lives it took, it was the most tragic car accident. That was until 2009 when the case we are discussing today began to rival the infamous 1934 bus crash in more ways than one. This is the story of the Taconic State Parkway crash of 2009. I'm trying to...
think if I've heard about this before or I've heard about a bus crash I remember when I was in high school but I don't know if it was this or not this is not a bus crash okay then it was not this and keep in mind this is a true crime podcast yes that's true so it's gonna tie in somewhere to a crime
So our episode begins on a Sunday in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York. In the 2020 census, Mount Pleasant had a population of 44,436 people. The town itself is actually made up of a bunch of hamlets and villages like Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow, and a small portion of Briarcliff Manor. So
So needless to say, it's a laid back Sunday on July 26th, 2009 in Mount Pleasant, New York, but then around 1.30 p.m. that all changes.
Taconic State Parkway is also referred to as the Taconic or the TSP, and it's about 104 miles long. It's a parkway through New York, basically. Now, if you are like me, you have no idea what a parkway is or how it differs from a highway, and I wouldn't be telling you if it wasn't important to the case, so I'm going to clarify.
As a highway or freeway or motorway would normally have, you know, two or more lanes, like normally more than that. Sometimes they have a toll. A parkway is also an important or major public road, but is usually narrow, sometimes only having two lanes and can even have traffic lights. In some places it would be considered a city road, in other places a small highway. So it kind of just depends.
Parkways are also sometimes heavily decorated and landscaped. And trucks or heavy vehicles are usually excluded from driving on them. So it's just for cars. OK.
We talk about this all the time, actually. Yeah. There should be a road for just cars. Apparently they have them in New York. Apparently it exists. So back to the parkway that we are on in our story, Taconic State Parkway. Google images tell us that it is a two to three lane divided highway, basically. That's what it looks like. It's long stretches of road with beautiful green streets.
scenery around it like there's grass all around the roads. It's really pretty. The speed limit on this one is 55 miles per hour. So now that we've kind of set the stage, it's 1.33 p.m. on the TSP when two different drivers call 911 and report a minivan slowly inching its way up on the TSP's northbound
exit ramp. To be clear, a minivan is driving up an exit ramp. Now, this is already extremely dangerous on its own and enough so that two different people have called police to report it.
Onlookers note that the exit ramp, which the minivan is entering, the one at the intersection of Pleasantville Road, is clearly marked with two big signs on either side that read, do not enter, and two more signs that read, one way. So how did this minivan get so mixed up? And why is it still driving the wrong way onto basically a highway? Within the next minute,
Four more 911 calls are placed by different motorists on the TSP. The minivan, who had previously been driving up the exit ramp, had now made it successfully onto the parkway and was driving down it the wrong freaking way. Were they driving fast? Were they driving slow? They were driving fast. The callers reported that not only was the minivan dangerously driving down the parkway the wrong way, it was traveling approximately 75
to 85 miles per hour. And you said the speed limit was 55, right? Everyone else that's driving the other way on the same road is going 55. That's insane.
So because of this, this means that everyone is erratically dodging the minivan. There's like traffic causing major spin outs. People are jutting out and driving off the road to try to avoid the minivan. This was a complete disaster and it was begging for more. I mean, at what point does this turn bad? Every single move made by everyone on this road at this time is dangerous, whether you're slamming on your brake.
you're swerving or you're trying to speed away from the minivan, you are causing danger to someone else on the road. And although police are aware of the catastrophic situation happening on the TSP, how do you even stop it if you show up? Like, what do you do? They respond to the calls and meanwhile, the minivan continues driving erratically the wrong way and ends up traveling south for over 1.5 miles in the northbound lane.
It's around this point during all of this that the minivan gets into the passing lane, now moving a solid 85 miles per hour. It has only been three minutes since the first 911 call came in. But you can imagine it has been a long and hectic three minutes on this road. The whole driving the wrong way on a freeway doesn't make sense unless you're like,
on drugs or you're under the influence of some sort right because other than that it just makes absolutely no sense if you're running from the cops it doesn't make sense like there's no one chasing this person no one's chasing this person why would they be driving on the wrong side right unless something is wrong then at 1 35 p.m the inevitable happens the
The minivan collides head on with a 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer at 85 miles per hour. The Trailblazer then struck a 2002 Chevrolet Tracker that couldn't get out of the way fast enough.
Two men who fully witnessed this whole entire crash decide to jump out and attempt to help the situation. All they can see is smoke rising out of the minivan that is now off the road and like completely into the side ditch. Were they, did anyone say they were like trying to hit people or were they just driving? Driving stick straight. Okay. Just driving. Not like swerving. Not swerving. People are having to get out of the way for the minivan. Got it.
