Killer's Case Files

Diane Downs

Diane Downs was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on 7th August, 1955, to parents Wesley Linden (1930–2017) and Willadene (Engle) Frederickson. She has testified that her father sexually abused her when she was 12 years old. Diane graduated from Moon Valley High School in Phoenix, where she met her husband, Steve Downs. After high school, she enrolled at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in Orange, California, but was expelled after one year for promiscuous behavior and soon returned to her parents' home in Arizona.

On 13th November, 1973, Diane married Steve Downs after running away from home. Their first child, Christie Ann, was born in 1974. Cheryl Lynn followed in 1976, with Stephen Daniel being born in 1979. The couple divorced in 1980 because Steve thought Stephen Daniel, known as Danny, was the result of an extramarital affair by Diane.

On 8th May, 1982, Diane Downs gave birth to a daughter through surrogacy. She named the child Jennifer before turning her over to her intended parents. Prior to her arrest, Diane was employed by the United States Postal Service, assigned to the mail routes in the city of Cottage Grove, Oregon. Cheryl Lynn, shortly before her death, reportedly told a neighbor of her grandparents that she was afraid of her mother.

On 19th May, 1983, Diane shot her three children and drove them in a blood-spattered car to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, Oregon. Upon arrival, Cheryl (aged 7) was already dead, Danny (aged 3) was paralyzed from the waist down, and Christie (aged 8) had suffered a disabling stroke. Diane herself had been shot in the left forearm. She claimed she was carjacked on a rural road near Springfield by a strange man who shot her and the children. However, investigators and hospital workers became suspicious because they decided Diane's manner was too calm for a person who had experienced such a traumatic event. She also made a number of statements that both police and hospital workers considered highly inappropriate.

Suspicions heightened when Diane, upon arrival at the hospital to visit her children, phoned Robert Knickerbocker, a married man and former coworker in Arizona with whom she had been having an affair. The forensic evidence did not match her story; there was no blood spatter on the driver's side of the car, nor was there any gunpowder residue on the driver's door or on the interior door panel. Robert also reported to police that Diane had stalked him and seemed willing to kill his wife if it meant that she could have him to herself; he stated that he was relieved that she had left for Oregon and that he was able to reconcile with his wife.

Diane did not disclose to police that she owned a .22 caliber handgun, but both Steve and Robert informed them that she did. Investigators later discovered she bought the handgun in Arizona. While they were unable to find the actual weapon, they found unfired casings in her home with extractor markings from the murder weapon. Most damaging, witnesses saw her car being driven very slowly toward the hospital at an estimated speed of 5–7 mph (8–11 km/h), contradicting her claim that she drove to the hospital at high speed after the shooting. Based on this and additional evidence, Diane was arrested on 28th February, 1984, nine months after the shooting, and charged with one count of murder and two counts each of attempted murder and criminal assault.

Prosecutors argued that Diane shot her children to be free of them so she could continue her affair with Robert, as she claimed that he let it be known that he did not want children in his life. Much of the case against her rested on the testimony of her surviving daughter, Christie, who, once she recovered her ability to speak, described how her mother shot all three children while parked at the side of the road and then shot herself in the arm.

Diane was convicted on all charges on 17th June, 1984, and sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. She was required to serve twenty-five years before being considered for parole. Psychiatrists diagnosed her with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders, labeling her as a "deviant sociopath". Most of Diane's sentence is to be served consecutively. The judge made it clear that he did not intend for Diane to ever be free again.

Diane's two surviving children eventually went to live with the lead prosecutor on the case, Fred Hugi. He and his wife Joanne adopted them in 1986.

Prior to her arrest, Diane became pregnant with a fourth child and gave birth to a girl, whom she named Amy Elizabeth, a month after her 1984 trial. Ten days before Diane's sentencing, Amy was seized by the State of Oregon and adopted by Chris and Jackie Babcock, who named her Rebecca. As an adult, Rebecca appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and ABC's 20/20 discussing how she feels about her biological mother. She wrote to Diane in her younger years and has stated that she regrets it, regarding her mother as "a monster."

Diane was initially incarcerated at the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem. She escaped from her cell on 11th July, 1987, by scaling an eighteen-foot razor wire fence. For ten days Diane 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, Diane was transferred to the New Jersey Department of Corrections Clinton Correctional Facility for Women after heavy lobbying from Hugi. The Salem prison was located 66 miles from Hugi's home in Springfield; during her ten days of freedom, Hugi had feared that Diane would attempt to travel there in hopes of contacting 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 Diane to remain incarcerated in Oregon.

In 1994, after serving ten years, Diane was transferred to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. While in prison, she has earned an associate degree in General Studies. In 2010, she was located in the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California, but transferred out when the facility was converted to an all-male institution in 2013.

Author Ann Rule wrote the book Small Sacrifices (1987) detailing Diane's life and murder trial. The book documents accounts by friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and her surviving daughter Christie, who question the quality of her parenting. A made-for-TV movie also titled Small Sacrifices, starring Farrah Fawcett as Diane, aired on ABC in 1989.

Diane's sentence meant she could not be considered for parole until 2009. Under Oregon law at the time, as a dangerous offender, Diane would have been eligible for a parole hearing every two years until she is released or dies in prison.

In her first application for parole in 2008, Diane reaffirmed her innocence. "Over the years," she said, "I have told you and the rest of the world that a man shot me and my children. I have never changed my story." Her first parole hearing was on 9th December, 2008. Lane County District Attorney Douglas Harcleroad wrote to the parole board, "Diane continues to fail to demonstrate any honest insight into her criminal behavior...even after her convictions, she continues to fabricate new versions of events under which the crimes occurred." He also wrote that "she alternately refers to her assailants as a bushy-haired stranger, two men wearing ski masks or drug dealers and corrupt law enforcement officials." Diane participated in the hearing from the Valley State Prison for Women. She was not permitted a statement, but answered questions from the parole board. After three hours of interviews and thirty minutes of deliberation, she was denied parole.

Diane faced her second parole hearing on 10th December, 2010, and was denied.