breaking news tonight -- a florida beach beauty married her dream man, and the newlyweds all set to live happily ever after. till death do them part. what the 26-year-old beauty didn't plan on was that the hit man she hired to murder her new hubby is a cop. that's right. the cops sting her on video. she breaks down in hysterical tears crying over her dead husband within just hours of planning those final touches for his shooting death. she was on the phone with a would-be hit man, and we have the video.

>> no, no. oh, my god. i want to see him. no no! >> reserve. >> does he have enemies? anyone that would want to hurt him? ma'am -- >> please. please. #. >> i need you -- i need to take you to the station.

go with the detective. >> please! >> you want to help your husband, you need to go to the station, tell us everything you know about who he knows, who he's connected to. >> please, please. and tonight a young mother with five little children in her minivan barrels down the wrong way on a packed interstate highway slamming into another vehicle. tally -- eight dead, one child, as we go to air, hanging on to life by a thread. tragedy? yes. accident? no. toxicology reports mommy high on booze and pot. tonight a court battle brewing. >> the question was asked, did she have an alcohol problem? did you know her to go to bars? >> absolutely not.

>> did you know her to get drunk and act in -- >> i never saw her drunk since the day i met her. >> a 36-year-old mother, diane schuler drove the wrong way for nearly two miles on a new york highway with five children inside her minivan. they struck an suv with three adults head-on. eight people were killed. authorities revealed schuler had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit. equivalent to ten drinks. that she also had traces of marijuana in her system. >> how do you put five children in a car when you are a mother and you're drunk? how do you do that? it's incomprehensible. i can't even -- we have children. i would never ever do something like that. it's just -- it's crazy. >> i go to bed every night knowing, my heart is clear, she did not drink. she is not an alcoholic. listen to all that. she is not an alcoholic, and my heart is restless every night when i go to bed. something medically had to have happened. >> good evening. i'm nancy grace. i want to thank you for being with us.

a florida beach beauty marries her dream man and the newlyweds all set to live happily ever after till death do them part. what the 26-year-old beauty didn't plan on was that the hit man she hired to murder hubby is a cop. >> no, no! >> i didn't do anything, and i didn't plot anything. >> police say she thought she had gotten away with it, but this afternoon she's on her way to the palm beach county jail after boy boynton beach police say dahlia dippolito paid a hit man $3,000 to kill her husband. turns out the hit man was an undercover police officer tipped off by a confidential informant. she says she didn't do it. >> it's 10:50. i should have been dead at, like, 9:00. >> she was working out at la fitness gym, when police called her to return to the home. it was taped off, and detectives roaming the property like it was a crime scene. >> no, no!

>> here is a woman who is saying she's 5,000% sure she wants to pay for her husband to be killed and then at the scene you have a woman who is sobbing uncontrollably because she's just learned that her husband is dead. >> oh, my god. >> just divorce me and take everything, i mean, that's the best way, right? i mean, i don't understand. >> straight out to ashley glass from wpec joining us there in palm beach, florida. ashley, what happened? >> well, i saw this woman today for the first time up in court for her first appearance, and it was like i was looking at a different person. you saw the youtube video there. she was emotional, over the top, hysterical, how you would react, right, if you thought someone was dead. then in court today for first appearance, stone-cold expressionless as she stood before a judge. he set her bond today, $25,000. we already know she's bonded out. we saw her leave in an unmarked

car here from the palm beach county jail. and she's actually at her mom's house right now. she went straight to her mom's house. that's where she's going to be on house arrest. a judge ordered it as the case moves along in court. we're already hearing from her lawyer today in court -- >> oh, boy, that's strict. the judge ordered it? wow. house arrest? boy. how much more strict could that punishment be? she's at home while mommy is cooking her chicken soup. i want to go out to a special guest joining me from boynton beach. chief matthew immler with the boynton beach police department. chief, it's a pleasure to have you with us. explain to me how you guys managed to get this on video. it's incredible. >> the case started friday, and all through the weekend we had met with the defendant, and we actually have quite a bit of video and audio of various portions of our interaction with her. the portion that you have seen that's on the youtube is the

