00:00:07
[Music] [Applause] Heat Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
00:00:48
for listening. I'm your host, Nick. And with me as always, the original third member of Wham, but he was released due
00:00:55
to creative differences. Because you see the famous line, "Wake me up before you
00:01:00
go go." Well, he insisted that it should be, "Don't wake me up, just go go." The
00:01:05
very insensitive captain. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Hey, I
00:01:11
like my sleep. Rest in peace, George Michael. >> I was a fan, Captain. It sounds like you
00:01:17
were a fan as well. >> Well, that man had golden pipes. >> Well, let's tip our 40s to his memory.
00:01:28
Today we are drinking Global Warmer by Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn, New York. Garage Grade four out of five bottle
00:01:35
caps. This is a red ale Imperial Double. This is a different type of winter warmer beer. Global Warmer is cloudy,
00:01:43
unfiltered, and hop intensified. Global Warmer is brought to us by some of the nice warm people that visit our garage
00:01:50
each week. First, we have Julie in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she loves the show and hopes that we
00:01:56
continue to do the show for years to come. We also have Craig from Parts Unknown Unknown, who says to keep up the
00:02:03
good work, fellas. And next, we have Shannon in Zanesville, Ohio. We also have Wendy. Wendy, whom I'm guessing is
00:02:10
probably from Florida, cuz she rec recommends Swamp Head Brewery in Gainesville, Florida. I'll be in Florida
00:02:17
next month and maybe I can get my hands on some of that swamp. We also we also have Scott who says to check out Turtle
00:02:25
Anarchy Saison when we can. And last but not least, we have Rebecca from Fagatville, Arizona. She thanks us for
00:02:33
our hard work and adding that we have changed plane and car travel forever. That's right. We are quite innovative.
00:02:41
So, cheers to you and thank you all to Julie, Craig, Shannon, Wendy, Scott, and Rebecca for helping us this week. And if
00:02:48
you want to buy us around for next week's show or a future show, just go to true crimegar.com and click on the
00:02:54
donate button. >> And like always, we like and captain, I have a little announcement to make.
00:03:00
>> Uhhuh. >> Uh our our whole setup here kind of changed for the people that donate to
00:03:04
the uh beer fund each week. For whatever reason, the we like to give a shout out
00:03:09
back, you know, pay it back. >> Yeah. whatever reason you like to put that money in your pocket.
00:03:14
>> Well, for whatever reason, our website no longer tells us where the person that
00:03:18
kicks into the beer fund is from. So, if you want us to give you a shout out and
00:03:23
mention your name, uh just happen to throw in in the notes there what city you are located in and we'll give you a
00:03:29
shout out and thank you to everyone who contributed to the beer fund this year. >> And if you'd like to follow us on social
00:03:36
media, you can do so. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, all that. I mean, I've been posting some weird Snapchats.
00:03:44
They got these weird filters. I turned myself into like a Santa baby and uh I think I creeped everybody out. Uh
00:03:50
anyways, you can do so at True Crime Garage. >> All right, that's enough of the business. Everybody gather around, grab
00:03:55
a chair, grab a beer, and let's talk some True Crime. [Music] This is True Crime Garage.
00:04:18
And this is the case of Diane Schuler. [Music] Can you give a a more detailed description of what happened before she
00:04:46
went off on the trip home? >> What you what you had to eat together? What conversation?
00:04:51
>> Yeah. >> Right from the moment you woke up. I woke up at 6:00. Went down to my boat to
00:04:58
clean it out. Do what I got to do. came back about4 to 7 7 o'clock I woke her up
00:05:04
saying we had to start cleaning the camper so we can start getting home before traffic
00:05:09
she woke up started packing the bags slowly started waking the kids up slowly start getting the kids dressed we
00:05:17
unloaded the camper all the bags outside the camper and I walk to the car and we
00:05:22
load them up we had a cup of coffee two cups of coffee and then we left you remember your last hurts.
00:05:30
>> Yeah. Just everyone go by and my wife. >> Thank you. [Music] >> They were trying to locate the kids and
00:05:42
they the best they could the best they could come up with was that they were on they were at the Tartown Rec Center. I'm
00:05:48
trying to help a friend of mine. Uh his sister took his girls camping. They're very young girls. The oldest is nine.
00:05:55
The girls the girl just called in distress. They said that the aunt is driving very erratically. We think she's
00:06:00
sick. The aunt isn't picking up the cell phone right now. >> The sister called. She can't talk
00:06:05
anymore. There's three kids in the car. They're trying to five. They're trying to locate her. The woman's name is Diane
00:06:11
Schula. You just put out to the postcard >> and see if they could locate her because
00:06:15
the the the woman that's driving the car they think is having a medical emergency
00:06:19
because she called and then she couldn't talk anymore. And she's got five kids in
00:06:22
the car. >> Need to know whose name the car is registered to. more enhanced. This is my
00:06:26
car. >> It's your car. >> Yes. [Music] Most of you will know that uh from the trailer and from the sound clips
00:06:54
involved in the trailer that today we are talking about the Taconic Parkway crash that took place July 26, 2009. Now
00:07:03
you're saying, "Well, this sounds like an accident, Nick. Why? Uh, sounds like an accident that you're doing the show,
00:07:09
but it also sounds like a car accident. Yeah. However, we back in uh at the end of October, we did our uh very fun
00:07:17
Halloween show. If you've not checked that out, go back and check that out. But what we did was we both picked our
00:07:23
top 10 favorite true crime documentaries. And after that was released, we had a lot of great feedback
00:07:30
from the listeners stating, you know, oh, I you've given me documentaries to watch and that I'm excited to check out.
00:07:37
Uh, have you seen this one? Have you seen that one? And >> and overwhelmingly, we got you we should
00:07:43
check out There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane. >> Yeah. Which I was originally released on
00:07:48
HBO. Um, and I watched it recently on Amazon Prime. Mhm. >> Uh so there's some ways to to find that
00:07:56
out and to watch it for yourself, but as the captain said, we had a ton of people
00:08:00
saying, "This is one of my favorite uh quote unquote true crime documentaries." So that's what we will be discussing
00:08:07
today. So >> well, and and we had uh one of my buddies, Jess, tell me, "You guys
00:08:12
shouldn't cover this. This is not a this is not a crime. This is, you know, maybe
00:08:17
drunk driving, but like you were stating earlier to me, um, the police then they
00:08:22
they ruled this a homicide. >> Yeah. Yeah. According to the Westchester Medical Examiner, the crash was quickly
00:08:28
ruled a homicide because all the victims were killed due to Dian's driving, regardless of the toxicology findings
00:08:36
that that they would uh come up with weeks after the crash. So to to set this up, um Diane Scheler is the driver of of
00:08:46
the vehicle that caused the accident that caused the crash. And um she was born in 1973. She was the fourth child
00:08:54
of Warren and Eileene Hance. Uh she's the only girl in the family. >> Uh when Diane was about 9 years old, her
00:09:02
mother left the family. Now, this would be something that she didn't seem to like to talk much about or to go into
00:09:08
much detail of. Um, but it sounds like her mother may have left with a neighbor man or a family friend.
00:09:17
>> Mhm. >> Um, but after she leaves, Diane kind of takes on some of the mother type roles.
00:09:23
I I hate to box that into the mo mother category because it's not mom's job to clean the house or clean the kitchen.
00:09:30
So, I don't want any of that feedback, but that's what took place took place in this situation. Her being the only girl,
00:09:36
she took on some of those duties that the the mother might have generally done beforehand. Now, at some point in their
00:09:45
lives, the her and her brother's lives, the mother did reappear and reach out to
00:09:50
the different children and try to have some type of relationship with them, >> make amends of some kind. And I'm not
00:09:57
certain at what point in their lives this took place, but it sounds like that Diane was not accepting of her mother
00:10:04
where the other children have some sort of relationship with her. Now, however, once she left the family and left
00:10:10
Diane's life, Diane chose not to let her back into hers. Diane is described by friends and family
00:10:18
as a very smart woman, uh, hardworking. Uh, she seemed to be the take charge kind of person. her friends and family
00:10:25
all said that if there was any kind of situation, regardless of family or what what you were out to be doing that day,
00:10:32
she was always taking charge of each situation. Uh she, as we said, hardworking. She worked her way up the
00:10:39
ladder at a big business. Uh she worked for Cable Vision. Uh and she was the director of credit billing and
00:10:46
collections and she earned approximately like $100,000 a year. So she was a driven person. She was successful. Uh
00:10:54
she was married to Daniel Scheler and her and Daniel um they had two kids together and uh they worked opposite
00:11:02
schedules though. Daniel was a uh security guy and he worked which is you know primarily a night job and that's
00:11:09
what he worked. He worked lots of nights. Uh and Diane worked more traditional hours with uh her job at the
00:11:16
cable vision company. As we said Daniel and Diane had two children. These were young children, a young daughter and
00:11:23
young son uh at the time of this crash. Um and she they also had three nieces and the way that what they were doing
00:11:33
this weekend, what led up to this was they had taken a family camping trip. Okay. Yeah.