So the men who see this jump out of their cars. They approach the minivan and they open the door and they discover the driver of the minivan is a young woman, probably in her 30s. But it was only after they noticed the large, now shattered liquor bottle next to the driver that they caught something in the back of the car. Children. Oh, my gosh. Five of them.
four girls and one boy all appeared to be unconscious in the back.
What ages? They're all under eight years old. Okay. Super young. Yes. So the two men see these children and they're like, holy crap. And then there were three men who were spotted as the victims in the trailblazer, the car that hit head on with the minivan. And then two other occupants in the Chevrolet Tracker, which was the third car to get hit in the crash. Okay. In total, 11 people had just been part of this deadly crash. Right.
reported by multiple people on the Taconic State Parkway on July 26, 2009.
But as everyone would soon realize, these spur of calls around 1.30 p.m. about this minivan had not been the first calls made about the minivan that Sunday. So what had happened? What the freak was going on and what is the story here? No worries, I'm going to tell you. Diane Shuler grew up in Floral Park, New York. She was actually born in 1973 and was the fourth child of
of Warren Hance Sr. and Elaine. She was actually their only girl. When Diane was nine years old, her mother actually left the family. And Diane didn't talk much about her mother, and it was something that the family never really discussed either, but the mother did leave.
Rumor actually has it that her mother might have left with a neighbor or a family friend. But again, that could just be rumor. And this is just for context into Diane's childhood and not for judgment reasons.
Pretty soon, Diane stepped into the role of mother in the house. With her mom gone and her being the only girl, I mean, she kind of just began taking care of the family. She began cooking. She began cleaning. She was doing everything that her mother had previously been doing. And as
As a young girl, Diane was in Girl Scouts growing up and had a really pretty good solid group of friends. Diane was considered class clown as she got older. She really formed this big personality. And according to her friends, she was the most responsible friend out of...
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and they immediately fell in love. Diane had never really had a boyfriend. And so after meeting Danny as she was grown up and graduated, Danny kind of became her first and only love. Danny's parents remember meeting Diane for the first time and falling in love with her. She was so motherly. She was so kind. And she really took care of Danny. I mean, everything she had been doing for all of her brothers in her house, she kind of just
moved on when she got a husband. They remember feeling like Diane was in charge and responsible, but didn't mind taking care of Danny. Like, in fact, they were like, she kind of treated him like her own kid. Like, she just kind of mothered him as well. And they were madly in love.
Diane Shuler worked her way up as she got married and became an adult to director of credit, billing and collections at Cablevision. And she was extremely successful there. She actually earned a salary of $100,000 a year, which back in 2009, even now, that's great.
She was described at work as a hard worker and organized, and she really just seemed like the woman who had it all together. So according to everyone who was friends with Diane around this time, she was like
The PTA mom who worked full time and had her life together. Every single family member's clothing was ironed. All of her kids' clothes were ironed. She made a scrapbook for every child and every mother in her extended family. It was a common occurrence in Diane's life for everyone to wonder how she got the time. Yes, to do what she did as a mother, as a wife, and as an individual with a successful career. PTA mom.
Right. Homeowners Association. Oh, everything. Speaking of Homeowners Association. Yeah. I'll save that for another time. But they do hate us. They do hate us. Anyways. So Diane really was just, you know, kind of made it all look easy, too. So everyone's like she is superwoman. She was idolized. And a lot of people in her life kind of felt like Diane stepped so heavily into this role and expected so much of herself because she kind of became superwoman.
the super mom that she never had because her mom left at nine years old and she stepped into that and now was kind of being everything that she had wanted a mom to be. I'm curious to see where this goes because right now I think my idea is that she crashed and burned, that she maybe went a little crazy just trying to do everything. That's kind of where I'm at right now, but we'll see where it takes us. Mm-hmm.
So in the same sense that Diane's friends also remember that she, you know, was amazing. They also say that she kind of struggled with control. I mean, it even got to the point that if they put in an address into the GPS, Diane would say, no, no, no, that's wrong. This is the best way to go. I know the best way to go and this is going to be it. It's kind of like a she-
was so organized and so scheduled and so consistent that it also meant that she knew everything. Got it. Her friends remembered her kind of being like the person where if she liked you, she loved you. And if she didn't like you, she hated you. Like she was just very intense. And according to everyone who was close to Diane at this time, her marriage was going well.