very end, and really it's a small amount of what we've actually taped with her. it is essentially the conclusion of the case at that point. >> with me chief matthew immler joining us from boynton beach, florida. chief, it's incredible. how did she get hooked up with an undercover cop? >> well, she had asked someone to actually make this happen, to have her husband killed. the person that she had asked came to us, advised us of what was going on, and at that point we interceded. >> to dr. bethany marshall, everybody, we're taking your calls live. this woman is stunning. 26-year-old workout enthusiast, let me say. only married six months. the bloom should not be off the rose, bethany marshall. they're newlyweds. dr. bethany, is she crazy? she approaches a friend, and i

don't care how good of a friend you are. who is going to go along with hiring a hit man? >> well, obviously she didn't have big-picture thinking if she approached a friend not thinking that person would turn her into the police, but most women who kill their husbands usually have what's called a borderline personality disorder configuration. >> don't start up, bethany. there's nothing wrong with this woman. >> well, but it's not a mental illness. it's just a personality disorder, and there's extreme ragefulness at the smallest of provocations, but what i think is interesting, he has a criminal history as well. he was giving her cash to pay bills, and then she wasn't even paying the bills with it. was there a financial incentive on her part? was there a joint corruption of conscience on both of their parts, and she acted it out together? with borderline there's ragefulness and impulsivity, with acting out the ragefulness in a very malicious and vengeful way. >> we are taking your calls live out to sandy in minnesota. hi, sandy. >> caller: yes.

how is this poor man ever going to trust another woman again? ever. >> sandy, he's probably at home on his knees counting his blessings that this near murder was averted. with me right now the perfect person to answer sandy in minnesota's question. with me is john sabatino, a very good friend of the would-be dead husband, michael dippolito. john, thank you for being with us. how was his reaction? what is it to all of this to find out your wife of just six months, your newlywed, your bride, is planning to rub you out? >> yes. hello. >> hi. can you hear me, john? >> yes. >> what was your friend's reaction? >> i spoke to mike first thing this morning, and he was totally in shock. he could not believe that this entire thing has happened to him. >> well, did he see it coming? did he see anything, any rift in the marriage? >> no, not really. he just felt that she was a go-getter and that she, you

know, wanted to lead the high-class society life. >> like what? >> you know, i know mike has treated women great in the past, and he was definitely going to treat this one with all his heart. >> but what do you mean treat women great? what do you mean? buy them stuff? >> yeah. i mean, you know, buy them stuff. mike's a gentleman. i've known mike for over 20 years. and every girlfriend that he's had that i've met has spoke highly of him. >> so you saw no problems in the marriage, and suddenly she hires a hit man? >> well, there are -- there were some problems because everybody warned mike that things were happening way too fast. i mean, i think they were living together after, like, only one or two weeks, and then the small engagement and then to be married, like, within six months. just everything was happening fast. >> well, mr. sabatino, what was this woman like? i know she was a fitness freak, worked out all the time.

what more can you tell me about her? >> i met her probably back in december for the first time. mike introduced me to her. i was down in florida. i was visiting my brother and happened to go over to boca, and she seemed to be okay. she was definitely a very pretty girl, but, um, she tended to cater to mike, too, at times. >> this woman spent hours and hours every week, getting the perfect body, the perfect look. she meets this guy. within six months, they're headed down the aisle. within six months after that, she's hiring a hit man to rub him out. we are taking your calls live. let's unleash the lawyers. joining me tonight, susan moss, john burk, and lauren lake. sue moss, weigh in. >> the six-month itch, it's a witch. i can't believe it took her six months and already she's trying to rub out her husband. there's no defense in this case.

the fact that she asked her friends about a hit man means that there's no entrapment because the government wasn't involved then. there is no defense. >> there's a lot of funny stuff going on. i overlooked a lot of things. you know, you try and look -- see the best in people, not the worst. i feel a little bad, but, i mean, there's no reason she had to do this, you know?

