Diane Downs: Mommy Murderess

Elizabeth Diane Downs, born on August 7, 1955, in Phoenix, Arizona, had parents who became teen parents, which she claimed affected their ability to provide her with the love she needed. She strongly disliked her father's strict rules and lack of positive attention, as he was preoccupied with her mother. According to Downs, her mother devoted no time to her, while her father's lectures and limited affection bothered her. Despite being considered intelligent, Diane was not popular among her peers during her school years. Her parents' strict Baptist beliefs resulted in her being dressed plainly and not allowed to follow fashion trends, making her feel like an outcast. She was often regarded as a social outsider or "square." 

However, at the age of 13, she experienced a significant change when she was permitted to attend a charm school. Diane thrived in this environment, embracing fashion and makeup tips. With her previously mousy brown hair now fashionably bleached blonde and stylish clothing, she caught the attention of local boys. This newfound attention was something she relished, as it was something she had lacked during her childhood.

During her time at Moon Valley High School in Phoenix, Elizabeth Diane Downs crossed paths with her future husband, Steve Downs. After high school, they briefly went their separate ways. Diane enrolled at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in Orange, California, while Steve joined the navy. Unfortunately, Diane's time at the religious school was cut short as she was expelled after just a year due to engaging in promiscuous behavior. She returned to her parents' home in Arizona.

On November 13, 1973, Diane and Steven officially got married. Despite describing Steven as dominating, similar to her father, people observed that they seemed inseparable. However, right from the beginning, their marriage was unstable at best.

Diane had hoped for love but came to the realization, albeit too late, that Steve couldn't fulfill that role. She admitted that she married Steve not out of love, but as a means to escape her family. She found some solace when she became pregnant, as it made her feel in control of a love that relied solely on her. It was a newfound sense of power she had never experienced before, and she reveled in the joy that she was the one guiding her path towards complete love.

Their first child, Christie Ann, was born in 1974, and Diane described her as the first true friend she ever had, emphasizing the love she felt from her daughter. However, once the initial attention surrounding her first baby faded, Diane found herself back to serving Steve and neglecting her parental responsibilities, despite having a baby to care for and working part-time at a local thrift store.

In 1976, Cheryl Lynn was born, but Diane described her as a difficult child, often colicky. It became evident to everyone that Diane favored her firstborn, Christie Ann. Diane terminated her next pregnancy through an abortion, but after seeing images of fetuses at an anti-abortion booth, she regretted her decision and felt the need to make amends for what she perceived as a wrong choice.

Throughout 1976 and 1977, Diane ran away from Steve multiple times, taking the kids with her, but she would always return either voluntarily or due to Steve tracking her down. The cycle of leaving and returning repeated itself, with both parties feeling unhappy in the marriage. By 1978, the family had moved to Mesa, Arizona, where Diane and Steve worked for the same mobile home manufacturer. At this point, Steve decided that two children were enough and underwent a vasectomy.

However, Diane had other plans and decided to conceive a child with someone other than Steve. While working on the assembly line, she engaged in an affair with a man named Mark Sager, whom she passionately seduced and became pregnant with a baby boy. Stephen Daniel, nicknamed Danny, was born in late December 1979. Steve was furious about the situation, but he accepted Danny as his own and "lived with it," even though Diane would later mention that Steve would sometimes physically abuse her.

There were instances where Diane would scream at her own children, which deeply concerned her. She even wrote a short essay on child abuse while attending a community college part-time in Arizona. The couple eventually divorced in 1980 because Steve had reached his limit, unable to tolerate the fact that Danny was the result of Diane's extramarital affair.

After the divorce, Diane moved in with Danny's father, and during this time, she started to undergo a transformation. She began to experience a newfound sense of freedom and desired to distance herself from her children as well. Her kids were often seen unkempt and appeared malnourished. Diane would frequently leave Christie, who was only six years old, in charge of her younger siblings. She preferred to work and spend time away from home, often relying on any available babysitter for her children.

