I can't even begin to understand how a mother and aunt can get into a car with children and drive crazy and aggressive and on top of it smoking substance and drinking. She had to have done this in a short time frame from 9:30 to the crash point to still have alcohol sitting in your stomach. The tox report does not need to have physical evidence of a bottle in a vehicle or near to make the determination of blood levels. It is quite apparent something was not right with this woman. I never believed that she had any issues with low blood sugar, etc... that to me was crap. What mother or "human being" drives eratically with 5 children in the vehicle under the age of 9 for 60 miles? And witnesses flagged her down, beeping horns, flashing lights, calling the police and still continued on to drive. When you have that much alcohol in your bloodstream and in your stomach you are at the point of passing out. What wonderful mother does this. In the beginning, families of the loved ones made her out to be this loving , caring mother that did not drink etc... now the tox report is out and families are not speaking out. Hmmm, could it be that the families knew a little bit more. Diane's husband told police that his wife did drink socially and smoked substance on occasion. This could not be the first time that she was drunk or smoked. Unfortunately, you will never really know what these poor children had to face in their final hours of life and you don't know the conversation with the brother and his sister. Shame on the husband for going home and leaving his wife with the 5 children. Why not split them up? Where was the brother and his wife? I just cannot get this out of my head the horrible death of these children, not to mention the other family that was devasted over this. I don't blame civil actions coming in the near future. Everyone saw that coming. I still believe that the family knew more than what they are saying about this mother, Diane. The guilt will overcome the husband and brother.

Remember - this is under investigation. We really don't have any idea what is being said by family members. I am sure there will be more to come from this...

Also, in response to one of your earlier posts, regarding the release of the toxicology information - it was stated that they wanted to wait until the last victim was buried to share any information, to respect the deceased. I'm not saying it is totally logical, but it would explain the lack of public information until suddenly after the funerals.

OK, fair enough. Actually that's a good point about waiting until after the funerals to release the toxicology report.

I guess we'll all know more over time.

Still, what a horrible thing. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

Nope. Ain't buying it. Too many holes in that theory. First off, the call was made to her brother, not her husband. Why would one of the children (RIP) call her uncle? But assuming she did, wouldn't she be screaming for help in the background if mom had somehow gotten the cell phone out of her hands? That's just for starters.

Personally I prefer "conspiracy theories" over lynch mobs. (Oh, so that's what it's called when you don't swallow a highly suspicious, almost unbelievable story from "the officials"?) And if a healthy dose of skepticism is "offensive" to you, I kind of envy you. You must live a life of extremely blissful ignorance.

Oh, sh!t, I just realized, it WAS her father she called. OK, that theory actually makes some sense... still, I find it amazing that we go from: there was absolutely no evidence of drinking or drug use from a woman who had no prior history of drinking or drug use and who seemed fine when she left the campgrounds, to "she was drunk and high and may the bitch burn in hell" in one week.

And just so you know, a conspiracy theorist already claims to have answers, that don't happen to jibe with the accepted explanation. I never said I have answers, but the whole thing seems highly suspect to me, and I've got lots of questions.

Yes, it was her own father...remember, 3 of those poor children did not belong to that woman, but her brother. I'm sure he DID hear the children screaming in the background, if that were the case, and that is why he called the cops and went looking for them.

I am not saying that skepticism isn't necessary or healthy, and I live nothing close to a blissful, sheltered life. There are a lot of unanswered questions, of course. I just think it's RIDICULOUS for people to speculate that she MUST have been drugged, set up, or anything but the cold hard fact that someone could do something as terrible as it seems she did. In my opinion, it's THOSE people are are extremely ignorant, believing that this type of terrible neglect can't possibly exist.

"Diane Schuler was totally drunk and high..."

This is what's passing as an acceptable news headline nowdays? Totally drunk and high, dude?

Pathetic journalism.

My take from everything I have read:

-Schuler starts binge drinking in the car for whatever reason (not extremely relevant except for curiousity purposes), shortly after their departure from the campgrounds.

