American criminal (born 1955)

Elizabeth Diane Downs (née Frederickson; born August 7, 1955) is an American criminal who murdered her daughter and attempted to murder her other two children near Springfield, Oregon, in May 1983. Following the crimes, she made claims to police that a man had attempted to carjack her and had shot the children. She was convicted in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. She briefly escaped in 1987, but was quickly recaptured.

Downs was denied parole in December 2008, December 2010, and in 2021.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Marriage and children
• 3 Shootings
  • 3.1 Prosecution
• 4 Aftermath
• 5 Parole hearing
• 6 Children
• 7 See also
• 8 References

Early life

Diane Downs was born on August 7, 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona, 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 returned to her parents' home in Arizona.

Marriage and children

On November 13, 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 May 8, 1982, Diane gave birth to a daughter, who she named Jennifer before relinquishing her parental rights.

Downs was employed by the United States Postal Service, *igned to the mail routes in the city of Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Shortly before her death, Cheryl Lynn reportedly told a neighbor of her grandparents that she was afraid of her mother.

Shootings

Downs with her three children

On May 19, 1983, Downs 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. Downs herself had been shot in the left forearm. She claimed that 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 that Downs' manner was too calm for a person who had just experienced such a traumatic event. She also made a number of statements that both police and hospital workers considered highly inappropriate.

Suspicions heightened when Downs, 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. Knickerbocker also reported to police that Downs 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 Knickerbocker informed authorities that she did. Investigators later discovered that she had bought the handgun in Arizona. While they were unable to find the 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 a “high speed” after the shooting. 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 *ault.

Prosecution

Prosecutors argued that Downs shot her children to be free of them, so that she could continue her affair with Knickerbocker, 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.

Downs was convicted on all charges on June 17, 1984, and sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. She was required to serve twenty-five years before being considered for parole. Most of Downs' sentence is to be served consecutively. The judge made it clear that he did not intend for Downs to ever be free again.

Psychiatrists diagnosed her with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders, labeling her as a “deviant sociopath.”

Aftermath

Downs' 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, Downs 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 Downs' sentencing, Amy was seized by the State of Oregon, and adopted by Chris and Jackie Bab*, who subsequently renamed her Rebecca. As an adult, Rebecca appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and ABC's 20/20, where she discussed how she felt about her biological mother. Rebecca wrote to Downs in her younger years, and has stated that she regrets it, regarding her mother as “a monster.”

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 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.

In 1994, after serving ten years, Downs was transferred to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. While in prison, she earned an *ociate degree in General Studies. In 2010, she was relocated to the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California, but was transferred out when the facility was converted to an all-male ins*ution in 2013.

Author Ann Rule wrote the book Small Sacrifices (1987), which detailed Downs' life and murder trial. The book do*ented accounts by friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and her surviving daughter, Christie, who questioned the quality of her parenting. A made-for-TV movie, also *led Small Sacrifices, starred Farrah Fawcett as Downs, and was aired on ABC in 1989.

Parole hearing

Downs' sentence meant she could not be considered for parole until 2009. Under Oregon law at the time, as a dangerous offender, Downs 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, Downs reaffirmed her innocence. Downs insisted that, “Over the years, 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 December 9, 2008. Lane County District Attorney Douglas Harcleroad wrote to the parole board: “Downs 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 *ailants as a bushy-haired stranger, two men wearing ski masks, or drug dealers and corrupt law enforcement officials.” Downs 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.

Downs faced her second parole hearing on December 10, 2010, and was denied. Her next parole hearing was scheduled in 2010 and set for 2021, however it was denied.

Children

Christie Downs, Diane Downs' first child who testified at her trial, suffers from a speech handicap. She has a son (born 2005) and a daughter, whom she named Cheryl in memory of her late sister.

See also

• Crime in Oregon
• Familicide
• Filicide
• List of murdered American children

Portals:BiographyOregonLaw

References