>> no no! >> dippolito was arrested wednesday after police say she hired a hit man to kill her husband of only six months. it turns out that hired gun was an undercover cop. boynton pd staged a crime scene as if dippolito's husband had actually been shot dead. when she got the news, she sobbed in hysterics. later she learned at the police station her husband was still alive. detectives say they received a tip about dahlia's plan. she had been dealing with an undercover police officer posing as a hit man. >> the report says the two met several times at a parking lot at a cvs and gas station. when the officer asked if she was sure she wanted it done, she

replied "i'm not going to change my mind. i'm 5,000% sure i want it done." >> michael dippolito and his wife met less than a year ago. he is now 38. she's 26. they were married six months ago. he says strange things started happening. money went missing. threatening notes were left on his car. he says now that makes sense. but it's far different than his wife trying to kill him. >> ms. dippolito? >> yes. [ inaudible ]. >> no no! no! oh, my god. i want to see him. >> you can't. >> no!

>> does he have enemies? witnesses said they saw a black male running -- ma'am, you can't do this right now. i need you to take her to the station. go with the detective. if you want to help your husband. okay? if you want to help your husband, you need to go and tell us everything you know about who you know, who he's connected to. don't worry. >> please. please. no. >> here, little girl. you're going to need these in the big house. okay? all that sobbing and crying and carrying on, it's all on video. we're just seeing a portion of what the boynton beach pd has against this woman. a 26-year-old newlywed who allegedly planned to rub out her husband.

problem, ruh-roh, the hit man is a cop. okay. let's take another look at what the cops have in their arsenal that we know of. roll it, rosie. okay. she's walking up. she's gotten a call at the la fitness center to come home immediately. okay. look at the other cops. this is what i like. they all know. he is not dead. oh, god. no. no. look. they're all looking away and looking at the ground. uh-oh, scratching his head. must be a very painful moment for her. work it. work it. cry. okay. it's about time she should bend over with abdominal pain. she's about to collapse out of grief. look at all the cops just staring at her.

somebody please take her. take her so we can book her. >> if you want to help your husband -- >> please! please! >> if you want to help your husband, go with the detective to the station. tell us everything you know about who you know, who he's connected to. >> please, please. >> don't worry. we've taken care of -- everything is under control. >> so, chief immler, when did you break it to her that her husband was, in fact, alive in the next room at the police department? >> actually, nancy, about the point that we were taking her from the interview room back to the cellblock, we let her see her husband at that point. >> oh, lord. i didn't know you actually let them see each other, and what was her reaction? >> she was surprised. >> surprised. i think you're underplaying it a little bit. now, at this time when she first saw her husband, did she know he was alive? >> well, yes, because he was standing there in the detectives' room. >> had you already told her he was alive? >> no, we didn't -- we made no

statement about that. she actually saw him as we were moving her. >> chief, what was she saying? i mean, before she realized she was busted, what was she saying? >> she really wasn't saying a whole lot. we were just asking her mainly general questions, and she was responding in generalities, like i don't know who would do this, that sort of thing. >> to ellie jostad, our producer on the story. ellie, what her can you tell me? >> boynton beach police say they have several conversations that this woman had on -- with this informant and the undercover cop. it's all on tape. she gave the informant $1,200 as a down payment to buy a gun to allegedly kill her husband. >> $1,200. you know, a lot of celebrities spend that much on a pocketbook. that was to get him killed? >> right. then she told the undercover cop she would give him $3,000 after the job was done. i'll clean the pool if you clean the windows.

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>> no, no, no! oh my god! i want to see him! no, no!

