In this episode of Love and Murder, my past co-host, Rick, delves into the case of Diane Downs. A tragic tale of a mother’s betrayal, lies, and horrifying crimes against her own children. From her turbulent past to the night she claimed a mysterious assailant shot her kids, Rick walks you through the details of this case. Join us as we unravel the motives behind Diane’s actions and explore the aftermath for her surviving children.
Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong. Where our motto is [you’re either someone’s last love or first murder]
I am your host Rick and, due to technical difficulties, Ky isn’t joining us today, but THE SHOW MUST GO ON!
Our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery, suspense, and just a little bit of humor sprinkled on top – but never at the expense of the victim.
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In today’s episode, we’re discussing a case of lies, horror, terror, and dispicablness between a mother and her children.
But first, I wanted to remind you to head on over to our exclusive group at patreon.com/loveandmurder. In our last bonus episode, I gave a story that Ky was too scared to join me on. It was a true ghost story that happened to me. To hear it fully and see why Ky is a scaredy cat, go to www.patreon.com/loveandmurder and join at the $5 tier or above.
Ky will tell you more about Patreon later on in the episode.
Now, on to the show
Elizabeth Diane Frederickson Downs was born August 7th, 1955, in Phoenix, Arizona to parents Wesley Linden and Willadene Engle Frederickson. According to Diane, she was molested by her father when she was 12 years old. As a student, she was smart, but not popular. She wasn’t allowed to wear clothes that were considered “in fashion” so the other kids made fun of her and called her ugly.
When she turned 14, her father let her enroll in a charm school. This is when she began becoming rebellious and simply answered to “Diane.” She also cut her hair into a popular style and started dressing like the other kids. She went to Moon Valley High School and the boys began to notice her. She started flirting and getting good at attracting the boys’ attention.
One boy in particular took notice of her, Steven Downs. The two began a relationship and graduated together around 1973; however, Steve joined the US Navy shortly after graduation. Diane enrolled at the Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in Orange County, California. She returned home to her parents a year later, having been kicked out of the college due to “promiscuity.” In other words, she was such a whore that she was ruining the college experience for the other students. Don’t jump on us for saying this; this is what reports said. She cheated on Steve multiple times while he was in the Navy. This is a horrible start to the relationship. Steve should leave. Let’s see where this goes.
Steve and Diane eloped on November 13, 1973 – well, so far they’re following the patterns of our cases. In 1974, their first child, Christie Ann, was born. Their second child, Cheryl Lynn, was born in 1976. Steve then decided to have a vasectomy, but Diane still got pregnant a third time. According to John Hopkins Medicine, “In rare cases, the vas deferens may grow back together. This could cause an unwanted pregnancy.” So I guess that’s what happened with Steve. Instead of moving forward with the pregnancy, Diane had an abortion. I guess she didn’t want more kids either.
In 1978, Diane moved with her kids to Mesa, Arizona. Her and Steve worked at a mobile home manufacturing company, where she had affairs with SEVERAL co-workers. Due to one of these affairs, she became pregnant with her fourth child, Stephen Daniel Downs, in 1979. While Steve accepted “Danny” like he was his own child, he suspected that Danny was the result of an affair with one of Diane’s co-workers. He divorced Diane in 1980 and while Diane would attempt to reconcile with her husband, she was still having numerous affairs. I’m wondering now, does she have a sex addiction? Could this be a cause of her father molesting her and she never got any help?
Diane had very little income during this time. She attempted to become a surrogate mother for some extra money, but her first two attempts failed after she was unable to pass the psychiatric exams. That should tell people something. Reportedly, the tests suggested that she was both “intelligent and psychotic.” Wow! A third try was successful, and she received an offer. Wait! Why would they let her continue to test? Do you think you get over psychosis OR is it more believable that she figured out how to navigate the test? First mistake on the professional’s part here.
In 1981, Diane met a man by the name of Robert “Nick” Knickerbocker. Nick was already in a marriage with children, but Diane instantly fell head over heels for him… which is different from her normally having her heels above her head, if you know what I mean. She would detail this great romance to the extreme in her diary; meanwhile, her children were neglected and starving. Also, remember, she’s currently carrying a surrogate. Diane was now working for the United States Postal Office. Her children would rotate caregivers between her, her parents, Steve, and Danny’s father. Wow! Danny’s father watched all the kids. Interesting. Even Christie was forced to take care of her younger siblings more often than not. Neighbors would often report that the children were not being taken care of when Diane was supposed to be looking after them.
On May 8, 1982, Diane gave birth to a little girl, who she named Jennifer, as part of her service to the surrogacy clinic. How did she name the baby if she was a surrogate? After the birth, she relinquished all of her parental rights. In February 1983, she attempted surrogacy again for three days but was unsuccessful. Was it due to her mental state again or would the implantation not take? I wonder….
Her relationship with Nick was starting to crack under pressure. Nick ended their relationship because she constantly told him that he should leave his wife and he felt suffocated. Once again people, do not have affairs! Stop putting yourself in that situation and thinking the person will leave their partner for you!