00:11:38
>> And they took the three knees like the typical, >> you know, you park your trailer at a
00:11:44
little spot and maybe there's a lake and and the Schelers, they had a boat, so they're going out on the boat.
00:11:50
>> Yeah. It's it's it's a summer, you know, it's the summer months. It's July. It's,
00:11:54
you know, probably great weather. You get out on the boat with your family and you have a great time. Well, on Sunday,
00:12:01
it's time to leave. This is Sunday, July 26th. And around 9:30 a.m., uh, Diane left the Hunter Lake Campground. Now,
00:12:10
she's driving a 2003 Ford WindStar van. This is a red color van with the ski rack. Uh, and it's not her van. It's a
00:12:18
vehicle that was borrowed from Warren and Jackie Hance. Um, Warren is her brother, and they are also the um
00:12:26
parents of the three nieces, >> three daughters. So, in the vehicle with Diane were uh her 5-year-old son Brian,
00:12:36
her two-year-old daughter Aaron, and as said, her three nieces. This is Emma, who is 8 years old, Allison, who is
00:12:43
seven, and Kate, who is only 5 years old. Now, Daniel, her husband, is leaving the campgrounds that day as
00:12:49
well, at the exact same time, as a matter of fact, but he's in a truck and he's going to be traveling alone. Um,
00:12:56
and a witness at the campground who had seen them that morning and saw them leaving said that everything appeared to
00:13:01
be normal. This is just a family packing up and heading home for from a great weekend trip.
00:13:06
>> Well, and like you heard in the trailer, Daniel is talking about their, you know,
00:13:10
what happened when they woke up. They woke up, had a couple co cup of coffee, you know, a couple cups of coffee. Uh,
00:13:17
then he goes down to the boat. He does what he needs to get done and and wraps that all up and probably connects the
00:13:23
boat to the truck trailer. Mhm. >> And then she's going to take off separate. So again, he's he's claiming
00:13:29
that there was nothing odd about there was no fight. There was no argument going on. Um and she packed up the stuff
00:13:38
and packed up the kids and went on their way. >> Mhm. And the the general idea here is
00:13:42
that Daniel's going to head straight home. Um he's, you know, he's got the truck and he's going to go straight
00:13:48
home. And now Diane with uh with the children is going to stop off at McDonald's to get breakfast or get
00:13:54
something for her and the kids to eat. >> Um so they make their stop at the McDonald's restaurant and um the cashier
00:14:02
there says that he remembers seeing Diane and the children and that nothing seemed to be abnormal to him. Um, and
00:14:09
uh, you know, I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there cuz, you know, foreshadowing away, you know, set aside,
00:14:15
but he he straight up says, you know, she did not seem intoxicated or under the influence of anything, nor does he
00:14:22
smell any alcohol on her breath. >> Yeah, but I mean, I've gone through McDonald's drive-thru at night
00:14:29
>> intoxicated. I I don't promote drinking and driving, but sometimes it happens.
00:14:34
Buzz driving is drunk driving. Um the to me is there much weight to this eyewitness? Not much. And the reason why
00:14:44
I think that is because the exchange is going to be so quick, >> right? >> You know, you're going to you go to
00:14:50
window one, you give the your money, you go to window two, grab your food. How how much do you actually talk to the
00:14:56
person handing you your food? >> And even if you go into the restaurant itself, it it you know, it's 9:30 on a
00:15:02
Sunday, >> right? it. People I don't even like McDonald's, but I find myself there for
00:15:07
breakfast about once. >> There's nothing wrong with McDonald's. >> Once every other month. Yeah.
00:15:10
>> Um, you know, because it's convenient and it's there and it's quick. And I'm sure like said, there's so many people
00:15:15
in out of there that he may or may not. >> By the way, you went to McDonald's today?
00:15:20
>> I I did. I did, by the way. Um, so they stop at the McDonald's and nothing seems
00:15:25
to be abnormal to anybody. Now, at 10:46 a.m., Diane stops at a SoCo gas station.
00:15:32
Mhm. >> Uh, and this she goes in and she asked for some kind of pain medication. This
00:15:38
would be your typical over- the-counter type pain medication. I don't know what type she specifically asked for. I'm
00:15:44
guessing maybe Advil or something of that nature, but for whatever reason, the Synokco did not carry uh the pain
00:15:52
medication that she was looking for. Now, she did speak with the gas station attendant and he says that uh again,
00:15:59
everything seemed normal here. you know, she doesn't seem to be intoxicated or acting strangely to him.
00:16:06
>> And and right and unless she has an allergy of some kind to a different pain medicine like to me if her pain was that
00:16:14
bad, if it was a headache, I mean to me it doesn't matter if it's Tylenol or Advil, you know, I just normally just
00:16:20
use the one that are paying us, you know, to, you know, present their brand to our listeners. But uh so to to me I
00:16:28
find that odd where if if she was in pain and they said, "Well, we don't have this kind but we have this other kind."
00:16:34
Then wouldn't you just take that other kind? >> Right. Right. That seems strange to me
00:16:38
cuz it >> so maybe she wasn't in that much pain. Maybe it's just a headache or and and
00:16:43
and again, we won't know this, but what what if she wasn't in pain? What if she was stopping to get, you know, pain
00:16:50
medicine for one of the kids? You know, maybe she asked for and this Here's the thing with eyewitness accounts. Would
00:16:58
this change the whole, you know, speculation and the whole conspiracy and all all that kind of stuff with this
00:17:04
crash if she was act as ask, you know, what if she was asking for children's Tylenol?
00:17:10
>> Mhm. >> And then she said, "Well, we don't have that, >> right?" >> You know, but she didn't then when she's
00:17:15
talking to the cops, she doesn't register all she asked for children's Tylenol. >> Yeah. And so far, nothing out of the
00:17:22
ordinary here. But now the next spot on the timeline is where things I think things start to seem weird to me, you
00:17:30
know. So now that we're at 11:37 a.m. and Diane using her cell phone calls Jackie Hance, uh this is the mother of
00:17:38
the nieces that are traveling with her and she calls basically just to say, you know, we're running later than we
00:17:45
expected. U I'll have the girls home later than expected. The reason why this starts to get weird to me here, Captain,
00:17:52
is it's 11:37. You know, according to Daniel, they left the campground at 9:30. So, now we're over the 2hour mark
00:18:00
since they've been gone. And I've heard that this is supposed to be like a 35 minute, maybe 40 minute trip home. Mhm.
00:18:07
>> I understand that they stopped at the McDonald's and now they're making a second stop at the Senokco, but but
00:18:12
still we're starting to see an amount of time elapse that seems seems a little more than necessary to me.
00:18:20
>> Yeah. Well, I think one like I I tell everybody, you know, go forward 5 minutes or back five minutes and you're
00:18:27
going to be a little off, but I mean, you know, McDonald's parking it's it's not a drive-thru, you know, at 9:30 in
00:18:35
the morning or 10:00 in the morning. It's It's a parking lot. >> Mhm. >> So, how long did they spend there? I I
00:18:40
don't know. >> They could have stayed and ate there or ate in the car. Um that would take up
00:18:45
some time. Especially these being young children, you would have to help them, assist them, make sure that you don't
00:18:50
end up with ketchup smeared all over the back seat. >> Yeah. Or you stop and you eat in the
00:18:55
parking lot and then you take everybody in to use the restroom. So, I mean, >> but again, I I'm starting to see a a
00:19:02
time elapse here that seems a little more than >> Yeah, it seems a little fishy. Well, at
00:19:06
12:00 p.m. at noon, um, by this time, Diane and >> Well, quick question. When she makes the
00:19:12
phone call um to the girl's mother, is she able to like finish the conversation, it's like a complete
00:19:22
conversation. >> Yeah, it's a complete conversation. Basically, just stating that they're
00:19:25
running later than expected and she'll have the girls home later than expected. Okay.