One babysitter recounted an incident that, in retrospect, hinted at the tragedy to come. She mentioned how Diane prioritized everything else over her children's needs. When the babysitter caught Cheryl jumping on the bed and reprimanded her, Cheryl responded by expressing a desire to shoot herself, as her mother had told her she was bad.

In 1981, Diane secured a full-time position at the U.S. Post Office and was stationed in Chandler, Arizona. It was there that she met Lew Lewiston, also known as Robert Knickerbocker, and they fell in love. However, unlike her previous relationships, it was Lew who made the decision to end the affair, walking out of Diane's life both physically and mentally.

Despite having engaged in multiple affairs with coworkers at the post office, Diane testified that she felt more comfortable with Lew, whom she affectionately called "Knick," than any other man in her life. Their relationship was described as on-again, off-again. In April 1983, seeking a fresh start, Diane moved to Oregon, viewing it as an opportunity since her father had become the postmaster in Springfield.

Diane saw Oregon as a place where she could advance in life, acknowledging that her father's name held influence. She hoped that Knickerbocker would leave his wife, Charlene, and join her in Oregon. She began writing unmailed letters to him in her diary, expressing her thoughts and emotions. During this time, Diane started to desire the attention she received from babies, leading her to consider becoming a surrogate.

However, Diane's attempts to become a surrogate failed twice due to psychiatric tests indicating signs of psychosis. Despite the setbacks, she considered this period as the most stable and purposeful time in her life. She believed that being a surrogate for parents in need made her feel valued and important. She spoke about this experience, stating that it was an act of love and not something she would regret.

On May 8, 1982, Diane gave birth to a daughter named Jennifer but chose to relinquish her parental rights. She was deeply moved by the emotions of the baby's biological mother, who expressed gratitude and held onto Diane's hand. Diane emphasized that being a surrogate was a positive act and not something she would look back on with regret. In an interview about surrogate mothers, she explained the stark difference between termination and surrogacy, highlighting the goodness and love involved in the latter.

Diane also wrote a letter in her diary addressed to Jennifer, the child she bore as a surrogate. She expressed her love and curiosity about Jennifer's life while offering advice to cherish love and learn from heartbreak. Diane shared her belief in waiting for what is worth waiting for and concluded the letter by declaring her love for Jennifer.

As part of her employment with the United States Postal Service, Diane worked on mail routes in Cottage Grove, Oregon. In one of her unmailed letters to Lew, she made it clear that she did not desire a father figure for her children and that he would never be left alone with them.

On May 19, 1983, Diane and her three children spent time at a friend's house until the evening. As Diane drove home, she decided to take a back road, Old Mohawk Road, out of curiosity. The road was surrounded by thick woods on one side and an overgrown field on the other, with a nearby river.

While driving, Diane reached a small bend in the road where she encountered a stranger with shaggy hair who flagged down her 1983 Nissan Pulsar. Diane stopped the car and got out, asking if she could help. The stranger's response shocked her—he demanded her car. Diane refused, but the situation quickly escalated when the stranger turned a gun on her three children.

Cheryl, who was in the front seat, suffered two gunshot wounds—one to the heart and one to the lungs. Christie was shot twice in the chest, and Danny was shot once in the back (despite being inside the car, which raises questions about the positioning). Diane herself was shot in the left arm. She described feeling like she was trapped in a nightmare, torn between wanting to take action and being overwhelmed by the surrealness of the situation.

To create a diversion, Diane pretended to throw her car keys into the nearby field, quickly returned to the car, and sped to the hospital. However, according to another driver stuck behind Diane, they claimed she was driving very slowly, not exceeding 5 miles per hour.

At McKenzie-Willamette Hospital, the scene was chaotic and devastating. John Mackey, the doctor in charge that night, referred to it as an emergency physician's nightmare. Both hospital staff and police officers noted that Diane displayed an unusual level of composure given the circumstances.

