8 Die in Crash on Taconic State Parkway

[zippitydoda]

You're right, SCM...he said he never saw her "drunk" not that he never saw her drink. Here's the link to one of the articles. He says it in the fourth paragraph down, first sentence.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/daniel-schuler-my-wife-was-not-a-drunk-1.1352394

I just saw parts of the news conference on the morning news. I have seen other parts where he says he never saw her drunk, but during this short clip he clearly says, she did not drink, she is not an alcohlic. Perhaps he was nervous and used the wrong word but he clearly said she did not drink.

Odd that their attorney stated no questions on the reefer - I wonder if the husband did return to work if they would do a random drug test.

 

[LovingTheChaos]

If this has been discussed already, I apologise, I have not read the entire thread.

She left the camp ground in Sullivan county at 9:30 am, and the crash happened at 1:30. That is a long time. What took her 4 hours? Did she stop somewhere? It would not take 4 hours to drive from Sullivan county (Hunter Lake Campground), to the point on the taconic where she crashed. Google puts that time at 2 hours.
Did she visit someone?

 

[ElizaAvalon]

Also, let's not read too much into her being "normal" at the McDonalds. In my mind, all this means is that she was not stumbling, slurring, or causing a scene. Let's face it, this is McD's on the side of the highway; how abnormal would you have to be acting for them to notice? Would a fast food worker or another customer focused on getting to their destination really notice glassy eyes or a quieter (or more bubbly) demeanor of someone they have never even met? I doubt it. Especially someone so "not suspicious" as a mom in a minivan with 5 kids.

This McD's is not on the highway. Liberty is a small town, albeit with a mix of people where she would have most likely blended in.

But, think about it - how often do you see a mom with 5 kids that young? As a mom, I would have noticed them right away.

 

[Openmind]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sadly, something was terribly wrong in this woman's life. The family is struggling with not only the massive loss of so many loved ones but trying to sort out how they missed recognizing her problems -- addictive and emotional. The burden of that alone will be something they will have a hard time accepting and overcoming. Even if Schuler was able to hide her addiction, those who were closest to her are going to be second guessing all the ways they could have/should have known (realistic or not) how deeply involved she was with alcohol and drugs. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]How is the little boy? Young as he is, he is the only one that will ever be able to tell what happened in that car. My heart goes out to him for his injuries and his terrible loss. Poor, poor baby. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Just out of curiosity, how much money does it take to support a drinking/drug habit like this? If they made under $100K and had a $360,000 mortgage, how did she have any extra money for any sort of addiction? I don't know how they had extra money for McDonalds.[/FONT]

 

[ElizaAvalon]

I have thought about the cellphone thing too -perhaps meeting up with a clandestine lover, BUT, honestly - with five kids in a car, several of whom were definitely old enough to notice something as odd as Mom meeting someone else on this journey - I just don't see it.

It is MUCH easier to hide drinking and pot smoking in front of kids this age than to hide a hook-up. For obvious reasons, people assume that if you are sneaky enough to keep one BIG part of your life so well-hidden, that you must be doing and hiding other bad behaviors. When my husband found out about my using, his immediate next fear was that I had been having an affair - but that was something that had never even entered my mind.

DH's fear made sense, of course, and I understood it, but it wasn't based in reality.

I'm thinking she pulled over to use the phone, talk to someone who was not her husband, not her brother. Someone else with whom she had an emotional relationship. And something happened during those conversations that led to the binge.

Looking at the family photos released yesterday had me thinking a different way about Diane. I think she had a double life and alcohol was just a small part of it.

JMO...

 

[Openmind]

This McD's is not on the highway. Liberty is a small town, albeit with a mix of people where she would have most likely blended in.

But, think about it - how often do you see a mom with 5 kids that young? As a mom, I would have noticed them right away.

Nothing against McDonalds, but I think I could be standing in their order line in my birthday suit and most of the staff wouldn't notice. If she came in looking/acting loopy with that many kids many would mark it off as being frazzled by too many children.

 

[ElizaAvalon]

If this has been discussed already, I apologise, I have not read the entire thread.