Diane moved to Oregon to try to move forward with her life.
On May 19, 1983 Diane decided to try to up her parenting skills and took her kids on a trip down Old Mohawk Road in Springfield. A bit down the road, Diane said she was stopped by a strange man who told her to get out to the car. She states that he tried to get into the car but she was thinking about her kids in the backseat and fought him off. After a while of fighting, the man must have thought that this wasn’t worth the trouble and instead fired 4 shots and ran away. When Diane got her wits about her, she went to check on her kids only to find all three shot. She felt a stinging in her left forearm and realized that she, also, was shot. She then jumped in her car and drove her kids, as fast as she could, to the nearest hospital, McKenzie-Willamette Hospital.
When she got there, she called out for help. When medical professions got to her car, Cheryl was already dead. She was only 7 years old.
Doctors looked after the other kids. According to ABC News, the surgeon, Steve Wilhite, who was working on Christie, 8, said “When I looked at Christie I thought she was dead. Her pupils were dilated. Her blood pressure was non-existent or very low. She was white, she was not breathing. I mean, she is so close to death, it’s unbelievable.” But, although her blood pressure dropped even lower AND she suffered a stroke, Dr. Wilhite was able to revive her.
Danny, 3, also survived, but was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Due to the circumstances, police were called and took Diane’s statement.
They also spoke with medical professionals who were on the scene at the time she arrived. Doctors said that Diane was very calm when she arrived; too calm for the level of trauma that had just occurred. She also made comments that were completely inappropriate to the situation.
When Diane came to visit Christie, who couldn’t speak due to her stroke, -anyway Christie went to visit her for the first time, Christie’s eyes showed fear and her heart rate went up immediately. Also, as soon as Diane got to the hospital, she called Nick. Why did she call him? He’s all the way back in AZ and they are not even together.
This made police suspicious and they began investigating. The first thing they noticed was that there was no gunpowder reside on the driver’s panel nor was there any blood splatter on the driver’s side of the car, which included the seat.
When they went and searched her house, the found unused casings for a .22 calibur handgun.
They also found letters, pictures, and diary entries all talking about some guy named Nick – the same guy she called when she went to visit her daughter. Police went to visit this Nick to see why Diane had called him at the hospital and why she had so much information talking about him. They found out that not to long ago, they’d been having an affair. Nick also told them that Diane had stalked him and expressed being willing to kill his wife so that they could be together. He also told them that she owned a .22 calibur handgun, which they confirmed with Steve. Something that Diane hadn’t disclosed to them.
They realized that instead of moving on with her life when she moved to OR, Diane had continued obsessing over her and Nick’s relationship. They also realized, due to diary entries, that she was convinced that Nick ended things because he wasn’t interested in being a dad. She believed he broke off their relationship because of her kids.
What do we always say about how to commit a crime? Always have as much evidence on your person, around you, and in your house in your own handwriting as possible.
Finally, the nail in the coffin was that when officers interviewed witnesses who were on the road leading the the hospital, they said Diane’s car was going between 5-7 mph (8–11 km/h) instead of the crazy speeds Diane claimed she was going.
Hospital personnel said she arrived at the ER at 10:48pm screaming, “Somebody just shot my kids!” Upon further investigation, police found out that before she took her kids on that drive, she was at someone’s house named Heather Plourd. She left her house at 9:45pm. Based on Diane’s claim to the police, it was deduced that the shooting happened around 10:15pm; however, a witness informed them that they saw Diane’s car – a red Nissan – around 10:20pm driving very slowly down Old Mohawk Road.
Because of all of this undeniable evidence, Diane was arrested on February 28, 1984 about 9 months after the incident. She was actually arrested while coming out of her car in the parking lot of her job. She was charged with one count of murder and 2 counts of attempted murder and criminal assault.
The trial started on May 10, 1984 in Eugene at the Lane County Courthouse with a jury of 9 women. Wow! During her trial, Diane plead not guilty and maintained her story of the mysterious man in the road. On the other hand, the prosecution argued that Diane shot her children so that she could get Nick back. Then she shot herself in the arm to make it look like a carjacking.
Witnesses included the hospital staff. One nurse, Rose Martin, talked about one time when Diane came in to see the children. “She asked how the children were, and I told her the doctors were in there working on them, and then she – the mother – laughed, and she said, ‘Only the best for my kids!’ and she laughed again and said, ‘Well, I have good insurance.'”
One of the doctors, Dr. John Mackey, described the wounds to the children’s chests and how the staff worked to save them throughout the night. He also discussed his observations of Diane that night saying: “She was extremely composed. She was unbelievably composed. I couldn’t believe she was a family member. There were no tears…no disbelief…no, ‘Why did this happen to me?'”
The X-ray Technician, Carleen Elbridge, testified how Diane was more worried about her looks than her children. When she’d come to the hospital, she complained to the staff about coming out of the house without makeup.
Christie, who could finally speak at this time, told a counselor – Paula Krogdahl – how her mother parked the car, shot all 3 of the children, and then shot herself in the arm. Guess that was that then. What better testimony could you get.
