- Today's video is kindly
sponsored by Audible. Visit audible.com/kendallrae
or text Kendall Rae to 500-500 to get a free 30-day trial on Audible. (soft music) Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. So happy to have you here
for another video today. And today we are gonna be
talking about Diane Downs. And this case is truly... I don't even have words. I really don't. I'm surprised that I haven't
covered this on my channel yet. I've covered it on my podcast but it's one of those cases
that has always intrigued me. Scared me, frustrated me,
but also fascinated me. Because Diane Downs is up there with some of the most
bizarre people out there. Some of the most genuinely
evil people out there. I think she's right up there with Casey Anthony, Jodie Arias. She is rotten to the core. And I'm honestly surprised that more people don't
talk about this case that it's not more well-known
to the average person because it is truly one of the craziest true crime stories out there. So if you haven't yet
heard of Diane Downs, get ready because this
is gonna be a wild one. Let's go ahead and get started. She was born on August 7th,
1955 in Phoenix, Arizona to her parents, Wesley and
Willadene Frederickson. She had three younger
siblings and Diane grew up in a very conservative
home, very strict home. They also moved around a
lot for Wellesley's work. He ended up finally
working in the post office. So they ended up settling in
Phoenix when she was about 11 and eventually she attended
Moon Valley High School. Up until high school, Diane was a pretty well-behaved kid. She was okay, but when
she got into high school she really started rebelling against her strict conservative parents. This mainly seems to be driven by a need to feel accepted
by the popular crowd. She wasn't really feeling true acceptance and love at her house so she really was seeking it elsewhere. At the age of 14, she started
going by the name Diane. Also around this time, she
cut her hair really short, dyed it bleach blonde and
started dressing pretty edgy. Just trying to be more
in style for the time. And Diane was described by
a lot of people as boy-crazy and was always looking for
the next person to date. And this directly went
against her parents' rules. She was not allowed to date
yet, but she did it anyway. And eventually she started
dating this 16-year-old boy who lived pretty close to her
and his name was Steve Downs. And of course, when her parents found out, they didn't approve of it at all but that did not stop Diane. She really liked this guy, Steve. But after graduation,
they went separate ways. Steve ended up joining the Navy and Diane went to the Pacific
Coast Baptist Bible College in Oregon, California. But the two of them were really in love. They considered themselves
to be high school sweethearts so they wanted to continue their
relationship long distance. He promised to be faithful to her and she promised that she
would be faithful to him back. But that did not last very long. And as soon as they were separated Diane started hooking up
with several different guys and she also started getting
in trouble a lot at school. And after a year at the
Baptist Bible College that she was at, she was expelled
for promiscuous behavior. So she moved in with her parents again which of course was
Diane's worst nightmare because they were super strict and living with them was not fun. She felt kind of suffocated
being under their rules once again. So Steve was also back around this time. So the two of them decided
to get back together and run away together. And they decided to go ahead and get married on November 13th, 1973. And it was a rocky marriage,
right from the start. It was built on a pretty bad foundation. You know, previous cheating, pretty much and a failed relationship. People who were around them said that they fought all the time, especially about finances and about the possibility
of Diane cheating again. And every time they got in a
big fight, Diane would run back to her parents' house. And to make matters even more dicey, they ended up having a child in 1974. Her name was Christie Ann. And then just six months
after Christie was born, Diane left her and went
and joined the Navy. So Steve had to take care
of their baby by himself. But luckily for Steve, this whole Navy thing didn't last long. Diane only made it through
three weeks of training before coming home. And at the time Diane said
that she had to leave the Navy because of severe blisters. But later on and other interviews, she claims that it's because
Steve was neglecting the baby and she had to go home
and take care of her. So eventually they have
another child in 1976. Their second child is named Cheryl Lynn. And after Cheryl was born, Steve decided to have a vasectomy. Shortly after this, Diane ended up getting pregnant again. So you might be wondering how that happens and Steve got a vasectomy. But it turns out Diane had an affair. She ended up having an abortion actually but before she did, she named the baby, she named her Carrie, but they
stayed together through this. And a few years later, they
moved to Mesa, Arizona. Diane and Steve, both got jobs working for a mobile home
manufacturing company. And it wasn't long until
Diane met some new coworkers and started having affairs with them. Eventually Diane got pregnant once again and this time she decided to
