I think, as a society, we need to accept that people aren't always who we think they are. She was heavily intoxicated and never should've been behind the wheel. She might have otherwise been a good, involved mom but she clearly had her own demons.
Agree. Also the official documentary points out that due to their different work schedules Diane & her partner were like ships that passed in the night. So...it's way easier to hide a drinking habit if your husband is never around.
I look at pictures of her and get a bad feeling. She doesn’t look healthy and happy. Her husband seems like kind of a douche & didn’t contribute anything positive to the marriage. He lies about everything too, I don’t trust him at all!
I really wonder if this drinking was a new thing. Because it makes more sense that no one had any clue and there were no signs internally if this had only been happening a few months.
Everything evidence wise would point to her being a functioning alcoholic except 1) why on this ONE particular occasion was she so unable to hold her alcohol and 2) why did her autopsy not show her as being a regular drinker? If she wasn't a seasoned alcoholic she would've been noticeably drunk before leaving the camp ground. This case stumps me every damn time
This is what I'm struggling with. My mom is an alcoholic and I'm sorry but she doesn't just suddenly stop having a super high tolerance for alcohol. If she smoked regularly, especially every day, its not likely it would impare her heavily. I wonder if the vodka was up there to begin with or if it flew up there during the crash. Id have to imagine an 80+ mph crash is going to throw things in the car. Beyond that it honestly seems like she had some sort of a mental episode. Is it possible that she accidentally drank all that vodka? It seems like she just chugged the bottle if she went from sober to plastered and puking in a matter of 30 minutes. If she was an alcoholic she would know how that effects her, and I find it hard to believe that if she was in a sound mental state, even while drunk, that she would have continued driving 5 children qfter stopping multiple times to violently puke. Did she try and finish the bottle as to not have an open container in the car? I really dont understand this, there would have to be some physical evidence of her being an alcoholic beyond just the death tox screen. Like that tox screen doesn't explain anything leading up to the accident. Idk man this one is weird
The only thing I can think of is her maybe having mixed some pills with her alcohol? She was asking about pain pills at the gas station. Maybe she wanted something like ibuprofen but when they didn't have any she self-medicated?? But then that would be on the toxicology report! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ it's all so bizarre!! This case drives me crazy
@@carissazrimsek1073 Exactly. All of the answers should be in the toxicology report but according to all of the witnesses it makes no sense. Because we are talking a high amount of alcohol and if there were any pills involved that would also be listed on the toxicology report, like you mentioned. This one will truly never be solved if it hasn't been yet
@@melissamack333 exactly. The tox report should've told us everything we needed to know, but according to the witnesses conflicting accounts, it only complicates things more
@@melissamack333 I feel like it's pills too! Why would she be asking about pain pills in the rest stops? Even if it was "just" Tylenol she would be out of it mixing it with alcohol...which someone with a family annihilation plan might drink for some courage...
Her saying "oh we are having fun" my mom use to get drink and drive, she would drive fast and my sister and i would cry bc we were so scared. She thought it was funny. My mom was a functional alcoholic and when she died, her liver had no damage.
I'm sorry about what you and your sister went through, your mom is seriously an idiot for thinking it's funny to make you and your sister cry by driving fast while being drunk.
Worked at a gas station. The amount of closet drinkers would make your spin. People come in get a coffee, wait for 7am (the time you can legally buy booze here) buy a shot or two then pour the booze in their coffee. Then they come in at lunch, grab a coke and other shot or three, and go back to work. 5pm roles around and it's time for a case of beer, a 5th of Fireball and some margarita fixes. Then the really, really bad ones stumble in just before 11pm and buy whatever they can, with anything they can afford, then they stumble home to presumably pass out so you see them again in the morning. One of the worst offenders I had was a police officer.
YES I remember driving to class once at like 9:30 am and I look over at a stop light and the man is pouring something from a brown paper bag into his soda cup like wtf
When I was a cashier at a grocery store a guy came in every single day to buy a 24 pack of beer and a 5th of Jack. And a cop came in twice a week for five giant size bottles of wine.
@@maggiekarabel123 when my ex-husband drank, while we were still dating we'd go to three different stores to buy his booze so "nobody would think he's alcoholic." Like he was fooling anybody. 🙄 I have to give him credit though, he's been sober 22 years now.....
The fact that none of the kids were wearing their seatbelts shows that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind even before you include driving the wrong way down the road. I think something in her head snapped, maybe because she was parenting kids on her own and parenting her husband, drinking and smoking weed….then the toothache was the final thing? It’s such a sad story and extremely frustrating for the survivors having to deal with the husbands denial on top of their loss. Awful
Smoking weed doesn’t make you snap even when with alcohol… she had stopped a couple times and was sick, looking for pain killers. I think something was wrong with her and maybe the pain got too much so she drank to make it stop & after the last stop when she got the kids back in the car they didn’t put their seatbelts on and she sped off but by this point had drank a lot and went the wrong way
I am diabetic and let me tell you, when my sugar goes very low like in the 40s. The disorientation I experience can make drinking acid like drinking plain water. You really won't know what's happening or what you're doing until after your blood sugar goes back up and sleep. It is possible she mistakenly drunk the vodka thinking it was water.
@@kieramcgregor I’ve known people whose personalities completely changed from smoking weed so please don’t be that person who says a drug can’t change your mind
@@eilidhsmith715 then they’ve obviously been taking something else with it. I know lots of people who smoke weed, me included and don’t snap and drive the wrong way down a highway with kids. Don’t tell me to “not be that person” because you don’t like that I disagree with you. It’s completely ridiculous what you’re saying 🤦🏼♀️😂
I had a stroke while driving, nothing in my system, I drove 100 miles an hour on the wrong side of the hwy until I smashed into a cliff. The 911 call recordings I listened to afterwards were terrifying
I'm glad you're okay. This crossed my mind as well. I had even thought that maybe the McDonald's worker had slipped something in her drink but that would not explain the alcohol in her system. Even if her orange juice was spiked she would have tasted it with that much alcohol.
As a nurse, my first thought when you said she wasn’t speaking/seeing properly, calling people by the wrong names, confused, getting sick, etc. was a stroke as those can all be symptoms of one, but also from my understanding that would definitely be detectable in autopsy? On the other hand it could still be probable it might’ve just been hard to find in the brain (or the medical examiner did a shitty job - lord knows our government and health care need a lot of work lol). But it still doesn’t explain her alcohol level. Perhaps she was drinking, smoking, maybe on some other type of medication and they didn’t mix causing her to experience toxicity or overdose? This story blows my mind and I want to know the answer so badly
No she was just drinking and driving. I’m a nurse to. I’ve studied this case for many many hours years ago. So much so I started dreaming about it. She definitely snapped and purposely kept drinking even after she vomited. It was said at about 1:30 she was seen pulled over vomiting (because of drinking too much alcohol) and then five minutes later the crash happened. Autopsy revealed she had a lot more alcohol in her stomach contents so that means after she vomited, she got back in the van and chugged a ton of vodka. After all those days of deep diving this case I 100% believe this was a murder suicide mission.
My father had several rather mild strokes, so the symptoms did strike a chord with me, as well, but even if she did have a stroke, she was still using and abusing, and to do that, she must have had the substances on her, i.e. regular use (though perhaps not long enough to show on her liver).
@@winterwilliams3618 This explanation seems pretty believable to me but wouldn't she have left the kids somewhere if she wanted to kill herself? Why did she take them with her? She could easily have left them at the gas station... My heart aches for those poor kids...
Another comment thread suggested migraine- symptoms of severe migraine would fit (loss of/altered vision, nausea, stroke like symptoms, and the fact she tried to get medication for perhaps a headache?), and to my knowledge would be undetectable on autopsy. It definitely could be alcohol or THC, but I think the description "driving pin straight down the highway" in the wrong direction quite fits that explanation as well.
I can NOT imagine losing all 3 of my children..let alone at once! How tragic!!! It broke my heart. How does one survive that level of heartbreak? Glad they stayed together and had another baby. But dang man!
i don’t understand how she could be SO intoxicated and be able to see and talk to these people in person and they all said she was fine? and even talking to her family on the phone. she would have to be slurring her speech! ugh such a heartbreaking case 💔
One time I had to go to the hospital for stitches, and I was so confused why I had to talk to crisis and why everyone was bringing up my alcohol level. Apparently my alcohol blood level was so high I shouldnt have been unable to function, but I was talking and walking totally fine. I was just used to drinking while acting normal around people even though I was completely intoxicated and they could tell that I had a problem because of it. It actually doesn’t surprise me too much.
The lawsuits are outrageous especially the one on poor warren. The fact that warren and his wife made it through this tragedy together and was able to welcome a blessed bundle is an amazing testimony to their strength and commitment.
Ok, I think I know what happened. I’m a former alcoholic/addict and the type of behavior you’re describing that happened to Diane, has happened to me. You don’t even need to be an alcoholic per se for this to happen. It seems like there is often a VERY fine line between being tipsy and blacking out. I think she was getting drunk, acting fairly normal up until the point she could have taken a shot or taken a few puffs of weed which made her black out. I don’t think she consciously did those things. I know for a fact I’ve had full on conversations with people, including police (I know, I was bad) where I have ZERO recollection. I’ve also had authority figures tell me I was acting normal! Or that I didn’t appear to be as drunk as I actually was. But as soon as I blacked out all hell broke loose, like what happened with this woman. I think that’s what happened here. It’s incredibly scary but it could have just been a situation where she was mildly tipsy and then decided to chug a couple shots that put her over the edge. That’s my guess.
@@connieharry8245 I didn’t even include that she was vomiting but it makes a ton of sense. It’s not uncommon for partners to hide how much they drink/use/smoke. The husbands insistence about her limited use proves further that he could have been in denial or would have judged her, probably both. Either way I hope this story gives people the courage to be more up front about their alcohol consumption/smoking. I’d rather deal with an annoyed husband by telling the truth than getting on the road with children in the car, even if slightly over the limit. But who knows the true dynamics of this household. So sad.
Thats when it gets scary. Cause blacking out is kinda like being knocked out in the sense that It happens once and its exponentially easier to happen again.Seemed like there at the end I wasn't drinking any more but blacking out almost every time
@@adamburdt8794 I totally get it. That was my story for way too long. It’s really scary and extremely dangerous. From what is being described here I am convinced she blacked out, regardless of what people saw. For people like you and me who have first hand experience, know it is so easy to go from 0 to a hundred in a blink of an eye. That has happened to me 1 too many times to count. God willing I’ll have 8 months clean/sober next week! I never want to experience that feeing again. I hope this story is a catalyst for many out there struggling to get help. Alcohol abuse doesn’t discriminate.
I can't imagine what this parents have gone through losing their 3 daughters. My family and friends criticize and make fun of me for not letting my kids ride with anyone other than me and my husband. The pain and remorse they might have been dealing with since.
Same, I can't believe your family and friends would criticize and make fun of you for not letting your children ride in the car with them, it's you and your husband's choice not your family and friends plus they sound really mean and toxic and your friends don't sound like true friends at all.
I'm a new mom to a 1 year old and my boyfriend thinks I'm paranoid. I don't trust people, I don't want her in a daycare situation cause I've read too any horror story's of kids being shaken and hurt.
