Attorney to Seek Wrong-Way Driver's Exhumation

(CNN) -- The attorney for a man whose wife's wrong-way accident killed eight people on New York's Taconic Parkway in July says he will ask authorities to exhume her body to prove she wasn't drinking at the time of the accident.

Dominic Barbera, attorney for Daniel Schuler, told CNN's "Larry King Live" he believes Diane Schuler may have suffered stroke-like symptoms and that a fire after the accident could have turned blood sugar into alcohol.

"I read from the medical autopsy report that there was charring of the body because there was a fire," Barbera said. "And I found -- my doctors found numerous cases where you can actually have sugar in the blood turn into alcohol."

Barbera said Schuler may have had a Transient Ischemic Attack, which produces stroke-like symptoms but no lasting damage.

The Westchester County medical examiner's office found that Schuler, 36, had a blood alcohol level of .19 percent -- more than twice the legal limit -- and had marijuana in her system when she drove a minivan the wrong way on the parkway and ran head-on into an SUV.

Three adults in the SUV were killed in the July 26 crash, as were Schuler and four children she was carrying in the minivan -- her daughter and three nieces. A fifth child, Schuler's son, survived.

A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, Donna Green, said that the office stands "by the findings of the medical examiner's report."

But Daniel Schuler said he believed the report was wrong.

"I know the truth, what happened, with my wife," he said. "She is not an alcoholic and doesn't drink. She is an outstanding mother."

Barbera and Schuler said they wanted to have the body exhumed for further examinations to prove that the accident was not caused by a drunken driver.

Attorneys for the family of Daniel Luongo, 73, one of the victims in the SUV, rejected the Schuler family's contention.

"The scientific evidence indicates that Diane Schuler was intoxicated and under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash," they said in a statement.

"Any claims denying her responsibility for this tragedy are wholly unsubstantiated, and the Luongo family finds these claims appalling, offensive and hurtful. They have lost a loved one to a senseless tragedy, and these claims do nothing but add insult to injury."

Teenage Girl Dug Up To Be 'Corpse Bride'

Telegraph- The suspects included a grieving father who allegedly paid his four accomplices around £2,700 pounds to find a female to be his son's companion in the afterlife.

The men were caught after unearthing the remains of a teenage girl who had poisoned herself after failing her university entrance exams last year, a newspaper in Xianyang in China's Shaanxi province reported.

In rural China, superstitious villagers have for centuries sought out the bodies of recently deceased woman to be ghost brides for young men who die single.

Marriage ceremonies are conducted for the two corpses, and the bride is placed in the same grave as her husband.

Under Chairman Mao's rule, officials made strenuous efforts to stamp out the ghoulish practice but it has since resurfaced in some rural areas.

Last year, a gang in southern China was arrested for strangling young women to sell as ghost brides when the supply of female corpses in their area ran short.

Attorney For Melissa Huckaby Want Sandra Cantu Exhumed

The attorney for murder defendant Melissa Huckaby wants the body of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu exhumed for a second autopsy to help defend the Sunday school teacher against rape charges, court records show.

The defense made the motion Thursday, the same day thousands of people paid their respects at a memorial service for the girl in Tracy. Sandra was laid to rest at the Tracy Mausoleum during a private funeral Wednesday.

A San Joaquin County Superior Court judge declined to rule on the motion by Samuel Behar, a deputy public defender.

Sandra was last seen near her home at the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy on March 27. Her body was found in a suitcase April 6 in an irrigation pond 2 miles from the mobile home park.

Huckaby, 28, mother of one of Sandra's playmates in the mobile home park and a Sunday school teacher at a nearby church, was arrested April 10 and charged with murder, rape and kidnapping. She could be sentenced to death if convicted.

The San Joaquin County coroner conducted an autopsy on Sandra but has not released the cause of death pending the results of toxicology tests.

In his motion, Behar wrote that a second autopsy, which would be conducted by Dr. Terri Haddix, a forensic pathologist hired by the defense, was "extremely crucial and material to Ms. Huckaby's defense."

The defense team "should be allowed to examine Ms. Cantu's body to discern alternative explanation for the assigned coroner's observation of alleged genital trauma, so that Ms. Huckaby can defend herself against those allegations," Behar wrote.

Behar added that his request was urgent because Sandra's body "will deteriorate as time goes by, and ... without immediate intervention to have the body preserved in the closest possible state to when the assigned coroner examined the body, an examination by Dr. Haddix of Ms. Cantu's body would have progressively diminishing value."

Behar wants the court to order officials at Fry Memorial Chapel in Tracy to remove Sandra's body from its crypt and preserve it until sheriff's deputies take possession of it.

"Ms. Cantu's body is of such material evidence and that, without immediate intervention by this court, (Huckaby's) defense will be prejudiced," Behar wrote. "If the defense pathologist is not permitted to examine the body, the defense will be forever denied the opportunity to refute the people's case."

Prosecutors have not filed a response pending a hearing next week. They declined to comment today.

Sandra's aunt, Angie Chavez, also declined to comment, citing advice from the family's attorney. (source)