go through with the pregnancy and she gave birth to a baby boy in 1979. And his name was Stephen Daniel. Now Diane was one of those
people who would use pregnancy to get what she wanted from men. She became a mom for
all the wrong reasons. She did not actually care
about being a mom whatsoever. It was a way to manipulate situations. And even though Diane was
still sleeping with other men and had cheated on him many times, Steve continued to stay with her mainly for the sake of their kids he said. He even knew that Danny wasn't his kid but he wanted to be like
a father figure to him. But this did not last. And they ended up
getting divorced in 1980. For the next couple of years after that, Diane continued to hook up
with several different men, both single and married men. And sometimes Diane would
even move in with these guys for a short amount of time,
which was really weird. She was constantly between places. So obviously it was a very
unstable situation for her kids. Of course, after Steve finally left her, Diane felt an increased pressure
to take care of her kids, to provide for them. And pregnancy seemed to be
something she was good at. She was good at getting
pregnant and having babies. So she decided to become a surrogate. And of course you can't just
become a surrogate thankfully. You do have to pass some tests, pass them evaluations. Diane ended up failing two
of the psychiatric exams. One actually noted that she was psychotic but she was still accepted as a surrogate, which is very concerning. In 1982, she gave birth to
a little girl named Jennifer and was paid $10,000 for that. After that, she felt like
she really wanted to jump into the surrogate industry a little more and start her own surrogacy clinic. But that failed before it
even got off the ground. So meanwhile, she was dating a co-worker who was named Robert Knickerbocker. He also went by Nick and she said that he was the love of her life. Now this guy Nick was married but he was separated from
his wife at the time. So the two of them had
a relationship going but he said that the
relationship was very intense and a bit overwhelming for him. So eventually he broke it off. And one of the reasons why he broke it off was because he did not
like kids in general, didn't really like her kids. So, you know, he just felt
like it wasn't a good fit. But Diane was absolutely devastated. And it really made her
feel angry at her kids. She felt like she lost
the man of her dreams because of them. And Diane started to
resent her own children. When Diane was 27 years old, she moved with her kids
to Cottage Grove, Oregon and took a job at the post office there. Cottage Grove is a pretty small place. It's a friendly town known
for its outdoor activities and hiking trails. It's a pretty quiet area. Most of the people know
each other that live there and look out for each other. But even after Diane moved there, she was still obsessed with Robert and was obsessively writing him letters. One time she even visited him in 1983 but he made it clear
when they were in person that it was over. And you might be wondering
where her kids would be when she was out working or with men. And most of the time they
were with her parents but some of the time they
were with their fathers but oftentimes they were
just left home alone. And the six-year-old
Christie was left in charge of watching the other younger kids. Also, their neighbors started to notice that the kids didn't seem very
well taken care of at all. They were often hungry and sometimes they were out in the cold
without jackets or coats. And Diane reportedly seemed to pay the least
amount of attention to her middle child, Cheryl. And when Cheryl was
six or seven years old, she actually told one of their neighbors that she was afraid to be around Diane. So Diane's life is quite a mess. She doesn't take good
care of her children. They are not happy with her at all. And she holds a lot of
resentment against them for her failed relationship,
for holding her back in life. And it was an absolutely toxic situation. So that brings me to
Thursday, May 19th, 1983. Diane and her kids had just gotten done visiting a friend's house. And they stayed pretty late. I mean, the kids were fairly young. Christie was eight. Cheryl was seven and Danny
was just three years old. And they didn't leave until about 9:30. But at 9:30, Diane gets
all of her kids in the car and they're gonna start heading home. Cheryl was sitting up front with Diane and the other two kids were
sitting in the backseat. And according to Diane,
here's how the car ride went. Even though it was late at
night for her kids to be out, Diane decides to go on
the scenic route home. And all the kids according
to her were asleep in the car at that point. And Diane said, this is
something that she did often. She liked to just drive on roads they hadn't been on before
and kind of explore. So Diane and her kids are
driving down this rural road near Springfield, Oregon, and exploring. And while they're driving
down this scenic route, the song "Hungry Like
the Wolf" by Duran Duran is playing on the radio which is quite a weird song
to be playing in this moment. ♪ I'm hungry like the wolf ♪ - She said they were just driving along, listening to the song when all of a sudden she sees
this man standing in the road and he's like flagging her down. It was about 10:00 PM at this point but that did not stop
Diane from pulling over for this strange man in
the middle of nowhere with a car full of kids. She pulls over at the