This story is so heart breaking. I don't think she was a closet drinker. I think she probably did have a toothache and drank the vodka when the gas station didn't have pain meds. So despicable what her husband went on to do and say about the whole thing. I feel so bad for the victims and their families.
I agree with this. They even said about her autopsy her body didn’t show signs of being an alcoholic… she had stoped numerous times as she was ill. I think she drank to numb the pain & after the last stop she had drank too much got in the car and unfortunately went on the wrong side and the crash happened
What gas station doesn’t have Advil? Also, gas stations, convenience stores etc. are often in clusters. If you see a Walgreens there’s gonna be a Circle K, CVS or something somewhere where you can get pain medication.
My thoughts too, every time she mentioned it I was thinking "Ok but the darn thing flipped and if the kids were all in a pile on top of the little boy, then imagine where something as light as a vodka bottle would end up going".
Why wouldn’t she just wait for her brother to come get them? That’s what always gets me. You know when you are too intoxicated to drive. He said he was on the way... Baffling and heart breaking.
That part really get me. I think most people would stop driving at that point. There’s so much talk about how she was a “super mom” and responsible for the kids. Maybe in her mental state she felt that she was responsible and HAD to get them home? You’re absolutely right, it’s baffling and heartbreaking
@@connieharry8245 Yeah, that's totally possible too. Unfortunately, we'll never really know. I can't imagine how her loved ones feel with all of these questions surrounding the whole situation.
i think that she was drinking and driving. witnesses say that they saw her multiple times to pull over and vomit. that adds up with the vodka bottle. just a note though: my dad actually did have multiple strokes from bad dental work that left an abscess. it was a crazy time. he is better now, he’s regained the ability to walk, talk, and eat on his own after almost a decade of work. diane could have been drinking to help tooth pain but i’m not sure i support the theory about her having a stroke from an abscess at that point.
My son had an abscess and nearly died. His heart actually stopped in the ambulance. We were told that when an abscess bursts, the poison can either go up to the brain or down to the heart. In the days before proper dental healthcare, millions of people died as a result of poor dental hygiene. Strange but true.
@@TheGreatPresenter yes, I know a woman her son had tooth abscess and he almost died too. He was in a coma for a while but it was really touch and go. People don’t realise how dangerous a tooth abscess can be and what it can actually do to you. My hubby had a swollen eye, from a blocked tear duct, eye specialist said infection can get to brain really fast from eye, so if anitbots didn’t take swelling away fast he was admitting him for IV antibots…….so if it can happen with the eye it can happen with the mouth, so close to the brain it wouldn’t take long in reality.
No matter the causes or reasons, it baffles my mind how someone, especially a mother, would decide it's fine to drive 5 children after having a drink at all. Unless she suffered a stroke or smth and that impaired her thinking. Otherwise, it just seems like a suicide mission or she was in a terrible emotional state. In any case, those children met their ends in such a tragic way, it's heartbreaking.
It’s so sad but alcoholics don’t think About the consequences or anyone else but themselves when under the influence I think this lady was just drunk and delusional and possibly something involving suicide
There was no evidence of a stroke or any other health issues in her autopsy. What Was found was a blood alcohol level of twice the legal limit. She was drinking and driving with a fatal accident.
I have thought about this case and formed an opinion. For starters, I think Diane was a closeted alcoholic that was high functioning. She was able to work and care for her family and appeared to be a super wife, mother, and friend. I think on the day of the accident, she was probably irritated by the kids, who were just being kids, they were restless, "are we there yet", and it was getting on her nerves, so she takes a few sips of vodka. They stop at McDonald's and she gets orange juice to mix with her vodka. Now she is drinking steadily, completely unaware of how much she has consumed because it's mixed with the juice. Next, she goes into blackout, she is driving erratic and the children are scared but she has absolutely no idea what she is doing at this point, thus ending in tragedy. I say this because I have been blackout drunk so many times! I have had telephone conversations with people that I do not remember, I blew out 2 tires on my car (yes I was drinking/driving) that I still don't know how I did it. I am proud to say that I have been sober 8 months. I could very possibly have been Aunt Diane myself.
I think there’s a lot of moving parts in this story that amassed into the tragedy you’re speaking of today. Diane was a functioning alcoholic who drank that weekend and likely had vodka with her orange juice that morning. I do think she had a toothache and when the gas station didn’t have the medicine she was looking for (maybe specifically acetaminophen vs ibuprofen or something like that), she drank more vodka in an attempt to quell the pain of her toothache. She may have gotten really drunk on accident, if you will, like she went past her usual limits due to the pain or being distracted with the kids. I think she didn’t pull over and wait for Warren to come pick everyone up because she knew she’d be caught drunk and her whole world would come crashing down. Whether she made a conscious decision to go down the murder/suicide route or she just stopped thinking clearly is something unfortunately no one will ever know. This is one of those cases that has really stuck with me over the years. It’s kind of like a Shakespearean tragedy to me
I’m not even past the sponsor yet but I’ve got to say - I’m so happy you’ve brought your dark hair back. It’s so nice on you, just suits you so well!! I loveeee it
I still think there is more to this - the idea that a mother who was fully functional in the rest of her life would risk the lives of her children and nieces doesn't sit right with me. Her confusion on the phone really makes me think something was wrong mentally.
@@naomih1073 The fact remains that she ingested a shit ton of vodka, and smoked weed, all while driving a car full of kids. I don't believe she intentionally drove on a suicide mission, but all bets are off when you drink that much and drive.
I lost my grandma to a drunk driver going the wrong way down an interstate, so this case has always hit me pretty hard. I know it’s hard to admit that she was drunk, but it’s the truth. Honestly I think he needs therapy, they all do.
I cannot comprehend the sheer selfishness of driving drunk. Like if you know you are going to drink it's easy to arrange a lift in advance. No need to risk maiming or killing innocent people.
I'm so back and forth about theories with this case. Just when I've decided, l change my mind again. Regardless of her condition, she was driving under the influence and her man child husband is in denial about it.
This case has always perplexed me. There are so many things about this tragic case that just don’t add up. I hope that all of these precious little ones are resting in peace. 💗
Lived near the taconic my whole life. My family always avoids taking this highway. There’s so many injuries and accidents. Great retelling of this case, only Bella knows how to make a case I’ve heard a billion times still seem intriguing
This happened in my town less than a month after I graduated high school. Some background on the Taconic: it's beautiful, it's dangerous, it's a b*tch; it's narrow and windy and doesn't bank the right way; it's fun to drive like a race track and "kids" like to drag race on it late at night; it goes through dark woods and over old bridges, if it's cold enough for black-ice the Taconic will have plenty of it, and the entrance ramps can be confusing. There are always fatal crashes on this parkway, most of them as result of wrong-way driving and always as a result of speed, intoxication, or poorly labeled entrance ramps (or all 3). This accident occurred as just one of several fatal crashes on the same stretch within just a couple of months, and doesn't include all of those on the other parkways in the area. Some background of the area: It's cursed, I swear. In less than 3 years, YHS (my high school) lost +10 students to random, unrelated accidents - that doesn't include the kids from other schools who died tragically while in Yorktown.
@@SunnnySkies the magnitude of it....it was just horrific. Usually it's one or two adults or teenagers, which is still incredibly sad, but it's not half a dozen children plus adults. The Taconic is not an unsafe road in and of itself, like all the parkways around there, but rather a combination of a false-sense-of-security (the road looks straight and open...for now...) and frequent tricky situations: narrow lanes with no shoulders and blind turns with concrete dividers between north & south, and often cliffs or guardrails on the right where the shoulder should be(which is fine if you're driving the right way in the right lane); how people drive it (like a racetrack, also with drag races after midnight on the straightaways); weather conditions including dense fog before dawn and at dusk, black ice at lower altitudes or on any of the countless bridges (often obscured by said fog); where the sun is and what season it is because sometimes the light through the trees has a strobe light effect (which can be really disorienting, I've had to slow down a few times); how late it is because the parkway goes through dense woods and lots of deer and other animals tend to not avoid cars; how heavy traffic is and where the construction projects are and how backed up the line is...just like any road, really... except pretty much all at once 😂 Another frequent offender is the Saw Mill Parkway, and further south the Hutchinson River Parkway... basically all the parkways around here are the same. I once encountered a wrong way driver on the Saw Mill around midnight, coming around a blind turn down a steep grade...it was one of the most surreal moments of my life. +10yrs later and I still get nervous around one-way blind turns..
@@SunnnySkies I don't blame you! I learned how to drive on those parkways, especially the Taconic (drove it to school and home every day for over 2 years) so they were always second nature to me. I use to know every curve, turn, bank...but now, 12yrs since I left, when I go back and drive those parkways I'm like "holy buttnuggets batman! This road is absurd!! Who TF designed this??" The longer I'm gone, the more I realize how treacherous, tricky, and dangerous those parkways can be.
I could see this being a relapse for her. It seems really possible to me that she had been in recovery on her own, and that makes a catastrophic relapse like this one seem even more possible. And from a hell of a lot of experience, "seemed sober" means NOTHING. Especially if the alcoholic person is someone you're really close to. You can't imagine how much we overlook when we're missing just one piece.
Oh yeah that is very true. Especially if you're a functioning alcoholic, people around you don't necessarily notice. The relapse theory is interesting. That could explain why she was having trouble keeping her limit. It migjt have overwhelmed her because she was 'out of practice'
I never cry during movies or documentaries but I watched this one and I was balling hearing the kids message they left. Just screaming and crying. I just broke down. They lost ALL of their children. Broke my heart.
I think it’s possible she may have started off thinking she could have a drink/smoke a little and still make it home, but underestimated the effect of being stoned and drunk at the same time, as they really heighten each other. From there on her judgement would be greatly impaired which would explain why she kept drinking.
One theory I heard was she suffered from migraines and may have had one that day. Migraines can cause vision impairment and stroke like symptoms. Perhaps she was self medicating the pain, or was out of it and didn’t realize what she was doing. No matter the cause it is absolutely heartbreaking. HBO documentary showed her picture from accident scene and it can never be forgotten.
Bella can you make a video on how you do research on all these cases, would love to see that♡ Love all your videos and I don't like long videos to watch as it's hard to not to lose out interest but in your case I literally search for all 50 min videos cause it's so worth it and I never get bored for even a second ❤
as someone who lives VERY close to this parkway i’m TERRIFIED of stuff like this happening. people in ny drive like maniacs. sending love to the people affected.
Yeah, it's just really sad all the way round. Money, or a judge formally recognizing wrongful death isn't going to undo the tragedy, but I can see it's probably their way of trying to find closure.
I’m thinking Diane was pushed to the edge because of her “third child”. If he didn’t even help with their 2 children, I can’t imagine how much stress was put on her with their 3 nieces on the trip. Such a heartbreaking story and it’s ridiculous that the husband dragged this out for so long. He could’ve done it for a lot of reasons but I feel like it was an attention grab honestly.
100% agree. She snapped. She was tired of being a perfect super-mum with a man-child for a husband. Imagine going on a camping holiday with 5 young children and a partner who doesn't lift a finger all weekend. The kids might have been yelling, arguing and carrying on in the mini van. Her toothache was driving her insane. She got high, got drunk and decided to drive the wrong way down the highway.
