The body of Diane Schuler, the woman whose tragic wrong-way adventure on the Taconic Parkway left eight dead, will be exhumed at her family's request, as they try to disprove findings that indicate she was drunk and high at the time.
"Yes, the body will be exhumed," attorney Dominic Barbara told Larry King last night. "It's not automatic, but we have enough cause and reason to."
Schuler had a blood alcohol level of 0.19 – more than twice the legal limit – at the time of the crash and had smoked marijuana as early as 15 minutes before, officials say.
Daniel Schuler, who appeared on "
Larry King Live" with
Barbara, refuses to believe his wife was intoxicated at the time of the horrifying July 26 accident that killed her, her daughter and three nieces, as well as three other men in an SUV.
"I believe she had a stroke - something to do with her teeth," he told King. "Maybe medically she was messed up."
Even before Daniel Schuler's appearance on "Larry King Live," lawyers for the family of two of the Yonkers men killed in the crash had expressed their frustrations with Schuler's family.
"The lengths these people are taking to deny reality are just astounding and painful to my clients," Irving Anolik, attorney for the Bastardis, told the New York Daily News. "The fact remains that Diane Schuler was drunk and high when she killed all these people and the facts aren't going to change."
The Bastardis, who intend to sue Daniel Schuler in civil court, have their own concerns about the autopsy. They wanted officials to test hair follicle samples from Diane Schuler, which can reveal drug use dating back for two months. Westchester officials confirmed a hair follicle test hadn't been conducted, and one said that such tests typically weren't used in accident investigations.
