Under The Influence

Drugs and alcohol are easy to come by. You can get em at the grocery store, or on the corner. These cases are so commonplace, it's like a broken record.

 On July 26, 2009, Diane Schuler began the drive home from a family camping trip with her two children and three nieces in the car. Four hours later Diane was seen driving the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway for nearly 2 miles, before crashing head-on into another car. Eight of the nine people involved were dead. And there were more questions than answers.  

 After spending the day at the beach on May 26, 2012, Rudy Eugene viciously attacked a homeless man, Ronald Poppo, leaving behind a gruesome and horrific scene unlike anything we’ve ever seen (yes, there are pictures). The details are disgusting, and the questions are never answered. 

 Join Gavin, Suzi, and Brittany each week as we take you on a thrill ride adventure into the juicy details surrounding famous and unheard-of cases.

Things can get a little rough, so listener discretion is advised.
-----------------------------------------------

Like what you hear and want some more? Become a Patron and get bonus episodes, exclusive access to extras, and even some free merch! Starting at just $3/month.
Visit https://www.patreon.com/nitecaptcp to get started.

Visit our website for info, merch, or to just annoy us! https://www.nitecaptruecrime.com

 Make sure you subscribe and rate our show to help other creeps and weirdos find us!

Connect with us on social media:

Facebook.com/nitecaptruecrime

Instagram: @nitecap.tcp

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:03

911, what is your emergency? I just found a body. I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_03 0:10

Government of people.

SPEAKER_08 0:17

You are listening to Nightcap, a true crime podcast.

SPEAKER_05 0:21

If the mystery of murder intrigues you, or if you find crime quite a curiosity. Welcome home.

SPEAKER_07 0:27

Pour yourself a drink, sit back, and buckle up. It's gonna get dark.

SPEAKER_08 0:32

Be warned, this podcast does contain explicit content and graphic descriptions of real life accounts and cases.

SPEAKER_05 0:39

Listen our discretion. It's definitely a black. Oh well, hello there. Welcome to our fifth episode Under the Influence. Apparently, it's pretty easy to get fucked up and fuck some shit up. We've got a couple good ones for you this week. So grab a drink, settle in, and buckle the fuck up. I'm Brittany. I'm Gavin. I'm not Gavin.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

I'm Susie. Hi. It's me again. It's still Susie. I'm always second.

SPEAKER_08 1:14

Took my spot.

SPEAKER_07 1:15

It was funny when I was writing it, I was like, I'm totally gonna fuck her up.

SPEAKER_08 1:18

You did. I'm always second. Oh, but my bad. You guys should know us by now, but here we are.

SPEAKER_05 1:25

You know, if you don't. Um, so what is everyone drinking?

SPEAKER_07 1:29

Well, I am drinking Two Towns Cider House made in Marion. Blackberry hard cider. Oh, it's a lot of words. It is a lot of words, but it is delicious. Sounds delicious. It's made with Marion berries. Which our guests are also blackberries. Did you know?

SPEAKER_05 1:49

It's like a weird Northwest hybrid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:54

It is a 6.0 alcohol volume. It is nice.

SPEAKER_08 1:59

He said it was his new favorite.

SPEAKER_07 2:01

It's boldly crafted in Oregon.

SPEAKER_05 2:05

And it's an Oral. I wasn't crafted here, but I am here.

SPEAKER_07 2:11

In Corvallis. I drive through there every time I go to my favorite place in Oregon. Where's that? Newport Beach and Yahoo's.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Oh. I went there once. It's the only time I've been to the coast since I moved here.

SPEAKER_08 2:29

I like how that you're not drinking a cider this week, so you had a seltzer that you just are like, I gotta read the whole can because it's brand new. Yeah. This isn't it truly. There's so many words on this can. Oh, it's good stuff. Well, I'm drinking DeShute's little squeezy, juicy ale. It's uh crafted to remove gluten for all you gluten intolerant people out there. Oh it's not too shabby. I don't know where it's from or the ABB because I'm not gonna read my can as much as Gavin did, but it's good.

SPEAKER_05 3:03

It's good stuff. I mean you didn't memorize it beforehand? No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_08 3:07

And I'm drinking like this is my third one, so goes to show how much I care about the look of the can.

SPEAKER_07 3:13

I had to look and read my can before we even got here, just so that would it wouldn't be overwhelming.

SPEAKER_05 3:20

And yet it still was.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

It still was.

SPEAKER_05 3:22

It still was well I'm drinking Partake Brewing, not alcoholic pale, which I I think I drank this on our first episode. It's delicious, and it's zero carbs, which is nice. Is that a full brewery that does just non-alcoholic? Is that why it's called Partake? Yeah, there's a few that they only do, and they're all pretty like clever names, but yeah, yeah, there's like a lot now. It's really nice.

SPEAKER_08 3:50

So yeah, that's I even heard that there was uh whiskey.

SPEAKER_05 3:53

Non-alcoholic whiskey. There's whiskey and rum and gin. And I want to find a vodka. That's like pretty new. I've like seen you know, non-alcoholic wines and champagnes for a while and beers, but yeah, all the spirits now are so I'm gonna get get some vodka.

SPEAKER_08 4:10

Yeah, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 4:11

I'm like, how do you take the the hard alcohol out of the hard alcohol? Yeah, I don't I don't know how much like yeah, I don't know. Like, is it synthetic? I don't it's crazy. What a world we live in. I'll try it sometime. The more you know anyways. So yeah. Let's get am I supposed to say let's get started? Let's dive the fuck in, you guys.

SPEAKER_05 4:37

Let's do it. This is my first day. Gavin, what do you got for us?

SPEAKER_07 4:43

Oh snap. Do I got some facts for you? Oh. So, under the influence is used to describe a person who is intoxicated by either alcohol, drugs, or a combination of the two. Now, crime happens regardless of intoxication. However, it sure relaxes your inhibitions. Mm-hmm. It sure do. Here are some statistics from the United States Bureau of Justice statistics on the percentages of crimes committed while under the influence. And might I add that looking all this crap up was incredibly boring? So now we're going to share it with you. Yes. Hope you like it. Crimes of violence come in at 24%. So this is like people who have committed these crimes while under the influence. So 24% of crimes of violence, rapes and sexual assaults are at 30%, robbery, 23%, assault, 24%, aggravated assault, 26%, and 23 of all simple assaults are also people who are, you know, had either been drinking or doing drugs. All in all, about 42% of all crimes are committed by people who are under the influence. That's almost half. Y'all.

SPEAKER_08 6:04

Yeah, I was gonna say I thought the assaults would be a lot higher because I'm a bartender and I've seen my share of bar fights and they're not sober.