And also weaseling himself out of the blame . Because, how come that your perfect wife was drinking and smoking weed, and you never knew? And why did she start in the first place, 'cause a wife in a perfect marriage has no reason to.
She didn’t have a toothache. That was what the lawyer said because she once had one. The clerk in the convenience store never said she asked for pain meds. And even if she did, maybe it was from a massive hangover because she was a drinker.
There is no way in my mind that this wasn’t a suicide mission. In my opinion, she wanted to leave, but didn’t want to do what her Mum did to them. She was the family rock and kept everyone together, she organised trips and wanted to be the antithesis of her Mum, so in her mind it was better to leave with them than leave them alone. It is rare for someone to drive completely straight and focused going 140 km straight down a highway. It is rare for anyone to do that. How can someone be so drunk, that they somehow are driving the wrong way down the road, but aren’t swerving. Most drunk accidents or drunk-related never include driving the wrong way, it takes a lot of effort to end up on the complete wrong side of the highway, then continue to drive at high speeds. If you look at the highway, you don’t accidentally end up where she did. She wanted pain killers and to drug herself up so calm herself down. Most people are relatively happy and normal before a suicide, they know their pain is nearly over. Only approx. 1/3 typically write out notes. One she had her last meal, she was in the car and was sick because she knew what she was about to do. Her mind was running and she didn’t want to talk to the kids or the adults because she didn’t want to get talked out of it, or for her plan to be ruined. To me, this is the most logical answer.
Such a crazy heartbreaking story. I have a real hard time thinking she was a on the low alcoholic. Alcoholics drink to feel normal. Not go insane. Especially if no one close to her knew she was one. Then clearly she must of acted pretty put together every other time drunk or not! Def think it was mix of meds and alchy. And maybe the meds that initially sent her into this downward spiral to begin with.
My mother in law was an alcoholic. she put rubbing alcohol open in her room to make up a story for the vodka smell and drank out of water bottles. she went nuts fast and tried to break into our house to get alcohol
I am diabetic and let me tell you, when my sugar goes very low like in the 40s. The disorientation I experience can make drinking acid like drinking plain water. You really won't know what's happening or what you're doing until after your blood sugar goes back up and sleep. It is possible she mistakenly drunk the vodka thinking it was water.
@@karenlo7301 this is very interesting and really answers a lot of the questions of this case! Thanks for sharing! I too think that it had to be some medical issue/ or medication effect that made her drink/smoke like that.
I definitely think she was having a medical emergency, some immense level of pain that clouded her judgement and made her self medicate with the vodka.
I wondered if she might be having a diabetic incident - my mum is type 2 diabetic and she's had several "hypo's" over the years when she's not eaten anything. Orange juice is full of sugar at McDonald's- both natural and added sugar. If you develop diabetes your bidy cannot process sugar any more and you can go into a diabetic coma. It's also possible that she was so disoriented that she thought the vodka was water. All the symptoms add up for me. My mum got so confused/disorientated once that she was falling over like she was drunk, slurring her words. She was making no sense! She then went and drank a bottle of breast milk from my fridge that I had expressed for my daughter because she said she was really thirsty and thought it was cows milk! From a baby's bottle!!
I am diabetic and let me tell you, when my sugar goes very low like in the 40s. The disorientation I experience can make drinking acid like drinking plain water. You really won't know what's happening or what you're doing until after your blood sugar goes back up and sleep. It is possible she mistakenly drunk the vodka thinking it was water.
a migraine would explain the visual disturbances, the vomiting and her going into the gas station to buy painkillers and wouldn't necessarily show up on an autopsy, but wouldn't explain the toxicology reports :/
Migraines, especially if it was maybe one of her first major ones, will cause all of the symptoms listed plus more that are not even as recognized symptoms... like altered reality, temp paralysis, inability to hear, speak etc. definitely effects cognitive ability. She may have been desperate to get home but knew she couldn’t call her husband to help so in her migraine impaired state thought she could make it home with a bit of vodka? Also was the husband ever investigated? He didn’t want kids etc..... some red flags there... did he give her edibles with some spiked juice since you can’t taste vodka if diluted? If he gave her a good quality edible in the morning without her knowledge it takes a while for them to take effect. He did seem to have a bit of a motive?
I thought this exact thing because I get migraines with these symptoms. I thought that maybe she chugged it thinking it was water, because she has spots in her vision and loss of taste or a numb mouth. I am not with it when I have them and can’t even remember my families names.
FINALLY! A comment with the migraine theory. YES! I agree completely. Also explains chugging vodka (thinking it's water). Literally everything can be explained with the theory that she got a migraine, possibly her first, and it was BAD and she didn't know what to do/couldn't see/think/speak/etc. People who don't get severe migraines have no idea.
I just don’t think she’d be able to drive and would have waited for the lift. I suffer really bad migraines and no way could I start a car let alone drive it when I have one.
@@clarewarp1384 if she didn't know what it was, she could have tried to power through it. I've had them since puberty (I'm in my thirties now) and the first few times, I had no idea what was happening. And there are different types / levels of migraines and different effects they have on different people.
This case bothers me so much. The fact that her liver showed no signs of alcohol abuse makes me think that she wasn’t an alcoholic - at least not long term. I do think she was drunk, but I really want to know why.
I think maybe it was the tooth. I’ve had blinding tooth pain before and I can see maybe if she was stoned and it wasn’t helping AND she couldn’t get pain meds maybe she just downed the vodka completely irrationally. Only thing that really makes sense.
Not every alcoholic has liver damage, particularly at Diane's age.She was still relatively young, only in her 30's. Alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver doesn't usually appear until the early 50's. Other alcohol-related liver damage such as fatty liver usually appears in a person's mid-40's. So the absence of liver damage doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't an alcoholic. It could mean she didn't have liver damage -- yet.
This case has haunted me for years. Your outline of the facts is one of the clearest I've come across. The most upsetting thing about it is how people can project an image to others while hiding something less salubrious about themselves which can then burst out at a moment of stress. We all have that quality, and it's scary. I've known people to suddenly behave in a totally different, bizarre way and I know I've done it myself, but never in such a violent, tragic way, thank God. I feel so sorry for everyone involved, including Dianne. I don't think she intended such a tragedy at all. I think she intended to drive home normally, with everyone alive, and then something snapped. Something snapped because she was wound up too tightly, like an over-wound-up clock. It's so sad.
A functioning alcoholic wouldn't necessarily present liver damage. I used to drink a bottle of wine a night, minimum, which would class me as a functioning alcoholic. I had to have a liver function test in order to take a particular medication for cystic acne and I was terrified because I thought my drinking would mean my liver wasn't in good enough shape to take the medication. Nope. Liver was perfectly normal. If you are drinking a steady amount but not hitting the bottle constantly all day every day, then the liver regenerates pretty quickly. I gave up drinking over a decade ago now and I'm much happier and healthier for it :) In this case, I really think she had some kind of brain injury, it sounds much more like psychosis than being drunk. The vodka could have been left over from the weekend trip or maybe if she did have toothache and used it as a way to disinfect/numb the area until she got home. Sounds more like bad weed than too much booze.
I actually hadn’t thought about this but when I got off drugs after 7 years I had no liver damage at all. The doctors were pretty amazed so I don’t think it’s common but it’s definitely possible. Interesting point.
@@maggiekarabel123 But in an autopsy, they actually look at the liver. Your liver can be grossly affected by alcohol but you still have normal values. Fatty liver is a condition that can be caused by excessive alcohol use (and can be reversed by stopping drinking), which is visible with imaging, but values aren't necessarily affected. The fact that her liver looked fine really makes me struggle to believe she was a closet alcoholic
@@MissSeaSea You can get weed that has been dipped in chemicals to make it more potent, it's very common in the UK, I've had it myself in the past. This can cause severe hallucinations/psychosis especially if you're not expecting anything more than the usual weed you get. If you've never "heard of anything so absurd" you can't get out very much, although I'm glad your life has been sheltered enough that this kind of thing has never affected you.
I’m from westchester county, Ny. This was So upsetting I can’t believe it’s this many years ago now, the mother of the girls lost wrote a memoir about how she survived a mother’s worst nightmare, it’s a very moving read/listen if anyone is interested in learning more about this awful tragedy. God bless all those innocent people lost that day 😞
I’ve always thought it had to do with the tooth. My theory is her tooth was hurting badly that day, and when the gas station didn’t have pain killers she downed a bunch of the vodka she had with her. Perhaps the THC in her system came from her smoking weed before they left the campground that morning 🤷♀️. I hope one day there will be answers.. so sad this happened 😥.
A tooth problem would have shown up in the autopsy-they specifically looked for an abcess, which would’ve shown up, even in the tooth loss and jaw fractures she sustained in the crash. Her family was just trying to find a way for it not to be Diane’s fault. Danny is full of crap.
Thank goodness i stumbled onto ur channel. I lov the fact that you give the TRUE facts whilst giving it to us in a story format. You have earned ur self a life long subscriber my friend 👌🏻 💜
I think she started drinking recently, probably as a way to relax and it’s slowly become an addiction. She would’ve been drinking while camping and if she was sneaking it around her husband, she could’ve been staying up later to have a drink so he didn’t find out and if that was the case, she could’ve still been drunk that next morning. Maybe that morning she was feeling off and decided to have a hair of the dog, it didn’t work, she’s gone looking for painkillers it’s reacted badly with the alcohol and she’s gotten disoriented or she’s done the “if I stay drunk, I won’t feel the hangover” and was sipping on vodka oranges on the drive. Either way, I think her alcohol levels are proof enough that she is in some way at fault, I think it was a case of addiction gone too far
Hi Bella, I hope you see this, I’ve been watching you for years and am so thankful that you continue to spread awareness of these cases, you’re one of my favourite true crime TH-camrs ❤️
Wow after not thinking about this case in years I was randomly thinking about it a couple of days ago and then this video pops up. Such a sad and unfortunate event I often wondered what happened to the remaining survivors. What a tragedy all around.
This story has always stayed with me since I first heard it many years ago. I'm not sure we will ever know what Diane was thinking that day. I just know what followed was truly horrific. I can't imagine those poor little ones last moments, being with someone they thought they were safe with. At the end of the documentary, they show Diane's dead body and her injuries were horrific. RIP to everyone who died that day. This case is truly heartbreaking 💔
I actually had a friend who had an abscessed tooth and it turned into a brain infection. It was crazy, he was fine then was suddenly acting so strange, then of course ended up in the hospital for a while.
I was never the same after watching the doc for this case, especially after seeing the pics after the crash, when they showed Diane’s body 🙃 Also I hated her husband’s attitude towards having to raise his son now that she was gone. He was so bitter that he had to parent now 🙄
Regardless of why she crashed, she CHOSE to KEEP driving. Bystanders can testify that she pulled over several times to vomit or take a break and at any of those times she could have said, I need help. She could have called someone or had someone else call someone to come to get them. She could have called an ambulance and had the children transported to the hospital with her. She could have stopped that car at any moment and said I’m just not well enough to do this drive. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to get that drive over and done with too but the second I didn’t feel well, I would have pulled over and got help. She didn’t and look how it turned out. My condolences to the victims and their families. Make good decisions folks. It could save your life and the lives of many others.