With her treatment, and to not retruamatize the child, Paula took a long time before she brooches the subject of the murder. She, instead, started out with how family life was for Christie. Christie said that her mother used to hit her and her siblings a lot. The first time Paula finally asked her about, as Christie called it “that terrible thing” the session went like this:
“Was there anyone there that night that you didn’t know?”
“No,”
“Were Danny and Cheryl crying?”
“No.”
“Why wasn’t Cheryl crying?”
“…dead.”
“Do you know who was shooting, Christie?”
“I think—-” and then she stopped. She couldn’t get herself to say the words.
Later on, she was able to admit it.
During the trial, Attorny Fred Hugi was the one in charge of cross examining Christie. He ensured that she felt safe, handed her kleenex when she needed it land showed uber patience with her. He started out her questioning gently and by asking about her life and her family. When get go to the heart of the questioning, he still kept it gentle. He began talking about the day of the crime starting with them being at Heather’s house. Then he got to the shooting:
“She leaned over to the back seat and shot Danny,” Christie said.
“What happened then? What happened after Danny got shot?”
Christie started crying and Attorny Hugi patted her shoulder and gave her time to compose herself.
” Do you remember when you got shot?” he asked
“Yeah,”
“Who shot you?”
“My mom,”
Diane was convicted, unanimously, of all charges on June 17, 1984. She was found guilty of attempted murder in the first degree, a second account of attempted murder in the first degree, of first-degree assault., and guilty of another count of first-degree assault. Because at that time Oregon didn’t have the death sentence, the judget sentenced her to life in prison with an additional 50 years. “The Court hopes the defendant will never again be free. I’ve come as close to that as possible.” She was required to serve 25 years before she was eligible for parole.
Diane was sent to the Oregon Women’s Correctional Center.
Psychiatric tests done on Diane at this time ruled her to be narcissistic and histrionic. According to Psychology Today, a histrionic personality “is characterized by constant attention-seeking, emotional overreaction, and seductive behavior. People with this condition tend to overdramatize situations, which may impair relationships and lead to depression. Yet they are highly suggestible, easily susceptible to the influence of others.”
She was also labeled as a “deviant sociopath” with antisocial personality disorders.
At the time of her arrest, she was pregnant with a fifth child. Diane named this child Amy Elizabeth. The father didn’t want anything to do with Diane or the child so Amy was adopted by Chris and Jackie Babcock, who renamed her Rebecca.
Later, some jury members would state that they thought that she became pregnant to seek sympathy from them. It didn’t work though.
On July 8th, 1987, Diane escaped the “Oregon Women’s Correctional Center” by scaling an 18-foot razor wire fence. A fourteen-state manhunt led to her recapture 10 days later, when she was found in Salem, Oregon. She was then transferred to the Clinton Correctional Institution in New Jersey (now called the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility For Women) which is a high maximum security prison. She received an additional 5 years on her sentence too.
District Attorney Fred Hugi had adopted Christy and Danny after Diane’s imprisonment. He lobbied for her to be moved to the New Jersey facility due to the fact that his home was nearby to the Oregon Facility, and that Diane could potentially invade his home trying to see her kids. State officials agreed with this and had her moved, even though security measures at the correctional site had already been improved. Diane was transferred again in 1994 to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. During this period, she graduated with an associates degree in general studies.
During Diane’s first parole hearing on Dec 9, 2008, she continued to persist that she was innocent. She said, “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.” Lane County DA Douglas Harcleroad wrote in response, “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…. She alternately refers to her assailants as a bushy-haired stranger, two men wearing ski masks, or drug dealers and corrupt law enforcement officials.” Diane was questioned by the parole board for 3 hours before being denied parole. She would go on to be denied again in 2010 and 2022.
According to the website Heavy, crime author Ann Rule wrote on her website (which is no longer up): “Christie and Danny – who somehow survived their gunshot wounds – have no contact with Diane. They have both graduated from college. Christie is married and had a baby boy in 2005. Danny, a computer whiz, is still partially paralyzed from the bullet in his back, but he is living a happy and normal life. They have grown up in a very happy home with the Hugis.”
Christie was left with a speech handicap but still perservered and went to the University of Oregon. She also got married and, in 2005, gave birth to her first child – a boy. Later, she had a daughter who she named Cheryl after her late sister. As of this recoding, she’s 48 years old
Not much is known about Danny.
Rebecca, the adopted child, tricked a babysitter into telling her who her real parents were and that’s why, at 11 years old, she found out who her real mother was. A few years later, she saw a documentary about her mother and it devastated her. After that she became depressed and her life took a “downward spiral.” At some point she’d started writing to Diane, but later decided against it and asked Diane to stop writing her. She appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey” show in her adult life and regarded her mother as “a monster.” Currently she works as behavioral health coordinator for children.
Check out the book by Ann Rule called “Small Sacrifices” where we got some information for this case.
And that is the case of the depraved Diane Downs. What did yall think of this case, let us know in the comments below or head on over to our website and shoot us an SOS (our new shout out system where you can send us a voice recording comment) www.murderandlove.com
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