NY - 8 Die in Crash on Taconic State Parkway #3

[MzOpinion8d]

I know it's not a popular theory, but has the idea that Danny
Schuler somehow poisoned Diane ever been explored?

Supposing he was having an affair, or even say she was. Divorce is imminent. DANNY would be the one to lose all: Home, her 6 figure salary, etc. She was the main breadwinner.

If he could get rid of her and the kids (it's been said that he did not want kids), he would get the house and life insurance money, and be free. People have done things like this many times. Just watch true crime youtubes and forensic files...

The vodka bottle was too big to drink from, and seemed a perfect prop for police to find. Pot can be put into edibles such as cookies, breads, cakes. - perhaps vodka too? It would explain why he was "protesting too much" about just knowing his wife wouldn't drink: get the focus on the denial of the poor spouse of the secret alcoholic, etc. And this idea of her as a closet alcoholic has been successful, maybe too much so?

Why was 911not immediately called; perhaps because the accident had to happen, had to be waited for? But she called. She was not supposed to call, perhaps?

if one was going to really over- dose a person who would be driving on the Taconic parkway, one could assume the accident would be fatal. If not, she would likely go to prison and he could sell the home and move on...

He didn't know the boy would live (he as much as said he felt burdened now as a single parent). He may have been too selfish to care if the nieces had to be collateral damage....the thought keeps coming back to me.....

Honestly, I think he was too stupid and lazy to do something like this.

But I'd really like to know where he was the night before the camping trip, since he didn't go to the campground when he said he did.

 

[SMK]

Honestly, I think he was too stupid and lazy to do something like this.

But I'd really like to know where he was the night before the camping trip, since he didn't go to the campground when he said he did.

Perhaps. But if he stood to lose home and income, he might have found the motivating force within....Stranger things have happened....

 

[hot cawfeee]

Did Diane or Danny have life insurance ? I'm not sure if we ever discussed that at all.
I know people have it, but its really more burial insurance. Its what my inlaw's had.

 

[MzOpinion8d]

I watched the "Something's Wrong with Aunt Diane" documentary again a couple weeks ago. I have more sympathy for Danny's sister-in-law (brother's wife, I think her name is Jay?) than I did before. I put myself in her place and tried to imagine how I would react if my own sister-in-law were to do something like this. I would be in tremendous shock and denial.

I can understand wanting to believe that something medical had happened, but I just can't understand their absolute denial of her blood alcohol content.

I had forgotten that the trip was only about 40 min from the camp site to their home. Why did it take her so long?

This case baffles me. I want to read the book by the 3 girls' mother, but I'm afraid to because I don't know if I can handle the emotion.

I had also forgotten that Diane's own brother gave her eulogy. What must he have felt when he learned how much alcohol was in her system?

 

[MzOpinion8d]

Did Diane or Danny have life insurance ? I'm not sure if we ever discussed that at all.
I know people have it, but its really more burial insurance. Its what my inlaw's had.

I don't think it's been mentioned. She had a really good job, so she probably had at least some through her employer. Most of the time the basic amount is your annual salary, which in Diane's case was around $100K a year. Then you can usually elect to add additional coverage.

You can often insure your kids for like 99 cents a pay period on those plans, for about $5K each, so it's possible there was a small payout on Erin.

Danny doesn't seem to be living a lavish lifestyle, he was still working that security job at the time of the documentary, so it doesn't appear that he had received any large sum of money.

 

[1&2&3]

Diane probably had life insurance through her company. All company's I have worked for did. The higher on the ladder you were, the more they insured you for.

IF Danny had a hand in this tragic accident, Karma is paying him back! He may have gotten the life insurance money, however, he also has a son to raise alone.
JMO.

 

[Curiosity999]

I've read as much as possible on this case. I've read Jackie Hance's book , tons of posts and articles and watched the documentary. After watching the documentary I came away with so many questions and possible theories. I can see the possibility of both an alcoholic blackout and a suicide. I don't want to believe it is a suicide but after reading she went on the Taconic then turned around I'm doubtful this would be in a blackout. I can believe she was a closet drinker. I worked as a substance abuse counselor for three years and people can hide a lot especially with tolerance. There were times I wouldn't know a client was under the influence until I did a breathalyzer. I just would wonder why she drank and smoked so much if she was going to eventually drop off our nieces. That then leads to getting courage to commit suicide but again have a hard time believing or want to believe that. I do think her perfect persona might have been busted on the phone call her niece made. Being busted maybe she couldn't bear the perfect image being broken and decided to commit suicide and take all the kids with her. Again just doesn't quite seem the most clear answer. But I also know in working in addiction and as stated in AA it is a cunning and baffling disease. So I don't know the answer but wanted to share my thoughts. On another note Jackie Hances book is honest, raw and beyond heartbreaking to read. I found it as compelling and as real as she experienced the devastation of her losses. I was shocked to read reviews by people who read her book on Amazon. Some called her selfish and having a pity party for herself. I am shocked and saddened that others try to critique a most horrendous grief. As a counselor I have seen clients and others I know not want to deal with feelings of grief trauma and horrible situations. In a sense that is what Diane did for her whole life, avoid, deflect, overcompensate and self medicate. And in her case and the people she killed it resulted in the worst possible outcome. Thank you for reading.

 

[wfgodot]

I've always felt other forces were at work here, though I don't know quite who, what, or how.

Meanwhile, seven miles from me and 84 miles upstate from the tragedy, the Taconic carries on.