intersection of Marcola Road and Old Mohawk road. On one side of this intersection
is the McKenzie River and on the other side is
this kind of empty field. It's a very isolated spot. Diane said that she stopped the car, looked behind her and saw her
kids sleeping in the back. So she decided to get out and talk to this bushy-haired stranger. That's how Diane described this guy. She walks up to the bushy-haired stranger and he automatically demands her car keys. At this point, Diane
tries to fight with him. They have some type of struggle and he shoots her in the left arm. Then Diane throws her car keys in a bush. The guy believes that they're in the Bush but she actually still has them on her. So she runs over to the car,
the guys over at the bush. And she has just enough
time to jump in the car and take off with all three of the kids who were lying in the
back and had been shot. Then she says she started to
driving wildly like a lunatic to the hospital. But that's actually not the case. Diane drove really slow actually. Finally, Diane gets to the hospital and by the time she gets there, Cheryl is unfortunately already dead. The others were in horrible condition. Christie had been shot twice in the chest and Danny had been shot in the back. Danny could barely even
move and both of them were barely alive at this point. Diane's injury was of course
the least serious injury. She had just been shot
in her arm conveniently. The bullet shattered
her radius and it exited in two different places. And Diane said it was a
horrible injury for her. So clearly the whole hospital
staff was just shocked to see this woman pull up
with these children, all shot. It was a terrible, terrible scene. And they expected the
mother of these children after working on them
to be just devastated when they interviewed her, when they tried to
figure out what happened. But when they started talking
to Diane, they were shocked that she had no emotion whatsoever. She did not seem upset at all
that her kids were clinging to life and that one was dead. She was completely emotionally flat with the police and the doctors. - [Diane] I just kep saying,
"God, do what's best." You know, if they gotta die, let them die. But don't let them suffer. - Another thing they noticed
is that Diane had a towel wrapped around her own wound when she arrived at the hospital but she had not attempted
to wrap any type of towel or clothing items around
her children's wounds. Also, the backseat of her
car was completely covered in blood, but none of it was on Diane. And one thing that was very odd to them is that Diane seemed very concerned about the fact that her car,
her new car, had blood on it. And she seemed way more
concerned about that than the current
condition of her children. And when she was told
that Cheryl was dead, she accepted it right away. In fact, she seemed relieved. Of course, normally when
a parent is informed that their child is dead,
they have a horrible reaction. It's the worst moment of their lives but Diane didn't even seem
to be phased by this at all. Then they told her that
Danny was hit in the spine and was paralyzed. And her response wasn't
any type of concern. It was shock that he
wasn't hit in the heart. So the people at the
hospital definitely knew something was up right away. I mean, Diane was acting
completely bizarre. - And to my complete surprise, Diane was non-emotional,
not a tear in her eye. And then she says, "That
really ruined my new car. I got blood all over the back of it." I've never seen a
reaction like that at all. - She called Robert right
away from the hospital but she didn't even try to
call Steve or Danny's father. And of course, a lot of these details were not made public at first. So most people felt really bad for Diane. They were horrified to hear about this child killer out on the loose. People felt like this guy
could strike at any time. People were scared to
bring their kids out, scared to drive alone. A lot of women stopped going
out at night at this time and especially with young children. Danny was only three years old and these gunshot wounds had
left him completely paralyzed. And the fact that Cheryl had
died just really scared people. However, Christie was still alive. She had had a stroke though. So she was in and out of consciousness and unable to communicate at all. So that means the only witness was Diane. And even though the public
had a lot of sympathy for Diane at first and
felt really bad for her, the police had mixed feelings
on her from the start. But they decided to go out and search the area where
she said all of this happened and tried to look for
this bushy-haired man. They searched the whole area. They even had divers go and
search the McKenzie River since it was right next to it. And all that they found
was a few bullet casings on the ground. They had Diane give them
an official description of the suspect, but this
didn't really lead anywhere. Here's the composite sketch
that they came up with. And of course the media was
really interested in this case. It was very unusual and people wanted answers as
to what happened that night. So she started giving interviews and Diane started saying
some really weird shit. - We were just out, I guess,
sightseeing, I guess you'd say. And the kids got tired. They fell asleep in the car. So I decided to just head on home. But I saw a road I hadn't been on before. We liked to take back roads