I have a lot of sympathy for everyone. Many many lives were lost and it is unclear what happened here. It doesn’t sit right with me to make any assumptions so I’m just sending sympathy to everyone that lost someone. Tragedies happen and when there’s no one to hold accountable the worst really can come out in some people.
i can't imagine being those poor kids, what should have been a fun trip with cousin turned into a disaster when aunt got drunk and drove 85 mph in the wrong way. R.I.P
Im at a HUGE loss for words... for all the lives that were lost, and for those who loved them all dearly. Ive heard MANY tragic stories of people driving the wrong way on one way roads, and for many reasons. I'd never wish this on anyone... ever. You really never know and can only HOPE that the ones we love, ( including ourselves) are NEVER the ones that are the unsuspecting victims of these kind of tragedies. 🥺
I live very close by to the area where this happened. I actually saw the burnt car on the way back from my aunts house on that day. Such an awful case. I can’t even begin to imagine how devastating this traumatic event was to all the families of the victims lost in the crash ☹️
For some reason this case lives rent free in my mind since the HBO special came out years ago. I actually Googled it several weeks ago to see if I could read anything about it that I missed and look at other people's theories. I ended up reading a comment section on a blog and a reddit thread I think. I have no idea what to think. I do believe she was high and drunk but I don't know why or how she got that way after the McDonald's stop. We can only speculate. One thing of interest is I don't think the brother in law ever revealed how she sounded or what she said when he talked to her on the cell phone on the side of the road. She ended up leaving the phone behind and the rest is history. Such a tragic tale and actually kinda creepy/scary. Wayyyyy too many theories out there including that she could have wanted to die and took these actions on purpose. Regardless, she wasn't actually driving towards her home/destination for a good part of the trip. She was driving out of the way.
Crazy. I went to school in Liberty, NY. Would’ve been around about 30 at this time, but didn’t realize they had stopped in Liberty. Even recognized that gas station immediately. This is so sad.
I was living right off that exit when this tragedy occurred and think of this every time I get on and off that ramp. The signs could still be clearer. So awful in so many ways. God bless their memories and their families.
Hey Bella Foiri Your show is awesome. I love your intelligent discussions on unsolved cases especially. Pls look in2 the libya beach murders of Lyn Howie And Marc Desalis. They both got shot dead outside the melitah oil base on the Libyan coastline 2 Janurary 2014. 4 suspects were arrested in the near by town of sabratha but they were all relased the same day and the double murder remains unsolved. They owned a house in silverstream wellington new zealand but they were an English couple. Have a good day fro. New Zealand
It breaks my heart that they heard the kids crying in the back in the last phone call…they were so scared and she took their lives….whatever happened that day she had so many chances to not continue driving the car and get help …she was careless of the others in the car …I’ll pray for these families who lost their loved ones because of her
As a Psychologist, the first thing I thought of with the painkillers was if she was experiencing a headache and felt generally unwell, she could have been experiencing some type of brain injury e.g. stroke or some type of bleed… And if she wasn’t coherent enough by the time she got the vodka out, she absolutely could have thought this was water and just kept drinking it🤔 Even with a simple migraine (doesn’t sound like a migraine but just to further my point) your taste/sensory processes can be negatively impacted so if there was something more sinister going on it’s probable that she wouldn’t have even noticed it was vodka when she drank it. This story is so sad, sending love to everyone involved❤️
There is nothing simple about a migraine. The "she got a migraine" theory is a huge theory for this case that I cannot believe Bella did not even mention :( But I agree with the rest of what you wrote!
i watched the documentary and all diane's husband did was be sorry for himself for having to care for their remaining son on his own and how much of a burden that was, even though the kids aunt practically adopted him and is clearly his primary caretaker, the husband talked about how much he missed diane only in a context of all the things she used to do for him and not so much of the person she was, he really was worse than another child of hers, so i think he knew how overwhelmed she was and didn't care, maybe he has been upsetting her leading up to the accident and after the fact he tries to remove any personal guilt by praising and defending her, there's no other reason in my mind for him to keep going back to the media saying the same thing over and over if it isn't because of the guilt going over him from time to time
OMG I haven't seen the whole video yet, but I was shocked to see this title because I go on the Taconic sometimes (I live in southern New York) and it always feels so dangerous and narrow yet traffic on it is so fast.
This case hits super close to home. My ex girlfriend actually did the same thing, driving the wrong way on the highway and hit someone head on. There were three adults and one child in that car, and the driver passed away. She was an addict but didn't have any drugs in her system at that time, and has no memory of it so no one really knows what happened. Now she's serving a five to fifteen year prison sentence. And here I am venting to random strangers about it. Life is weird.
I'm not convinced she was an alcoholic, could she have self medicated because of the toothach? Possibly. Is there a Chance the orange Juice she got was just this side of going bad and maybe it caused her to feel off as well? The Husband though, Holy... though after hearing that he was basically a child I can understand ( not that I approve) as to why he kept going on TV, suing ect.. he needed to have people feel sorry for.him, if he didn't go public every now and then people would " forget" about him and he'd suddenly have to do everything he didn't / couldn't before. I'm not sure if that even makes sense.
The official documentary showed 10 units of alcohol already in her bloodstream & even more in her stomach waiting to be digested....on top of the weed smoked within 1.5hours of the crash.
My stepdad had diabetes and when he got close to being in a diabetic coma he acted weird like that. Stumbling, slurring, forgetting things and people, memories mixed up. My dad died from untreated diabetes and the weekend he crashed he was talking like he was a teenager again and he fell in the bathroom between the toilet and wall (none of us could figure out how that happened) and he couldn’t get out by himself. He was physically and mentally handicapped already but we never knew he was diabetic. He was home for the holiday feom his nursing facility and they supposedly got blood work done each month but somehow missed the diabetes every single month. Which means he wasn’t eating right or on medicine. Diabetes can do some crazy things. I mean people literally lose toes, fingers, feet, legs, etc from diabetic issues. This whole thing is so sad. Such a tragic loss of young lives.
She could’ve recently started having a alcoholic addiction a few weeks/ months prior to the car crash? It would explain why there wasn’t damage to the liver. Also, maybe she had laced weed?
![HIWWHEE | OHM [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OJJLtTLqLag/mqdefault.jpg)
The fact that that couple survived, stayed together, and had another baby made me tear up. I wish them a lifetime of happiness and safety.
a rainbow baby 🌈
@@kitbruen3149 ⁰⁰
unfortunately they have separated but they are wonderful coparents and still run the foundation together
🤍
@@willahance2989 Most marriages couldn’t survive the deaths of three children.
I think, as a society, we need to accept that people aren't always who we think they are. She was heavily intoxicated and never should've been behind the wheel. She might have otherwise been a good, involved mom but she clearly had her own demons.
Nailed it. You never know what people do behind closed doors.
Agree. Also the official documentary points out that due to their different work schedules Diane & her partner were like ships that passed in the night. So...it's way easier to hide a drinking habit if your husband is never around.
I look at pictures of her and get a bad feeling. She doesn’t look healthy and happy. Her husband seems like kind of a douche & didn’t contribute anything positive to the marriage. He lies about everything too, I don’t trust him at all!
I really wonder if this drinking was a new thing. Because it makes more sense that no one had any clue and there were no signs internally if this had only been happening a few months.
Such a sad ending for those innocent lives. She definitely was struggling with something and tried to do it all but she clearly wasn’t doing it
Everything evidence wise would point to her being a functioning alcoholic except 1) why on this ONE particular occasion was she so unable to hold her alcohol and 2) why did her autopsy not show her as being a regular drinker? If she wasn't a seasoned alcoholic she would've been noticeably drunk before leaving the camp ground. This case stumps me every damn time
This is what I'm struggling with. My mom is an alcoholic and I'm sorry but she doesn't just suddenly stop having a super high tolerance for alcohol. If she smoked regularly, especially every day, its not likely it would impare her heavily.
I wonder if the vodka was up there to begin with or if it flew up there during the crash. Id have to imagine an 80+ mph crash is going to throw things in the car. Beyond that it honestly seems like she had some sort of a mental episode. Is it possible that she accidentally drank all that vodka? It seems like she just chugged the bottle if she went from sober to plastered and puking in a matter of 30 minutes. If she was an alcoholic she would know how that effects her, and I find it hard to believe that if she was in a sound mental state, even while drunk, that she would have continued driving 5 children qfter stopping multiple times to violently puke.
Did she try and finish the bottle as to not have an open container in the car? I really dont understand this, there would have to be some physical evidence of her being an alcoholic beyond just the death tox screen. Like that tox screen doesn't explain anything leading up to the accident. Idk man this one is weird
The only thing I can think of is her maybe having mixed some pills with her alcohol? She was asking about pain pills at the gas station. Maybe she wanted something like ibuprofen but when they didn't have any she self-medicated?? But then that would be on the toxicology report! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ it's all so bizarre!! This case drives me crazy
@@carissazrimsek1073 Exactly. All of the answers should be in the toxicology report but according to all of the witnesses it makes no sense. Because we are talking a high amount of alcohol and if there were any pills involved that would also be listed on the toxicology report, like you mentioned. This one will truly never be solved if it hasn't been yet
@@melissamack333 exactly. The tox report should've told us everything we needed to know, but according to the witnesses conflicting accounts, it only complicates things more
@@melissamack333 I feel like it's pills too! Why would she be asking about pain pills in the rest stops? Even if it was "just" Tylenol she would be out of it mixing it with alcohol...which someone with a family annihilation plan might drink for some courage...
Her saying "oh we are having fun" my mom use to get drink and drive, she would drive fast and my sister and i would cry bc we were so scared. She thought it was funny. My mom was a functional alcoholic and when she died, her liver had no damage.
yeah. some alcoholics get the lucky straw with liver damage
I'm sorry about what you and your sister went through, your mom is seriously an idiot for thinking it's funny to make you and your sister cry by driving fast while being drunk.
You moms liver is like, "nothing I can't handle."🤣
Im so sorry.
How was there no signs? Genuinely curious
Worked at a gas station. The amount of closet drinkers would make your spin. People come in get a coffee, wait for 7am (the time you can legally buy booze here) buy a shot or two then pour the booze in their coffee. Then they come in at lunch, grab a coke and other shot or three, and go back to work. 5pm roles around and it's time for a case of beer, a 5th of Fireball and some margarita fixes. Then the really, really bad ones stumble in just before 11pm and buy whatever they can, with anything they can afford, then they stumble home to presumably pass out so you see them again in the morning. One of the worst offenders I had was a police officer.
YES I remember driving to class once at like 9:30 am and I look over at a stop light and the man is pouring something from a brown paper bag into his soda cup like wtf
When I was a cashier at a grocery store a guy came in every single day to buy a 24 pack of beer and a 5th of Jack. And a cop came in twice a week for five giant size bottles of wine.
@@maggiekarabel123 when my ex-husband drank, while we were still dating we'd go to three different stores to buy his booze so "nobody would think he's alcoholic." Like he was fooling anybody. 🙄 I have to give him credit though, he's been sober 22 years now.....