She left the camp ground in Sullivan county at 9:30 am, and the crash happened at 1:30. That is a long time. What took her 4 hours? Did she stop somewhere? It would not take 4 hours to drive from Sullivan county (Hunter Lake Campground), to the point on the taconic where she crashed. Google puts that time at 2 hours.
Did she visit someone?

I agree. There are 2 hours missing. It doesn't take 2 hours to eat breakfast at McDonalds and the one she went to was right off the road she was traveling on.

I did read that she was seen driving on a grassy median at the Ramapo Service Area. I wonder if she stopped there.

 

[ElizaAvalon]

Diane's facebook has been deleted.

 

[SleuthyMama]

Husband: She’s Not an Alcoholic

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090807/NEWS/908070335&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

Some interesting and valid points in the comments.

From the NY Post: There are some new family photos I’ve never seen before and pic of another Hance niece that was not in the crash:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08072009/news/regionalnews/smashup_dads_183413.htm

Does anyone know who the blonde lady is in the photos w/ Mr. Schuler? I thinks somewhere I saw it written that she was his sister in law, Jay but I’m curious if anyone can back me up on that or tell me something different.

This article is an editorial by Andrea Peyser at the Post. She makes some claims that I have not at all heard before. Don’t know where she is getting her info so take it as you will. But if she’s right about Diane making not one, but 3 phone calls then we should be hearing more about this soon…Wouldn’t surprise me if it is being leaked by LE since Mr. Schuler isn’t cooperating with them.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08072009/news/columnists/something_wrong_with_aunt_diane__183387.htm

 

[AmyinTheHam]

One link just said that she went out and left the kids with a nanny a lot, while her husband worked? And that her drinking buddy said she liked vodka?

I am now convinced she had a problem she was trying to hide from the family. I know many people can say they have never seen someone drunk, but that does not make them any less of an addict. Tolerance builds up, for some reason this day her tolerance was different than she expected it would be, or she had a plan... Who knows, we probably never will. I do hope her son can recover enough to provide the family with some answers. However I am sure he will needs loads of therapy... Poor kid survived something no one should ever have to live to tell.

But I just want to cry at the thought of those kids being in that car scared to death.

 

[Openmind]

This article is an editorial by Andrea Peyser at the Post. She makes some claims that I have not at all heard before. Don’t know where she is getting her info so take it as you will. But if she’s right about Diane making not one, but 3 phone calls then we should be hearing more about this soon…Wouldn’t surprise me if it is being leaked by LE since Mr. Schuler isn’t cooperating with them.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08072009/news/columnists/something_wrong_with_aunt_diane__183387.htm

On "The Today Show" this morning, the family said Daniel Schuler liked to take a drink when they camped and kept a bottle of vodka in the car. Just me, but there is much more to the relationship between Diane and Daniel than is being shared. I don't think he is co-operating because he has something to hide or at least something he doesn't want to admit. Didn't he also say they did drugs on occasion? What was his rush to get home that he couldn't have followed her and helped with the kids. Even if she did drive slower, wasn't her concerned she wasn't home sooner? Why didn't she call him she was having trouble driving.


Ya know, if you are responsible for kids, you just may have to forgo the midnight shot or hit or both. MHO, but that is just the way it should be. Of course, in this case, Diane didn't just hurt herself and her children but she killed three people that where in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[SleuthyMama]

Openmind-I didn't see the Today Show so this morning so could you elaborate on which "family" it was that said Dan Schuler liked to drink at the campground? Was it the Hance's that were on? Or someone else?

 

[southcitymom]

On "The Today Show" this morning, the family said Daniel Schuler liked to take a drink when they camped and kept a bottle of vodka in the car. Just me, but there is much more to the relationship between Diane and Daniel than is being shared. I don't think he is co-operating because he has something to hide or at least something he doesn't want to admit. Didn't he also say they did drugs on occasion? What was his rush to get home that he couldn't have followed her and helped with the kids. Even if she did drive slower, wasn't her concerned she wasn't home sooner? Why didn't she call him she was having trouble driving.


Ya know, if you are responsible for kids, you just may have to forgo the midnight shot or hit or both. MHO, but that is just the way it should be. Of course, in this case, Diane didn't just hurt herself and her children but she killed three people that where in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He didn't rush home - he went off to fish, which I do not find unusual. She called her brother because her husband fishing was out of cell range.