00:19:30
>> Uh, by noon, they have made their way. This is Diane in the red uh Ford Winstar
00:19:36
van along with the children. They've made their way to Interstate 87. >> Now, we have an eyewitness here as well.
00:19:42
His name is Gerald Salerno, sorry. And he is driving in a vehicle as well. He's traveling south on Interstate 87 when he
00:19:51
says that a vehicle came up on him rather quickly. This is the red Ford Winstar van. And the vehicle started
00:19:58
jumping back and forth between two lanes. Yeah, it's going from the right lane to the center lane, back to the
00:20:03
right lane. >> Exactly. And it's changing the vehicle's changing lanes very aggressively.
00:20:09
>> But he also claims that it was precise. >> Mhm. >> That it wasn't like >> wasn't swerving or
00:20:15
>> aggressively shift the lane. >> More like somebody trying to get somewhere fast,
00:20:20
>> right? >> Um aggressively changing lanes. And he can see the driver. It's a female driver
00:20:26
and she appears to be holding on to the wheel as normal and but he says intensely focusing on the road is what
00:20:34
he could tell. Um this is the first incident where we start having reports of some something
00:20:41
going on in the vehicle that there's some erratic driving going on. That leads us to 12:13 p.m. We have another
00:20:49
eyewitness involved here. Now we're at the location of the Heramman Toll Plaza. Now the eyewitness here is Francis
00:20:57
Bagley and he's driving in his vehicle and his vehicle is in front of the red Ford WinStar van. Uh and he states that
00:21:05
Diane's car, the van was so close to his that he could not see her headlights, you know, so she's tailgating him
00:21:13
basically. >> That's the worst. >> And he can't see her headlights. Uh, and she starts to honk the car at Francis in
00:21:21
his vehicle. >> Right. Honk the horn. >> And she's she's honking. Yeah. So, honking as if to tell him to get out of
00:21:26
the way. >> Um, and at some point she pulls out onto the shoulder as if she's going to pass
00:21:32
him in that way. However, she does not pass him. Instead of passing him, she just simply pulls back into the lane.
00:21:39
And once again, she is behind Francis. Now, Francis describes the driving to his wife that's with him. you know, he
00:21:47
says, "Well, this person must be some kind of nut because, you know, she's she's all over the road. She's honking
00:21:52
the horn at me and she's trying to pass using the shoulder. This is some kind of
00:21:56
nut that's behind, >> right?" But, I mean, we I think we all can agree. I mean, people that use their
00:22:01
horn excessively are are crazy people. It's like It's like when you're sitting on a light and it turns green and
00:22:08
somebody starts honking right away, >> right? >> Like, shut up. Okay? Just shut up. Get
00:22:13
up. That's not what the purpose of the horn is for. >> Well, she continues to honk the horn at
00:22:18
at Francis's car. >> Don't be that person. >> And this is as he is pulling off of the
00:22:24
uh off of the throughway there, >> right? >> And they're going to a rest stop. >> Now, this is one of those larger rest
00:22:32
stops, the kind where there's a parking section for the semitrs and parking for regular vehicles. Now Francis and his
00:22:39
wife Jean, they continue straight ahead which leads them to the general parking area. And Diane, who is still behind
00:22:47
them, she now actually pulls off into the truck parking area. Uh this is where Jean sees Diane open up the door to the
00:22:57
van and she gets Diane gets out of the van and she says that Diane was possibly getting sick, you know, maybe possibly
00:23:05
throwing up. Um, Jean sees Diane kind of hunched over in in a manner that would elude that she's probably getting sick
00:23:13
on the side of the road, >> physically ill. And and so then the whole thing is that they go into the
00:23:18
rest stop. And then when they come out, they're thinking, you know, well, maybe we're going to see her and then maybe
00:23:24
we'll confront her. At this point, they don't really, they're not very sure that
00:23:28
there's children in the vehicle, >> right? Because all they see is Diane. And as the captain said, um, you know,
00:23:34
Francis and Jean say that they did not see Diane or see the driver or the vehicle again because, uh, Francis had
00:23:42
every intention of confronting the driver, you know, and and saying, "Hey, maybe back it off a little bit, you
00:23:48
know." >> Yeah. Or stop being an [ __ ] >> Yeah. Right. >> But he doesn't have that opportunity.
00:23:53
Uh, at 12:55 p.m., uh, this is where we start seeing some more activity with Dian's phone. There is a wrong number
00:24:00
that is called uh and dialed from Diane's phone. >> Mhm. >> Um shortly after that, this puts us at
00:24:06
10:01 p.m. >> You know, they they kind of don't go over this point, but to me, I wonder,
00:24:13
you know, one, is it one of those phones where you just like dial the numbers and
00:24:17
then once you get to a certain number, it just dials? Maybe maybe it's a pocket dial,
00:24:24
>> you know what I mean? Or was it like an area code that somewhat made sense? >> Yeah. Or or is it she's misdialing the
00:24:32
phone because she's getting sick and I mean getting sick is no easy thing. I mean like you can't really do a whole
00:24:39
lot of other things when when you're going through that. >> Yeah. Especially if it's vomiting.
00:24:43
>> Yeah. >> You know. >> Yeah. And so at 10:01 p.m. Diane calls uh Warren Hance. Now remember this is
00:24:50
Diane's brother. And on this call, Diane um as described as Warren, >> he says that she sounds disheveled,
00:24:58
almost incoherent at times. >> Uh and she even calls her brother Warren. She calls him Daniel, which of
00:25:04
course is Diane's husband's name. >> Um Warren is concerned because he can hear the kids in the background and they
00:25:12
sound like they are crying and he is getting extremely worried about the children and his sister. Uh, so he tells
00:25:20
her, "You know what, Diane? It sounds like you got something going on here. Why don't you stay put and I will come
00:25:27
up there and I will go and get you and I will get the kids." It's also around this time that the oldest niece, um,
00:25:35
remember this is 8-year-old Emma. Uh, she is on the phone with her parents and she is saying that there is something
00:25:42
wrong with Aunt Diane. um and that you know so she's on the phone with either her father or mother or both and she's
00:25:49
telling them a few different things um that that Aunt Diane can't see and that there's something wrong with Aunt Diane.
00:25:57
Now remember Warren had just shortly got off the phone with Diane stating stay where you are.
00:26:02
>> You know I'm going to come and get you and get the kids. >> Well let's get back to this timeline
00:26:06
right after this quick break and we're back >> and where we left off. We had just
00:26:11
talked about these phone calls that are happening. Okay, so we have the the call
00:26:16
with Emma. She's the oldest girl. She's only 8 years old. She's in the Ford WinStar van with Diane who's driving and
00:26:24
she's called her parents to say that there's something wrong with Aunt Diane that uh she can't see and it sounds like
00:26:30
they're in need of help here. Yeah. >> Now, Diane was on the phone with Warren, her brother, and this is the phone call
00:26:37
where Warren says that she sounded incoherent and that she's calling him by the wrong name.