>> we have to do our job. if you want us to find his killer, we need you to -- >> no, no. >> did he have any enemies? is there anyone that would want to hurt him? >> do you see that? listen. >> ma'am, you cannot do this right now. we need you to listen. >> you are seeing dalia dippolito, a 26-year-old newlywed of six months breaking down in hysterical sobs as police inform her her groom is dead, murdered. they carry her away. she's nearly doubled over in grief. when they get her to the police station, they let her look in the next room and there he is. very alive and very well. this is a police sting that you are seeing right now. we are taking your calls live. out to sheryl in michigan. hi, sheryl. >> caller: hi, nancy. love you. love your growing family. >> thank you.

what's your question, love? >> caller: on top of life insurance, does he have a business, a company, assets that she was going into wanting to kill him? >> what do we know, ashley glass, ashley joining us from wpec? >> when we talked to him, he said, yes, he is well off. yes, they did live an extravagant lifestyle, but he says he really doesn't know what the motive is. when he came face-to-face with her in the police department, he says he thinks he had the chance to ask her that, were you after my money? what was it? he says he doesn't want to know. he didn't even take that opportunity to ask her, what were you after? >> ashley, what do you mean by an extravagant lifestyle? what do we know? >> well, i mean, he just flat-out said that we spent a lot of money, and he said there were suspicions along the way that maybe she was after his money. they had only been married six months. >> maybe she was after his money. >> but, again, he didn't want to ask her flat out. >> i'm going to ask chief matthew immler from the boynton beach police department. chief, what did he do for a

living? did they live the high life? >> well, i don't know if you would call it living the high life. they live in a very nice area of boynton beach. it's a newly constructed town center development, and he worked from home. i'm not exactly sure what his business is. i know that he seems to do well. >> what do you mean town center? what's that? >> a town center is where you build a shopping center, retail, restaurants, and then build the residence around that. >> oh, right. fancy, high-end stores like saks fifth avenue, barney's, and then, yeah -- >> exactly. >> expensive condos. okay. we are taking your calls out to kiana in washington. hi, dear. >> caller: hi, nancy. i love you. >> thank you. thank you for calling in, dear. what's your question? kiana calling from washington state. >> caller: yes. i would like to know if anyone knows if the wife was having an affair. >> well, you know, that's a good question.

there's always money or a lover hiding in the closet. what do you know, ellie jostad? >> don't know of an alleged lover at this point, although we do know that she told the confidential informant she gave him a schedule of where her husband would be, gave him a couple of pictures, told the cop, who was posing as a hit man, some ways that he might get out of town easily, some getaway routes. she apparently gave him lots of information to try to pull off this alleged plot. >> and going to the gym that morning, that was supposed to be her alibi? >> right. actually she offered to go get her hair done. she thought that would be a good alibi. this undercover cop told her why don't you get out of the house by 6:00 a.m. in the morning. she went to the gym, and that's where she got word that her husband was dead. >> leann in mississippi, hi, leean. >> caller: hi, nancy. god bless you and your family. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> caller: they are beautiful. >> they are two little miracle babies. lucy was a little over two pounds when she came into this

world. i'm happy to say she's over 30 pounds now, and she can say "daddy" and "mommy" in her own way. so can john david. he has been saying it a really long time. what's your question, love? >> caller: i'm a little confused as to how this video got on to youtube, and is she going to get a hotshot defense attorney to say they're setting her up? >> you know it, leann. that's exactly where this is headed. you hear burris and lake lining it up. how did the video get on youtube, chief immler? >> well, florida has a very open public records law. >> that's right, that's right. florida. >> yeah, for instance, as soon as the suspect is booked, the probable cause affidavit becomes public record, and because of that, we try and be accommodating to the media. obviously, there's a lot that we can't release, but we wanted to release something because we do like to cooperate, and we do like to be able to assist them in telling her story to the citizens. >> you're right.