SPEAKER_07 6:11

Yep. About one-fourth of convicted federal prisoners admit to being or admit to committing crimes while under the influence of illegal substances. Officials estimate that around 1.5 million people are arrested each year for driving under the influence in the United States. That's about 1,250 arrests per 100,000 drivers on the road. That's a lot of numbers. That's a lot of numbers. Drivers are legally alcohol impaired when their blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, is 0.08 grams per deciliter or higher. And every day, nearly 30 people die in the United States from DUI-related crashes.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

That's awful.

SPEAKER_07 6:52

And about 10,000 people die every year to DUI-related crashes. Oh, don't drive drunk, you guys. When it comes to homicide, alcohol is involved more than any other drug like heroin or cocaine. Alcohol intoxication tends to bring out a person's natural expression of anger. Yeah, pretty much. This is why people are easily triggered and become aggressive when provoked while intoxicated. Also, mixing energy drinks into the mix doesn't help either. Cocktails that include energy drinks have been reported to greatly increase verbal and physical aggression. Wow, shocker. I know, right? For aloco, anybody? Oh my god. I am so glad we gave that shit up a while ago. Even prescription drugs like Ambien and other sedatives have been linked to crimes such as murder and rape, leaving the perpetrator completely void of all memory of the event. Now I'm gonna dive into a very short little case because I don't know why, but people killing people on Ambien really fascinates me. Andrew McClay, April 24, 2009. A family member of 22-year-old Andrew McClay called police to report Andrew had sent an unusual string of text messages and that they were concerned. Deputies were dispatched to McClay's apartment to do a welfare check. When they arrived, they were met with a bloody gruesome scene. In the entrance to the apartment, they found blood-spattered walls, empty bottles of liquor, and the body of Nicole Burns. Her head badly battered and her body covered in severe trauma caused by a blunt object, later discovered to be a hammer.

SPEAKER_04 8:31

Holy shit. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_07 8:33

Rigor Mortis had already set in and she laid in a puddle of blood. McLay walked out of the bathroom wearing only a shirt and a towel.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_07 8:50

Five of them? Five of them. Jeez, that is not the usual dosage I must. Also, some other medications like over-the-counter stuff. As deputies cuffed him and escorted him out of the apartment, McClay asked them, Is my friend going to be okay? Oh, that's so creepy. Odd, right? The deputy asked, Who? Nicole Burns, McClay responded. According to McClay's attorney, this was no act. He truly did not remember bludgeoning his friend to death.

SPEAKER_04 9:21

Oh my god. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_07 9:23

When they were doing their investigation, they had found that there was no sour tension between the two of them. McLay was gay, and uh Burns was his best friend. They were actually planning on moving in together.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Oh no!

SPEAKER_07 9:38

Ambien is a sedative hypnotic used to treat temporary insomnia. I'm sure you've all heard about it. It can cause amnesia, sleepwalking, abnormal behavior, as well as hallucinations and agitation, according to a report by the FDA. Andrew McClay was convicted of second degree murder. That is awful. And I tried and tried and tried and tried to dig more to find more about this case. Nothing. But oh my gosh. No. Shit is on lock. Like you got you gotta pay to access the court documents, and like there were only a couple articles on it, which is just fascinating to me.

SPEAKER_08 10:20

That's a brutal ass murder to have zero coverage. Yeah. And ambient is still on the shelf. Is it an over-the-counter too? Or is it no ambient is not an over-the-counter too.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

It's not pharmaceutical.

SPEAKER_07 10:31

Yeah. Some things I was reading about it earlier was that doctors are now prescribing it at a lower dose for sleeping.

SPEAKER_08 10:40

But still in quantities. I mean, you can't stop people from taking more than that is very true.

SPEAKER_07 10:44

So that's the horrors of Ambien doesn't stop here. Prince Adams, he has a badass name, by the way. That's his that's his first name, is Prince? Yeah. Prince Adams. Oh, I thought I was like, what are what year are we going back to? 29-year-old man from Memphis, Tennessee, stabbed his girlfriend 27 times with a pocket knife in 2006 after taking Ambien and dreaming that she was cheating on him.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

Holy fuck. I mean, even so, that's not the appropriate reaction. No.

SPEAKER_08 11:14

Also I mean, I've woken up mad, like my room was like, What's wrong with you? And I'm like, you cheated on me in my dream. You're really good. Mad the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

But fuck.

SPEAKER_07 11:25

Not to that extent. Peace. So also, Roseanne tweeted some awfully shitty thing. Some shitty shit be ticking while under the influence of Ambien.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Roseanne? Get out of here.

SPEAKER_07 11:40

How do you think she lost her show? That was what? She tried to blame it on Ambien.

SPEAKER_05 11:47

I wasn't expecting that to pop in here.

SPEAKER_07 11:50

I had no idea.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

So what have we learned today? Tonight. Don't take the Ambien. Refuse. Take some melatonin. Drink some kale mill tea. Some CBD oil. Like we'll be fine. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_07 12:08

But on a serious note, if you found yourself needing help with addiction or recovery, here are some resources. I'm going to hand it on over to Britney.

SPEAKER_05 12:18

Hi, I'm Brittany. And I'm an alcoholic. But really, I am. That wasn't like a joke in poor taste. Yeah. If you find that you feel like you may need some help or need someone to talk to at least, um, you can go to findtreatment.gov or call 1-800-662-HELP, or you can go to recovery.org. The phone number is 1-888-919-3320. Or if you just need to talk to someone, you are more than welcome to reach out to me via Facebook. And I am an ear that will listen or read or whatever. And um, yeah, if you just need someone to talk to, I am here. Thank you, Brittany. We love you. I love you.

SPEAKER_07 13:06

All right, Miss Susie.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Oh, it's my turn.

SPEAKER_07 13:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 13:10

Here we go. All right, guys, I'm gonna dive right in. So I decided to pick a I mean, when I heard that we were doing Under the Influence, I immediately thought of this case that happened nine years ago, eight or nine years ago, and I remember it pretty vividly because it was national news. So I thought I would do this one. So I'm doing the case of Rudy Eugene, which is also known as the Miami zombie.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Oh. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 13:37

It'll ring a bell. It'll once I get into it. Okay. So on May 26, 2012, Eugene started his day with a drive to Miami Beach in his purple Chevy Caprice. After having what seemed to be car troubles, eyewitnesses say he abandoned the vehicle and began walking the three-mile stretch of MacArthur Causeway. During his walk, Eugene stripped himself of his clothing and also disposed of his personal items, such as his driver license, as he advanced westward. And I have to note here that after his crime was committed, that police located and towed his vehicle. And after searching the car, they did find five recently consumed water bottles and a Bible, which this will come into relevancy later. Okay, so now Eugene, he was now completely buttass naked.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

What was that?