00:26:44
>> Yeah. >> And he can hear the children crying in the background. And this phone call only
00:26:48
takes place for about two to two and a half minutes, and it ends pretty abruptly here. Um, at 1:10 p.m., someone
00:26:57
dials three wrong numbers from Dian's phone. We had already seen the call take place earlier where a wrong number was
00:27:04
dialed from her phone. Now we're seeing three. This is happening three times now
00:27:08
shortly after 1:00. >> Mhm. >> At 1:15, Warren is trying to reach his sister. He's calling her back. Uh but
00:27:18
>> think about this panic state. >> Yeah. I mean, your your sister, which we we h from all the accounts in the
00:27:26
documentary, it seems like, you know, pretty normal mother, pretty normal person. Uh, and now you're trying to get
00:27:33
a hold of her and she's, you know, talking gibberish on your last call and now you're trying to get a hold of her
00:27:41
and it's mainly going to straight to voicemail. >> Mhm. Yeah. and and like you said, not
00:27:46
only pretty normal person, but we had said driven, you know, and we're seeing a a situation where her and her husband
00:27:52
don't work the same hours. And so, she's probably the mom that's putting in the more time and carrying the heavy load of
00:27:59
being a mother and the parent and taking care of the kids while he's working nights. And not only that, she must be a
00:28:06
a good parent because >> who would let their three daughters go with her on a weekend camping trip if
00:28:13
she wasn't, you know? So, this is this is something that's of a surprise to Warren and and like you said, the panic
00:28:19
here. You don't you're on the other end of the phone and you don't know what's going on. You have no control over
00:28:25
what's happening on the other end >> and you're only getting information from uh your daughter who's very young that
00:28:32
doesn't really know what's going on and from your your sister who is not making any sense to you. You have the situation
00:28:38
where you're concerned about what's going on, yet you you have no control over it and your children are there and
00:28:43
and danger. >> Yeah. And at 1:15 p.m., as we said, Warren's trying to reach his sister and
00:28:50
this phone call just goes straight to her voicemail. Uh by this time, Diane has made it just past the Tapenzee
00:28:57
Bridge toll area, and there is a little pulloff section there where you can pull
00:29:02
your car off. And she must have pulled off there because later someone would find Dian's cell phone on one of those
00:29:10
like waist high barrier divider type things. Uh she had placed her phone on top of that barrier when while pulled
00:29:18
over. It is also thought that she may have been getting sick again at this time. Uh to this point her route her
00:29:26
route is just really what you would expect her to take. You know the route from the campground to her home. Um, and
00:29:34
that that's what's strange here to me because here she is in route going from the campgrounds to her home and it's
00:29:41
it's taking a considerable amount of time again. >> Well, right. But we have her stopping at
00:29:46
the rest stop now. She's stopping at the shoulder, >> but but to our knowledge, she's not lost
00:29:51
or she's not taking a wrong turn or anything like that. She is following the route uh pretty well here. But it's at
00:29:58
about this time that Diane would veer off of that route. Authorities are not quite sure what route Diane would have
00:30:05
taken to get to the Taconic State Parkway area as there are several options for this, but by this time she
00:30:13
is now nearing the Taconic State Parkway area and she is no longer in route to her home. After these strange phone
00:30:21
calls and Diane and the kids are being gone much longer than expected, Diane's brother James and her and Diane's
00:30:28
husband Daniel, they are not they are now out driving and they are going to go out looking for Diane. Now Diane is seen
00:30:37
driving on an exit ramp. Now this is where cars are trying to exit the state parkway and she is basically using the
00:30:45
exit ramp to enter the state parkway. Peter and Elaine Royal are driving that day. They're exit attempting to exit off
00:30:53
of the state park parkway and they encounter Diane who is driving right at them almost like they're not even there
00:31:00
like she doesn't see them at all. Now Peter who is driving, he starts flashing his lights and hitting the car horn and
00:31:08
trying to to let the other vehicle know, you know, you're in our way. We're we're
00:31:13
trying to get off of this ramp here and you're going the wrong way. And basically, she keeps going straight at
00:31:19
them, directly at them, and they are forced off the road and into the grass just to avoid a collision. Peter and
00:31:27
Elaine then see Dian's vehicle go around the bend and onto the Taconic State Parkway.
00:31:35
>> So now Diane has the vehicle, the van with the children in the vehicle, and she's heading south in the northbound
00:31:42
lane. And now we're going to start getting a bunch of phone calls to 911 claiming, "Hey, some some lunatic is out
00:31:50
here driving the wrong way on the freeway." >> Yeah. And some of those calls, they're
00:31:54
going to report her the vehicle traveling at about 70 mph. Um, going the wrong way. And so, let's think about
00:32:02
this. Diane is she drives 1.7 miles the wrong way in the fast lane, mind you. So, she is only on the Parkway for less
00:32:13
than 2 minutes traveling at that speed. >> Mhm. >> She hits a vehicle. The Ford Winstar van
00:32:19
hits a vehicle. And this vehicle is like a gray Chevy Trailblazer type vehicle. And um inside that vehicle, there are
00:32:27
three men in there. Um Guy Bastardi, he's 49 years old, Michael Bastardi, who's 81, and Daniel Longo, who's 74.
00:32:36
>> They It's a head-on collision, >> you know. So if they are both if she's going 70 mph, we could assume that the
00:32:43
other vehicle is probably traveling about that same rate of speed. >> So they're both traveling and they hit
00:32:49
each other headon. And so that's that's two vehicles hitting one another at 140 m hour.
00:32:55
>> Now Guy Pastard's vehicle then hits a third vehicle. Dian's van then travels off the road down the hill and it begins
00:33:05
to burn. The van is by the time that that people can reach this van to try to assist, the van is like fully engulfed
00:33:14
in flames. The front of the vehicle is fully engulfed in flames. >> Yeah. >> And there are two gentlemen. These let's
00:33:20
let's tag them good Samaritans. Um they are going to try to save Diane and the kids and they are attempting to pull the
00:33:29
driver and the passengers from the burning vehicle. Now they do have some trouble with this. You know, these doors
00:33:34
aren't going to open very easily. this if anybody's seen a picture of this vehicle. It was in terrible condition
00:33:41
>> and but they are able to somehow get the driver out who is Diane and her body
00:33:46
pretty much just it just kind of like falls out of the vehicle you know and it's not she's not showing any signs of
00:33:53
life at all. Now, the kids are in another portion of the vehicle, and the way that these two gentlemen describe it
00:34:01
is that they're kind of just like piled up on one another, and they are going to
00:34:06
start pulling the children from the vehicle and checking their vital signs. And as they're doing so, the men are
00:34:13
realizing that the um just like the driver, that the child passengers seem to be dead as well. They're not
00:34:19
responding to anything. Uh when the men get to the bottom of the pile, they find
00:34:24
the body of a little boy. Uh but he is actually still alive, thank God, and he's fighting for his life. Uh the men
00:34:31
then check the other vehicles. They they go over to the gray trailblazer. And this is where they find Guy Bastardi,
00:34:40
Michael Bastardi, and Daniel Longo. They find those three gentlemen, and they are
00:34:44
all deceased at this point. Also on that day, uh along with the the three gentlemen that were in the great
00:34:52
trailblazer, we also have Diane Scheler, the driver of the van. She was 36. She passed away that day, as well as her
00:34:59
daughter Aaron, and her three nieces, which are Kate, Allison, and Emma. So, we have this horrific scene. We have uh
00:35:08
eight dead. It seems like they're eight dead at the scene. We now have all these weird events that
00:35:16
happened prior to this. We have all the eyewitnesses accounts of uh Diane driving on the wrong side of the road
00:35:25
and now it becomes well what happened. We we need answers for this. >> Yeah. We need to figure out why there
00:35:33
are eight people who have lost their lives. We have we have one sole survivor uh which is Brian which is Dian's son.
00:35:41
uh he suffered several broken bones and a severe head uh injury and trauma and he ends up remaining uh he's in the
00:35:49
hospital for over two months. >> Uh he like I said he's he sustained a serious head injury in the crash and as
00:35:56
a result he suffers from uh nerve pulsy in his eye uh which affects the movement
00:36:01
in his right eye. Uh and of course he's undergone surgeries and stuff like that to try to help him recover from that
00:36:08
injury. But but as said, we need to figure out why. Okay. Why was Diane driving like this? Why was she going the
00:36:16
wrong way on on a road she had probably been on several times before? Yes, she is driving a vehicle that may be strange
00:36:23
to her, right? >> Um you know, you ever notice that when you when you borrow somebody's car, you
00:36:28
don't really know how to turn on the windshield wipers or you know, maybe you accidentally turn on the lights instead
00:36:33
of the windshield wipers. Yeah, but you're not going to drive the wrong way on a freeway because you're baring a
00:36:38
car, >> right? >> Um, and my, you know, my initial thought on all this is, you know, some kind of
00:36:44
stroke, >> you know, that's what it seems like to me. Maybe, uh, you know, uh, with with
00:36:50
the children, you know, claiming that she's having a hard time seeing um, and she seems disoriented on on some level.