Wow. My ex is a functioning addict. I didn’t realize how many people are like that. Sad really.
@@lozencolorado3326 Good for him! But yeah, cashiers notice.
The fact that none of the kids were wearing their seatbelts shows that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind even before you include driving the wrong way down the road. I think something in her head snapped, maybe because she was parenting kids on her own and parenting her husband, drinking and smoking weed….then the toothache was the final thing? It’s such a sad story and extremely frustrating for the survivors having to deal with the husbands denial on top of their loss. Awful
Running theory is she found out her hubby and bestie were cheating. I'm only like 5 minutes into this video and have no clue if it's mentioned.
Smoking weed doesn’t make you snap even when with alcohol… she had stopped a couple times and was sick, looking for pain killers. I think something was wrong with her and maybe the pain got too much so she drank to make it stop & after the last stop when she got the kids back in the car they didn’t put their seatbelts on and she sped off but by this point had drank a lot and went the wrong way
I am diabetic and let me tell you, when my sugar goes very low like in the 40s. The disorientation I experience can make drinking acid like drinking plain water. You really won't know what's happening or what you're doing until after your blood sugar goes back up and sleep. It is possible she mistakenly drunk the vodka thinking it was water.
@@kieramcgregor I’ve known people whose personalities completely changed from smoking weed so please don’t be that person who says a drug can’t change your mind
@@eilidhsmith715 then they’ve obviously been taking something else with it. I know lots of people who smoke weed, me included and don’t snap and drive the wrong way down a highway with kids. Don’t tell me to “not be that person” because you don’t like that I disagree with you. It’s completely ridiculous what you’re saying 🤦🏼♀️😂
I had a stroke while driving, nothing in my system, I drove 100 miles an hour on the wrong side of the hwy until I smashed into a cliff. The 911 call recordings I listened to afterwards were terrifying
Glad you’re ok!
stay safe
Wow, glad you survived that
Glad you’re okay!
I'm glad you're okay. This crossed my mind as well. I had even thought that maybe the McDonald's worker had slipped something in her drink but that would not explain the alcohol in her system. Even if her orange juice was spiked she would have tasted it with that much alcohol.
As a nurse, my first thought when you said she wasn’t speaking/seeing properly, calling people by the wrong names, confused, getting sick, etc. was a stroke as those can all be symptoms of one, but also from my understanding that would definitely be detectable in autopsy? On the other hand it could still be probable it might’ve just been hard to find in the brain (or the medical examiner did a shitty job - lord knows our government and health care need a lot of work lol). But it still doesn’t explain her alcohol level. Perhaps she was drinking, smoking, maybe on some other type of medication and they didn’t mix causing her to experience toxicity or overdose? This story blows my mind and I want to know the answer so badly
No she was just drinking and driving. I’m a nurse to. I’ve studied this case for many many hours years ago. So much so I started dreaming about it. She definitely snapped and purposely kept drinking even after she vomited. It was said at about 1:30 she was seen pulled over vomiting (because of drinking too much alcohol) and then five minutes later the crash happened. Autopsy revealed she had a lot more alcohol in her stomach contents so that means after she vomited, she got back in the van and chugged a ton of vodka. After all those days of deep diving this case I 100% believe this was a murder suicide mission.
My thoughts were why the husband didn't insist/pay for an independent Dr to do a 2nd autopsy. He hired a PI for $30,000...why not another ME?
My father had several rather mild strokes, so the symptoms did strike a chord with me, as well, but even if she did have a stroke, she was still using and abusing, and to do that, she must have had the substances on her, i.e. regular use (though perhaps not long enough to show on her liver).
@@winterwilliams3618 This explanation seems pretty believable to me but wouldn't she have left the kids somewhere if she wanted to kill herself? Why did she take them with her? She could easily have left them at the gas station... My heart aches for those poor kids...
Another comment thread suggested migraine- symptoms of severe migraine would fit (loss of/altered vision, nausea, stroke like symptoms, and the fact she tried to get medication for perhaps a headache?), and to my knowledge would be undetectable on autopsy. It definitely could be alcohol or THC, but I think the description "driving pin straight down the highway" in the wrong direction quite fits that explanation as well.
I can NOT imagine losing all 3 of my children..let alone at once! How tragic!!! It broke my heart. How does one survive that level of heartbreak? Glad they stayed together and had another baby. But dang man!
i don’t understand how she could be SO intoxicated and be able to see and talk to these people in person and they all said she was fine? and even talking to her family on the phone. she would have to be slurring her speech! ugh such a heartbreaking case 💔
This is why I think it could’ve been some type of demonic or spiritual possession. But I know people are going to think I’m crazy for saying that.
A lot of times, the alcohol doesn’t hit you for a long time. Especially if you’re a raging alcoholic like she was.
One time I had to go to the hospital for stitches, and I was so confused why I had to talk to crisis and why everyone was bringing up my alcohol level. Apparently my alcohol blood level was so high I shouldnt have been unable to function, but I was talking and walking totally fine. I was just used to drinking while acting normal around people even though I was completely intoxicated and they could tell that I had a problem because of it. It actually doesn’t surprise me too much.
You can’t defend this, people lost their lives. The toxicology report should tell you enough like it might not have hit her right then and there
@@paigeirwin4549 She was truly an awful person, she may have died but there’s justice on the other side.
The lawsuits are outrageous especially the one on poor warren. The fact that warren and his wife made it through this tragedy together and was able to welcome a blessed bundle is an amazing testimony to their strength and commitment.
Ok, I think I know what happened. I’m a former alcoholic/addict and the type of behavior you’re describing that happened to Diane, has happened to me. You don’t even need to be an alcoholic per se for this to happen. It seems like there is often a VERY fine line between being tipsy and blacking out. I think she was getting drunk, acting fairly normal up until the point she could have taken a shot or taken a few puffs of weed which made her black out. I don’t think she consciously did those things. I know for a fact I’ve had full on conversations with people, including police (I know, I was bad) where I have ZERO recollection. I’ve also had authority figures tell me I was acting normal! Or that I didn’t appear to be as drunk as I actually was. But as soon as I blacked out all hell broke loose, like what happened with this woman. I think that’s what happened here. It’s incredibly scary but it could have just been a situation where she was mildly tipsy and then decided to chug a couple shots that put her over the edge. That’s my guess.
Totally agree
100% - I believe she blacked out, too. 10 shots + weed (especially strong weed) will make you black out and may explain the vomiting as well.
@@connieharry8245 I didn’t even include that she was vomiting but it makes a ton of sense. It’s not uncommon for partners to hide how much they drink/use/smoke. The husbands insistence about her limited use proves further that he could have been in denial or would have judged her, probably both. Either way I hope this story gives people the courage to be more up front about their alcohol consumption/smoking. I’d rather deal with an annoyed husband by telling the truth than getting on the road with children in the car, even if slightly over the limit. But who knows the true dynamics of this household. So sad.
Thats when it gets scary. Cause blacking out is kinda like being knocked out in the sense that It happens once and its exponentially easier to happen again.Seemed like there at the end I wasn't drinking any more but blacking out almost every time
@@adamburdt8794 I totally get it. That was my story for way too long. It’s really scary and extremely dangerous. From what is being described here I am convinced she blacked out, regardless of what people saw. For people like you and me who have first hand experience, know it is so easy to go from 0 to a hundred in a blink of an eye. That has happened to me 1 too many times to count. God willing I’ll have 8 months clean/sober next week! I never want to experience that feeing again. I hope this story is a catalyst for many out there struggling to get help. Alcohol abuse doesn’t discriminate.
I can't imagine what this parents have gone through losing their 3 daughters. My family and friends criticize and make fun of me for not letting my kids ride with anyone other than me and my husband. The pain and remorse they might have been dealing with since.
Same, I can't believe your family and friends would criticize and make fun of you for not letting your children ride in the car with them, it's you and your husband's choice not your family and friends plus they sound really mean and toxic and your friends don't sound like true friends at all.
I'm a new mom to a 1 year old and my boyfriend thinks I'm paranoid. I don't trust people, I don't want her in a daycare situation cause I've read too any horror story's of kids being shaken and hurt.
@@pythonpatrolexotics your boyfriend is wrong about that, you have every right to feel that way as well as to not trust people too.
Same in here lol
@@samih5916 toxic? You sound toxic as hell for judging people you never met based off a one sided situation.
Brians little eyepatch is so sweet, poor darling.
This story is so heart breaking. I don't think she was a closet drinker. I think she probably did have a toothache and drank the vodka when the gas station didn't have pain meds. So despicable what her husband went on to do and say about the whole thing. I feel so bad for the victims and their families.
I agree with this. They even said about her autopsy her body didn’t show signs of being an alcoholic… she had stoped numerous times as she was ill. I think she drank to numb the pain & after the last stop she had drank too much got in the car and unfortunately went on the wrong side and the crash happened
What gas station doesn’t have Advil? Also, gas stations, convenience stores etc. are often in clusters. If you see a Walgreens there’s gonna be a Circle K, CVS or something somewhere where you can get pain medication.
He’s literally a victim
No, it's not. He truly believed what he was saying
Considering the van rolled, it’s very possible that the bottle got tossed around
Right? Like how do they KNOW it started off beside the driver's seat? This case baffles me every time I hear it.
My thoughts too, every time she mentioned it I was thinking "Ok but the darn thing flipped and if the kids were all in a pile on top of the little boy, then imagine where something as light as a vodka bottle would end up going".
Why wouldn’t she just wait for her brother to come get them? That’s what always gets me. You know when you are too intoxicated to drive. He said he was on the way... Baffling and heart breaking.
Because if he got there he would see how out of it she was. Her secret would be out.
That part really get me. I think most people would stop driving at that point. There’s so much talk about how she was a “super mom” and responsible for the kids. Maybe in her mental state she felt that she was responsible and HAD to get them home?
You’re absolutely right, it’s baffling and heartbreaking
I think she took off because she knew she was drunk & didn’t want her brother to find out.
@@connieharry8245 Yeah, that's totally possible too. Unfortunately, we'll never really know. I can't imagine how her loved ones feel with all of these questions surrounding the whole situation.
i think that she was drinking and driving. witnesses say that they saw her multiple times to pull over and vomit. that adds up with the vodka bottle. just a note though: my dad actually did have multiple strokes from bad dental work that left an abscess. it was a crazy time. he is better now, he’s regained the ability to walk, talk, and eat on his own after almost a decade of work. diane could have been drinking to help tooth pain but i’m not sure i support the theory about her having a stroke from an abscess at that point.
Oh god😳 glad your father is better now!
Didn't Bella say that it was proven that she didn't have a stroke? Glad your dad is okay btw, that must have been terrifying.
My son had an abscess and nearly died. His heart actually stopped in the ambulance. We were told that when an abscess bursts, the poison can either go up to the brain or down to the heart. In the days before proper dental healthcare, millions of people died as a result of poor dental hygiene. Strange but true.
