Diane Downs: Murderous Mother
On the night of May 19, 1983, Diane Downs entered an emergency room with her three children, Christie, 8, Cheryl, 7, and Danny, 3, in a blood-spattered car. What she would initially claim to be a roadside attack would quickly become one of the most infamous cases in the Pacific Northwest.
In 1980, Diane and her husband Stephen divorced after he became convinced that their youngest child, Danny, was not biologically his. Downs became increasingly negligent of her children. She often left them with her ex-husband or parents without much notice. She would often leave Christie in charge even though she was only six at the time.
In 1981, Downs began an affair with a married co-worker named Robert Knickerbocker. For a brief period of time, this affair brought her solace.
In 1982, she had a fourth child she named Jennifer before relinquishing her parental rights. Knickerbocker and Downs continued their affair until he broke up with her because of her children. To continue their affair, Downs hatched a plot to kill her three children.
Downs left Arizona when she was assigned to work in the city of Cottage Grove, Oregon by the United States Postal Service in April 1983. She moved to neighboring Springfield.
On May 19, 1983, she drove down Old Mohawk Road outside Springfield, Oregon. She pulled over, then shot all three of her children with a .22 caliber pistol. She then proceeded to shoot herself in her arm. Downs then drove herself and the children to the hospital at a snail’s pace according to multiple witnesses.
Upon arrival at the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, Cheryl was dead. Christie suffered a disabling stroke and lost her ability to speak for a period of time. Danny was paralyzed from the waist down.
After they arrived at the hospital, Diane told doctors that a man with shaggy hair flagged her down and demanded he takes her car. In her version of events, the man then shoots the children, then her during a struggle before he runs off. Many doctors became suspicious lack of emotion.
Dr. Steven Wilhite noted how she didn’t cry. She made comments such as: "Boy this has really spoiled my vacation” and complained about how her car was now ruined. Dr. Whilte claimed he knew Diane was guilty within half an hour.
During conversations with police, Downs lied to police about the fact she owned a gun. Her ex-husband and Knickerbocker both told investigators otherwise. A search warrant proved to the investigators she indeed owned one. Downs was arrested on February 28, 1984.
When Christie regained her ability to speak, she told investigators that her mother was the one who shot them. Downs was charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of criminal assault.
Prosecutors argued that Downs drove slowly to the hospital hoping they would bleed out from their injuries. Much of the testimony relied on Christie. She was sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years.
Prior to her arrest, Downs became pregnant with a fifth child, a girl she named Amy Elizabeth. She gave birth a month after she was found guilty. Ten days before she was sentenced, Amy was seized by the state of Oregon and adopted. Christie and Danny were eventually adopted by the lead prosecutor, Fred Hugi, and his wife Joanne.
Downs was initially imprisoned at Oregon Women’s Correctional Center in Salem. Sher escaped in 1987 by scaling an 18-foot fence. She managed to evade police for ten days before she was recaptured. Hugi was scared she would be coming after Christie and Danny, and despite security upgrades at the prison, Downs was moved to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation where she remains today.
