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Virginia mother Vanessa Schwartz, 35, is struck and killed on her first night out since birth of her baby after being 'thrown out of Uber on side of highway and stumbling into traffic'
Daily Mail UK ^ | March 14, 2024 | Will Potter

Posted on 03/14/2024 12:11:56 PM PDT by Morgana

A new mom celebrating her first night out since the birth of her baby daughter was struck and killed after allegedly being kicked out of an Uber on a busy highway.

Vanessa Schwartz, 35, was on her way home from an evening with her husband Michael, a systems engineer, when she was hit while walking along Interstate-495 in Fairfax County, Virginia at 4am on Sunday.

Unverified Uber receipts showed that she had been dropped off by her Uber at 1am. The three-hour window is not explained.

Her devastated family have laid the blame on the Uber driver, who has been suspended amid an investigation by Uber but has not been charged, as her brother-in-law said it was a 'preventable situation.'

However, Virginia state police told NBC4 that there is 'no evidence' she was abandoned on the highway, and 'it appears she made her way to the interstate from a secondary roadway.'

Investigations into the young mother's death are still ongoing, with witnesses reportedly telling police she had 'stumbled' into traffic, reports WUSA-9.

The outlet also claimed that a preliminary investigation found the 2005 Honda Accord that struck Schwartz was unable to avoid hitting her.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

It remains unclear why Schwartz was on the highway, as NBC4 obtained unverified Uber receipts from her family that showed her ride came to an end either on the highway, or very close to it.

Although she was fatally struck at 4am, receipts also showed that the Uber lift ended at 1am. The three-hour time gap is not explained.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Travel
KEYWORDS: alexandria; uber; virginia
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To: Jamestown1630

Here’s an example, though it’s weird that a “journalist” would include the below sentence without mentioning the mystery passenger elsewhere in the article. The author also brushes over the fact that the husband was with her in the Uber, to me the centerpiece of the story, as if that’s not important.

“It is unclear why her husband, Michael, and the other passenger in the Uber were not with her when she was struck on the highway.”

https://wlap.iheart.com/content/2024-03-14-new-mother-killed-walking-on-highway-after-1st-night-out-since-giving-birth/


41 posted on 03/14/2024 2:01:11 PM PDT by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: Jamestown1630
I don’t understand the article - it says she had been out for an evening with her husband and was coming home - but where was the husband? Did he send her home alone?

I don't understand either but this is from the article:

The driver, who has not been criminally charged, was said to have kicked the couple out of his car and onto the highway, despite it being 'dark and raining.'
Did the Uber driver kick the couple out of his car because they were fighting and then the husband walked away with the postpartum mother intentionally running into traffic to off herself?

That seems the only thing that fits what we know.

42 posted on 03/14/2024 2:16:10 PM PDT by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: TonyinLA
None of the details make any sense, and her Darwin Award death...

She didn't qualify for the Darwin Award because she has already procreated.   The Darwin Award is only awarded when the person did not get a chance to spread their genes.

43 posted on 03/14/2024 2:22:33 PM PDT by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! )
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To: Morgana

Ditto what you said. You couldn’t get me in one of those hippy driven jalopies.


44 posted on 03/14/2024 2:24:24 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Could a "caravan" of freeloading U.S. citizens be able to make it into Mexico before they are shot?)
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To: higgmeister

Sounds like drunken argument led to wife possibly demanding to be let out while husband & friend continued in the Uber.

the husband has the typical soy boy look - beard & BC glasses.


45 posted on 03/14/2024 2:25:36 PM PDT by nvcdl
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To: Jamestown1630

She was with a girlfriend according yo the news.


46 posted on 03/14/2024 2:33:30 PM PDT by vivenne (⁹)
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To: higgmeister

“She’s dead, Jim”.

That’s all we know.


47 posted on 03/14/2024 2:47:03 PM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable. Even more so)
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To: Jamestown1630

That wasn’t it. You asked where the husband was, but the article clearly stated she was out with her husband.


48 posted on 03/14/2024 2:51:55 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

According to the article they were kicked out of the Uber together.


49 posted on 03/14/2024 2:53:13 PM PDT by Truthsearcher
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To: Secret Agent Man

Yes, it did. Where was the husband when she was killed?