@@TheGreatPresenter yes, I know a woman her son had tooth abscess and he almost died too. He was in a coma for a while but it was really touch and go. People don’t realise how dangerous a tooth abscess can be and what it can actually do to you. My hubby had a swollen eye, from a blocked tear duct, eye specialist said infection can get to brain really fast from eye, so if anitbots didn’t take swelling away fast he was admitting him for IV antibots…….so if it can happen with the eye it can happen with the mouth, so close to the brain it wouldn’t take long in reality.
@@shaz8486 Frightening!
No matter the causes or reasons, it baffles my mind how someone, especially a mother, would decide it's fine to drive 5 children after having a drink at all. Unless she suffered a stroke or smth and that impaired her thinking. Otherwise, it just seems like a suicide mission or she was in a terrible emotional state. In any case, those children met their ends in such a tragic way, it's heartbreaking.
It’s so sad but alcoholics don’t think
About the consequences or anyone else but themselves when under the influence I think this lady was just drunk and delusional and possibly something involving suicide
No stroke-would have shown up on autopsy.
Especially kids that aren’t yours
There was no evidence of a stroke or any other health issues in her autopsy. What Was found was a blood alcohol level of twice the legal limit. She was drinking and driving with a fatal accident.
Exactly. Leave kids out of it. Take your own life but don’t involve others
I have thought about this case and formed an opinion. For starters, I think Diane was a closeted alcoholic that was high functioning. She was able to work and care for her family and appeared to be a super wife, mother, and friend. I think on the day of the accident, she was probably irritated by the kids, who were just being kids, they were restless, "are we there yet", and it was getting on her nerves, so she takes a few sips of vodka. They stop at McDonald's and she gets orange juice to mix with her vodka. Now she is drinking steadily, completely unaware of how much she has consumed because it's mixed with the juice. Next, she goes into blackout, she is driving erratic and the children are scared but she has absolutely no idea what she is doing at this point, thus ending in tragedy. I say this because I have been blackout drunk so many times! I have had telephone conversations with people that I do not remember, I blew out 2 tires on my car (yes I was drinking/driving) that I still don't know how I did it. I am proud to say that I have been sober 8 months. I could very possibly have been Aunt Diane myself.
18 months sober now? im really proud of you!!
My almost 7 month old son is so in love with you. Drops whatever he is doing to look at you when he hears your voice. Huge smiles. ❤️
I think there’s a lot of moving parts in this story that amassed into the tragedy you’re speaking of today. Diane was a functioning alcoholic who drank that weekend and likely had vodka with her orange juice that morning. I do think she had a toothache and when the gas station didn’t have the medicine she was looking for (maybe specifically acetaminophen vs ibuprofen or something like that), she drank more vodka in an attempt to quell the pain of her toothache. She may have gotten really drunk on accident, if you will, like she went past her usual limits due to the pain or being distracted with the kids. I think she didn’t pull over and wait for Warren to come pick everyone up because she knew she’d be caught drunk and her whole world would come crashing down. Whether she made a conscious decision to go down the murder/suicide route or she just stopped thinking clearly is something unfortunately no one will ever know. This is one of those cases that has really stuck with me over the years. It’s kind of like a Shakespearean tragedy to me
I’m not even past the sponsor yet but I’ve got to say - I’m so happy you’ve brought your dark hair back. It’s so nice on you, just suits you so well!! I loveeee it
I thought it was always this color? I’ve been watching her for years and never miss a video (I could’ve just forgot tho)
@@maisiesymes she had highlights towards the ends of her hair at one point a few months ago.
Wasn’t her hair always this color?
@@kaylao.3326 she got highlights awhile back! I think it’s more noticeable in her Instagram pictures
I still think there is more to this - the idea that a mother who was fully functional in the rest of her life would risk the lives of her children and nieces doesn't sit right with me. Her confusion on the phone really makes me think something was wrong mentally.
she was in incredible pain and drinking to numb it. watch the documentary "theres something wrong with aunt diane"
@@littlemisstalky I have seen it. I know that's a theory they had but it wasn't determined to be fact from what I recall.
@@naomih1073 The fact remains that she ingested a shit ton of vodka, and smoked weed, all while driving a car full of kids. I don't believe she intentionally drove on a suicide mission, but all bets are off when you drink that much and drive.
@@jenm9099 100%
@@jenm9099 !!! exactly. these ppl really think chugging alcohol with kids in the car is acceptable if you have a toothache… wth??
I lost my grandma to a drunk driver going the wrong way down an interstate, so this case has always hit me pretty hard. I know it’s hard to admit that she was drunk, but it’s the truth. Honestly I think he needs therapy, they all do.
I'll never drink and drive because of stories like this and the people who do such a thing deserve no sympathy and are complete shit
Not only was she drunk she was completely negligent and ignorant and it's a tragedy that she took others out with herself
I’m sorry for your loss 🤍
I cannot comprehend the sheer selfishness of driving drunk. Like if you know you are going to drink it's easy to arrange a lift in advance. No need to risk maiming or killing innocent people.
I'm so back and forth about theories with this case. Just when I've decided, l change my mind again. Regardless of her condition, she was driving under the influence and her man child husband is in denial about it.
This case has always perplexed me. There are so many things about this tragic case that just don’t add up. I hope that all of these precious little ones are resting in peace. 💗
Lived near the taconic my whole life. My family always avoids taking this highway. There’s so many injuries and accidents. Great retelling of this case, only Bella knows how to make a case I’ve heard a billion times still seem intriguing
The bond that couple has is so beautiful. Two great people teamed up and im grateful to know about it. Love that!
This happened in my town less than a month after I graduated high school.
Some background on the Taconic: it's beautiful, it's dangerous, it's a b*tch; it's narrow and windy and doesn't bank the right way; it's fun to drive like a race track and "kids" like to drag race on it late at night; it goes through dark woods and over old bridges, if it's cold enough for black-ice the Taconic will have plenty of it, and the entrance ramps can be confusing. There are always fatal crashes on this parkway, most of them as result of wrong-way driving and always as a result of speed, intoxication, or poorly labeled entrance ramps (or all 3). This accident occurred as just one of several fatal crashes on the same stretch within just a couple of months, and doesn't include all of those on the other parkways in the area.
Some background of the area: It's cursed, I swear. In less than 3 years, YHS (my high school) lost +10 students to random, unrelated accidents - that doesn't include the kids from other schools who died tragically while in Yorktown.
So why are they acting like this is the only fatal crash here???? Sounds like a bad road that needs to be fixed.
@@SunnnySkies the magnitude of it....it was just horrific. Usually it's one or two adults or teenagers, which is still incredibly sad, but it's not half a dozen children plus adults.
The Taconic is not an unsafe road in and of itself, like all the parkways around there, but rather a combination of a false-sense-of-security (the road looks straight and open...for now...) and frequent tricky situations: narrow lanes with no shoulders and blind turns with concrete dividers between north & south, and often cliffs or guardrails on the right where the shoulder should be(which is fine if you're driving the right way in the right lane); how people drive it (like a racetrack, also with drag races after midnight on the straightaways); weather conditions including dense fog before dawn and at dusk, black ice at lower altitudes or on any of the countless bridges (often obscured by said fog); where the sun is and what season it is because sometimes the light through the trees has a strobe light effect (which can be really disorienting, I've had to slow down a few times); how late it is because the parkway goes through dense woods and lots of deer and other animals tend to not avoid cars; how heavy traffic is and where the construction projects are and how backed up the line is...just like any road, really... except pretty much all at once 😂
Another frequent offender is the Saw Mill Parkway, and further south the Hutchinson River Parkway... basically all the parkways around here are the same.
I once encountered a wrong way driver on the Saw Mill around midnight, coming around a blind turn down a steep grade...it was one of the most surreal moments of my life. +10yrs later and I still get nervous around one-way blind turns..
@@jaysea802 sounds like a road I never wanna travel.
@@SunnnySkies I don't blame you! I learned how to drive on those parkways, especially the Taconic (drove it to school and home every day for over 2 years) so they were always second nature to me. I use to know every curve, turn, bank...but now, 12yrs since I left, when I go back and drive those parkways I'm like "holy buttnuggets batman! This road is absurd!! Who TF designed this??"
The longer I'm gone, the more I realize how treacherous, tricky, and dangerous those parkways can be.
I could see this being a relapse for her. It seems really possible to me that she had been in recovery on her own, and that makes a catastrophic relapse like this one seem even more possible. And from a hell of a lot of experience, "seemed sober" means NOTHING. Especially if the alcoholic person is someone you're really close to. You can't imagine how much we overlook when we're missing just one piece.
Oh yeah that is very true. Especially if you're a functioning alcoholic, people around you don't necessarily notice. The relapse theory is interesting. That could explain why she was having trouble keeping her limit. It migjt have overwhelmed her because she was 'out of practice'
I never cry during movies or documentaries but I watched this one and I was balling hearing the kids message they left. Just screaming and crying. I just broke down. They lost ALL of their children. Broke my heart.
I think it’s possible she may have started off thinking she could have a drink/smoke a little and still make it home, but underestimated the effect of being stoned and drunk at the same time, as they really heighten each other. From there on her judgement would be greatly impaired which would explain why she kept drinking.
Agree
this and the possibility of a stroke are the only things that make sense to me
Any sane person knows alcohol and driving don't mix
This is one of the most heartwrenching cases I've ever heard, and I can't comprehend how this could've happened as in why 😔💔
One theory I heard was she suffered from migraines and may have had one that day. Migraines can cause vision impairment and stroke like symptoms. Perhaps she was self medicating the pain, or was out of it and didn’t realize what she was doing. No matter the cause it is absolutely heartbreaking. HBO documentary showed her picture from accident scene and it can never be forgotten.
YES! I cannot believe Bella did not explore the migraine theory!
Migraine sounds very plausible, but why wouldn’t she ask for help on that last phone call? They can be so painful as to make you want to die.
Bella can you make a video on how you do research on all these cases, would love to see that♡
Love all your videos and I don't like long videos to watch as it's hard to not to lose out interest but in your case I literally search for all 50 min videos cause it's so worth it and I never get bored for even a second ❤
as someone who lives VERY close to this parkway i’m TERRIFIED of stuff like this happening. people in ny drive like maniacs. sending love to the people affected.
Sounds like everyone is mad that there wasn't anyone to sue because the driver died.
Yeah, it's just really sad all the way round. Money, or a judge formally recognizing wrongful death isn't going to undo the tragedy, but I can see it's probably their way of trying to find closure.
I’m thinking Diane was pushed to the edge because of her “third child”. If he didn’t even help with their 2 children, I can’t imagine how much stress was put on her with their 3 nieces on the trip. Such a heartbreaking story and it’s ridiculous that the husband dragged this out for so long. He could’ve done it for a lot of reasons but I feel like it was an attention grab honestly.
100% agree. She snapped. She was tired of being a perfect super-mum with a man-child for a husband. Imagine going on a camping holiday with 5 young children and a partner who doesn't lift a finger all weekend. The kids might have been yelling, arguing and carrying on in the mini van. Her toothache was driving her insane. She got high, got drunk and decided to drive the wrong way down the highway.
@@elizabethmchardy1344 no amount of weed in the world will make you kill innocent people.
And also weaseling himself out of the blame . Because, how come that your perfect wife was drinking and smoking weed, and you never knew? And why did she start in the first place, 'cause a wife in a perfect marriage has no reason to.