But Diane was also one of the most private people that anyone had ever met. She did not talk about personal matters, even to the point where Danny, her husband, didn't even know why Diane's mother even left.
Like they didn't talk about it. They didn't talk about her. So now we're caught up to Sunday, July 26th, the day of the crash in 2009. And Diane and Danny Shuler were just wrapping up a camping trip that they had taken for the weekend with their children and their nieces at the Hunter Lake Campground in Parksville, New York. So there's three nieces with them and then two of their own children. And this wasn't
rare for the Schulers to take their three nieces or, you know, any kind of cousins from the family. They had just done this exact trip the summer before. The nieces had a really good time, so they were just repeating it this time. And they had gone hiking, fishing, they played a ton of games, had fun together as a family. And according to Dani, overall, it was a really great weekend.
Around 6 a.m. that morning, Danny woke up and made his way to his boat to finish wrapping things up, kind of cleaning up, ready to head home. And 45 minutes later, he went back up to the camper to wake up Diane. She woke up. She began packing the bags, getting everything in order, eventually woke up the children and kind of trying to get them ready to go. And
as hard as it is to get ready to leave after camping or boating or whatever fun activity you've just finished, I imagine it's 10 times harder to do all of that with little kids. Oh, 100%. I mean, we don't have kids. Right. But siblings. I have younger siblings and
But still, just kids are not easy. That's all I'm going to say. Kids are not easy. Cleaning the boat after a day on the lake is already hard and annoying and you're tired. And you just want to get home. And they have four kids running around. And it's like 10 times harder. Yes. Great.
Crazy. It's hard. So Danny was going to actually drive the camper home on his truck and Diane was going to take the minivan home with all of the children inside. Together, Diane and Danny had some coffee and then Danny kissed all of them goodbye and went to the camper to go in their separate cars home. Okay.
Around 9 a.m., Diane's brother, Warren Hance, received a phone call. It was from his daughter, who was with Uncle Danny and Aunt Diane for the weekend. And she told her dad and her mother, who's named Jackie, how fun the weekend was. She had had so much fun with Aunt and Uncle and the cousins, and they were just getting ready to leave the campground.
After that call, Danny took off with the camper and the family dog and Diane in the minivan with the kids right behind him. It was approximately 9.30 a.m. when this happened, and everyone who conversed with them at the campground and saw Diane and Danny at the campground that morning remembers everything being seemingly normal. Nothing was wrong. They were both acting in good spirits, and
just kind of right into this drive, Danny and Diane actually split up as Danny heads straight home with the camper. And Diane was planning to stop off, get some gas and also find breakfast for the kids. So he's going to go home, wrap things up. He actually has work that night and she's going to take her time, stop and get the kids breakfast and then meet him at home. Oh, I'm confused because right now it's
I mean, it doesn't seem like she's under the influence. Now I'm so confused how this even happened. Right. Yeah, you and me too. All of this was pre-planned. Like the splitting up was pre-planned. Diane driving the minivan with the kids and stopping to find the breakfast while he drove straight home. The minivan that Diane was driving that day was not actually hers or Danny's. It was her boyfriend's.
brothers, the Hanses. So Denise's dads, they loaned them the minivan so that they could like solely so they could take the trip to this campground and they would need all the room to drive the kids around him. They couldn't put them in the camper.
obviously that was on the back of danny's truck so they needed the minivan at 9 56 a.m diane can be seen on video going into the liberty new york mcdonald's to get breakfast for the children oh good place for breakfast right i'm gonna say so her and all the kids go in she gets all of them breakfast she gets a juice for herself and the mcdonald's employee who served her and the children
Once again, does not remember Diane acting unusual, acting intoxicated. He doesn't smell alcohol. He thinks that everything is going fine. She seems seemingly normal. The children actually began playing in the play place and Diane is seen on camera acting normally, watching and laughing along with the kids. And how far away is she at this point from like where she went on the exit ramp? Time wise or length wise?
either like is she 10 minutes away right so it's 9 56 a.m around this time so about 10 o'clock okay and the calls from 9-1-1 didn't happen until 1 30 okay so we have quite a bit of time yes so
So after McDonald's at 1046 a.m., Diane is then seen on camera at the Sunoco gas station again in Liberty, New York. She pulls up to the pump in the minivan. She gets out of the car and walks inside the gas station. And according to employees,
She comes in asking for some pain meds, Tylenol to be exact. And they told Diane that they did not carry those like they were out right now. She turns around and walks back out of the gas station with nothing. The Shuler's lawyer actually claims that up until this point, there's no obvious signs of intoxication in this video. And according to the worker, they actually said, quote,
for sure that she was not intoxicated. Like they know a hundred percent that she was not intoxicated. And I will say, I watched the video and Diane is not stumbling or anything. She's walking in a straight line straight up to the gas station, but she does seem rushed.