SPEAKER_08 14:28

Came across you, right? Came across a man named Ronald Popo at approximately 1.55 p.m. in the afternoon. So this is broad daylight. Like dudes just walking buttass naked, just in a pretty common stretch of Miami, I think, from what it seems to my head. Yeah. Florida man. Yeah, they say he's the most intense Florida man.

SPEAKER_07 14:51

That's like positive. It was all one person that's all calling.

SPEAKER_08 14:56

This guy knows how to party. No, it's actually really horrific. Okay. So Popo. Popo, a homeless 65-year-old man, was simply lying underneath a Metro Mover railway when out of nowhere, Eugene attacked him. Eugene ripped off Popo's pants and underwear and began choking and kicking him, as well as biting and gnawing on Ronald Popo's face.

SPEAKER_05 15:25

Oh, Jesus. Why do you take the pants off? I thought you were gonna say choking something else. Yeah, no. The chicken? It's weird. Or choking on. Okay. A chicken. Oh, it's a chicken. You know how we do.

SPEAKER_08 15:43

So this gruesome this gruesome attack actually went on for 18 minutes. Holy crap. Until the police arrived.

SPEAKER_04 15:53

Oh my.

SPEAKER_08 15:54

And they knew it went on for 18 minutes because it was recorded by a security camera nearby. It caught the whole thing. I mean, you could it's off the camera, but you can see like two sets of legs and one man on top of the other. But you can tell how long the shit had happened until police had arrived and tried to stop him. Okay, so reports say that three separate people had called police during the time of the attack after witnessing Eugene's naked ass, for one. Because that's weird. That's some what is that public indecency? Not indecency. Is that what it is when you're naked? Yeah, public indecency. And so a man named Mike, who chose to keep his last name anonymous, which is funny that you guys said that, said that he saw no blood as he passed by the scene and quote unquote did not get a good look at what the men were doing. Honestly, he said, I thought they were having sex. Oh.

SPEAKER_05 16:50

I would have too. I mean, that's still like something you, you know, one I let someone know about, but okay.

SPEAKER_08 16:59

So back to the authorities arriving on scene, a Miami police officer named Jose Ramirez was the first to witness the atrocity, and he called out to Eugene to stop and end the attack on Popo, or Force was going to be taken. You know, like cut that shit out. So in response, Eugene reportedly ignored the warnings, growled at the officer, and resumed biting the victim's face. No. At that point, seeing no other solution, Officer Ramirez fired once at Eugene, and then four more times after the first shot seemed to be ineffective.

SPEAKER_07 17:38

That's Riley.

SPEAKER_08 17:40

Mm-hmm. Rudy Eugene was pronounced dead at the scene. Ronald Popo, however, was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was critically injured, having lost 75 to 80 percent of his face. Jesus. Hold on. Did the zombie man actually swallow? Oh, we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. Oh no God. So 75 to 80% of his face had been chewed off above his beard. He had also lost his left eye completely during the attack. Holy shit, like the eyeball's gone. I don't know where it went, but it's not there anymore. Okay, so Popo miraculously survived and underwent months of facial reconstructive surgery. Although, after it all, he remained completely blind out of both eyes and was obviously permanently disfigured. So now a little bit about Ronald Popo. He was born on May 17th, 1947. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and even received an IQ of 129, which is exceptionally intelligent according to the scale. I had to look it up. I was like, what does that mean? I was just gonna say I don't know. I don't even know my own IQ score either. But I looked it up. So he was like below genius level, one notch. Oh wow. Which is crazy. And um he reportedly went to a city college after graduation, but soon dropped out in 1966. By 1976, Papa was homeless. So at the time of the attack, many of his family members had presumed him dead, like before the attack even occurred. They just thought he was dead, including his own daughter, who hadn't seen him in around 30 years.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_08 19:24

Which is crazy. That's how long he had been like homeless and just adrift for. His own family just thought he was dead even before this. And this whole encounter brought him back into the spotlight for them, and they were like, oh shit. Imagine familying out in this way, like right. Yeah, his daughter.

SPEAKER_05 19:40

Yeah, hey, he's still alive. Oh, but also Yeah, he just lost 80% of his face.

SPEAKER_08 19:45

No big deal. No big deal. Okay, so uh um after the attack, Popo thanked the Miami police graciously for saving his life. And his official statement on July 19th, 2012 explained that Eugene was, quote unquote, mad that he couldn't score at the beach and was obviously, quote unquote, souped up on something when he started talking about how the two of them were both going to die. Oh what? He also accused him of stealing his Bible. Remember the car with the Bible in it? He accused the homeless man of stealing his Bible and in Papa's account, in his words, went absolutely berserk with no provocation. So now we're gonna go back to Rudy Eugene, the biter. He was born on February He was born on February 4th, 1981, and was of Haitian descent. He was married from 2005 to 2008 and was estrained from his wife without a complete divorce until his death, although his estranged wife claimed there was never any domestic violence in their marriage. He met his new and last girlfriend, Rakia Cross, in 2007 and was with her until the day that he died. She had quite a bit to say about his death, but we're gonna get into that later. Rudy Eugene was arrested eight times from the time he was a teenager on. The first arrest was for assault in 1997. Another assault occurred in 2004, and this time it was on his own mother. He broke a table, he smashed objects all around the house, and even told her that he was, quote unquote, going to put a gun to her head and kill her. She gave you life. When was she born? He was 31 around the time of his death, so I don't know that math. So he only received probation for this offense of attacking his mother, and all the crimes he committed after were mainly related to marijuana. Now, at the time of the attack on Papa, police and officials had speculated that Eugene was under the influence of bath salts, which were common in the area at that time, where they're also known as flocca. So you remember that hype? Yes. Okay. So According to drugs.com, bath salts are a designer drug of abuse.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

Crack.

SPEAKER_08 22:07

They're a designer drug of abuse with reports of dangerous intoxication. Now, these bath salts are not your average Epsom salts or smelly dissolvable bath accessories. They are mind. They're nuts. It's not a bath on. It's not an this isn't gonna help your achy muscles. I don't know. Okay. They are mind-altering drugs that stimulate your central nervous system and inhibit the dopamine neurotransmitters in your brain. The high of basalts is similar to that of methamphetamine and cocaine, but it's actually a cheaper substitute for both on the street. I don't know why they put that in there on drugs.com. I'm like. Are you guys advertising for this? Yeah, I was just saying it's a significant. Can we please not? Don't do it though. You can't afford it? No, yeah, no, don't. Okay. Um the sought-after side effects of basalts are euphoria, increased wakefulness and concentration, elevated sex drive, talkativeness, hallucination, empathy, and just your typical rush. Acute side effects may include rapid heart rate, chest pain, high blood pressure, hyperthermia, which is getting too hot, pupil dilation, excess sweating, vessel constriction, muscle spasms, reduced appetite, or seizures.