Now, I will admit that I thought the bottle of vodka was something the adults had brought for the trip, but then one story said they didn't know where it had come from. I figured they all did a little drinking/smoking and that the vodka and weed were something they had all brought and she was carrying it home with most of the other stuff.

Again, I don't see this as the family not cooperating - just them trying to catch up with all of this

 

[southcitymom]

I just saw parts of the news conference on the morning news. I have seen other parts where he says he never saw her drunk, but during this short clip he clearly says, she did not drink, she is not an alcohlic. Perhaps he was nervous and used the wrong word but he clearly said she did not drink.

Odd that their attorney stated no questions on the reefer - I wonder if the husband did return to work if they would do a random drug test.

Her husband is a public safety officer and weed is illegal - of course he doesn't want to incriminate himself publicly. The weed factor is, I am sure, one of the reasons they sought legal counsel.

I think when he said, "she did not drink" he was implying "in an alcoholic way."

 

[southcitymom]

If this has been discussed already, I apologise, I have not read the entire thread.

She left the camp ground in Sullivan county at 9:30 am, and the crash happened at 1:30. That is a long time. What took her 4 hours? Did she stop somewhere? It would not take 4 hours to drive from Sullivan county (Hunter Lake Campground), to the point on the taconic where she crashed. Google puts that time at 2 hours.
Did she visit someone?

She had five kids in her car and we know of a stop with them all at McDonald's - with 5 kids (and perhaps a need to smoke a joint), I can only imagine that there may well have been a few other stops. I don't think the timing is out of whack while traveling with children.

 

[LovingTheChaos]

How on earth did they afford a nanny on that salary? There is no way. No way. Nanny's upstate get $500 + per week. I can only imagine what a LI nanny would charge. She had to be making more than 40K.

Lets say even if take home was 80K, that is $6600 per month. $2000 for mortgage & property taxes, (although, a mortgage on a $340K house can vary, if they bought real estate in the 90;s when it was cheaper, they may have had a lower mortgage). Gas, food, clothes, utilities, for a family of 4 is not cheap. Add a nanny at $2500 per month (give or take $500). How could they afford to go camping, drive decent cars, etc?

 

[southcitymom]

I'm thinking she pulled over to use the phone, talk to someone who was not her husband, not her brother. Someone else with whom she had an emotional relationship. And something happened during those conversations that led to the binge.

Looking at the family photos released yesterday had me thinking a different way about Diane. I think she had a double life and alcohol was just a small part of it.

JMO...

I don't, but appreciate your perspective. I don't think the cell phone records will reveal anything along those lines.

 

[southcitymom]

How on earth did they afford a nanny on that salary? There is no way. No way. Nanny's upstate get $500 + per week. I can only imagine what a LI nanny would charge. She had to be making more than 40K.

Lets say even if take home was 80K, that is $6600 per month. $2000 for mortgage & property taxes, (although, a mortgage on a $340K house can vary, if they bought real estate in the 90;s when it was cheaper, they may have had a lower mortgage). Gas, food, clothes, utilities, for a family of 4 is not cheap. Add a nanny at $2500 per month (give or take $500). How could they afford to go camping, drive decent cars, etc?

I have read that the Husband's salary was in the $40Ks, but nowhere have I seen anything about her salary.

 

[SleuthyMama]

He didn't rush home - he went off to fish, which I do not find unusual. She called her brother because her husband fishing was out of cell range.

Now, I will admit that I thought the bottle of vodka was something the adults had brought for the trip, but then one story said they didn't know where it had come from. I figured they all did a little drinking/smoking and that the vodka and weed were something they had all brought and she was carrying it home with most of the other stuff.

Again, I don't see this as the family not cooperating - just them trying to catch up with all of this

BBM

SCM, I really value your weighing in on this subject considering your history. You have offered a perspective that has caused me to think about some things in a different way. But with all due respect, I don't agree with you on the family not cooperating. I think Daniel Schuler's refusal to meet w/ State Police qualifies as not cooperating. At least for me it does.

 

[daisy7]

Here's the Today Show link

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32328070#32328070