She went into the store to find one thing and one thing only. It's pretty obvious. And I'm not saying this is weird because she had just spent almost an hour at McDonald's with four kids and she's probably ready to get home after a long weekend. But she is looking for Tylenol. So she walks in. She seems rushed. She can't get it. She walks out.
Around 1137 a.m., Diane calls Jackie Hance, her sister-in-law, the mother of the three nieces. Diane tells her that they are running a little late, that they hit some traffic. And she also doesn't say anything about being intoxicated, which I don't find that weird. But also she doesn't say anything about not feeling very good. She seems depressed.
Normal. I'm so confused. Almost 20 minutes later, around 12 p.m. on Interstate 87, a witness reports erratic driving coming from a red minivan. Okay, so... 20 minutes after the normal phone call with Aunt Jackie. So erratic driving, but not driving down, just...
Driving crazy. I'm assuming maybe swerving out of cars or stopping fast. I don't know. Well, they actually explained it. They said that the car had been sharply cutting people off and switching lanes enough so that cars had had to swerve out of the way to avoid being hit by the minivan. The concerning thing, according to the witness, was when they saw the children in the back seat. And every time the car jerked, they would see all five little heads like falling.
Oh my gosh. And they also observed the woman in the front gripping the steering wheel really hard and leaning forward. It appeared that she was concentrating extremely hard on the road and this is what worried them. What is happening? And this turned out to be
Diane Shuler. Around 12.13, another witness reports a red minivan following very closely behind them on the road. It's honking loudly. It's getting extremely close. It's jerking the wheel. At one point, the minivan attempted to pass them on the shoulder, but was unsuccessful. How far away is she from home at this point?
She is still... So she's still on course to being home, but this is taken way...
way too long her husband's already home but keep in mind she did stop at mcdonald's she did stop at the gas station okay so this witness actually ends up pulling off the freeway to a rest area and according to them the minivan followed them off the freeway on to the rest area the car went into the car lane but they thought it was weird because this minivan that was just driving erratically and trying to pass them drove into the truck lane which is odd the
The witnesses, still watching the minivan out of concern, notice the driver stop the car, get out, and lean over, appearing to be sick, like vomiting, heaving.
the witness kept driving was like okay well maybe they were just sick and that's why they were trying to get off the road so fast kept driving went to the stop to the rest stop went inside and when they came back out the red minivan was gone this red minivan again ended up being diane schuler at 12 55 diane schuler's cell phone dialed a wrong number no one who was in the address book no one knew the number
Has she called her husband at all during any of this? Never called her husband. Okay. The only calls have been made to her brother and aunt and uncle, the parents of the nieces. Did her husband call at all? Did she ignore any calls, miss any calls? Her husband has not called. Danny has not called because he went home and went to try to go to sleep because he has work that night. Got it. So he was going to try to get some rest before working a night shift. All right.
Right. So around 1 p.m., which is five minutes after this wrong phone number was dialed,
Jackie Hance gets another call from Diane's phone, but it's not Diane. It's her oldest daughter who's in the car with Diane. She tells her parents that, and I quote, something is wrong with Aunt Diane. So she just called her parents and said something's wrong. Yes. She's eight years old. How'd she even get the phone? She just took it from her aunt? Yes.
She explains to her parents that Aunt Diane can't see and she's very sick. Okay, so you have to imagine... Why doesn't she pull over? I don't understand what's happening right now. So...
Up until this point, her brother and the niece's parents, so aunt and uncle, haven't heard anything about something being wrong in the car. But Diane has been, according to witnesses, driving erratically for a while now. But this is the first they're hearing about it. Yeah. And it's coming from their eight-year-old daughter. So you have to keep in mind, trying to converse with an eight-year-old about, wait, what do you mean? And her...
not really being able to express like, well, she's sick. And they're like, okay, well, how is she sick? Well, she can't see. And they're like, what do you mean she can't see? Like the, the, it's hard to translate it over the phone coming from an eight year old. The only thing I can think of at this point is something's wrong with her.
But she's such a very like organized and like, I need to get this done type of person that she's like, I'm fine. I'm just going to get home. Right. Like that's the only thing I'm kind of thinking in my head that's going on at this moment.
