OK, I am extremely familiar with the roads in this area. She followed her correct route fine until the Tappan Zee Bridge, she negotiated the toll booth without crashing, she managed to pull over across many lanes of Sunday traffic to the side just past the bridge fine. She made a phone call to her brother during which something big happened. She referred to him as Danny, and probably had a very emotional call releasing a lot of anger at Danny for whatever he had done to her. Her brother told her not to move, to stay put, he was coming to get her. During the call, her brother said she told him she was on Southern State Parkway, miles away on Long Island. She lied outright about this when he asked where she was. There are no tolls on the Southern State and she had paid a toll 100 feet back. She had just gone over a 2 mile bridge hundreds of feet above the Hudson River, a far cry from Southern State parkway. He had her hand the phone to one of his kids who described the signs as near the Tappan Zee Bridge, so he knew she was lying. He probably told her he could track her cell phone (which is exactly what he tried to do as shown on those phone call tapes with the police). As soon as she realized her brother was coming for her, and that they knew where she was she got out of the car and left the phone on the wall so he couldn't track her and drove away. She should have followed 87 south, which many lanes of the road do, it is the main road. Instead, she made a concious effort to avoid this route and passed it by 1/2 mile and took an exit for Saw Mill North. It is a big left turn over a narrow bridge, extremely obvious to know what you are doing. You cannot go south there, it only puts you on the Saw Mill north. She took that and was reported at 1:15 going north cutting some guy off (Page 10, item 39 of the police report). She then got off the road, made a u-turn and got back on in the wrong direction. I am convinced she did this, because any other route up to Briarcliff Manor (which is where she got on, not Pleasantville Road) would have taken a lot longer on a Sunday afternoon, there is so much traffic and turns and its all 35 mph towns with lights on every corner, she never would have made that trip in less than 1/2 hour. This part of the trip clearly shows her concious decisions of what she was doing. She lied about her location, left the phone so they couldn't track her, passed her exit and got on a road going north, completely in the opposite direction her brother would look for her.
I do believe it was murder/suicide and I do believe she made the final decison during that phone call. Everything she did following that was deceptive and clearly thought out. She probably had it out on the phone with her brother, thinking he was Danny, the man who wronged her and abandonded her with those kids he never wanted. Maybe her brother got through to her and she figured out it who she was really talking to and he pushed her even more.
I think she was a highly disturbed person on the edge and it finally broke that day. She must have been in some state that whole drive, angry and hurt and feeling wronged. Finally, events transpired in that last 1/2 hour that sent her over the edge. She never hit a tree, or went off the road, or sideswiped another car. She was in full control until she went around that bend in the road and it was ended for her.