and just went down that road. And there was a guy standing in the road, flagging me down so I stopped. Everything was done in a
matter of five or 10 seconds. He swung himself around and fired twice. One caught me in the arm and the other one went off somewhere. Danny cried the whole way. I could hear him softly, just moaning. And Christie was dying. God, all the blood, all the pain. This man shot my daughter. My first reaction was to
snap back to my childhood to the pain that had
happened to me back then, my marriage, my entrapment by society. This man was bigger than me. He was stronger than me. He had more power because he had a gun and I stood there and I
looked at Christie reaching and the blood that just kept
gushing out of her mouth. And what do you do? - So the public sympathy
for Diane did not last long. People started to quickly
question her whole story. It was very suspicious. Why was she on this dark rural road so late at night with
three kids in the car? And of course, why would she pull over to help some strange man
in the middle of nowhere? And not only that, why
did she get out of the car and put herself in that situation? - We were always out on
dark roads, light roads, city, roads, country roads. I was a single woman. I had been divorced for a couple of years. And quite frankly, I got pretty used to driving by myself with the kids. - So late at night, 9:30, 9:45,
9:50, 10 o'clock at night, the stranger is in the middle of the road. And so it didn't even occur to you that maybe I shouldn't stop? - Well, I picked up
many hitchhikers before. This man was not a hitchhiker, but I have picked up hitchhikers before and nobody ever shot us before. And quite frankly, nobody had ever been, no strange man had ever treated me or my children in such a way. And I just had no preconceived notion that he might do those things. - How did this man know your
children were in the car? Because if the children were sleeping and lying down in the back of the car, it's dark on the road. How would he know to reach into the car and shoot three children separately? - Oprah, I can only give you my conclusion as to what I think might've
happened, because I don't know. I didn't take the time
to ask him how or why, but when he got inside the car, there was a light on inside the car. He could have easily seen the children. If you want an opinion, in my opinion, it is possible. There were witnesses that
saw him out there on the road that night, about 30 people that saw him and all agreed that he
looked like he was drugged in some way. - Things were definitely not adding up for the public and for the police. So the police tried to
understand a little better how the night unfolded and
they decided to have Diane actually act out what happened. And this to me is one of the
scariest clips in true crime. Honestly, the way that she
acts really freaks me out. Diane looks like she was having fun as she is reenacting
her kids being murdered. You can even see her kind
of primping her hair, getting ready before they
started to roll the camera. She's joking around. She's laughing. I mean, most mothers in this situation would barely be able to function and talk. You know, wouldn't even be able to actually reenact something like this. I mean it would be so traumatizing to kind of relive it all again. But Diane seemed to be
having a great old time. - There. Got in the car. Jumped in, put the keys in. I just hit my cast. Started the car and left. The car door shut itself. God, this is worse than the... Okay. I'm sure he didn't intend to shoot my arm. - Towards the end of that
you see she bangs her arm and investigators to this day believe that she was
gonna say, "That was worse than when I shot myself." So even after she reenacts all of this, it doesn't make any more sense to police. I mean, why would this guy
believe that you threw your keys? And you know, it just
didn't seem plausible, the whole story. And of course seeing Diane's mood and behavior in this re-enactment police felt like she
definitely did something here. I mean, she is lying for sure. There was a lot of red flags, but they didn't have the evidence that Diane had done it yet. So Diane continued
living her life as normal and started doing some more TV interviews. Diane definitely seemed
to like the attention. She was one of those people
who just thrives off of it, positive or negative. And in these interviews
she doesn't even try to seem emotional at all. She seems completely
unfazed by the whole thing. In fact, she seems more
concerned about herself. Sometimes she even had
a disgusting like smirk when she was speaking as if
she was kind of getting off on what she was saying and
reliving it in her head. - When he swung around, he was pointing... When he swung around it
hit the tips of my fingers. The gun hit the tips of
my fingers and I snapped and I went, wait a minute, I'm not trapped by society. I don't care if he is bigger. If I stand here and I
say, "Yeah, take the keys. I mean, there's nothing I can do. You win because you have the gun." My kids are gonna die and I'm
not gonna let my kids die. And so instead of giving him the keys, I feigned throwing the keys. - Diane explained that the whole ordeal only took like five to 10 seconds, which is a pretty short amount of time for someone to kill three children. But of course it's possible. She said the man had
actually shot at her twice. She had only been hit once in the arm but one of them he just missed. And then he walked over