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So obviously the Hanses ask their daughter to put Diane on the phone. They're like, okay, we need to speak to aunt Diane. And after two and a half minutes of talking to Diane, the phone call abruptly ends. Now, Warren Hans, Jackie's husband and Diane's brother has not really said what, what they exactly talked about on this two and a half minute call. Um,
All he said is that publicly he hasn't talked about it. All he said is that she was not making sense, that Diane was kind of talking in circles and they were saying, please pull over. And she she wasn't making much sense, but she had pulled over at this point when like she pulled over while talking. I feel like there has to be some sort of like internal brain bleeding or something. Right. Well, so she even refers to her brother Warren as Danny.
On this phone call, which is her husband's name. And so Warren's like, something is wrong. Something is wrong. She's not, something is not making sense. Now Warren at this point could hear the kids crying in the background, in the car. And the whole situation was just making him nervous. Diane wasn't making sense. And so Warren asks his oldest daughter to please read off a sign nearby so that he could try to figure out where they are. And she tells him that she can see a sign clearly.
This says Tarrytown. So Warren leaves Long Island to go to Tarrytown to try and find his sister, Diane, and his children and two of her children. At 1.10 p.m., someone dials three wrong numbers from Diane's phone.
And then at 1.15 p.m., five minutes later, Warren tries to call Diane again, but this time the call goes to voicemail. No one is answering. Nobody knew this then. But after those three wrong phone number attempts were dialed into Diane's phone, Diane or somebody set her phone on the guide rail where she pulled off near Tarrytown, like on the side of the freeway. And
And then she got back in the car and drove away. So she stopped, got out and then got back in again. And put her phone on the side of the freeway and left it there. Okay. And she had already pulled over, right? Like she had pulled over when she was talking to her brother. But then she left her phone there, got back in the car and drove off. Even though her brother had said, stay put. Do not drive anymore. I'm coming to get you.
she drove off leaving her phone there. Up until this point, like I said, Diane was taking the route that she should have been to head home. But after this, after she pulls off and leaves her phone and then gets back on,
It's unclear where she drove from here. She gets off her normal route. According to sources, it was at this point in the timeline that the Hanses decided to enlist help from a friend to get a hold of police while they continue to drive and try and find Diane and their kids.
Police Thruway, Sergeant Temple. My name is Brad Kucinich. I'm actually trying to help a friend right now. Their children are on their way home from a camping trip with their aunt. They just called my friend's house. They're stressed, saying that the aunt is driving erratically. They're at a restaurant.
center. The best they can understand is that they were in Tarrytown or Sleepy Cow. Those were the signs that they saw. The aunt isn't picking up the cell phone right now. And what kind of car are they in? Yeah, they're in a minivan. It's red and it has a ski rack on it. Jackie couldn't, she's flipping out. She can't remember her license plate number.
So when Diane's not answering the phone this time, they call a friend. They're like, can you please contact authorities? Explain everything to them. We have to go find her. This friend informs police that one of his friend's family members has their children and is supposed to be driving them home, but she's acting strange and now they can't find her.
He also tells police that her family is extremely worried now about the situation and could police please try and help locate her. Can you track her phone? He explains that it's a red minivan, but that Jackie couldn't remember her license plate number. So they don't have the license plate. They only know it's a red minivan. Police ask if there was a history of medical problems or drug abuse and
They're like, no, no, none of that. She doesn't abuse drugs. There's no medical problems. But they did inform her that the children had said that Diane wasn't feeling very well. And so police are like, OK, maybe this is just a medical emergency. We need to find this minivan. That's what it sounds like. Yes. And as you study the map and the route that Diane was on and where she ended up at the crash site, it doesn't make sense that she made it to the Taconic State Parkway.
like from where they last know she was at at the terrytown sign to this parkway is like a
A U-turn in circle. Like, it doesn't really make sense how she got there, which is why police don't know how she got there. Police are just as confused as to where she went. But during this time period of back and forth with police, back and forth with Danny, as he's now been woken up and informed of the situation, Diane is somehow making her way to the crash site. And as we know, things are about to go really bad. I'm so confused. I don't... I just want to know...
What's wrong? Right. What happened? Her family is heading towards Tarrytown and police are on the search for her car and tracking her phone when the first calls come in about Diane heading up the exit ramp. But no one has put two and two together in these short minutes. No one realizes that this is the same minivan that the other police are out looking for.