00:36:59
So, is it a stroke? Is it oncoming heart attack? But the but what's so strange for me is why does she keep driving? Why
00:37:09
doesn't she stop? >> Yeah. >> And maybe and then when we talk about when she goes onto this different path
00:37:16
because I don't know the area. Is she trying to reach somebody and was it that she felt bad and felt sick and and
00:37:24
thought well I'm just going to try to get home and then at some point it's like I can't get home and it's that
00:37:29
fight orflight mentality and it's now I'm going to just try to get help. I'm going to try to go to the hospital or
00:37:35
something. >> Mhm. >> Uh but but if it's a stroke maybe and again I'm not a doctor or a nurse. I'm a
00:37:42
captain. Okay. I know about boats. That's about it. But you know, is she so disillusional from this on onset of a
00:37:54
stroke? But wouldn't we be able to see that in the medical records? >> Yeah. Well, and they, you know, and the
00:38:00
other thing, too, is why did this trip that that should have taken about 35 minutes, you know, plus some time for
00:38:06
stopping off, but we're talking 4 hours. The crash took place at 1:35 p.m. They left at 9:30. You know, this is 4 hours
00:38:15
has elapsed here. >> Um, so let me introduce the the attorney that um that the family, the Scheler
00:38:24
family would be working with after the accident. Uh, his name is Dominic Barber and um he some people might know him
00:38:32
from the Howard Stern show. He used to be I don't I don't know if he was friends with Howard Stern or if he was a
00:38:38
friend of the show, but he used to be on there from time to time. He's kind of a
00:38:42
>> uh let's say lawyer to some some some stars, maybe some entertainers. Um but uh he he would come out very shortly
00:38:51
afterwards with a press conference and him and Daniel um Diane's husband are going to say that we don't understand
00:39:01
what happened because in the in the autopsy that followed they they did an autopsy this the day after the crash.
00:39:08
>> Yeah. >> And it was pretty quickly determined that she had some things in her system
00:39:12
that that you know she had alcohol in her system, she had THC in her system. So, she had a blood alcohol level of
00:39:19
0.9, which is roughly about 10 drinks. Now, I don't know if that's 10 beers or 10 shots. Uh, there was uh vodka, a
00:39:28
bottle of vodka found in the van. So, one could assume that if she was drinking, that's what she was drinking.
00:39:36
N. And then she was also found with some uh THC >> in her system as well. >> It's.19.19.
00:39:45
Okay. >> Yeah. 0.9. she would have expired a long time before but uh so blood blood
00:39:51
alcohol content for her was.19 um and she also tested high for a high level of THC and as the captain said
00:40:00
we're talking about to get to that level it's approximately you know you got to factor in weight and all these other
00:40:06
things but once you figure that out it factors in that she probably had about 10 drinks 10 alcoholic drinks
00:40:12
>> well I'm I'm operating at 0.9 all the time Well, we all know from health class, but you know, let's review real
00:40:19
quick what that alcohol level means for most or all of us. So, 06 to 0.10%. Uh what you will experience is reduced
00:40:29
information processing, uh impaired reflexes, impaired depth perception, okay? The inability to judge distances,
00:40:37
uh your peripheral vision and speed control, all those things are going to be impaired. Uh now once you get a
00:40:43
little bit higher from 0.11 to 0.20% uh you have everything that we just talked about plus your reaction time is
00:40:52
now severely impaired. Your motor control is severely impaired and you are probably staggering or and experiencing
00:41:00
slurred speech. Now 3 to 39 it is likely that you will die at that level. So she's at.19.
00:41:10
That should give you an idea of the level of intoxification that she had. Now that we mentioned the THC on top of
00:41:16
that, keep in mind that alcohol increases the absorption of THC, meaning that it can enhance it. So they believe
00:41:22
due to the high THC levels that she would have smoked marijuana or ingested marijuana sometime between 15 minutes to
00:41:31
1 hour before the crash took place. >> Yeah. And I mean this is all confusing to me because again I mean the husband
00:41:39
is saying yeah okay well she would smoke pot occasionally and uh she would drink occasionally so
00:41:46
this is very abnormal and again I don't know m maybe she had a migraine or something. Maybe she's trying to
00:41:55
self-medicate. It's kind of a very strange thing to be driving kids and trying to
00:42:01
self-medicate. She doesn't seem to be that type of person. >> Well, there the family's attorney as
00:42:08
well as the husband would say that Diane is not an alcoholic. She was not an alcoholic. She rarely had a drink.
00:42:14
>> Um they both claimed that Diane's erratic driving was due to a medical issue. They believe she may have
00:42:20
suffered a stroke, >> right? Uh they also have stated that Diane suffered from diabetes but this is
00:42:26
rumored to have been just uh gestational u diabetes which is like a temporary condition. It's not you know chronic
00:42:34
condition uh >> well you know I'm just going to go off on a on rant for a minute. I had a
00:42:40
really good friend of mine guy that was in good shape um played at gigs with him. He he would drive down from
00:42:47
Cleveland and he um was not diagnosed with diabetes and he was driving home and pretty much was hallucinating
00:43:00
for I I again I'm not a freaking doctor so don't don't judge me. Um but he was driving home and basically like
00:43:08
hallucinating. He didn't have any clue of what's happening. pretty much was blacking out and then he pulls over on
00:43:15
the side of the road or almost wrecks and a 2-hour drive. It took him um hours and hours and hours to get home.
00:43:24
>> Mhm. >> Same type of situation. Now, he didn't go, you know, on to head-on traffic or
00:43:30
anything. But then because of that incident, they were he was checked out and then he was diagnosed with diabetes.
00:43:37
M >> so that you know was her condition getting worse and and on on another onset.
00:43:46
>> Yeah. But the you know we have the autopsy that's conducted just the day after the crash.
00:43:52
>> Right. >> Okay. >> And that's red flags everywhere. >> Yeah. And and the family and the
00:43:57
attorney are bringing up all these possible health issues or a health reason being the cause for her driving
00:44:03
that day. Mhm. >> Uh they even bring up a tooth absence that she had uh for about 7 weeks prior
00:44:10
to her death. Um apparently this was something that was going untreated. Um but in the in the actual autopsy they
00:44:20
specifically state that the medical examiner found that she had not suffered that Diane had not suffered from a
00:44:28
stroke, an aneurysm or a heart attack. Right? >> So those three things are ruled out
00:44:32
right there. And the what the glaring red flags are here is the alcohol level as well as the THC levels.
00:44:38
>> Well, and what's confusing is is there's a part of you that just doesn't want to
00:44:43
believe that this autopsy is real. >> You know what I mean? Like they they make these claims and then maybe they're
00:44:51
just wrong. >> Mhm. >> Or or maybe they got mixed up somehow. You know, this paperwork got shuffled
00:44:56
with this paperwork. Wrong name, you know, different different autopsy. I you know the that
00:45:04
is a possibility. The likelihood of that I would say is pretty slim to none, >> right? And then we have the finding of
00:45:11
the vodka bottle, >> right? Which the husband claims, you know, yeah, we have a vodka bottle and
00:45:18
it's in the camper and, you know, we'd go out and, you know, at night when the kids go to sleep, we might have a couple
00:45:24
drinks. That's pretty normal. >> Mhm. >> Uh he thought it was odd that it was in
00:45:29
the van. >> Yeah. So, here's a little clip of the husband being interviewed by Larry King
00:45:35
talking about this vodka bottle. >> Daniel, how do you explain the vodka? >> We usually will keep it in our camper
00:45:47
throughout the whole season. >> One bottle. >> Why? Why? >> You know, you have pinina coladas. You
00:45:54
>> sit by a campfire cooking marshmallows. >> What was the vodka bottle doing in a
00:45:58
car? My wife packed all the bags that day in the camper and leaves them by the door. I carry them from the camper to
00:46:07
the trucks. I'm very surprised that the vodka bottle was in there. I had no idea.
00:46:14
>> I don't know. >> Does it give you Does it give you pause to think that maybe, just maybe, she was
00:46:20
a drinker and you didn't know it? >> I've been for 13 years. Absolutely not. >> Daniel, why appear here? Why keep on
00:46:28
doing this? The truth, the truth will come out. >> Well, Larry, you have to understand
00:46:33
Danny doesn't want the other families to think that a drunk driver killed their families. That's why we are out to prove
00:46:40
that she try to prove that she wasn't drunk. >> So, basically, we have this autopsy
00:46:45
saying that she had this high blood alcohol level and that she also had some weed in her system.
