After watching the documentary, I have to agree with the murder/ suicide theory. But, I don't agree with the motives that I've read so far....
The only reason I can comprehend Diane doing something like this is that she found something out that she couldn't live with... an affair? Or maybe she found out her husband was sexually molesting her daughter/ nieces...
She couldn't process what she discovered and decided to get cope the best way she could.
... seems quite far-fetched ...
shareI can't imagine a mom getting that wasted and driving children like that.
She could have stopped driving at the rest stop and sought help.
I think the pain in her tooth theory is far fetched for me...
I can't imagine a mom getting that wasted and driving children like that.
She could have stopped driving at the rest stop and sought help.
To - mayobrown-1:
A lot of your theory makes sense. But, I don't get this part.
She was a mess. When the little girl called home, Diane took the phone away and wanted to create the illusion that everything was fine. She tells the sister-in-law and the brother that all is well and the kids are just fooling around (with their silly accusations against Diane).
So, then, Diane says to herself: "I have to get home as soon as possible. Even if I have to drive like a bat out of hell."
OK. So far, so good.
She gets home; then what?
Obviously, everyone there (brother, sister-in-law, etc.) will be able to see that she arrived home as a big mess. So, her "illusion" is totally shattered. If she could not "fool" the little kids (that she was incapacitated), how could she possibly expect to fool the adults?
So: why would she not want to "get caught red handed" when she was on the phone? But she didn't mind the inevitable end of "getting caught red handed" once she arrived at the house?
That part makes no sense. At all.
She gets home; then what?
Obviously, everyone there (brother, sister-in-law, etc.) will be able to see that she arrived home as a big mess. So, her "illusion" is totally shattered. If she could not "fool" the little kids (that she was incapacitated), how could she possibly expect to fool the adults?
So: why would she not want to "get caught red handed" when she was on the phone? But she didn't mind the inevitable end of "getting caught red handed" once she arrived at the house?
That part makes no sense. At all.
Hmmmm. Perhaps.
Somewhere along the way, I thought I had heard/read that she was bringing the nieces home. They were going to be in some school recital. And part of the issue was Diane rushing so as not to be late for this recital.
But maybe I got all these details wrong. It's been a long time.
No, you're right. She was supposed to be driving her nieces to their home from the camping trip. I just don't think that her plans for that day were going to be followed once her drinking started to spiral out of control.
shareOK. Yeah, I thought the school recital trip was part of the equation.
share...and waking up her sleeping third child/husband...
"Eight year old Emma Hance had called her mom to tell her that there was something wrong with Aunt Diane and Diane took the phone from her and when her sister-in-law asked Diane what was wrong, Diane had the capacity to understand at that moment that she needed to lie about the situation and said in a slurred, almost incoherent speech to her sister-in-law, "The kids are just being silly, everything's fine, they're having fun, they're playing."
This sums up why I think it was murder suicide and not a health emergency. She was coherent enough to lie. If she was ill she would have said "my head hurts. I'm sick" etc. and when she pulled over she would have stayed on the side of the road until her brother arrived...But she didn't, got back on the highway and drove full speed ahead. And there had to be a moment before she took that first drink of booze that she could kill them all if she was drunk. She knew what she was doing.
In a blackout, someone drives 70 miles an hour straight with no weaving? Nah. I don't buy it.
She was a lush probably but she intentionally murdered those kids and committed suicide. She was aware of what she was doing.
People have entered the freeway the wrong way and even when drunk or high they swerve and pull over to save their life!!
God she would discover her husband molested the girls and she would decide to kill them on top of their abuse? And her husband would go under the spotlight in desperate attempt to clear her, taking the risk for his atrocities to be uncovered ?
Nope.
That makes no sense
No I think that there was nothing there for her to discover. She just decided to be totally selfish and reckless have a drink may have smoked pot that day and then went and killed people .
Those kids must have been terrified that day
I was waiting for my hearse what came next was so much worse
Another way to comprehend Diane doing something like this is knowing what her internal life and psychology actually were. We don't, but there are plenty of signs that she was not a healthy personality. Her refusal to reconcile with the mother who deserted her when she was a child (and she was made to take over the role of homemaker). The implication by her friends that Daniel, this total waste of oxygen, was Diane's "only shot" at having a family. Her only shot? Diane was pretty, she was smart. What was her history that her friends - and Diane - understood that this loser, Danny, was her only chance? If he was, considering her apparent advantages, that, too, indicates something off, not fully functional in her life. Something longstanding.
Her friends clearly implied that Diane took on Danny only because she wanted a family. She knew what a loser she was marrying. She didn't attend the wedding of a friend, and then cut herself off from those friends. It's only speculation - but look at Diane's situation, who she married, who she "settled for". What did it feel like for her to attend other people's weddings? Or to pretend her life was as fulfilling as theirs, but it wasn't?
With her, I wonder about longstanding resentment not just of her childhood, but people who had it better, or weren't impacted the way she was (like her brother), and about rage, and possible emptiness/pain underneath it all, building for years.
There's her history of suddenly making a huge purchase - going out for groceries, coming home with a car - or a big screen TV. What's driving impulses like that?
There's also her brother, Warren, and her sister-in-law, Jackie, who have what Diane only seems to have. They have a functional marriage, a real connection with each other (so strong it survived unspeakable tragedy), a happy family. Warren speaks to their mother, Diane doesn't. The contrast was in her face every day.
If people think of Diane as a fully functional, normal woman who just one day 'snapped' from too much life stress, or discovering something traumatic, IMO that is much too much of a soap opera way of looking at something. It makes more sense to understand her as someone who was NOT, internally, fully functional, who had longstanding rage and pain that she managed until it built to a point that she couldn't. The kids completely play into that - it destroys what her brother has, and in a bizarre way, she's not going to leave her kids to be raised by Danny, and she doesn't want to put them through their mother's suicide.
Thoughts also about how badly she wanted kids: a number of people in my family work in the area of child development. It's very common for people to want children so they'll have something or someone that's all theirs, and, this is important, who will love them unconditionally. We all know what a mistake that is. It's the parent that is meant to love the child unconditionally, not vice versa. The child is wired to be self-centered, the parent to little kids is a source of security and filling needs. The child has demands. It's rewarding/fulfilling, but it's not a fantasy neverending flow of unconditional love.
Anyway, I think this case upsets people because they see it as a normal woman who lost it due to some triggering event. It's almost like - if it happened to Diane, it could happen to anyone! Let's reason this through.
I don't think Diane was a "normal" woman. I think she had the façade of one, but was severely damaged.
I really enjoyed reading your post. It makes so much sense! It was naive of me to believe that she just snapped one day and consciously did something as horrific as this. No sane person would.
This case haunts me and saddens me beyond belief. I can't imagine how terrified and helpless those children were in the van. I just can't understand it. I can't understand Diane.
Thanks for your post.
Thank you.
shareThis thread is dumb. Zero evidence points to this.
share