Diane drives the 1.7 miles at 85 miles per hour and half a dozen people call 911. Oh, I hope the kids are alive. Enough that operators begin telling callers when they call in, oh, we know about the minivan. We're on our way now. They're getting so many calls that they're just shutting down calls at this point.
witnesses on the road remember swerving off into the grass into the passing lane anywhere they can but at this point like i said diane was driving stick straight down that road and forcing the other cars to swerve out of her way she was basically playing chicken with the cars and passerbys notice that again she's just sitting up front gripping the steering wheels staring straight ahead in like
Pure concentration. And all of this led witnesses like on the 911 calls to believe that the person was almost purposely trying to hurt themselves. They were like, someone is in this minivan and they are trying to hurt someone or themselves. That's what everyone thinks. Which...
That's why I asked earlier if they were swerving or trying to hit cars because they're going just straight. I feel like they're not trying to hurt them. Well, but it was the chicken game. It was like a car's coming head on to and Diane's not moving. She's forcing other people to swerve out of the way. Yeah. I don't know what I think. So Diane then, as we know, crashes the minivan head on.
on into a car. Now that car was 49 year old guy Bastardi, 81 year old Michael Bastardi and their friend, 74 year old Daniel Longo. They all passed away, huh? All three of them were killed in the head on collision. That's horrible. After Diane hit them head on, their car slid into the third car with two more people inside.
And somehow both of those people lived, even though this was an 85 mile per hour collision.
after hitting that first car diane and the kids in the minivan slid off into the grass and kept sliding rotating until it stopped down the hill off the parkway so they're completely off the freeway now trigger warning here we are going to be talking about children so if that can be a little too much you can go ahead and fast forward through this part from there it
It caught on fire and burst into smoke and flames with everyone still inside, which this is like eerie similarity to the bus crash from the 30s that everyone compares this to. Now, onlookers and witnesses rushed to all three cars, but majority made their way to Diane's car because it was the one on fire. Now, the pictures of the crashed minivan.
are so awful. It doesn't even look like a minivan. And by the time that the fire is put out, it's just a shell of a smashed car. The whole front end of it is smashed and missing. Like it really, it is awful. People, like I said, ran over and were eventually able to pull Diane's door open first.
And that was when her body fell out and she was already dead. Oh, so she's dead. She died on impact. She was dead by the time people got to the car. I mean, I guess it makes sense. I mean, she went 80 miles an hour head on into another car. Into another car.
Witnesses looked in and that's when they noticed the backseat full of kids in this car that's now on fire. Oh, it's horrific. One by one, they began pulling them out of the burning car and one by one, they had to lay their dead bodies on the ground. So every single one of them had died. Not every single one. One of the victims was alive but died later at the hospital. Okay. But then the rescue crew got there and realized...
that Brian was still alive. Now, Brian is Diane's son. - Okay. - And he had actually been buried underneath all of the other kids, which is why he survived. And he was awake and crying. Like he had no idea what happened, but he is the sole survivor of this minivan. - Was it the fire that had killed them or was it
The crash itself. It was the crash that had killed them. OK. So I have to remind you that the people that are pulling these children out of this car are citizens. This is not police. Police are not there. These are citizens that we are talking about. And as this is all going on with Diane and the minivan, other onlookers were assessing the other two cars in the crash.
And that was when they immediately realized that the driver and the passenger from the third car hit were going to be OK. Like they were lucid. They I mean, they had injuries, but they were not gone. But Guy, Michael and Daniel were a different story. Like I said, the pictures of this crash are.
their car are so gruesome the car is literally split in half the front half of the car is separated from the back half they had died immediately from the force of the head-on collision at 85 miles per hour police were struggling to get there though because traffic had now completely stopped and piled up because these cars had taken over the entire parkway i mean this was a bad
crash. Not only is everyone already pulled off because she was going the wrong way, this crash involved three cars that spanned the whole entire parkway. So it's pure chaos. When Diane's autopsy was performed in hopes of finding the purpose behind this terrible crash and the strange events, it
It only led to more questions. Do not tell me that they found nothing. Okay, well, I can't tell you that. They did find something. Diane's blood alcohol level at the time of the crash was 0.19%. Now, the legal level in New York City at the time was 0.08%. So it's more than double the legal limit. She also had high, high levels of THC in her blood, which is marijuana.
Did they find any traces in the car? There was no marijuana, but there was a liquor bottle. Remember a shattered liquor bottle in the car. But at what point did she ingest this to where no one else noticed? Yeah, it's kind of weird. It's found that Diane had to have had at least 10 drinks in 10 shots in her stomach at the time of the accident.