00:46:52
>> And now we have this husband saying, "Okay, again, we're gonna try to This is
00:46:56
not true." So again, so maybe there's that possibility that the autopsy is just they messed up somehow, did the
00:47:04
wrong autopsy on the wrong person. The likelihood of that doesn't seem like much. And then in the documentary, you
00:47:11
see a psychologist talk about sometimes when a tragic event happens that people go on the other side of the spectrum. So
00:47:20
all this bad thing happened, now they're dead and now we don't think anything bad
00:47:25
of them and we go to saintthood, right? So she was a saint. She was this great mother and maybe there was some things
00:47:32
that were going on in her life and the husband didn't know. >> Mhm. >> And and that's a good possibility. And
00:47:38
then if with this abs tooth, anybody that's had a root canal or needed a root canal, that is one of the most painful
00:47:45
things that you can go through. And maybe it was only for a couple weeks and she's now driving home and she's in a
00:47:52
bunch of pain and for some reason she oh well if I take a couple shots maybe that
00:47:57
helps. I mean that doesn't make a lot of sense but I don't know how much pain she
00:48:01
was in. I mean we know that she stopped to get some kind of Advil or something but it's you know it doesn't line much
00:48:10
of this doesn't line up. >> But that also brings up a good point here. Could she have been a could she
00:48:16
have been a functioning alcoholic without her husband knowing? You know, is he is he just going on the forefront
00:48:22
here and and taking one for the team and standing up for her, covering up her, you know, things her her bad things for
00:48:31
her now that she's gone or or did he not even know, you know? Um >> well, and like we talked about before,
00:48:37
they worked opposite schedules, so it is possible. I and I agree with that statement because and I'll tell you
00:48:43
what, here's the thing too. For for alcoholics that are hiding their alcoholism, vodka can be the the choice
00:48:50
alcohol, >> right? Because Right. And you normally don't smell it. And so you go through
00:48:55
>> it's clear, you don't smell it. It's something that you can kind of put in everything else that you drink.
00:49:00
>> Um, you know, I I have firsthand um experience with a >> alcoholism. >> Well, no, with a person that that was
00:49:08
hiding their alcoholism. >> Uhhuh. Uh, and now thank God this person is in great health and has fully
00:49:13
recovered and no longer drinks. But for years this guy, he he drank and he hid it from his family. And he used to what
00:49:21
he would do is vodka was his choice as well because not because he loved vodka, but because he could hide it easily from
00:49:28
the family. And you know, he would go outside to take a smoke break and he would keep a bottle of gar hidden in the
00:49:34
garage or outside somewhere. He'd go outside and smoke a cigarette and chug a little bit of vodka each time. Well,
00:49:40
they only caught on to this because eventually he started falling over and uh having some some health problems and
00:49:47
but he was able to hide this from them for years. >> Well, my big question is is this the is
00:49:54
this the vodka bottle from the camper? >> Right? >> You know, because the family is not
00:49:58
going to come out and go, "Well, you know what? We looked in the camper and guess what? We saw a bottle of vodka."
00:50:03
Because that to me, if there's still a bottle of vodka in the camper and there was one in the van, and we'll never know
00:50:09
that because they do have an agenda. I mean, they say so at the end of that clip, we're we're coming out. We're
00:50:15
trying to prove we're going to prove that she was having a stroke or something and she was an alcoholic or
00:50:21
she didn't have a drug problem. And again, maybe that drug problem wasn't, you know,
00:50:27
>> uh, you know, her mother left her. I don't know why her mom left her. Maybe her mother had a drinking problem. who
00:50:33
knows? And she didn't talk about it. And this husband didn't, you know, bring it
00:50:37
up and didn't pry into this, which, you know, whatever. I think you should know your wife a little bit better than that.
00:50:45
But, uh, but maybe her mom had some drinking problems. Who knows? But that's a very good possibility.
00:50:52
>> There's also a possibility that this bottle of vodka had nothing to do with a
00:50:56
bottle that was in the camper. Maybe there wasn't even a bottle in the camper. Maybe this bottle could have
00:51:00
just been something she kept stashed away on her on in her own belongings or in the vehicle that she was driving that
00:51:06
it was in fact something that she was hiding from everybody. >> Right now the other question is the
00:51:12
weed. We have alcohol that was found in her system uh.19 and then now we have this this weed
00:51:20
which would be more potent because she was drinking is what the uh coroner was saying. So, this is the husband's uh
00:51:28
answer about the weed. >> On a rare occasion, she would, but definitely not that weekend. Absolutely
00:51:34
not. >> Was it something she used to relax? Was it something she used for stress? Was it
00:51:40
something she used for >> on an occasion or on an occasion to relax? >> That's all not true. Everything you hear
00:51:49
is not true. >> When did she use marijuana? She used it when she was at work. She used it.
00:51:54
>> No. No. It was, I think, mostly to be able to get a good night's sleep. I think it was after everything was
00:52:00
done. Clothes were ironing, laundry's done, kids are in bed, books are read, everything was done, and maybe she'd
00:52:05
have some before she went to sleep. It wasn't like you'd ever think she, you know, you never look at her and think
00:52:10
she smoked pot, but some people do. >> Did she ever discuss it with you like why she took it or what was the
00:52:18
>> No, I just knew that she smoked. Okay, somebody please tell me what a weed person looks like cuz that's what I
00:52:28
hear in the interview. She I mean if you looked at her, she didn't if you looked
00:52:32
at her, she didn't look like somebody that smoked the weed. What does a weed person look like? Okay, first of all,
00:52:39
and then the husband, this is what drives me nuts is the husband says occasionally occasionally occasionally
00:52:45
she would smoke the pot. Occasionally she knew that and but she didn't look like a weed person, right? Okay. And
00:52:53
then at the end of the interview that lady is saying, "Well, but I knew she smoked pot." So she obviously smoked
00:53:00
enough pot that this person was well aware of it. More aware of it than it seems like the husband was.
00:53:05
>> Yeah. >> Again, I think this is the sanctum thing. Uh she never would have done
00:53:10
this. >> Well, the here's here's a couple things that I noticed about that clip in
00:53:14
particular. Okay. There was more telling things about that of the THC clip than the alcohol clip for me. And here's the
00:53:22
two things that pointed out. One is what I didn't hear in the clip. Okay. When when I read the report, the medical
00:53:30
examiner's report that says to have a THC level that that was that high, she must have consumed the marijuana within
00:53:39
15 minutes to an hour before the crash. Well, that puts her in the company of four children. Yeah.
00:53:46
>> What I did not hear in that clip was her husband saying, "Yeah, she smoked pot,
00:53:50
but she would have never have done it around the children." I didn't hear that in the clip because my first thought is,
00:53:56
you know, we we all know people that smoke some weed, you know, but >> but but here's the thing. Do we do we
00:54:04
know people do I know people that smoke weed around their children? No. Because I wouldn't be friends with those people.
