Elizabeth Diane
Frederickson Downs (born August 7, 1955) is an American criminal who murdered her daughter and attempted to
murder her other two children, in May 1983. Following the crimes, she told police 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.
Downs briefly escaped in 1987 and was recaptured. She is the
subject of a book by Ann Rule and a
made-for-TV movie based upon it, both called Small Sacrifices. She was denied parole in December 2008 and again
in December 2010; however, she is eligible to try again in 2021, at age 65.
Early life
Diane Downs was
born in Phoenix, Arizona, on August
7, 1955, to parents Wesley Linden
(1930–2017) and Willadene (Engle)
Frederickson. She has testified that
her father 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 only one year for promiscuous behavior and soon returned to her parents'
home in Arizona.
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 affair Diane
had. On May 8, 1982, 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, Downs 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.
Shootings
On May 19, 1983, Downs shot her three children and drove
them in a blood-spattered car to McKenzie-Willamette
Hospital. 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 she was carjacked on a rural road near Springfield, Oregon, by a strange man
who shot her and the children. However, investigators and hospital workers
became suspicious because they decided her 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 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 extramarital 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.
Downs did not disclose to police she owned a .22 caliber
handgun, but both Steve Downs and
Knickerbocker informed them that she did. Investigators later discovered Downs
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 same gun that shot her children. 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, 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 assault.
Prosecution
Prosecutors argued that Downs shot her children to be free
of them so 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. Christie was eight years old at the time of the murder and nine
years old at the time of the trial.
Downs was convicted on all charges on June 17, 1984, and sentenced
to life in prison plus fifty years. She would have to serve twenty-five years
before being considered for parole. Psychiatrists diagnosed her with
narcissistic, histrionic and antisocial personality disorders. Most of her sentence is to be served
consecutively. The judge made it clear that he did not intend for Downs to ever
be free again.
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 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
Downs in her younger years and has stated that she regrets it, regarding her
mother as a monster.
Downs was incarcerated at the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem. She escaped on July 11, 1987, and was recaptured just a few
blocks from the prison on July 21. 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 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 remained 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 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 Downs' 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 Downs, 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. "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 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
assailants 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. She was denied parole and, under a new law,
will not be eligible for parole for another ten years. She will have to wait to
apply for parole until 2020 when she will be 65 years old.
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