Now I'm even more confused because no one else noticed this. And also, a mother driving five children, a mother who in all other accounts seemingly has it together. Seems like Superwoman. Takes 10 shots while driving her children home. That just seems so strange. But other than that, the initial autopsy of Diane Shuler found no medical anomalies or explanations whatsoever.
Everyone was thinking this had to be like a medical emergency, but it turned out there was just alcohol and marijuana in her system. And because of this, the case was ruled a homicide. Diane Shuler's negligent driving killed seven other people and herself that day.
Now, despite this, Westchester County decided no charges would be filed because the charges died with Diane. They're like, who are we going to prosecute? In the immediate days following the crash, Danny Shuler was adamant that the autopsy results had to be wrong.
that Diane had not been under the influence at the time of the crash. And this all had to just be a medical emergency. This just is not making sense. And reporters asked him, okay, well then how do you explain the bottle of vodka in the front seat? He answered first that he didn't know. He was like, I don't know how that got there. She didn't buy it at the gas station. He later then changed his story and suggested that maybe she had taken it from the camper and
and put it in the car, but he doesn't remember her doing that. Now, the whole reason for Danny's denial is because he really wanted the public to know that Diane would never intentionally drink and drive what we were just talking about. And not only her, I mean,
the three nieces, the Hans's family, they came to her defense. They were like, she would have never, ever done this. Her whole family came to it. Everyone who knew her was like, there is absolutely no way that she drank and then drove those kids. They are like, this just would never happen. And they're like, she would never have put those kids' lives in harm's way. There has to be a different explanation. But time goes on.
The family hires a private investigator to prove Diane's innocence, but nothing really comes of it other than one possible theory. And that was that for years, Diane had been having teeth problems. According to her dentist records, she had struggled with tooth pain and issues for a while now. I feel like I've heard of this now. Now that you say this, you keep going, but I feel like it's jogging some memory of...
This happening? This happening or that I've heard of a story where your teeth can like make you sick, like your wisdom teeth or like bad root canals or something like that. So in the weeks leading up to the crash, there was one specific tooth that had been severely bothering Diane. And according to her records, she had a possible tooth abscess in her.
like in her mouth. In fact, friends and family remember her constantly holding and rubbing her jaw the week before the crash. Diane's family would need professional opinion basically to even see if this is a possibility, like what we're talking about. While debating that theory, police actually released statements that conclude if Diane was not a heavy drinker, which...
From all accounts, she was not. She rarely drank, from all accounts. Like, she was not even a drinker in the first place. They said that maybe there was a chance that if she drank this much, 10 shots, before she then smoked marijuana that day, the alcohol could have acted as an absorption for the marijuana and basically created a hallucination.
Studies report that she could have smoked anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour before the incident that day. And they're like, there is a possibility that this could have thrown her into a delirium, basically. And Danny does say that Diane...
smoked on occasion and usually just to relax before going to sleep. But then later, friends say, oh, she smoked every day. So we don't know if smoking marijuana was...
on occasion, like her husband says, or if it was an everyday occurrence for her anxiety. But again, Dani does not believe that she smoked that weekend or that day. He's like, but I know for sure she didn't smoke that day before she left me. And I was actually a little bothered with some sources who, when it got to this part, they asked the question, well, why did she even need to smoke to relax? What was so bad in her life? There's more to this story. And
Now, I'm not saying there's not more to this story, but I don't think that that is even good circumstantial evidence or reasoning for the possibility of the crash because people smoke all the time. Mental health is real and people don't need a reason to try and take care of their head or their health.
I get anxiety at night. And by all accounts, I have a really good life. So it doesn't work that way. Mental health doesn't work that way. Just because she was smoking to calm herself doesn't mean that she was, you know, in a bad state of mind all the time. At this point, Diane's family retested Diane's blood alcohol levels because remember, they didn't believe that it was true. And
It turned out that all of them were correct. They matched up from the police reports. In fact, they hired a separate doctor to look at the autopsy results and he concurred that the first autopsy was well done and proper. Like everything looks... So she was under the influence. She was under the influence. Again, he says other than the drug use, there is nothing else from the autopsy that explains the crash except her being under the influence.
They asked about the toothache. Could this be possible? Could she have had this tooth abscess and it have caused a stroke or something? And the doctor explains, in theory, yes, that could definitely happen. But again, there was nothing in the autopsy that suggested that. And it wouldn't have explained the alcohol. The alcohol. It begs the question, well, did they look for it? Did they look for a stroke in the autopsy? Or was this more just like, oh, she was under the influence. This is an open and shut case.