00:54:09
You know what I mean? That would be the first like big red flag to me saying these are small children. These are
00:54:14
small children. And I don't know how the editor cut up this sound bite or took his interview and and cut it up. But
00:54:22
>> the thing is I wanted to hear that in that clip. I wanted to hear that she would have never done that in front of
00:54:27
the children because you spend the whole documentary telling me what a good mother and what a good wife and a good
00:54:32
person she was. >> However, I did not hear she would have never have done that in front of the
00:54:37
children. Now, what I did hear in that clip was the sister-in-law stating that, well, yeah, she smoked it sometimes to
00:54:43
get a good night's sleep. Well, that was a red flag to me, too. Why? Because of something you and I had discussed
00:54:48
earlier. We had said Daniel says his wife is not an alcoholic. Daniel says that his wife only smokes weed
00:54:56
occasionally. Daniel is at work four or five, maybe six nights a week at nighttime when she is done with her
00:55:03
workday, when she is done taking care of the children. Who knows, right? Who knows? Could she perceiv could she have
00:55:10
been smoking pot and drinking every night after she put the young children to bed and black out or have some
00:55:16
horrible alcoholism problem or addiction problems that he was unaware of? >> I think it's possible because of their
00:55:24
separate schedules. >> Well, and also, I mean, he's he's a man, you know, he's How much is he paying
00:55:30
attention to his wife? I don't know. I'm just gonna assume not a lot, right? You
00:55:35
know, but I mean that's just where I'm going with >> and uh it's but no, but I think we throw
00:55:41
people under the bus. Like I mean people drink around their kids and we don't shame them super hard, you know. I think
00:55:47
uh yeah, I'm not saying that you should be, you know, passing a joint around when your kids are in the room, but um
00:55:54
but no, I Yeah, this is just very odd. Now among after hiring the attorney, the family would then hire a private
00:56:02
investigator or investigative firm to to kind of they want to discredit the autopsy findings and they want to bring
00:56:10
to light that they that their mom and their wife was not an alcoholic. She was not drunk. She was not high when this
00:56:18
crash happened. That this was a medical there was some kind of medical reason for this crash,
00:56:24
>> right? Which makes a lot of logical sense. I mean, like I said, I mean, the thing about the diabetes or a stroke or
00:56:30
something of that nature, and I'm not faulting the husband because if the husband is not aware of this stuff, then
00:56:38
how how can he address the problem? And so, this could essentially be the first time that he's actually hearing about
00:56:46
this being a problem. And and what he's going off is if he loves this person and
00:56:52
obviously loved his kids and one of his kids died in it and the other kid, you know, went through uh you know, all
00:56:59
these surgeries and and almost didn't make it and then his three nieces died in this.
00:57:04
>> Mhm. >> So, I'm I'm not faulting him for going, "Well, what what the [ __ ] happened?"
00:57:09
Right? And and if it is the first time of him learning about any of this, then his first reaction is going to be going,
00:57:17
I can't believe it. >> I can't believe it. It's just like when somebody, you know, is married and their
00:57:23
spouse is living a separate life. Maybe for a year, maybe for a couple years, and when it all comes out in the wash,
00:57:30
they can't believe it because they didn't see it coming. And maybe that is what's happening here. It's just with a
00:57:38
addiction problem. Yeah. Yeah. And and but there's also that level of denial too amongst the survivors. Um but back
00:57:46
to the private investigator, the the the Scheler family, they hired uh Tom Ruskin
00:57:51
and his investigative firm. Um they end up complaining quite a bit about um about this investigative firm and Tom
00:58:00
Ruskin. Uh they really don't think that he did anything other than take their money.
00:58:05
>> Obviously, the family wants answers, right? But this is seems like it's very spearheaded by J. Scheler, the other
00:58:11
aunt, the sister-in-law of Daniel. And so when they get this lawyer involved and they get this investigator involved,
00:58:18
the investigator starts asking for $10,000, $15,000, and she has to get the other family members involved to in
00:58:25
order to pay for this. >> Yeah. I think he ends up charging them close to $30,000 in the end,
00:58:31
>> right? And what did he do? I I'm not really for sure. And this guy just seems
00:58:35
kind of like a scumbag because in the documentary when the when the film is the filmmakers are trying to get him to
00:58:43
do an interview, it's just not worth our time. Uh $25,000. $25,000 to be on a on
00:58:49
a documentary. Like documentaries don't make any money. They don't have any docu, you know, Ken Burns is not some,
00:58:56
you know, billionaire. >> I'll do a documentary for 1,500 bucks. >> I'll do one for 50 bucks in a case of
00:59:02
beer. I agree with you, Captain. When when they play that part where Tom Ruskin's on the phone with the
00:59:08
documentarian and being asked if he would be, you know, present the story or his findings to the documentary
00:59:15
>> and he and he gives that answer of, well, they want 20 or $25,000 to be on the documentary. That was a very
00:59:22
slimeball answer in my opinion. I understand that you want to get paid for your time and that you are running a
00:59:27
business, but but you've already been paid by the family. you know, this benefits the family. Uh, you were paid
00:59:34
to release your findings to the family. Um, so it was a very slimeball answer in
00:59:41
my opinion. Now, he would go on to state that the investigation included interviewing Dian's family and friends,
00:59:47
canvasing the campground in the driving route for leads and obtaining the video footage from the Senoko station. And
00:59:55
according to Tom Ruskin, all monies were spent on those activities as well as additional lab tests. Now, I will say
01:00:03
those lab tests are not cheap, first of all. And second of all, to his credit, they did find his investigative firm
01:00:10
found the surveillance footage at the Senokco. That that was not something that that was presented by anybody else.
01:00:16
>> Yeah. I mean, a slime ball answer, but at the end of the day, who knows? I mean, there's three sides to every
01:00:22
story, right? his side, their side, and the truth. And it could be just that, you know, J. Schuler or whoever hounded
01:00:30
him so much and maybe was so rude to him that they were he just thought, you know
01:00:34
what? I I I the I did a bunch of work. You don't think I did? I was paid for that work and now you're asking me for
01:00:42
more stuff and I'm just done with this all. Well, and the results of those additional lab tests that they conducted
01:00:48
were the same results that the medical examiner's office came up with originally. So I here you run into a
01:00:55
problem of okay, I work for you. You've paid me x amount of dollars to help you get to the truth of this matter.
01:01:02
Unfortunately, the conclusion I came to is what we already knew was the truth has not changed in my opinion. And so
01:01:10
I'm now telling you something that you don't want to hear. So, you're dissatisfied with my investigation
01:01:16
because it didn't have the outcome or the results that you were looking for >> that you wanted. Or is this guy such a
01:01:22
slime ball that he charges them for these tests and never has new tests done? >> I mean, I don't know. I mean, I I
01:01:29
couldn't find any evidence of that, but I wouldn't put, you know, if he is a slime ball, I want to put that past a
01:01:35
slime ball. >> Right. Right. I do want to point out that it has been reported that Daniel
01:01:40
accepted a an offer. you know, they did this documentary uh and that he accepted
01:01:46
accepted an offer for $100,000 uh from that film company to do what would end up being the HBO documentary.
01:01:54
Uh this was back in 2010. Um now I don't I'm not going to fault Daniel for this at all.
01:02:01
>> No, he's a single father now. He's a single father and he I I do believe that
01:02:06
there's a part of him that believes that there's more truth out there and that he
01:02:10
didn't have the ability to do that on his own. Uh and I think he thought maybe this documentary would give him the
01:02:16
answers he was looking for. I think what ends up happening is he gets the gets reminded of the answers he didn't want
01:02:22
to hear in the first place. But I don't fault him for taking the money because as you said, he's a single father there.
01:02:29
There's an investigative firm to pay that that that cost you almost $30,000. >> Well, and there's all kind there's
01:02:37
there's surgeries for your son. >> Right. Right. >> And on top of that, there's going to be
01:02:41
lawsuits that uh are going to end up being filed. You know, in uh December of 2010, the Bastardi family filed a
01:02:50
lawsuit against Diane Scheler and against her brother Warren Hance, who now he was the owner of the vehicle,
01:02:57
right? And now some people if you you know if you're involved in uh civil uh suits and things like that you you will
01:03:05
know that any good attorney will tell you that if if if I'm walking down the street and the lamp post falls on me.
01:03:12
Well, I don't just sue I don't just sue the person that that owned the house that owned the lamp post. I I'm to sue
01:03:19
the homeowner. I'm to sue uh I'm to sue the manufacturer of the lamp post. uh maybe even the manufacturer of the light
01:03:27
bulb. Um they will reach out and they will sue everybody because you're you know you're hoping to get rewarded some
01:03:33
money outside of court or that that these other proceedings will enhance u right but you are you're suing the
01:03:42
father of these three young uh girls. >> Yeah. You're suing her estate. Um >> Yes.
01:03:50
>> And you know it it's rough I think to sue the the Yeah. brother. That's what I'm talking about.
01:03:58
The estate fine, but you're suing the brother that just lost his three daughters. And to me, that's that's
01:04:05
wrong. >> In July of 2011, um Jackie Hance, she filed a lawsuit uh against her brother-in-law, Daniel Scheler. Um this
01:04:14
would be the mother of the three nieces. Um, so we we have all kinds of legal proceedings that need to take place and
01:04:22
lawsuits that uh need to be dealt with. Um, you know, there's really there's really
01:04:28
nothing good that can come of this. Um, there's I don't think that anybody's going to get the answers that they want.