in fact, out of all the states in the nation, florida has the most open courtroom system. they don't hide anything. the theory in florida is the best detergent is sunshine, so you have open courtrooms, open records. anybody, including the media, can get ahold of most of the police investigative files. yes. very quickly, everyone, i want to go to tom shamscheck, former police chief, private investigator, instructor at bu. if you want to find out about insurance policies and money and wills, how do you go about doing that? >> good evening, nancy. obviously, investigators will be sitting down with the husband and mining for that information, looking at all of the background associated with a prenuptial and whatever else they're going to uncover through diaries, her computer records, and i think that's where they're going to go. >> oh, yeah. the computer records.

you're darn right. very quickly, everybody. take a listen to our second story. >> the family of michael and his son guy are incredulous over the revelation that long island mother diane schuler was stoned and drunk when she plowed into the suv going the wrong way on the taconic parkway. schuler herself was killed along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces. >> i think anyone that knows contributed to this should be brought to justice in one way or another. >> reporter: the bestardi family lawyer calling now for a full investigation saying he senses what he calls a fragrance of criminality. >> it's inconceivable to me that the family would be unaware of the fact that this woman drank a lot and used marijuana. >> she is not an alcoholic, and my heart is rested every night when i go to bed. something medically had to have happened. >> something happened to her brain.

that doesn't give me an answer. does not give me an answer for the alcohol in her stomach or the marijuana allegedly there, and i'm not saying that test is wrong here. something had to happen. this is not a woman who would jeopardize five children. she was the one they chose to always drive. >> the fragrance of criminality? more like the odor of criminality, the stench, the pungent stench of criminality. eight people are dead. out to rupa joining us from the scene of the crash. what happened? >> nancy, there are -- there was a terrible crash, a collision that occurred july 26th at 1:30 p.m. mommy diane schuler, along with her three nieces and two children, 5-year-old son, who did survive the crash, and 2-year-old daughter were killed tragically.

this is a head-on collision on the highway right behind me. i'm actually very close to the crash site. just a half mile up the street here. she drove the wrong way northbound on a southbound highway behind me. >> rupa, what do we know? who all was in the car with her in the minivan? >> reporter: the red minivan, it was her three nieces. these were the children of her brother, and her own children, nancy, her own 2-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old son. >> how many are dead that were in the car with her? >> reporter: actually, she is dead as well as all the children except for her son, her 5-year-old son. four people. >> what about the toxicology reports? what do they show? what was in her system? >> toxicology reports show that her blood alcohol content was .19%. this is double the legal amount that's allowed in the state of new york.

>> what about marijuana? >> reporter: yes. there was also blood tests showing that she has -- she had smoked marijuana within one hour of that crash.

diane schuler's brother and his family remain secluded, still in shock over the horrifying revelation that their three girls died because their aunt diane was driving drunk. today a relative of the girls

was determined to set the record straight. >> because we have never known diane to be anything but a responsible and caring mother and aunt, this toxicology report raises more questions than it provides answers for our family. >> reporter: an attorney for diane schuler's husband, daniel, told us that schuler never had an alcohol problem and that the family is absolutely in shock over the toxicology reports. >> she was not an alcoholic. she rarely had a drink. she got in the van with the children. nine witnesses saw her that day not drunk. >> it's hard for me to believe that the family did not know that this woman had an alcohol problem or a drug problem. this could not have manifested itself all of a sudden out of the clear blue sky on that one sunday morning. >> this man loved this woman.

he is in a daze from all of this, absolutely. there was no -- >> nobody witnessed her drinking? to brad lamm, board certified registered interventionist at www.bradlamm.com. you know, brad, alcoholics or drinkers don't always let you see them boozing it up. i recall having guests stay for the weekend. when they were gone, even the mouthwash, it was all gone. >> yeah. >> somebody gave me a bottle of wine. it was -- i found the bottle in the bathroom towels. >> empty. yeah. >> the mouth wash was all gone. i had no idea. >> look, here is the struggle. you and i know what we would do. we would take the keys away and make sure that the person didn't drive if they were impaired, but that's the battle that families face. is she or isn't she, and has she had too much, and what can we really do?