@@user-ky7jx1cr5k it can help you get the courage
She didn’t have a toothache. That was what the lawyer said because she once had one. The clerk in the convenience store never said she asked for pain meds. And even if she did, maybe it was from a massive hangover because she was a drinker.
There is no way in my mind that this wasn’t a suicide mission. In my opinion, she wanted to leave, but didn’t want to do what her Mum did to them. She was the family rock and kept everyone together, she organised trips and wanted to be the antithesis of her Mum, so in her mind it was better to leave with them than leave them alone.
It is rare for someone to drive completely straight and focused going 140 km straight down a highway. It is rare for anyone to do that. How can someone be so drunk, that they somehow are driving the wrong way down the road, but aren’t swerving. Most drunk accidents or drunk-related never include driving the wrong way, it takes a lot of effort to end up on the complete wrong side of the highway, then continue to drive at high speeds.
If you look at the highway, you don’t accidentally end up where she did. She wanted pain killers and to drug herself up so calm herself down. Most people are relatively happy and normal before a suicide, they know their pain is nearly over. Only approx. 1/3 typically write out notes. One she had her last meal, she was in the car and was sick because she knew what she was about to do. Her mind was running and she didn’t want to talk to the kids or the adults because she didn’t want to get talked out of it, or for her plan to be ruined.
To me, this is the most logical answer.
Very well explained. So sad. It’s so strange still, what a way to go and take the children. 😢
This sounds like the most likely explanation to me. Maybe she also smoked weed and drank some vodka to calm herself down?
Why kill her nieces though?
@@sabahfatema yeah I don’t get the part with the nieces either, why would she take their life as well if that’s the theory?
I agree. And I think her husband was having an affair and probably asked for a divorce that weekend which caused her to break.
Omg been binge watching you for about 2 weeks and just when i thought i might’ve finished all the videos you came through🥺💜
I take the taconic all the time. This case has always fascinated me because of my close proximity of where the crash happened
Is it true what the other people have commented about it being a confusing as and dangerous road?
These videos are the HIGHLIGHT of my day! Also, this case has always bothered me and stuck with me… thanks for the great way you presented it!
Such a crazy heartbreaking story. I have a real hard time thinking she was a on the low alcoholic. Alcoholics drink to feel normal. Not go insane. Especially if no one close to her knew she was one. Then clearly she must of acted pretty put together every other time drunk or not! Def think it was mix of meds and alchy. And maybe the meds that initially sent her into this downward spiral to begin with.
My mother in law was an alcoholic. she put rubbing alcohol open in her room to make up a story for the vodka smell and drank out of water bottles. she went nuts fast and tried to break into our house to get alcohol
I’m sorry but the word alchy is adorable I’m sorry if that’s offensive
I am diabetic and let me tell you, when my sugar goes very low like in the 40s. The disorientation I experience can make drinking acid like drinking plain water. You really won't know what's happening or what you're doing until after your blood sugar goes back up and sleep. It is possible she mistakenly drunk the vodka thinking it was water.
@@corinneadair2119 😆
@@karenlo7301 this is very interesting and really answers a lot of the questions of this case! Thanks for sharing! I too think that it had to be some medical issue/ or medication effect that made her drink/smoke like that.
This case blows my mind. Sometimes I randomly think about it and try to make sense of it.
cant believe all the poor people that were injured and killed during this and just how many questions there still r surrounding this case!
It's worth watching the HBO documentary on this called "there's something wrong with aunt dianne"
There’s also a podcast called “The Prosecutors” that covers the case and is quite good.
I definitely think she was having a medical emergency, some immense level of pain that clouded her judgement and made her self medicate with the vodka.
Same. Because you can’t miss the signs of a longtime alcoholic during an autopsy. She would’ve had organ damage.
Same here. Such a sad case for everyone involved 😥
@@beckbeck5110 I have trouble feeling bad for her husband but man, that impacted so many lives.
I wondered if she might be having a diabetic incident - my mum is type 2 diabetic and she's had several "hypo's" over the years when she's not eaten anything. Orange juice is full of sugar at McDonald's- both natural and added sugar. If you develop diabetes your bidy cannot process sugar any more and you can go into a diabetic coma. It's also possible that she was so disoriented that she thought the vodka was water. All the symptoms add up for me. My mum got so confused/disorientated once that she was falling over like she was drunk, slurring her words. She was making no sense! She then went and drank a bottle of breast milk from my fridge that I had expressed for my daughter because she said she was really thirsty and thought it was cows milk! From a baby's bottle!!
@@maggiekarabel123 I don't like the way he carried on afterwards, but I still feel for him.
I am diabetic and let me tell you, when my sugar goes very low like in the 40s. The disorientation I experience can make drinking acid like drinking plain water. You really won't know what's happening or what you're doing until after your blood sugar goes back up and sleep. It is possible she mistakenly drunk the vodka thinking it was water.
This when my blood sugar goes to 40s or 270s I’m hypoglycemic I literally cannot think straight. It sometimes makes me feel drunk.
Diane didn't have a history of diabetes
a migraine would explain the visual disturbances, the vomiting and her going into the gas station to buy painkillers and wouldn't necessarily show up on an autopsy, but wouldn't explain the toxicology reports :/
Migraines, especially if it was maybe one of her first major ones, will cause all of the symptoms listed plus more that are not even as recognized symptoms... like altered reality, temp paralysis, inability to hear, speak etc. definitely effects cognitive ability. She may have been desperate to get home but knew she couldn’t call her husband to help so in her migraine impaired state thought she could make it home with a bit of vodka?
Also was the husband ever investigated? He didn’t want kids etc..... some red flags there... did he give her edibles with some spiked juice since you can’t taste vodka if diluted? If he gave her a good quality edible in the morning without her knowledge it takes a while for them to take effect. He did seem to have a bit of a motive?
I thought this exact thing because I get migraines with these symptoms.
I thought that maybe she chugged it thinking it was water, because she has spots in her vision and loss of taste or a numb mouth. I am not with it when I have them and can’t even remember my families names.
FINALLY! A comment with the migraine theory. YES! I agree completely. Also explains chugging vodka (thinking it's water). Literally everything can be explained with the theory that she got a migraine, possibly her first, and it was BAD and she didn't know what to do/couldn't see/think/speak/etc. People who don't get severe migraines have no idea.
I just don’t think she’d be able to drive and would have waited for the lift. I suffer really bad migraines and no way could I start a car let alone drive it when I have one.
@@clarewarp1384 if she didn't know what it was, she could have tried to power through it. I've had them since puberty (I'm in my thirties now) and the first few times, I had no idea what was happening. And there are different types / levels of migraines and different effects they have on different people.
This case bothers me so much. The fact that her liver showed no signs of alcohol abuse makes me think that she wasn’t an alcoholic - at least not long term. I do think she was drunk, but I really want to know why.
I think maybe it was the tooth. I’ve had blinding tooth pain before and I can see maybe if she was stoned and it wasn’t helping AND she couldn’t get pain meds maybe she just downed the vodka completely irrationally. Only thing that really makes sense.
@@maggiekarabel123 Tht makes sense. I’ve had tooth pain before too that I just wanted to wail my head against a wall to make it stop.
Not every alcoholic has liver damage, particularly at Diane's age.She was still relatively young, only in her 30's. Alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver doesn't usually appear until the early 50's. Other alcohol-related liver damage such as fatty liver usually appears in a person's mid-40's. So the absence of liver damage doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't an alcoholic. It could mean she didn't have liver damage -- yet.
@@maggiekarabel123 I use whisky for toothache. Swill it round and keep it against the tooth. But I don't swallow it.
This case has haunted me for years. Your outline of the facts is one of the clearest I've come across. The most upsetting thing about it is how people can project an image to others while hiding something less salubrious about themselves which can then burst out at a moment of stress. We all have that quality, and it's scary. I've known people to suddenly behave in a totally different, bizarre way and I know I've done it myself, but never in such a violent, tragic way, thank God. I feel so sorry for everyone involved, including Dianne. I don't think she intended such a tragedy at all. I think she intended to drive home normally, with everyone alive, and then something snapped. Something snapped because she was wound up too tightly, like an over-wound-up clock. It's so sad.
A functioning alcoholic wouldn't necessarily present liver damage. I used to drink a bottle of wine a night, minimum, which would class me as a functioning alcoholic. I had to have a liver function test in order to take a particular medication for cystic acne and I was terrified because I thought my drinking would mean my liver wasn't in good enough shape to take the medication. Nope. Liver was perfectly normal. If you are drinking a steady amount but not hitting the bottle constantly all day every day, then the liver regenerates pretty quickly.
I gave up drinking over a decade ago now and I'm much happier and healthier for it :)
In this case, I really think she had some kind of brain injury, it sounds much more like psychosis than being drunk. The vodka could have been left over from the weekend trip or maybe if she did have toothache and used it as a way to disinfect/numb the area until she got home. Sounds more like bad weed than too much booze.
I actually hadn’t thought about this but when I got off drugs after 7 years I had no liver damage at all. The doctors were pretty amazed so I don’t think it’s common but it’s definitely possible. Interesting point.
that’s a really interesting point!!
also glad to hear you’re doing well 🤍
Bad weed??? I’ve never heard anything so absurd. I was with you up to that comment
@@maggiekarabel123 But in an autopsy, they actually look at the liver. Your liver can be grossly affected by alcohol but you still have normal values. Fatty liver is a condition that can be caused by excessive alcohol use (and can be reversed by stopping drinking), which is visible with imaging, but values aren't necessarily affected. The fact that her liver looked fine really makes me struggle to believe she was a closet alcoholic
@@MissSeaSea You can get weed that has been dipped in chemicals to make it more potent, it's very common in the UK, I've had it myself in the past. This can cause severe hallucinations/psychosis especially if you're not expecting anything more than the usual weed you get. If you've never "heard of anything so absurd" you can't get out very much, although I'm glad your life has been sheltered enough that this kind of thing has never affected you.
I’m from westchester county, Ny. This was
So upsetting I can’t believe it’s this many years ago now, the mother of the girls lost wrote a memoir about how she survived a mother’s worst nightmare, it’s a very moving read/listen if anyone is interested in learning more about this awful tragedy. God bless all those innocent people lost that day 😞
I’ve always thought it had to do with the tooth. My theory is her tooth was hurting badly that day, and when the gas station didn’t have pain killers she downed a bunch of the vodka she had with her. Perhaps the THC in her system came from her smoking weed before they left the campground that morning 🤷♀️. I hope one day there will be answers.. so sad this happened 😥.
A tooth problem would have shown up in the autopsy-they specifically looked for an abcess, which would’ve shown up, even in the tooth loss and jaw fractures she sustained in the crash. Her family was just trying to find a way for it not to be Diane’s fault. Danny is full of crap.