SPEAKER_07 23:20

None of that sounds fun.

SPEAKER_08 23:22

No, that's just the cute. So higher dosage side effects include severe fucking panic attacks, psychosis, paranoia, agitation, confusion, insomnia, violent behavior, and or irritability. Irritability. Yeah. All the goods, all the goods. So now, with all of Eugene's behaviors being pretty much chalked up to the use of basalt, obviously, I mean he was naked and hot and had consumed five water bottles before he got out of his fucking car, got mad about his Bible that he forgot. So it was all chalked up to the use of basalts. And that is like we all believed in 2012. Remember when the story came out and it was like, Florida man, high on basalt, ate this guy's face off. Right. So the medical examiner that inspected Eugene's body found nothing in his system besides marijuana and some undigested pills. The undigested pills were never identified to the public though. So we have no idea what they were. They never released that. And they even did not find any human remains in Rudy Eugene's stomach. What? Like through 80% of his that chewing that guy's face off, none of it made its way to his stomach. Huh. Which is also kind of strange. Yeah. You're gonna chew off 80% of a man's face and none of it's gonna like you're not gonna swallow anything.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

It's like a spit, like a stick of wine tasting. You're spitting out like a well done steak that you can't swallow.

unknown 24:58

What?

SPEAKER_07 25:00

It's not a wine tasting. Well, my breeder immediately. Well, I guess it's an all-you-can-eat buffet.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

Okay, thank you for being worse than me. Welcome.

SPEAKER_08 25:09

No, I I had I had compared it to uh like people that get their steaks well done and they can't follow it because they just chew on it and then they spit it out because So we're just all going to hell.

SPEAKER_05 25:20

That's okay. I think we established that. Yeah, you're right. You're driving the bus from arriving. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

So DJing and Oh, Jesus. Okay. I need like an illustration of that.

SPEAKER_08 25:36

So after all was said and done, you know, Eugene's girlfriend, the current girlfriend, I'll dear the ex-wife, came out after the attack. And right now I'm going to read a snippet of what she said, and this is quoted from the article written by Dadage Green for the Miami Herald. So I just wanted to give him some credit because I am reading this pretty much word for word. Um, the man being depicted by the media as a quote unquote face eater or monster is not the man she knew, she said. He smoked marijuana often, though he had recently said he wanted to quit, but he did not use stronger recreational drugs and even refused to take over-the-counter medication for simple ailmates like headaches. He was sweet and well-mannered, she said. Eugene's girlfriend has her own theory on what happened that day. She believes Eugene was drugged unknowingly. The only other explanation she said was supernatural. That someone put a voodoo curse on him.

SPEAKER_04 26:35

This took a turn.

SPEAKER_06 26:36

I wasn't okay.

SPEAKER_08 26:38

Well, the girlfriend, who, unlike Eugene, is not Haitian, said she has never believed in voodoo until now. I guess voodoo is a common thing in in Haitian, like the Haitian culture. So I think that that was a known thing. And she had even said that she was not Haitian, but she, you know, she never believed in voodoo until now. So during their time together, she said Eugene would sit on the bed or on the couch in the evenings with her to read from his Bible. He carried it with him just about everywhere he went and often cited verses to friends and family. He's very attached to that damn Bible. Apparently. I mean, even in whatever psychosis he had going on, that was what he was worried about was somebody stole my Bible. So if someone was lost or didn't know God, he would tell them about him. She said he was a definite believer of God. So the man that everyone was calling the Miami zombie was her boyfriend. Her reaction was utter disbelief. That's not Rudy, that's not Rudy. She remembers saying loud in shock when that night, after not being able to reach him for hours and hours and hours, the story came on the evening news, and she couldn't believe that it was him. Like she was like, There's no, there's no fucking way. Um, after the incident, Rudy's mother also spoke up for the first time to defend her dead son. These quotes are also from the same article by Green, as I've stated before. She said, Everybody says that he was a zombie, but I know he's not a zombie. He's my son, she said. She said the man who ate another human being's face was just not the son she knew. I don't know what they injected him, injected in him to turn him into the person who did what he did, she said, making the motion of someone putting a syringe into the crook of her arm. So she thought somebody like literally was like shot him up with shit. Yeah. A friend of Rudy's, Joe Arielus, I don't know if I'm saying that right, who had known him since they were teenagers, told the Miami Herald that Rudy was going through a lot with his family and he was jumping from job to job. His friend claims Rudy was battling with the devil. Oof. Yeah. So a lot of his like close, I mean, I couldn't find a lot on this case, which was surprising because it was such a popular case back in 2012. I mean, I remember hearing about it. And there was really not that much info besides, like, there was a whole article just done on people that were like defending him and saying like he had a contagious smile, he was so nice, there was no way that he would do this. I mean, he did like to smoke weed, but he was a God-fearing man and you know, all the shit. And like the girlfriend said that even that morning, he woke up, gave her a kiss, and left to go to like some car show on the beach, which is why he was bringing his car there, and then something had happened between 5 a.m. and noon of when he started going out of his mind. I don't know. So with the victim alive and the attacker deceased, the case was obviously closed, and to this day, nobody knows what truly made Eugene act in such an inhumane and disturbing manner. Huh.

SPEAKER_07 29:34

Fuck. So hold on. Let me backtrack for just a second. They assumed it was bath salts?

SPEAKER_08 29:40

They had assumed it was bath salts before the medical examiner came forth with the like autopsy report.

SPEAKER_07 29:46

And so to this day, they don't know.

SPEAKER_08 29:49

They won't identify what they said that there was undigest pills. They didn't release what those pills were, which I thought was weird. But even if I mean bath salts aren't pills, they're usually snorted, or you can take them orally, or you can take them rectally, or you can smoke them or inject them, but they're usually snorted like it's like a powder.

SPEAKER_05 30:08

That's a bold assumption to just be like probably bath salts. Like no.

SPEAKER_08 30:12

So I think I think because of like the high amount of like cases and weird shit going on around the country at that time, because flocca was like a new thing. So I think they just had automatically assumed that it was flacca and basalts. Like they were like, this fits, you know, what was going on. And so that was what was put out in the in the media. But I mean, I heard about man high on basalts ate another dude's face off. I never heard that they came forward and were like, There was no basalts in his system.