Dr. Steven Wilhite, who worked on saving Christie's life, initially believed she was dead. He managed to save her, but Diane's response to the update raised suspicion. She did not shed a tear and instead made comments about her ruined vacation and car covered in blood. Dr. Wilhite recalls that within 30 minutes of talking to Diane, he had a strong sense of her guilt.

However, Diane's mother described her as hysterical that night, noting her tears and distress. Diane expressed her inability to live without her children, but her mother reassured her that they would be okay.

Despite her emotional state, police became involved and quickly began investigating the incident. Diane initially lied about owning a gun, but a search warrant revealed otherwise. Additionally, her diary contained numerous references to Knickerbocker and their relationship's challenges. The witness who saw Diane driving slowly after the shooting further aroused suspicions. Consequently, Diane was arrested on February 28, 1984.

Diane's situation worsened when Christie regained her ability to speak, offering a glimmer of hope that Diane might not be found guilty. Through therapy, Christie gradually developed enough trust in her therapist to confide in them. The therapist devised a method in which Christie would write down the identity of the shooter, immediately followed by burning the note, fostering trust between them.

One day, Christie found the courage to reveal the truth when asked by the therapist who had shot her—she responded, "my mom."

rephrase this

On May 8, 1984 Diane was charged with the deathof her own child, Cheryl Lynn Downs, 7, and the attempted death and first-degree assault of her other two children, Christie Ann Downs, 9, and Stephen Daniel Downs, 4 which she pled not guilty

 People line up outside the courtroom as early as 7 a.m. to get a seat three hours later when the trial begins. Most are housewives who take careful notes.

Downs' behavior at the hospital is what first made investigators suspect her, although she wasn't charged until later that year 

Jagger, Downs' lawyer, explained the coolness she showed toward hospital workers by maintaining that Downs was taught by her father to severely control her emotions. "I've never really been allowed to cry," she said on the stand.

Downs shocked the court by showing up to her trial heavily pregnant   however it was made clear that the baby would go into custody by State of Oregon immediately after birth

Downs is divorced and has refused to say publicly who the father is. "I didn't have any friends after all this happened. He was young, single, attractive--well, you've been listening to my life on the stand. You know."

During the trial, prosecution and the defense were trying to use the surrogate mother twist to their advantage. 

The prosecutor, Fred Hugi, implies that only a callous woman would give up a child for money, while the defense lawyer, Jim Jagger, argues that surrogate motherhood was much more important to Downs than the married man the prosecution told the jury she was obsessed with--to the point of killing the children she felt he didn't want.

After the birth of Jennifer in May 1982, she was eager to become a surrogate mother for a second time. In February 1983, she was in Kentucky for three days of inseminations 

In the interview that would show her mental health for surrogacy, she was articulate and thoughtful. 

Like most surrogate mothers she had had to pass a series of psychological tests. She talked wistfully of Jennifer, but seemed to have adjusted to giving her up. 

She also talked without emotion about her own unhappy childhood--which would become a theme at her trial.

The prosecutor, arguing before the jury, said that on the night of May 19, Downs took her children out to the area of Old Mohawk and then shot them, perhaps on any of the desolate logging roads that crisscross the woods. 

Then, he said, she turned the gun on herself to support her story and began driving slowly toward the hospital, at about five miles an hour, while she waited for them to die.

Christie Downs, who was brave enough to testify against her mother, sobbed on the witness stand, and told the court that her mother did it.

However, Jagger says Christie saw Downs through the rear window as she stepped away from the attacker, and that her daughter's memory has been warped by the trauma.

But keep in mind that no shaggy-haired stranger has ever been found.

Another problem for the defense is that Knickerbocker testified that he saw a .22-caliber pistol in Downs' trunk the night before she left Arizona for Oregon. 