 

[Damarna]

I've read as much as possible on this case. I've read Jackie Hance's book , tons of posts and articles and watched the documentary. After watching the documentary I came away with so many questions and possible theories. I can see the possibility of both an alcoholic blackout and a suicide. I don't want to believe it is a suicide but after reading she went on the Taconic then turned around I'm doubtful this would be in a blackout. I can believe she was a closet drinker. I worked as a substance abuse counselor for three years and people can hide a lot especially with tolerance. There were times I wouldn't know a client was under the influence until I did a breathalyzer. I just would wonder why she drank and smoked so much if she was going to eventually drop off our nieces. That then leads to getting courage to commit suicide but again have a hard time believing or want to believe that. I do think her perfect persona might have been busted on the phone call her niece made. Being busted maybe she couldn't bear the perfect image being broken and decided to commit suicide and take all the kids with her. Again just doesn't quite seem the most clear answer. But I also know in working in addiction and as stated in AA it is a cunning and baffling disease. So I don't know the answer but wanted to share my thoughts. On another note Jackie Hances book is honest, raw and beyond heartbreaking to read. I found it as compelling and as real as she experienced the devastation of her losses. I was shocked to read reviews by people who read her book on Amazon. Some called her selfish and having a pity party for herself. I am shocked and saddened that others try to critique a most horrendous grief. As a counselor I have seen clients and others I know not want to deal with feelings of grief trauma and horrible situations. In a sense that is what Diane did for her whole life, avoid, deflect, overcompensate and self medicate. And in her case and the people she killed it resulted in the worst possible outcome. Thank you for reading.

I've not read her book but did go look at the reviews on Amazon. Yikes!! All I can suggest is for some of them to walk a mile in her shoes.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[nrdsb4]

If all three of my kids were wiped out in a single instant, I'd be having a pity party too.

The fact that Jackie was able to survive this tragedy without taking her own life in response ( according to her book,she fully intended to do so) is amazing.

 

[wfgodot]

Tarrytown Daily Voice:

Taconic Parkway Among 'Most Dangerous, Deadly Places In NY,' Website Says

MidHudson News:

White Plains man charged with wrong-way drunk driving crash on Taconic

 

[hot cawfeee]

Would Diane's life insurance have paid out if this was ruled a "suicide" or if she was found "under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol" ?

I worked for a company that also carried life insurance on execs. A man who worked for the company briefly (three months) committed suicide. IIRC his insurance policy was effective a week or so before his suicide. His wife fought and fought the ruling b/c the circumstances of his death were suspicious. I think the bigwigs decided to pay out from company funds to avert bad publicity.

 

[LetThemEatCake]

Apparently Diane was driving in a straight line all throughout. This was a suicide murder.

 

[AC Daisy]

If Danny had been involved, it would have been in his best interest to collaborate the secret drinking and pot smoking. That way, he isn't a suspect.

How is it known that Danny did not go to the campground like he said he did?

 

[LetThemEatCake]

If Danny had been involved, it would have been in his best interest to collaborate the secret drinking and pot smoking. That way, he isn't a suspect.

How is it known that Danny did not go to the campground like he said he did?

good point.

 

[millersmum]

Can anyone remember from the doco what shape the well-travelled bottle of Absolut was in after the crash? I thought maybe if the bar code was still readable, the batch number and date of manufacture could be established by the cops. And I would lay money on it not being a year or more old!

 

[Damarna]

Can anyone remember from the doco what shape the well-travelled bottle of Absolut was in after the crash? I thought maybe if the bar code was still readable, the batch number and date of manufacture could be established by the cops. And I would lay money on it not being a year or more old!

IIRC it was broken but not shattered. You could read Absolut - possibly the top broken.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[MzOpinion8d]

If Danny had been involved, it would have been in his best interest to collaborate the secret drinking and pot smoking. That way, he isn't a suspect.

How is it known that Danny did not go to the campground like he said he did?

It was in the book that the family of the victims wrote. It's called The Taconic Tragedy by Jeanne Bastardi. It's been a while since I read it but I know there was a discrepancy and Danny had supposedly gone to the campground the night before but his toll tag showed him going the morning they did, I think.

 

[ilovepierre]

I watched the documentary last week on CraveTv.
What a terrible tragedy

 

[bluesneakers]

I finally watched the documentary and since then have been thinking and reading more. I think Diane was an alcoholic. That part is easy. I think for some reason she decided to drink and smoke pot that day, and intentionally sped the wrong way down that highway in an attempt to kill herself, the children, and anyone who got in her way.

Something happened that morning between Diane and her husband. Maybe he said he wanted to leave her and she was faced with losing every thing she had worked so hard and obsessively for. All those years, all that control, so tightly wound - what could be her undoing?

I know family annihilators are usually men, but I think she might be one.

Family annihilators were overwhelmingly not known to criminal justice or mental health services. For all intents and purposes these were loving husbands and good fathers, often holding down high profile jobs and seen publicly as being very, very successful.

And..

Annihilators are overwhelmingly male (95 percent, he estimates), and mostly white and middle-aged. They feel inadequate as men and have often suffered childhood abuse. Having felt powerless as kids, many try to exert strict control over their households and seek to create an idealized version of family that they never experienced. When the economy is in decline, jobs are scarce, tensions are high, and the control these men seek becomes harder to maintain.

....
The "civil reputable" killer, on the other hand, is motivated by a perverse form of altruism. "His entire identity is in his family," says Richard Gelles, dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and an authority on domestic violence. The father is almost always considering suicide as the only escape from some sort of financial crisis. Murdering his family members, then, becomes a way of rescuing them from the hardship and shame of bankruptcy and suicide. "There is no other solution but the one you find today," wrote Russell Gilman, a Scottsdale attorney who murdered his wife and two kids after the family finances fell apart, in a note he left behind..

http://www.newsweek.com/inside-mind-family-annihilators-75225