But one theory that the doctor does hear her family out on is that the pain from the tooth abscess, if it was bad enough and she wasn't thinking clearly because she was in so much pain, she could have just took whatever she could. She tried to look for the Tylenol, couldn't find it. That's true. She did try to get Tylenol. Why did she try to get Tylenol? For the pain. That's what I mean. It could have been for the tooth. And then...
Could have just said, well, I'll take a drink to try to get through this drive and numb the pain. But then she had already smoked or she then smoked to try to numb it. And then she didn't realize how much she was taking. She overdosed. Like, you know what I mean? Like she just overmedicated. Yeah. That.
Definitely could have happened. And again, going back to what the police said, if she drank that much and then smoked, it could have caused a delirium without her even realizing what she was putting herself into. But again, this is all theory and speculation about what happened that day. There's not a clear answer at this point.
In the years following the crash, nothing on the case changes because either way, it's still a homicide. That is not really the question here. The question is whether or not Diane's behavior can be explained from a medical emergency or if she was just purely negligent, self-medicating.
The Bastardi family actually ended up filing a lawsuit against the district attorney for not filing charges in the case. So that is the family from the three victims in the head-on collision. They then later filed charges against Diane and her brother Warren, the niece's father, seeking unspecified damages and more. And they had to include Warren because it was his van that was used in the crash.
In July of 2011, Jackie Hance, who lost her three daughters in the crash, filed a lawsuit against her brother-in-law, Danny. So it tore the family apart. At first they were supportive, but then when they found out that the toxicology reports came back and she was that under the influence, they couldn't remain standing together at that point.
Danny then filed a lawsuit against the state for not keeping the roads safe and then again against Warren, his brother-in-law, for being the owner of the minivan. But by July 2014, all of these lawsuits and like all the parties were settled or dropped.
Now, Brian Schuller, who was the boy who lived, sustained a serious head injury in the crash and as a result suffered from oculomotor nerve palsy, which affects movement in his right eye, and he had to do daily eye exercises for it.
In the years after the incident, Brian talked a lot about his mother and they were very open with him. And all he can say about that day is that his mom's head hurt really bad and she couldn't see. And then he flew out of the car like Superman. Oh, my gosh. In August 2009, the New York governor proposed the Child Passenger Protection Act, which would make it a felony to drive while intoxicated if a passenger under the age of 16 is in a vehicle. And it passed.
Jackie and Warren Hance formed a foundation called the Hance Family Foundation, which honors the lives of their three daughters by ensuring healthy, happy, and safe children through innovative self-esteem educational programming. Now, all I want is peace for all of the families involved in this case. At the end of the day, this is a tragic story with so many unanswered questions.
Watching all of the families talk about this, it hurt my heart because all of them suffered from this. All of the survivors suffered. All of them want answers, but no one has them. Why would a mom drive her brother's minivan full of her kids and nieces and
up an exit ramp onto a freeway and straight shot until she hits someone head on. Makes zero sense. Did she do it on purpose or just irresponsibly drink and drive? Did one drink from the pain turn into a slippery slope? Did she have a full blown infection, fever, alcohol and marijuana? Did it trigger a delirium or a psychotic break?
We will never know. All we can know is that the blood DNA they tested that day was Diane's and it was positive for alcohol and marijuana. And by all accounts, she was a good mom and a good human being. This case is strictly a tragedy that affected so many lives. Guy Bastardi, Michael Bastardi, Daniel Longo, Diane Shuler, Aaron Shuler, Kate Hance, Allison Hance, Emma Hance,
These are all the people that we will remember that died that day and all of the victims in this case. And that is the story of the Taconic State Parkway crash of 2009. The only thing, first of all, horrible that that many people had to die. Right. That's just so tragic. And the only thing that I can think of is that kind of the obvious, she was under the influence. I'm sure there's maybe a little bit more to it, but that she was under the influence and
Yeah, I think that's what happened. I think the biggest question for people is just it just seems so out of out of character. But we kind of talked about how I think it was last week, how you never really know someone. I'm not saying that she was a bad person. She's a great person, but you never know if someone has a drinking problem.
or likes to drink or likes to... I mean, you just never know what someone does. By all accounts, she was a very private person. Yep. So there could have been more to the story. There could be not more to the story. It could have been a medical emergency. We don't know. But I just want to take this time today to think about...
the children's lives and the innocent victims in this story who were just caught in this tragic accident and really remember them and think of their families. All right, you guys. So just reminder about our Patreon ad free early release and also bonus episodes every single month. And I think that's it for today. We will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.