Downs says she gave the pistol to her ex-husband, but a crime lab report used by the prosecution found that the .22-caliber bullet casings retrieved at the shooting site and .22-caliber cartridges found in a rifle at Downs' apartment "all were worked through the same gun." 

Jagger contends that sheriff's investigators, under pressure to get a suspect, took the casings from the shooting scene and planted them in the rifle. 

"Can you imagine how hard it is to find a murderer when you aren't looking for one? Mom becomes real easy." owns says during the interview in jail.

No murder weapon has ever been found, although divers searched the river for days.

Jagger has also had to explain the blood spatters found on the outside of the car. The prosecution claimed in court that Cheryl Downs was shot once inside the car and once outside the car because of the pattern of blood on the panel outside the passenger side. The defense had a private forensics expert testify that the blood simply could have dripped there when medics lifted the wounded children out of the car at the hospital.

And finally, Downs had to explain why she gave different accounts of the shootings during the days after they happened. 

In a taped interview played in court, she told two detectives that the shootings were committed by two men in ski masks who knew her name and also knew she had a five-inch tattoo of a rose on her back. 

And in a phone conversation taped by Knickerbocker, Downs said her ex-husband had found a "hitman" to do the shootings. 

Her ex-husband has testified he thinks Downs did it.

Jagger explained the discrepancies with dreams--in other words, that Downs couldn't distinguish between reality and nightmares.

"I felt like I was going crazy back then, during June, July and August. I didn't know what was real and wasn't real . . . there's one specific dream. A person flagged our car down . . . Cheryl was still shot in this dream, she's always shot in my dreams. But she's alive . . . and Cheryl saves us, even though she's shot. She saves us." wrote diane in a Letter to Jennifer

She has testified that her father sexually abused her when she was 12 years old.

According to Rule's Small Sacrifices, Diane's father allegedly molested her when she was 11 years old. Diane told authorities that the occurrences never led to fornication, but she was fondled and caressed. On weekends, Diane claimed that he took her on rides to the desert; once away from civilization, he would make her remove her blouse and bra as he watched.

Diane said that these perversions ended as quietly as they had begun, and Wes Frederickson became more of a typical father — as if cessation would eradicate all memories. 

After all of this, Diane was found guilty on one charge of murder and two charges of attempted murder on June 17, 1984.

 Diane was initially sent to a maximum-security prison for women at Oregon Women’s Correctional Center but on July 11, 1987, Diane scaled the prison's chain-link fence while guards weren't paying attention. 

Using her clothes to protect her from the barbed wire at the top, she landed safely on the other side and made her way to the home of Wayne Seifer, whose wife was also an inmate.

At the time, Wayne was addicted to heroin and basically living on the edge. 

When Diane showed up and asked if she could stay, he had no problem with that and they entered into a brief sexual relationship.

Loren “Larry” Glover, a former Oregon State Police detective who eventually found Diane, was worried that Diane was potentially going after her children to kidnap or hurt them. 

Glover searched Diane's jail cell and found clothes, a map of Mexico, and some stationery

The paper was blank, but when Larry turned it a particular way, he could see the indentation of a map, so he sent it to the FBI who created a photostatic copy. 

The map had a line drawn from the prison to a house with an address written on it which ended up being Wayne's house.

The police raided Wayne's house while he was out of town with his family. Diane grabbed a BB gun and attempted to induce a suicide-by-cop scenario but ultimately gave up and went willingly. Diane received an additional five years tacked on to her sentence and Wayne got five years probation and six months in a restitution center in Salem, Ore.

Clinton, N.J. because "[prison] officials said they wanted Downs placed in a more secure facility in a state where she is less known because she is an escape risk who constantly seeks publicity," 

Diane Downs is currently serving her sentence of life plus 50 years at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, Calif., where she's been since August 1993.

For fairness' sake, we're going to leave a link to the opposing view that claims that Diane is innocent: http://www.dianedowns.com/