-Schuler begins driving erratically and becomes hostile with the children, scaring them enough to prompt the oldest one to call her father for help. note: I don't believe that Schuler called her brother directly, I think it was his daughter who initiated it.

-Brother gets on phone and asks what is wrong. She makes up excuse that she is just not feeling well and he doesn't buy it (maybe she DID have a history of reckless behavior?), so he tells her to pull over and immediately notifies authorities. She ditches phone because she doesn't want children interfering anymore.

-The rest is pretty much tragic history.

Just my opinion. And btw, conspiracy theories are so bogus in this situation it's almost comical, and most certainly offensive.

Stupid bitch.

Fuckin Movable Type. Here we go again:

She would have had difficulty with perception, with her judgment, with her memory. Around that level of alcohol, you also start to get tunnel vision," and combined with marijuana, "those effects are intensified."

But she was still able to pull over and remember her brother's phone # (or able to find it on speed dial, if that was the case), and speak to him clearly enough to not only make herself understood, but not to arouse suspicion that she might be high/drunk? Riiiight.

State police initially said about the July 26 crash, “At this point in our investigation, we have no reason to believe that Diane Schuler was intoxicated or impaired by drugs in any way," only for the toxicology report to refute that, as well as the news that there was a 1.75 Absolut Vodka bottle in Schuler's van. The Times reports, "Officials said that the bottle, pieces of which were scattered around the minivan, was not found immediately after the accident, in which the minivan was completely charred."

So the van was totalled and burned beyond recognition, but over a week later they "find" a vodka bottle so intact they can actually identify the brand? Didn't know Absolut bottle labels were fireproof.

"I got pretty close to her and waved goodbye. If she had alcohol in her breath, I would have smelled it."

One mother who recalled Schuler as a loving mother said, "I've never seen her drink, I've never seen her smoke."

So after all the initial reports that Diane Schuler was healthy and had no indication of drugs or drinking, suddenly she has a BAL of almost .2% and was smoking weed? With no prior history of this kind of behavior?

Something is really, really suspicious about all this. I'm no forensics expert but come on. I didn't need to be an "expert" to call b.s. on the nutjob who "confessed" to killing JonBenet Ramsey. All you guys rushing to demonize this lady need to stop & ask yourself some pretty obvious questions. "Oh yeah, the cops said it, so it must be true!"

Actually, Absolut labels are relatively fireproof. They're not paper, they're printed directly on the glass.

The obvious question would be why would the cops want to make it seem like this woman was wasted when she wasn't?

a) The bottle was in pieces and under the seats. The initial forensics work may have been sloppy or incomplete, but they eventually found enough pieces when the seats were removed.

b) The police aren't just pulling this out of their asses. The official toxicology tests from the autopsy revealed this. Is there a way to fake all this to frame a dead woman? Maybe they called the same dudes who faked that alien autopsy during the '90s...

how the hell would they get a dead person to smoke a joint?

Peer pressure of course,"Try it, all the cool dead kids are doing it."

"The police hope to interview Schuler's family members, including her 5-year-old son who survived the crash, again."

I know the cops are just trying to get to the bottom of this but Jesus, hasn't that poor kid been through enough? :(

You don't just have ten drinks and smoke a joint on a Sunday afternoon without nobody noticing. You also have to have a history of doing that, which means that those around her were enablers. She was probably hung over from Saturday night and was using “the hair of the dog that bit you” treatment to try and get over it (really stupid).

This puts in perspective that story about the teen that called the cops on her mother to keep her from driving drunk.

I'm pretty convinced that this was a murder-suicide. One of my daughters schoolmates was killed by her mother along with her two sisters in a murder suicide. It was devastating to the whole community. It's heartbreaking when parents kill their own children and it's unfathomable to me that anyone could be that selfish.

the worst part is thinking about the kids who were in the car terrified. How could she do this to them?

my condolences to her husband and to the family of those in the other car involved.

I also feel terrible for the emergency workers and cops that had to pull those little bodies out of that mess. It gives me nightmares just to think about, I don't know how they deal with it.