Thank goodness i stumbled onto ur channel. I lov the fact that you give the TRUE facts whilst giving it to us in a story format. You have earned ur self a life long subscriber my friend 👌🏻 💜
Would love an occasional fun( grwm, makeup, food, outfits, day with me) video …
Love seeing that side of u too ❣️
yesss i have some coming very soon! i’ve just filming 2 vlogs which i’m just editing at the moment :)
I think she started drinking recently, probably as a way to relax and it’s slowly become an addiction. She would’ve been drinking while camping and if she was sneaking it around her husband, she could’ve been staying up later to have a drink so he didn’t find out and if that was the case, she could’ve still been drunk that next morning. Maybe that morning she was feeling off and decided to have a hair of the dog, it didn’t work, she’s gone looking for painkillers it’s reacted badly with the alcohol and she’s gotten disoriented or she’s done the “if I stay drunk, I won’t feel the hangover” and was sipping on vodka oranges on the drive. Either way, I think her alcohol levels are proof enough that she is in some way at fault, I think it was a case of addiction gone too far
This is the case that keeps me up at night.. So many unanswered questions.
Hi Bella, I hope you see this, I’ve been watching you for years and am so thankful that you continue to spread awareness of these cases, you’re one of my favourite true crime TH-camrs ❤️
Wow after not thinking about this case in years I was randomly thinking about it a couple of days ago and then this video pops up. Such a sad and unfortunate event I often wondered what happened to the remaining survivors. What a tragedy all around.
This story has always stayed with me since I first heard it many years ago. I'm not sure we will ever know what Diane was thinking that day. I just know what followed was truly horrific. I can't imagine those poor little ones last moments, being with someone they thought they were safe with. At the end of the documentary, they show Diane's dead body and her injuries were horrific. RIP to everyone who died that day. This case is truly heartbreaking 💔
This one will always haunt me. So so tragic and we will never know what truly happened 💔
OMG I LOVE WATCHING BELLA and the fact that I live by the taconic state parkway here in NY is awesome.
this is one of the most insane cases. I’m obsessed. jay and danny are in such denial tho :(
I actually had a friend who had an abscessed tooth and it turned into a brain infection. It was crazy, he was fine then was suddenly acting so strange, then of course ended up in the hospital for a while.
I was never the same after watching the doc for this case, especially after seeing the pics after the crash, when they showed Diane’s body 🙃
Also I hated her husband’s attitude towards having to raise his son now that she was gone. He was so bitter that he had to parent now 🙄
I don’t know what he was hoping to achieve by participating in that documentary because it made him look TERRIBLE.
What’s the name of the documentary?
@@SpaceDuchess977 it’s called “There’s something wrong with aunt Diane” it’s on HBO
@@SpaceDuchess977 Something’s Wrong With Aunt Diane
The documentary hbo is on utube.
Amazing content as usual bella.
In her videos I love her different earrings. Different, stylish, beautiful. Imo.
Regardless of why she crashed, she CHOSE to KEEP driving. Bystanders can testify that she pulled over several times to vomit or take a break and at any of those times she could have said, I need help. She could have called someone or had someone else call someone to come to get them. She could have called an ambulance and had the children transported to the hospital with her. She could have stopped that car at any moment and said I’m just not well enough to do this drive. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to get that drive over and done with too but the second I didn’t feel well, I would have pulled over and got help. She didn’t and look how it turned out. My condolences to the victims and their families. Make good decisions folks. It could save your life and the lives of many others.
I agree with you, she should have called someone. I think that she got blackout drunk and was no longer aware of what she was doing.
I have a lot of sympathy for everyone. Many many lives were lost and it is unclear what happened here. It doesn’t sit right with me to make any assumptions so I’m just sending sympathy to everyone that lost someone. Tragedies happen and when there’s no one to hold accountable the worst really can come out in some people.
Aunt Diane was tore up drunk and high!!!
This is so sad 😭 these poor innocent people. My heart breaks for those children 💔
I was an extremely functional alcoholic. But I have liver damage and heart damage. But most ppl had no clue I drank let alone the amount that I did.
For how long?
So happy you're doing better! :)
i can't imagine being those poor kids, what should have been a fun trip with cousin turned into a disaster when aunt got drunk and drove 85 mph in the wrong way. R.I.P
Im at a HUGE loss for words... for all the lives that were lost, and for those who loved them all dearly. Ive heard MANY tragic stories of people driving the wrong way on one way roads, and for many reasons. I'd never wish this on anyone... ever. You really never know and can only HOPE that the ones we love, ( including ourselves) are NEVER the ones that are the unsuspecting victims of these kind of tragedies. 🥺
“No one in my family knows I smoke” ruins all credibility for her family for me sorry :/
She's so ridiculous! The irony of her saying that while prior swearing if Diane had substance issues they would all know.
And saying that while being filmed... I mean there is a sone irony there for sure
I live very close by to the area where this happened. I actually saw the burnt car on the way back from my aunts house on that day. Such an awful case. I can’t even begin to imagine how devastating this traumatic event was to all the families of the victims lost in the crash ☹️
For some reason this case lives rent free in my mind since the HBO special came out years ago. I actually Googled it several weeks ago to see if I could read anything about it that I missed and look at other people's theories. I ended up reading a comment section on a blog and a reddit thread I think. I have no idea what to think. I do believe she was high and drunk but I don't know why or how she got that way after the McDonald's stop. We can only speculate. One thing of interest is I don't think the brother in law ever revealed how she sounded or what she said when he talked to her on the cell phone on the side of the road. She ended up leaving the phone behind and the rest is history. Such a tragic tale and actually kinda creepy/scary. Wayyyyy too many theories out there including that she could have wanted to die and took these actions on purpose. Regardless, she wasn't actually driving towards her home/destination for a good part of the trip. She was driving out of the way.
Crazy. I went to school in Liberty, NY. Would’ve been around about 30 at this time, but didn’t realize they had stopped in Liberty. Even recognized that gas station immediately. This is so sad.
Just wanted to say you’re glowing ma’am 🤍
your videos always make my day bella!! 🥺🥺 i was having such a bad day then the noti popped up and my heart did a lil back flip 🥰🥰 love you bella
She was in a blackout, plain and simple. And the toxicology doesn’t lie.
I was living right off that exit when this tragedy occurred and think of this every time I get on and off that ramp. The signs could still be clearer. So awful in so many ways. God bless their memories and their families.
Hey Bella Foiri Your show is awesome. I love your intelligent discussions on unsolved cases especially. Pls look in2 the libya beach murders of Lyn Howie And Marc Desalis. They both got shot dead outside the melitah oil base on the Libyan coastline 2 Janurary 2014. 4 suspects were arrested in the near by town of sabratha but they were all relased the same day and the double murder remains unsolved. They owned a house in silverstream wellington new zealand but they were an English couple. Have a good day fro. New Zealand
Horrifying and mystifying. Thanks, Bella. Sending you love from the Allegheny Mountains! Maureen xoxo
If I lost all my children, I honestly do not think I could wake up again ....
Awful .... 💔
It breaks my heart that they heard the kids crying in the back in the last phone call…they were so scared and she took their lives….whatever happened that day she had so many chances to not continue driving the car and get help …she was careless of the others in the car …I’ll pray for these families who lost their loved ones because of her
I was just hoping for an upload! Bella you make my days so much better 🥰
🤍🤍🤍
As a Psychologist, the first thing I thought of with the painkillers was if she was experiencing a headache and felt generally unwell, she could have been experiencing some type of brain injury e.g. stroke or some type of bleed… And if she wasn’t coherent enough by the time she got the vodka out, she absolutely could have thought this was water and just kept drinking it🤔 Even with a simple migraine (doesn’t sound like a migraine but just to further my point) your taste/sensory processes can be negatively impacted so if there was something more sinister going on it’s probable that she wouldn’t have even noticed it was vodka when she drank it. This story is so sad, sending love to everyone involved❤️
There is nothing simple about a migraine. The "she got a migraine" theory is a huge theory for this case that I cannot believe Bella did not even mention :(
But I agree with the rest of what you wrote!
i watched the documentary and all diane's husband did was be sorry for himself for having to care for their remaining son on his own and how much of a burden that was, even though the kids aunt practically adopted him and is clearly his primary caretaker, the husband talked about how much he missed diane only in a context of all the things she used to do for him and not so much of the person she was, he really was worse than another child of hers, so i think he knew how overwhelmed she was and didn't care, maybe he has been upsetting her leading up to the accident and after the fact he tries to remove any personal guilt by praising and defending her, there's no other reason in my mind for him to keep going back to the media saying the same thing over and over if it isn't because of the guilt going over him from time to time
What’s the he name of the documentary?
OMG I haven't seen the whole video yet, but I was shocked to see this title because I go on the Taconic sometimes (I live in southern New York) and it always feels so dangerous and narrow yet traffic on it is so fast.
I remember watching this special. It's shocking and heartbreaking 💔.
This case hits super close to home. My ex girlfriend actually did the same thing, driving the wrong way on the highway and hit someone head on. There were three adults and one child in that car, and the driver passed away. She was an addict but didn't have any drugs in her system at that time, and has no memory of it so no one really knows what happened. Now she's serving a five to fifteen year prison sentence. And here I am venting to random strangers about it. Life is weird.
I'm not convinced she was an alcoholic, could she have self medicated because of the toothach? Possibly. Is there a Chance the orange Juice she got was just this side of going bad and maybe it caused her to feel off as well?
The Husband though, Holy... though after hearing that he was basically a child I can understand ( not that I approve) as to why he kept going on TV, suing ect.. he needed to have people feel sorry for.him, if he didn't go public every now and then people would " forget" about him and he'd suddenly have to do everything he didn't / couldn't before.
I'm not sure if that even makes sense.
The official documentary showed 10 units of alcohol already in her bloodstream & even more in her stomach waiting to be digested....on top of the weed smoked within 1.5hours of the crash.
@@sarahholland2600 yea you hear that BS that possibly the OJ was almost bad. Call a spade a spade and a drunk driving murder a.... Well you get it
My stepdad had diabetes and when he got close to being in a diabetic coma he acted weird like that. Stumbling, slurring, forgetting things and people, memories mixed up. My dad died from untreated diabetes and the weekend he crashed he was talking like he was a teenager again and he fell in the bathroom between the toilet and wall (none of us could figure out how that happened) and he couldn’t get out by himself. He was physically and mentally handicapped already but we never knew he was diabetic. He was home for the holiday feom his nursing facility and they supposedly got blood work done each month but somehow missed the diabetes every single month. Which means he wasn’t eating right or on medicine. Diabetes can do some crazy things. I mean people literally lose toes, fingers, feet, legs, etc from diabetic issues.
This whole thing is so sad. Such a tragic loss of young lives.
Just wanted to say I’m bringing in pics of you to my hair stylist. Is that weird? I hope not 😂
Yes🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 jk
I DID I TOO OMFG
@@alexjacobsen8487 why?
omg heheh i’m honoured
@@darijapeter_ well I don’t think bellas lovely hair would look good on a fella. Each to their own though
One of the most interesting cases to me! Thanks for covering it!!
One of my favorite documentaries on HBO and I was just watching it last night! So heartbreaking and I’m so torn on what I think!
Another incredible episode, smashing it out here, big inspiration to my cases the way you deliver them with your great style, loving your work!
She could’ve recently started having a alcoholic addiction a few weeks/ months prior to the car crash? It would explain why there wasn’t damage to the liver. Also, maybe she had laced weed?
im glad you are doing this one. its so sad and very confusing