SPEAKER_06 30:38

Yeah, that is Deia. That's exactly what I thought.

SPEAKER_08 30:40

That's what I thought too.

SPEAKER_07 30:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 30:42

So I was like, this took an interesting spin to me because I'm like, then I read that there was nothing in his system besides some undigest pills. And then with like the five water bottles that were recently consumed and all these accounts of people that knew him saying like he was not the type of person. You know, I'm not justifying anything that he did because obviously something fucked up went down for him to act the way that he did, unprovoked and everything. But it wasn't what I thought. I just thought this guy liked to do bath salts and he took too many and he bits fucking homeless man's face off back in 2012. That's what I thought. So it's kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_05 31:13

Yeah, I'm really surprised that they didn't release exactly what was found in his system, like to ex, you know, to explain it or bring some sort of, you know, that's well, especially for such a well-known case.

SPEAKER_08 31:27

Like we heard about this all the way in Washington. That was like big news. It was like a huge thing.

SPEAKER_06 31:31

Yeah, there were videos all over the place of people doing bath salts and acting crazy.

SPEAKER_08 31:36

Right. And on that note, I wanted to say Ronald Popo is alive and well, and he's adjusting to his new life since the attack. And he has had the help of many donations, being paid up to$107,000 to go towards his life and his medical bills at the time. The photos. So I sent Gavin and Brittany. Oh my word. The uncensored and very graphic photos of what have happened this day. You guys can find these on Murderpedia if you want to take a look. They are kind of fucked up and very bloody. So be warned.

SPEAKER_07 32:09

Oh my holy Moses. A person did that.

SPEAKER_08 32:16

When I said 80% of his face, I wasn't joking.

SPEAKER_07 32:18

Oh my god. Wow. That is insane.

SPEAKER_08 32:21

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_07 32:22

Oh, I see what you're talking about. The camera where you can only see their legs.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

You could only see the legs with tandy footage, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 32:28

The last photo is super fucking brutal.

SPEAKER_06 32:32

It's gonna be in my nightmares tonight. And yeah, he was star cast naked.

SPEAKER_08 32:38

He was, and he pulled the under. I mean, you can see the other man, his pants and his underwear were taken off too. And as he just lays there on the crown with his face chewed off, because this was 18 minutes, you guys. I want to remind you that that was 18 minutes of him. And he had said in his uh like his official statement to the police that he was like, this man was bigger than me. I had no way of fighting back. There was nothing I could do. I mean, this is a 65-year-old man against a 31-year-old man.

SPEAKER_06 33:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_08 33:05

So there was literally nothing he could do. He just sat there and took it and he was like, I'm gonna die. And he was thankful to police. Fucking it. And he came out of this with such a uh like a happy outlook on life. I mean, in his mind, he just got donated$107,000 and he's been in a hospital and being fed and being taken care of. So I mean, that's gotta be better than being on the streets, I imagine.

SPEAKER_04 33:25

He looks healthy as fuck. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 33:28

He's in such good spirits about everything. Like he's happy to be alive, he's thankful that the police had saved him.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

I I don't know why I'm looking at the pictures again.

SPEAKER_08 33:36

It's insane. I must have looked at the pictures like a few times because I was so baffled that that was the damage that was done and he didn't lose his life. Crazy. But this is all this information that I mean, I thought I knew about the Miami zombie and the basalt zombie, but there was all this other shit, and now it's completely open to speculation of what fucking happened to him because they just gave up and closed the case and called it good because Ronald Papa was fine and he was alive and everything was good.

SPEAKER_04 34:01

God damn. God damn, wow.

SPEAKER_08 34:04

Yeah. Pretty, pretty intense. I mean, Florida, they're infamous. I don't know. They got some shit going on. Damn it, Florida.

SPEAKER_07 34:10

Let's take a quick minute to hear about our friends Karen and Ben over at Crime and Compulsion Podcast, shall we?

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Hey guys, this is Ben.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

And I'm Karen.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

All you do is read about crime.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

If you have serial killer posters in your bedroom.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

If you're hiding newspaper article clippings under your bed, looking at you, Karen.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Don't be concerned. We share your compulsion.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Join us, Ben and Karen, husband and wife team, as we delve deeper into the mind of serial killers.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Dive into the darker side of humanity, but from the safety of your own couch.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

You can find our website, crime and compulsion.com.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Find us on Facebook, Crime and Compulsion.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Find us on Instagram, Crime and Compulsion Podcast. Find us on Twitter at Crime Compulsion. Find our episodes wherever you get your favorite podcast streaming from.

SPEAKER_08 35:01

So I guess you're next, right? You told us it was juicy. You didn't tell us anything else. I'm excited to hear.

SPEAKER_05 35:07

When we had decided on the topic for this week, this was the first case that I thought of. And it is one that was or is pretty well known. And it's really sad, but it's also very like there's a lot of mystery behind it. And while I was doing my research for it, there is a lot of information that I realized I did not know, and it totally changed my view of this case. So I am going to talk about Diane Schuler and the Taconic Parkway tragedy. So on uh Sunday, July 26, 2009, 36-year-old Diane Shuler, her husband Daniel, and then their thr two kids and three nieces. Their kids are five-year-old Brian and two-year-old Erin. And then their nieces are eight-year-old Emma, seven-year-old Allison, and five-year-old Kate. And they had been camping for the weekend. They were heading home that day. So around 9:30 a.m., they had gotten all their shit packed up. They left from the campground. It was Hunter Lake Campground in Parkville, Parksville, New York. They're getting ready to head home to their home in West Babylon, New York, which is about a looked it up, like about 142 miles, two-hour, 45-minute drive or so. Daniel took the pickup truck that had the luggage and their dog. And then Diane took, it was her brother Warren's minivan. She had borrowed it for the trip and had all five of the kids in there with her. So Daniel was just gonna head straight home. And then uh Diane was gonna, you know, make the obligatory road trip stops like McDonald's and gas and bathroom breaks. Yeah, bathroom breaks and all the stats.

SPEAKER_07 36:46

I would kill because some chicken's right now.

SPEAKER_05 36:50

That's what I call the dogs I was watching today. They're just chicken. That's what I call my boo bear. Yeah, I'll I'll send it's not these ones that barged in here earlier. I was I've watched was watching a lot of dogs today. I'll send you pictures. They literally look like chicken nuggets with just little like stubby feet. I love them so much.

SPEAKER_07 37:08

My Shelby does not look like a chicken nugget at all, but I call her my little chicken nuggy.

