Trigger Warning: This case involves the murder and shooting of 3 innocent children. By their mother and the person that was supposed to love them, protect them, and do them no harm.
It was a dark night on May 19, 1983. Diane had just bought a new red car and had taken her 3 children, Cheryl (7), Danny (3), and Christie (8) to a friend's farm to play with horses. As they were driving back home that night, according to Diane Downs testimony, she was listening to Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" and her kids were sleeping in the car. Diane them claims that she slowed down after seeing a "bushy haired" man in the road. She claims that after she slowed down, the man attempted to car jack her. Because she had just bought the car and refused to give it, the bushy haired stranger shot all three of her children in the car and the shot Diane in the arm...sounding suspicious yet?? She then claims that she raced them to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield Oregon. Did she really "race" them there as fast as she could though? We will discuss that is a bit. By the time that she got there, Cheryl had already succumbed to her injuries. Danny was barely hanging on and was paralyzed. Christie had suffered a major stroke and could not speak. Why did all of this happen....?
Elizabethe "Diane" Downs was born August 7th,1955 in Arizona. She was closer to her mother but more often than not, Willadene was under the control of Wesley and did not cross. Diane has testified that when she was 12, her father started sexually abusing her. Diane met her first husband in high school and then ran away from home and married him on November 13th 1973. Diane was promiscuous and Steven divorced her in 1980 because he thought that Danny, their youngest son, was a product of one of Diane's affairs. In May of 1982, Diane became pregnant again, however, she ended up giving her rights away. Lucky little girl....
And here is where the sick, most fucked up pat of the story begins. When Diane arrived at the hospital that night, she had a minor arm wound and it was wrapped very carefully in a towel. When the hospital staff began to extract the children out of the car, Diane stated " Am I going to be able to get the blood out?" " This is a new car, I just got it." I swear I would have choked her out right then and there. That comment alone was enough to raise suspicion but as the night wore on, Diane continued to make inappropriate. She was calm and more worried about her stupid care than her kids. Then she made a phone call....to Robert Knickerbocker. Robert was a man (married man) no less that she had been seeing. He had just split from Diane because he wanted to try to make things work with his wife...and because he didn't want kids. Not now, not ever. Isn't that interesting and convenient? As she is making the call to her previous lover, the crime scene technicians were processing Diane's car. There was no blood spatter on the driver's side of the car or any gun powder residue. How if the "bushy haired shooter" had leaned in the window as Diane stated, both of those things would have been present.
Diane had left and moved to Oregon after her love affair ended and according to Robert, he was so glad she had. She would stalk him, had his name tatted under a rose on her should, and would show up at his job unannounced. She worked for the post office as well, and their affair was a poorly kept secret. She told Robert on numerous occasions she would kill to be with him forever. He took it as a threat towards his wife. Maybe that's what she meant, maybe not.
When the police began to investigate, they asked Diane if she had any guns. She stated no but both her ex-husband and Robert stated she had owned a .22 caliber Ruger. Steve even told the police that he saw the gun in the trunk of her car the day she left Arizona for Oregon. The police never found the gun but they did find shell casings in her home with extraction markings that matched the bullets used in the gun fired on the kids. Then the police got the ultimate piece of evidence in the form of a witness that stated he was behind Diane the night of the shooting and she had been going 7-10 miles per hour. How is that RACING her "bleeding babies" to he hospital?? Based on this and additional evidence, Downs was arrested on February 28, 1984, nine months after the shooting, and charged with one count of murder, and two counts each of attempted murder and criminal assault.
This case was really a slam dunk in my opinion. When Christie had recovered enough to speak, she was able to testify against her mom. To think that one child was killed, one was paralyzed, and the other suffered a massive stroke just because this bitch wanted a man that was not hers and never would be. Imagine being 8 years old and having to look your mom in the face and tell the court room of people what she had happened to her and her siblings. Christie was strong and helped to get justice for her and her siblings.
On June 17th,1984, a jury convicted Diane Downs on all charges and she was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years. Psychiatrists diagnosed her with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders, labeling her as a “deviant sociopath." NO SHIT! Diane had gotten pregnant before being convicted and gave birth to a baby girl in jail. The baby was given up for adoption and renamed Rebecca. Rebecca was on a recent 20/20 special where she states she wrote to her mother in prison but that her mother was horrible, and a monster.
The greatest outcome of the case? Danny and Christie were adopted by the lead prosecutor and his wife.
Downs was initially incarcerated at the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem. On July 11, 1987, she escaped from her cell by scaling an eighteen-foot razor wire fence. For ten days, Downs managed to evade law enforcement—despite a fourteen-state manhunt—before she was recaptured. She received an additional five-year sentence for the escape. After her recapture, Downs was transferred to the New Jersey Department of Corrections Clinton Correctional Facility for Women after heavy lobbying from Hugi ( the prosecutor). The Salem prison was located 66 miles from Hugi's home in Springfield; during her ten days of freedom, Hugi had feared that Downs would attempt to travel there in hopes of contacting her children, Christie and Danny. Despite significant security upgrades at the women's facility after the escape, state officials accepted Hugi's argument that the risk of harm to Christie and Danny, in the event of another escape, was too great for Downs to remain incarcerated in Oregon.
Author Ann Rule wrote the book Small Sacrifices (1987), which detailed Downs' life and murder trial. It was a fantastic book. I would know, I own it. The book documented accounts by friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and her surviving daughter, Christie, who questioned the quality of her parenting. A made-for-TV movie, also titled Small Sacrifices, starred Farrah Fawcett as Downs, and was aired on ABC in 1989. If you have not watched this, it is must see.
Diane Downs is one of the most terrible mothers is history. She deserves to rot and then go to hell for what she has done. So many people out there that want children and cannot have them. For some reason, crazy bitches such as Diane are blessed only to shoot those precious blessings in hopes of rekindling an affair.
Resources:
Movie- Small Sacrifices
Wikipedia-Diane Downs
Book- Small Sacrifi
ces, Anne Rule
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