Diane Downs
Elizabeth Diane Frederickson was born August 7th 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona to parents Wesley Linden and Willadene Frederickson. She is known as an American criminal convicted for the murder of her daughter and attempted murder of her other two children in May of 1983.
Diane grew up in Phoenix where she attended and graduated from Moon Valley High School. This is also where she met her husband Steve Downs. After running away from home the two married on November 13th, 1973. The couple very quickly started having children. Christie Ann born in 1974, Cheryl Lynn born in 1976 followed by Stephen Daniel in 1979. Eventually the couple divorced in 1980 due to Steve believing that Danny was the result of an extramarital affair and not in fact his son.
On May 19th, 1983 Diane claims that she was carjacked on a rural road near Springfield, Oregon, by a strange man. Said man had shot her three children and then herself. Diane then drove the blood splattered car to McKenzie Willamette Hospital. Upon arrival Cheryl (7) was already dead, Christie (8) had suffered a stroke and Danny (3) was paralysed from the waist down. Both investigators and hospital staff soon became suspicious of Downs. Her demeanour was far too calm for someone who had just experienced such a traumatic event.
Suspicions soon heightened towards Downs when upon arriving at the hospital she made a phone call to a man named Robert Knickerbocker. He was a married man and former coworker whom Diane had been having an affair with. Also forensic evidence did not match her version of events. There was no blood spatter on the driver’s side of the car nor any gunpowder residue. Downs has also previously offered to kill Knickerbocker’s wife so they could be together.
Downs denied owning a .22 caliber handgun that matched the murder weapon, however both Steve Downs and Robert Knickerbocker claimed that she did. Although the murder weapon was never found, the police did find unaired casings with the extractor markings from the murder weapon in her home. However some of the most damaging evidence towards Diane was that witnesses claimed that whilst driving to the hospital she could have been doing no more that 5-7 mph, instead of the high speed dash she claims she made to the hospital. Downs was soon arrested on February 28th, 1984, nine months after the shooting. She was charged with one count of murder and two counts each of attempted murder and criminal assault.
Prosecutors believe that Diane shot her children so she could be with Knickerbocker who had recently told her he wanted no children in his life. Most of the case rested on the testimony of surviving daughter Christie, who after regaining her ability to speak, described how her mother had shot them all whilst parked at the side of the road. Downs was convicted on all charges on June 17th, 1984 and was sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. Psychiatrists diagnosed her with narcissistic, histrionic and antisocial personality disorders. The judge made it very clear that the intentions were for Diane to never be free again.
Since being charged, Diane has managed to escape from Oregon Women’s Correctional Centre where she was initially incarcerated. In July 1987 she managed to stay on the run for ten days despite the fourteen statewide manhunt. Downs received an additional five years and was transferred to a facility in New Jersey. After serving ten years, Dwons was moved again to California where she earned an associate degree in General Studies. Downs has appealed for parole twice in 2008 and 2010 both of which were denied due to her demonstrating no honest insight into her criminal behaviour. Her next parole hearing is scheduled for 2021.
After surviving such a horrific event both children, Christie and Danny, were adopted by the lead prosecutor Fred Hugo and his wife Joanne in 1986. Also, prior to her rest Downs had gotten herself pregnant in an attempt to have a more lenient trial. She gave birth to her fourth child whom she named Amy Elizabeth. Just ten days before sentencing Amy was taken by the state of Oregon and adopted, being renamed Rebeca. Christie and Danny have had no contact with their mother and have since both graduated from college. Christie is now married and had her own son in 2005. Danny is a computer whiz and although still partially paralysed from the bullet in his back he has lived a happy life with the Hugis.