SPEAKER_05 37:12

Yeah, they just got chicken. I've been watching them for like two years, and I don't know why after the first day I was like, they look like chicken nuggets. So they're just my little chicken nuggies. Anyways. So we left the campground around 9:30 a.m. Just before 10 a.m., they stopped at McDonald's, and there is security video uh, you know, just sees Diane and the kids eating, and the kids played in the little playground, uh play place, whatever the hell it is. And everything was normal, you know. They left about 30 minutes later. So, oh, I forgot to mention there's like a very specific timeline that it's like times and it it may seem redundant, but like the timeline is very important to like the whole story. Normally I wouldn't go this deep into the different times stuff happened, but okay. So we love the relevancy. They left about 30 minutes later, and then at about 10 45 a.m., they stopped at a gas station. And again, there's a security video shows the minivan pulling in, Diane getting gas. Diane then went into the you know store at the gas station. Again, she seemed fine. Apparently, uh, she was trying to get just some over-the-counter pain medication, like a you know, Tylenol kind of thing. But the store was out of them. So she left. All the employees said that she seemed fine. Everything was, you know, whatever. Pretty um, yeah. So after they pumped the gas and she went to the store, drove off from the gas station around 11 a.m. And this is where it kind of slowly starts like, what the fucking? So at 1137 a.m., Emma, which is one of Diane's nieces, called her dad Warren using Diane's phone just to let them know or let him know that they might be a little late getting home because there was apparently a lot of traffic. Warren briefly talked to Diane on the phone. Again, everything seemed chill, nothing was weird. So that was at 11:37 a.m. Looking at the records, between 11:30 and noon, there were several witnesses that called cops to report that there was a red minivan driving aggressively down the highway. And a witness said that at 11:45 a.m., she saw Diane out of her car, kind of leaned over like she was like getting sick. Like puking? Yeah. And then a little bit later, the minivan that the woman saw pulled over with Diane passed them on the highway. So this person drove by, and then a little bit later, the van that was pulled over was going fast enough to have then gotten back on the freeway and then passed them. At uh 12.08, Jackie, who is the mom of the three nieces, called Diane just to kind of check in. Phone call was less than two minutes long and nothing seemed wrong. Then again from 1215 to 1245, there are a lot of reports that of witnesses seeing the red minivan driving aggressively, weaving through traffic, going too slow, going too fast, honking their horn, tailgating, um, trying to pass on, you know, the shoulder. And then again, there's a report of seeing the minivan pulled over Diane on the guardrail vomiting. This is already like giving me anxiety because there's so many kids in the car. It's like freaking me out. Yeah. Yeah. 1255. There was a 17-second call from Diane's phone, and it just was to a wrong number. Oh. At 1258, Diane called Jackie, the niece of the girl's mom. She kind of sounded out of it. The call lasted for about two and a half minutes, and then the signal dropped. Right as that call was ending, Warren, the husband, got home and you know, Jackie was like, something was, you know, off. Warren calls Diane. Uh, Warren is Diane's brother. They talked for about eight minutes, and Diane seemed disoriented. Out of it, Diane pulled over, and again, Emma, his daughter, got on the phone, said that Diane was having trouble seeing and speaking clearly. She was able to see where the exit sign was that they were. And so Warren got back on the phone and told Diane, okay, you guys like just stay there. Like, I'm gonna, I'll, I'll, I'll meet you guys there. Okay, how old was Emma? Emma was eight. Oh shit. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Emma was eight, which is heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_07 41:25

I totally had like spaced what this entire episode was about. And I'm like, why is this woman driving and acting all crazy?

SPEAKER_08 41:34

No, I'm sitting here, like, I'm on the edge of my seat, like, what is this bitch on? What is she on? What happened?

SPEAKER_05 41:41

So, yeah, Warren just is like, okay, stay where you guys are. I'll come to you. I guess the last thing that Emma said is there's something wrong with Aunt Diane. At, so I was at 1258. They were on the phone for eight minutes. At 110, there were four calls from Diane's phone again to just wrong numbers. And then at that point, it's suspected that Diane left her phone. This article I read said, quote unquote, neatly on a concrete barrier, got in the car and drove off again. Without her phone. Yeah. Neatly. So yeah, that's the word that they use. So, like concrete barrier, like off of an exit. They say that it seems like she purposely like left it. Methodically. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_08 42:30

Oh god, no geez.

SPEAKER_05 42:31

At 1.15, Warren calls back and it just goes to voicemail. There are about a dozen phone calls that go to voicemail over the next 20 minutes. At this point, they've been on the road for about four hours. A few minutes after 1.30, Diane turns right onto an exit ramp for the Taconic State Parkway. And she is driving south into northbound traffic. She drives for about 1.7 miles, going approximately 85 miles per hour. What? Going the wrong way. At 1.35 p.m., the minivan smashes head on into a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer. Diane, her daughter, and two of her nieces, and as well as the three occupants in the trailblazer, were killed instantly. Damn. One of the nieces was taken to the hospital and where she later died. Diane's son, Brian, was taken to the hospital, and he is the only survivor of this crash. He had broken bones. There were nine total. So it was Diane, the five kids. Yep. Diane, the five kids, and then there were three men in the trailblazer. Oof. So I want the toxology report. Oh that literally doesn't like that's oh great. Yeah. Oh, you'll see. I mean, it it does. You'll see. Okay. Brian had some broken bones and he had severe head trauma. People that were uh, you know, saw the Crash and they went to go try to help, said that it seemed like the kids weren't in any seatbelts, any car seats, the way they landed, which is awful to say, but they basically the people that were helping at first almost didn't see Brian because the kids were like he was underneath them. Um the three men that were in the other car were uh 81-year-old Michael Bastardi Sr., his son Guy Bastardi, who is 49, and then a family friend, Daniel Longo, who is 74, and they were on their way to a family dinner. No. No. It sucks because there's not a lot in all the dozens of articles about the these three men that were in the other car, you know. So there's some stuff, but just I was I wanted to find more about them to do a, you know, I like to try to focus my stories primarily on the victims and not the person that did it. Unfortunately, there just wasn't a lot to learn about them. The funeral was a few days later on July 30th. And at this time, they assumed that it was just a very unfortunate accident. You know, there was no toxicology or autopsy reports. And it was a funeral service for Diane and the four children. It was obviously a very emotional event. And like so, like seeing like the caskets all just getting like filed out of the church was just heartbreaking. So everyone that spoke had really positive things to say about Diane that she was uh, you know, a loving person, a you know, perfect mother, just very happy and positive. And I mean, even, you know, her brother Warren, who lost his three daughters in the crash, had nothing but just good things to say about Diane and you know, and what a tragedy it was. However, that tragedy changed about five days later on August 4th. There was a press conference from the state police and they had the autopsy and toxicology reports. Diane's when I hear them Yeah, Diane's blood alcohol content was 0.19%, which is that's more than double over the limit.

unknown 46:15

Oh, fuck.