50 posted on 03/14/2024 3:19:45 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: higgmeister

There are other articles from other news sources. This one indicates that there was a third passenger:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/woman-struck-killed-on-i-495-after-first-night-out-with-husband-since-daughters-birth/ar-BB1jN8ud

It says ‘The couple and a friend took an Uber home, but why she got out of the car on the Beltway is still unclear, according to Virginia State Police.’


51 posted on 03/14/2024 3:24:22 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Morgana

“Stumbled”?


52 posted on 03/14/2024 3:27:30 PM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: ETCM

It’s all very strange. Hard to know if it’s just really lousy reporting, or something else going on.


53 posted on 03/14/2024 3:28:46 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: MayflowerMadam

8 months.


54 posted on 03/14/2024 3:38:57 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Morgana
I think youre right. I think I have some insight as every year the people of Clermont, KY celebrate my birthday and remember some of my old girlfriends. I often rode in a lot of taxis with a bunch of different women in those days and after I got out of the military I was a taxi driver myself for a while to make ends meet. All that is to say that Ive seen this situation a number of times as both the driver and the guy being dropped off.

Taking the general script Im familiar with and adding what we know, it probably went something like this:

Since we know that this happened at 1 we also know that this isnt a couple "trying to be responsible" or something by getting home to relieve the babysitter something similar as those people leave earlier. Hardcore drinkers tend to stay til just after 2. Nobody voluntarily leaves at 1. She was likely smashed, even if she was a "good" drinker before hand, the last year and half left on the wagon left her out of practice.

She could barely stay conscious and hubby was trying to get her home before he had to carry her. Despite possibly already being sick there, her friends were encouraging her to stay out til close.

By the time their ride arrived the husband was already seen as the bad guy "for ruining her fun". Depending on her state, it didnt take long for her to start puking everywhere or raging and fighting with him (Ubers are generally smaller cars, lunging on the highway in a rainstorm equals ejection at the next exit).

What happened next makes me think it was the latter. If she was puking and barely conscious the driver may have demanded extra fees for cleanup which he apparently didnt and they only gave a 3$ tip. If the driver learned they were broke or ejected them for being sick, depending on how that played out there would have been either nothing paid, $15 and no tip, or $15 and what appeared to be a giant tip (for cleanup).

We know they didnt go far($15), and the driver poured them out. They are relatively young and shes angry that he ruined her fun. "Its not far" in her mind so most likely she decides to walk back to her friends at the bar, or possibly over to where she thinks she remembers an old friend living. Shes likely aggressive and not passed out on someones lawn because if she was the others wouldnt have left her. The other two figure she can find her way home/back to the bar. She may have possibly said she was going to the gas station/restaurant or similar place to get something and she seemed at least lucid enough to leave her there to call another cab or walk once she calmed down.

Both they and she misjudged. The last few shots at the bar are now working their way into her blood stream and she has crossed over the point where shes walking but doesnt really have much in the way of any conscious thought. A dim awareness that the highway goes to where she imagines she wants to be and...splat.

It may seem like a lot of assumptions but even though there are some variations, like which is the more drunk one, how drunk everyone is, where they imagine they want to go, the story still goes basically just like I described but without the splat.

55 posted on 03/14/2024 4:10:37 PM PDT by gnarledmaw (Hivemind liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives select servants.)
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To: Jamestown1630; MayflowerMadam

Right, so even if she was once “a good drinker” (could hold her liquor) then shes been out of practice for nearly a year and half. It takes time for your liver to get back up to speed after a vacation like that.


56 posted on 03/14/2024 4:13:26 PM PDT by gnarledmaw (Hivemind liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives select servants.)
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To: Morgana

Don’t sleep in the subway, darlin’, don’t walk in a Beltway lane


57 posted on 03/14/2024 4:47:27 PM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: gnarledmaw

We don’t know that she was drunk. I’m wondering if there will be an autopsy.


58 posted on 03/14/2024 4:54:32 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: MayflowerMadam

Yes and I posted to someone else on this thread. 8 months old.


59 posted on 03/14/2024 4:56:59 PM PDT by Veto! (FJB Sucks Rocks)
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To: gnarledmaw

Let us know when you have any proof of even one of your assumptions about this case.


60 posted on 03/14/2024 4:57:16 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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