01:04:34
I think at the end of the day, she was intoxicated. She was high. Um, can I prove that? No. Other than other than
01:04:43
the toxicology test, >> I mean, you can the autopsy. No, that's that's the proof.
01:04:47
>> What I mean is I can't I can't say she was drinking vodka in the van. I can't
01:04:51
say that she was smoking a joint in front of the kids. I can't say any of that because we don't know that for
01:04:55
certain, but we have the lab test. >> Well, and will the son ever remember? >> Yeah.
01:05:00
>> You know, the son might one day say, "No, I do remember her her drinking." Who knows?
01:05:07
>> Yeah. the the only real statement that they've passed along that he seems to say when they've pushed him for answers
01:05:13
as to what had happened was that he said something to the nature that she had hurt her head or that uh she could she
01:05:20
was having trouble seeing which was reported by one of the nieces on the phone as well. I think what we have
01:05:27
here, Captain, is we have four hours that that passed and we have a lot of that time that's not accounted for. And
01:05:34
I think that during that time is when she was consuming alcohol and when she was consuming marijuana. Now, according
01:05:41
to the documentary, she's a very good mom. She's a very good person. She's a very good wife. I believe all three of
01:05:47
those things. I've seen pictures of these children. None of them appeared to be malnourished or abused or not taken
01:05:53
care of appropriately. I think all that was going on. I think she was a hard worker. I think she was a good mom. She
01:05:58
was a good wife. Just not on that day. >> Not that day she wasn't. And I I apologize, but that's that's what I see
01:06:05
here. >> Yeah. And I think the only, you know, if there was some weird medical thing that
01:06:11
was happening and that caused the drinking or that caused the smoking, I And again, I'm I'm not a doctor, so I I
01:06:17
I don't there doesn't make any logical sense to get to that point. At the end of the day, this is this horrible tragic
01:06:25
thing and uh these children lost their lives. The you know the the mother lost their life. Um
01:06:33
>> the three innocent men >> the three innocent men and the you know wrong place at the wrong time. I mean
01:06:38
that's uh could you imagine you know what their families are going through? It's just overall this sad tragic event.
01:06:47
Um, and my hearts go out for everybody that's involved. And, uh, hopefully, again, I went to say hopefully there's
01:06:57
answers, but I I don't think it matters, you know, like I I don't think it matters if she was a drunk driver or if
01:07:04
it was a a medical thing. You know, maybe it matters as far as like a civil lawsuit and all that stuff,
01:07:12
>> but I it doesn't bring back these these individuals. I was pleased to see at the
01:07:18
end of the documentary they were talking about Brian. Brian is the little boy that survived the crash. Uh I was happy
01:07:26
to see that he apparently is receiving counseling and that he's going to some form of counseling. I hope that they see
01:07:34
that through because here's the thing, man. Uh Warren and Jackie, um I hope I got their names right. The but the the
01:07:42
mother and father of of the three nieces, >> right? Uh they lost all three. They lost
01:07:47
their all their children that day. Yeah. >> And and I don't know, you know, I'm a
01:07:52
big advocate, you are as well, for counseling and for seeking out help and talking about things and and working
01:07:57
through things. I don't know that there's any any way through that. >> I mean, the the pain of losing a child
01:08:05
is uh something that people, you know, unless you've gone through it yourself, you have no idea of of what you have to
01:08:13
deal with mentally. and and there they lost all of them that day. I don't know that there was any getting through that.
01:08:19
Um now, but the thing is here, Brian, yes, he lost his mother. Yes, he lost his sister,
01:08:26
>> but he's at a young enough age that with the right amount of counseling, with the
01:08:31
right help, this doesn't have to ruin his life as well, that that he he may be able to recover from this and live a
01:08:39
normal life. Um, and you know, >> and then Well, here's the thing. Would I recommend watching the documentary? Uh,
01:08:47
it's it's depressing. >> It's a Debbie Downer. >> It's it's more than a Debbie Downer. I
01:08:52
mean, it's horribly depressing. Um, was it a crime? Yes, there was a crime involved. There's homicides, vehicular
01:08:59
homicide, but it is a crime. Uh, this, like we said, this was suggested by the listeners uh in overwhelming amounts.
01:09:08
And uh so I blame you guys for uh suggesting it and making uh me super sad that day. So thanks a lot for that.
01:09:16
>> Well, and and to to kind of underline was this a crime or not? Uh, I can read you the statement
01:09:23
from the medical examiner. Um, you know, according to the Westchester Medical Examiner, the crash was quickly ruled a
01:09:30
homicide because of all of the victims were killed due to Dian's driving, regardless of toxicology findings. In
01:09:38
August 18, 2009, this is this is less than a month after the crash. The Westchester District Attorney said no
01:09:47
charges will be filed in the incident as Diane Scheler was the only person responsible and Diane Scheler died in
01:09:54
the crash and the charges died that day with her. >> Right. Again, it's an interesting um
01:10:01
it's an interesting documentary, but I don't think that outweighs um the horrific nature and the horrific tragedy
01:10:09
as with with the innocent men losing their lives and and these innocent children as well. All right, I'm
01:10:16
officially depressed. Do we have any recommended reading this week? >> Uh this week I would like to recommend
01:10:22
Blood Stains by Jeff Mudget. >> Well, this sounds like a happy book. Well, this this might take your mind
01:10:27
elsewhere because this is based on a true story. Well, you say, "Well, that's weird for True Crime Garage to recommend
01:10:33
a based on a true story book." But there are some this is a very good story and and when I get into it here in a second,
01:10:41
you'll realize why. But he says because there are some things and worried about some people coming after him that it was
01:10:49
listed as fiction. But to him, it's a true story. So you have to read this and figure out if you believe his story or
01:10:56
not. And what is this story about? So according to this book, Jeff Mudget is the great greatgrandson of Herman
01:11:04
Webster Mudget, who is better known to you and I as Dr. HH Holmes. And in Jeff Mudget's book, Bloodstains, Jeff says
01:11:13
that he has some insider knowledge that HH Holmes lived longer than anyone thinks. that HH Holmes was not put to
01:11:21
death and that he was actually involved in the Jack the Ripper case as well. >> Wow.
01:11:25
>> This is a must readad in my opinion for those of you that want to find out more
01:11:29
about HH Holmes. You know, we recommended uh The Devil in the White City uh months ago, which is another HH
01:11:36
Holmes book. Uh but this one is quite different and I wouldn't say that this is a must-read for Jack the Ripper
01:11:42
readers as this story really has little to do with the Ripper. But if you are like me and if you've heard one ripper
01:11:49
theory, you want to hear them all. >> And this is a great time to dive into H8 Home Holmes with the new movie coming
01:11:56
out with Leonardo DiCaprio, our buddy. As if we hang out with him. Uh he'll be playing H8 Holmes in a new movie coming
01:12:05
up I think next year. >> Yeah. And I believe that that movie is based off of the book The Devil in the
01:12:10
White City. So, uh, pick up, uh, Blood Stains by Jeff Mudget today, and you can do that by going to our website,
01:12:16
truerimerg.com, and click on the recommended page, and you will see all of our other recommended books, as well
01:12:21
as one of our documentaries that we recommended. And of course, it goes without saying, but we're going to say
01:12:26
it anyway because it's so important. Do not drink and drive, please. Do not smoke and drive. Don't buzz drive. Do
01:12:33
not uh text and drive. You know, I tell you what, that texting and driving is almost as bad, if not worse, than
01:12:39
>> Oh, the worst thing in the world is when you're driving down the road and you see
01:12:42
a car swerving into your lane, oncoming traffic, and you know that son of a [ __ ] is just sending a text.
01:12:49
>> Yeah. >> Put down your damn phone. >> Yeah. And with New Year's Eve coming up,
01:12:53
we know it's a big party night. Make arrangements. Have somebody drop you off. Have somebody pick you up. Call
01:12:58
Uber. Call a taxi cab. Uh, you know, >> call the captain. I'll come pick your ass up. He's going to be picking people
01:13:03
up all night long. So, do not drink and drive. Treat yourself good. Be good to yourself and everybody else out there.
01:13:10
And of course, don't litter. We'll see you next week. [Music]