SPEAKER_05 46:17

She also had another six grams of alcohol in her stomach that had not yet absorbed. Holy shit. Damn. So based on her weight and and height and all that, that equals to roughly 10, like equivalent of 10 shots of liquor. She also had high levels of THC. The levels were uh so high that they said like she most likely would have had to get that in her system like 15 minutes before the crash. What? What? So obviously the outlook on this crash very quickly went from a tragedy about this mom who, you know, no one knows what happened, to just what the fuck, like hatred for this woman. Why are you incompetent, fucking irresponsible woman? Yeah. And you know, now she's a murderer. So her husband Daniel very much denied Diane having any sort of drinking problem. They had been together for like 13 years. He did he say that she smoked weed? So he first said, okay, Diane's my heavy drinker, never seen her like get to that point. And she would smoke weed every now and then for insomnia. But then later, her Diane's sister-in-law, in like a separate thing, was courted as saying that she was like a heavy smoker of weed. That was how they worded it, which was kind of weird. But so uh, I believe it was his sister. Um, they kind of did a lot of the press and everything, like they both were speaking for the family. And so he goes, Oh, she doesn't smoke that often, just sometimes for you know insomnia. And then she's like, Oh yeah, she smoked weed a lot. Yeah, Daniel, like he just to this day is like, nope, that's not what it was. She could have had a stroke or an embolism or a heart attack, or you know, maybe because of her diabetes, like this and that, even though the autopsy showed zero signs pointing even in the direction of any of that. There were two men who were at the crash that had been pulling, tried to get Diane out of the car, and they reported seeing a broken handle of absolute vodka near the driver's seat. Whenever Daniel would be asked about this, and he went, I mean, he later went on to like he did a whole fucking media tour of this. Like he went on to Larry King, this and that, just trying to working really fucking hard and unnecessarily. And see, I mentioned that my view of this had totally changed. And up until this, I was like, that poor family, like there had to have been some other something that happened. Like, you know, I believed, like, no, there's no way that she could have. But after reading into it, I'm like, this motherfucker is like hiding something because he went so out of his way to prove that she was not a drinker or a smoker. So he had when Daniel was asked about it, he had said that Handel is like kept in the camper, you know, when they go camping, so they could like make a drink or something. And, you know, he'd be asked, Well, then why was it in the van? And he's like, I don't know. You know, Diane is the one that packed up the van. Maybe, you know, she accidentally packed it with everything else, or maybe just accidentally got there. Like, oh, it just tripped and fell right in the driver's seat.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:27

What a piss-off. It was just ridiculous. And, you know, the family of the three men that were in the other car, the families of them, you read about them in a lot of interviews, that they're just like, he's prolonging the pain for us. Like, just let it rest, just accept that she was an alcoholic and she drank and this was an awful thing. Like, but by continuing to like push and push and try to find an answer and try to prove that she wasn't, it's just we have to hear about this. We have to keep hearing about it. When it's just it's a it's a drag-open and shut case, you know? Um, like I said, he continued to deny that she was an alcoholic. However, there was a documentary that is on HBO. Again, I had watched it before and now reading like it was a pretty in poor taste for this document to be made. It was made like six months after the crash. Apparently, HBO had offered Daniel and the family like$100,000 to do this documentary. Oh my God. What? Yeah, and he took it. And it was supposed to be this like investigative documentary to like try to find the truth. I watched it again last night because I was like, oh, cool, it'll have like some information. But that's when I was like, wait a minute, like this is not chill. I found it very interesting with his claims that she was not an alcoholic. Learning about Diane's childhood and life and who she was before she died. To me, being an alcoholic, it was like screaming to me, like, yeah, this bitch was an alcoholic. There's no, so she, um, when she was very young, her mom left. And so she grew up with her dad and then her three brothers. She spent a lot of her childhood taking care of her brothers, being the mom of the family, you know. She constantly struggled with her weight growing up and into adulthood, always was very like needed to be the center of attention, you know, very like, look at me. So already that basically describes me. And I'm like, yeah, that sounds familiar. You know, people are talking about her and they're like, she was the perfect mom. She was super mom. You know, she would do this and go to school and work a full-time job, and the kids would always, you know, have their hair neat and their clothes are neat and this and that. She did all this. And yeah, that sounds like someone that's trying to put on a really good front, you know. I mean, just considering a lot of her background.

SPEAKER_08 51:45

Like a closet alcoholic.

SPEAKER_05 51:47

Yeah. So yeah, exactly. I literally wrote on here closet drinking. Like it's not like it's out of the question that, you know, and and you don't even have to say that she purposely got that drunk for it. I don't know. One theory of what happened to her that I had thought of a while ago is it's called autobrewery syndrome. I'm going to read from uh medicalnewstoday.com. Auto brewery syndrome is a rare condition that occurs when yeast in the gut produces excessive quantities of ethanol, which can cause symptoms similar to those of being drunk. People who have autobrewery syndrome register abnormally high blood alcohol levels even if they consume no alcohol. They have the high blood alcohol levels and they also, I mean, they act drunk even though they've consumed no alcohol. And so when I had learned that auto brewery syndrome was a thing, I immediately thought of this case. I'm like, I wonder if that's what happened. Obviously, that had been brought up. And again, the autopsy showed zero signs of any of that. And there's no auto brewery syndrome for THC. Like, you know, like there's no condition that's gonna put THC in your system. So that is not anything that happened. So the crashes ruled a homicide. District attorney had said that the charges died with her. So obviously no charges could be filed, which again, the family of the people in the other car had argued that being like there's something that could have been done and brought to court. We could have gotten something, you know, some sort of justice from this.

SPEAKER_08 53:12

At least to the public eye, like this is an issue and pub or like drunk driving is a problem and intoxicated driving is a killer, something.