you know, families get stuck in the face of addiction. that night whether or not they knew -- i think i would probably know because that's the world i live in. but you know, it's tough for families. >> you know what else? sometimes -- >> families fight within themselves, you know, trying to decide. >> sometimes people don't know because they don't want to know. right right now with me, eileen la palmer, she's from 1010 win. she attended the press conference today. eileen, it looked like the press conference got kind of crazy. what happened? >> this was the first time we actually heard from diane schuler's husband. now, this accident happened a week and a half ago, and we had not heard from him, so everyone obviously wanted to talk to him and hear his side of the story. he basically disputed the toxicology reports saying he -- his wife was not an alcoholic, that she had not been drinking. and what was called into question was she left an upstate camp site at 9:30 in the morning and four hours later at 1:30 in the afternoon is when the accident happened. the question is when was she drinking? the toxicology reports show the

blood alcohol was .19, and she had marijuana in her system also, according to police. >> is it true, eileen la palmer, everyone, she's joining us from 1010 win radio. is it true she was barreling down the wrong way of the interstate? >> well, that's right. there's a couple highways she took to get there. the highway where it happened, the tech conteconic. they said she was traveling south in the northbound lane and witnesses originally on that highway said that she was actually keeping the car steady for 1.7 miles. nearly two miles. this is before she got on. the other highways that she had been on, they did say that they thought she was driving erratically and aggressively, like tailgating. there's two -- from the two highways two different stories. >> with me right now, a special guest, ann scott. she is the owner of the hunter lake campground. she's joining us from parkville, new york, and she has known the schulers for years. she saw diane schuler the morning of the crash. ms. scott, thank you for being with us. can you shed any light on what

happened that day? >> nancy? >> yes. >> am i on? >> yes, ma'am. >> nancy, i have only known diane about three years. they were seasonal campers with us. they were just a really normal family here. she took the children walking, and they played up on the court. the children would go swimming. she was polite to everybody. she wasn't a person that mixed with a lot of people. she was very quiet. i have to be honest with you, she has had us all in the state of shock and surprise. as far as this situation is concerned. i think when the toxicology report came out, we just fell apart. we couldn't believe it. >> i can't believe all of these children. >> it's horrifying. >> lost their lives. >> horrifying. >> and her blood alcohol, the evidence she had been smoking

pot with five little children in the car with her. of course, the husband claiming no, she didn't drink, she wasn't an alcoholic, she didn't smoke pot. with me is ann scott, the owner of hunter lake campground. she's known the schulers about three years. she saw her that morning. to laura dean mooney, the national president of mothers against drunk driving. when you hear about a story like this, laura, what's your reaction? >> well, my heart broke immediately. it brought back for me personal memories because my husband was killed by a wrong-way drunk driver in 1991 on a texas highway. they found an empty bottle of jim beam in his car. so things like this point a horrific flashlight on the drunk driving problem in america. >> when all these people say she didn't drink. she wasn't an alcoholic. hello. her blood alcohol level .19. out to the lines. sally in texas. hi, sally. >> caller: hi, nancy.

my questions is, you answered one, what she was doing before. but you answered that. so i was just wondering, did she maybe stop somewhere after she left to get a bottle? be stop somewhere after she left to get a bottle? >> good question. have they retraced her steps? is that possible she stopp ped somewhere to obtain alcohol? >> reporter: it's very possible. this is what police are working on right now. they are trying to reconstruct the collision itself and the hours before the collision. it's an open, active investigation. >> to dr. michael bell, how reliable are these toxicology reports, dr. bell? >> well, they're extremely reliable, as long as they were taken properly during the autopsy, i would count on them. >> and where do you -- from the blood, from the tissue? where do you get these results for blood alcohol and pot? >> well, usually we don't just draw blood. usually, we will also draw

urine, some body organs like liver, brain, as well as eye fluid, vistrious fluid.