SPEAKER_05 53:20

Well, so it was, I mean, it was given to the public that she was drunk. Like there was no question about it. And she was drunk, she was high, but her husband was just constantly like, no, she wasn't, no, she wasn't, no, she wasn't. Let me sh let me prove that she wasn't. He had soon after the crash, he had paid a private investigator named Tom Ruskin$30,000 to basically dig deeper into this. He's really just not accepting it and trying to clear his and her name. And Tom worked for him, did some investigating. At first, was, you know, on his side. And then after he did all of that and he had the tests rerun, he just found the same test results. At that time, Daniel and his sister started just ignoring Tom, but would say to the public that, you know, Tom took their money and then left. When in reality, Tom did the work he was supposed to do. They just didn't like that he found nothing new. Oh, didn't he add results? Yeah. So they instead painted a picture of this guy, Tom, that he just took the money and ran. In December of 2009, the Bastardi family of the three men in the other car filed a lawsuit against Diane's estate and Warren. They had to include Warren, her brother, because it was his car that they were in for willful and reckless conduct. In July of 2011, Jackie Hance, who was the mother of the three girls, filed a suit against Daniel stating that the three girls suffered terror, fear of impending death, extreme horror, fright, and mental anguish. And then later in July 2011, Daniel tried to sue the state for quote unquote not keeping the road safe and tried to sue his brother-in-law because it was his minivan that Diane was driving. What a shake. What a oh my god. Yeah. All the charges were dropped or either settled by 2014. Uh, so nothing came of that. The Bestardi family has a lot of resentment for Diane, obviously, but to Daniel too, B for carrying this on and not just getting over it. Of course. To this day, I mean, we'll literally never know what happened in those few hours before the crash, what led up to this, what was going through her mind, but it is just an awful and horrific story. There's a lot of news articles, a lot of information. And like I said, there is the documentary on HBO. It's called There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane. And it does give a lot of does give a lot of information. Watching it now, I realize it is all from the standpoint of the husband trying to prove that she wasn't drunk. Wow. So it's still an interesting thing to watch. Uh as far as um Warren and Jackie Hance, who lost their three daughters, uh, Jackie wrote a book called I'll See You Again, uh, just about going through all of this and coming out of it. And I read that they, I'm not sure when, they did have another daughter uh at some point after, which gave them kind of a purpose again, which was really that is so fucking sad. Yeah. So uh that was Diane Schuller, and I have now learned to make sure I type up my cases. I think you did a pretty good job. You did great. We love you.

SPEAKER_08 56:49

Uh yeah. So yeah, that's that that's fucking super sad. I can't imagine being like the the brother or the sister-in-law and being like, oh yeah, you know, because like I'm really close knit with my family. And I feel like if my sister was like, oh, I want to take, you know, your kids camping and everything's gonna be good and lati, and I'd be like, yeah, for sure. I want them to have that experience, and then to just lose all three of my children. I mean, that's a type of like resentment and like tragedy that I don't think any normal person would really get over.

SPEAKER_05 57:19

No, and I mean, and nothing, there was nothing, there was no reason for them to not let them go. They were so close. Like Diane was like another mom to them. Of course. There was absolutely nothing. This came out of essentially nowhere. That's the mystery behind it is like what the fuck happened, you know? Uh yeah. So it's awful.

SPEAKER_07 57:40

Do not drink and drive, folks.

SPEAKER_08 57:42

I was just gonna say that. Don't fucking do it. Just don't it's selfish, it's fucking unruly. Nobody is good at drunk driving. I don't care how many times you've done it. Yeah, bullshit excuse. It's a gross. As a bartender, I've heard that way too many times, and it's disgusting and it's a bad fucking habit. I know that's how we are. Well, thank you, Brittany, for that heart-wrenching story.

SPEAKER_07 58:07

I try, yeah, I tried to I don't know. You know, you're always you're always doing a good job of uh bringing us real down.

SPEAKER_03 58:16

I know.

SPEAKER_07 58:18

I'm sorry, okay. Like I could not pop in any dog dad jokes in that bitch.

SPEAKER_05 58:28

I tried to freeze over the really sad parts and focus more on the facts. What the fucks of it. I mean, that's what we're here for. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 58:41

I yeah, I mean, it's hard to, you know. I mean, I went brutal and savage, and you went tragic and heart wrenching. I mean, these are topics we can't avoid in a true cry podcast. Exactly. Always make light of this shit, you guys. We we tried to make it a little happier this week, but you know, what can you do?

SPEAKER_04 58:58

Came in like a wrecking ball.

SPEAKER_07 59:00

If you're looking for something a little happier, pop on over to our Patreon and subscribe at either$3 for a basic bitch tier or$10 for a bad bitch tier. And you can listen to our pillow talk episodes that will make you giggle your little ass off.

SPEAKER_08 59:18

Yeah, it's Luster Fox. That's where the Florida headlines, the funny crime. That's where that Florida man is. The abnormal weapon of choice in murders.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

And funny weapon! My favorite game. An interactive game that you guys can play at home. Right.

SPEAKER_05 59:35

Don't you want to know what the fuck we're talking about?

SPEAKER_08 59:39

We're gonna keep anching it in because literally we're still laughing about it. And it's become an inside joke with the three of us, and it could be an inside joke with you too, if you want to subscribe. You can also check out the cutest bank robbers you've ever seen in your entire life. Uh, little um giveaway. They're covered in fur. Little benditos.

SPEAKER_03 59:59

Little benditos.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:02

It's worth it, you guys, and and it helps us in this dog eat dog podcast community. We're trying our best.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:10

Incredibly expensive. Nobody told me this when I decided to do this, that it would be so expensive. Surprise. And make sure y'all check out our website, nightcaptruecrime.com. You can listen to all our episodes. You can find our contact information and annoy the fuck out of us. Please. Let's see here. What else do we got? We did not write an outro to this episode. Oh, no. Yeah. Next week's episode is going to be something very new. But fun.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:42

Susie, what is it? It's murder matcha. We're gonna release a trailer pretty soon about this. It's a random drawn, fun little thing that we're gonna do and come across the most random cases we possibly can that have to do with murder. Trailer coming soon, so pay attention. Keep your eyes out or your ears, your ears listening.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:03

I mean, they have to see it to know to click on it, so it works.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:07

And to see that, you can go to our Facebook night cap true crime. Stick with us, you guys. It's gonna be good, I promise. Oh my goodness. Oh boy. Well, do not drink and drive. Don't take bath salts. Skip on the cocaine. And uh podcast at midnight. Don't podcast at midnight.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:30

Really consult with your physician before being prescribed ambient, or else you will suffer from many of the bad side effects.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:36

Also, Georgia Homeboy is a no-go. Oh god, that's it, guys. We gotta we gotta be done now. We gotta cut it off. Alright. Also, FBI, if you have any more information. Still wondering about that penadrill.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:55

That much penadrill! How much? George. If you understand any of these inside jokes, you're a bad bitch.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:05

We love you. We love you long time. We'll see you guys next week. Bye, bitch.