and shot all three kids. So that's quite a lot to
happen in that short of a time. And hearing her say that
the whole thing was so short made even more people question her story. And people started to be
more vocal about this. And Diane did not like the criticism. In one interview, she
sounds just irritated that people are asking any questions. - If I had shot my own children would I not have done a good job of it? Why would I have taken
my kids to the hospital? Wouldn't I have made sure they were dead and then cried crocodile tears? That's insane to think that
I would do such a thing and then bring the
witnesses in against myself. That's crazy. - So then one day Diane decides to go and visit her daughter,
Christie in the hospital. Her vitals were stable at this point but she was still unable
to communicate verbally. But when Diane walked in the
room, her heart rate spiked. Medical staff instantly knew that she was afraid of her mom. So they reported this to
detectives who took note of it. And as far as what the
police knew at this point, from what Diane had told them, she had hopped right in the
car after tricking this guy and drove straight to the
hospital as fast as she can. That she drove like a lunatic. But in reality like I mentioned, she was driving really slow. And the police actually
found out about this by interviewing a witness
who was driving behind Diane on the way to the hospital. And this guy that was driving behind her said that she was driving so slow and seemed to be purposely
going slow to like piss him off. And he ended up having
to just drive around her. And then it came out that police had actually
searched Diane's car and they found blood on
her passenger side door, which does not make sense with her story. She said that this man had shot her kids on the driver's side of the car. No one was ever on the passenger side. So how did this blood get there? The victims had been shot
with 22 caliber bullets but Diane denied even owning a handgun. However, the police had talked to Steve and he confirmed that
Diane did own a handgun. And when police searched her
house, they found a rifle and bullet cartridges that
had been tampered with. And these bullet
cartridges had been ejected from another weapon. The extraction marks on the
bullets were unique though. And they match the casings that were found at the crime scene. But they also confiscated Diane's diaries. And they read several entries
about that guy, Robert, that Diane was really obsessed with. The guy who broke her heart. And they also found several letters that were addressed to him. She wrote things like I still think of you as my best friend and my only lover. You keep telling me to go
away and find somebody else. You have got to be kidding. In her diary entries, she
talks about how Robert didn't wanna have kids and
how sad it was making her. She also wrote some poems about him. One of them said, I love you
more than could your wife. Yet it's brought sorrow to my life. I just keep hoping and hanging on, how much longer can I be strong? And in the diary entry, she talked a lot about how
Robert didn't wanna have kids and how she was sad about it. So they started to feel
like maybe it was possible that Diane got rid of her kids because she felt like
they were holding her back from finding love or that
maybe she could be with Robert if she didn't have the kids. And of course during this whole time Diane continues to blab on to the media. She's doing interviews and
eating up all the attention. But public support is
really starting to shift. - He said then that he was
afraid because he believed that you had shot your
children because of him. - Yeah. I don't know what to say to that. I mean, jeez. That's his problem and not mine. I mean that says paranoia and his fear. Give me a break. I'm not the one that said that. - [Reporter] Over the weekend,
rumors began to fly about. - We have not overlooked
any possible suspect. - [Reporter] Reporters covering the story were getting hints that
Downs herself was a suspect. - That what has occurred
here is just inexcusable. - People could tell that there
was something off about her. I mean, the way she talked,
her lack of emotion, lack of empathy. At one point, she even insisted that Danny wasn't really paralyzed. - Danny's gonna walk again. I don't care if we just
have to will him to walk. I think he's gonna walk. The doctors all say he won't but I know that your
mind controls your body. And if I can love him enough and encourage him enough,
I believe he'll walk. - And she seemed oblivious to
what was actually going on. She seemed so dead set in her
story and convinced herself that other people were convinced by her. She really thought that everyone
was believing everything that she said. Eventually, after finding
some more evidence, detectives brought Diane back
in for some more questioning. They did a two-hour
interrogation with her. And during this time, Diane
changed her story several times. Diane's one of those
people who lie so much that she can't keep track of her lies and they start to get twisted. At first, she's already telling them that there were two attackers and that one of them at
least knew her by name and knew about her tattoo. - [Welch] Talked to you. Referred to you by name and
also referred to your tattoo. - [Diane] Right. - [Welch] As close as you can remember, what did he tell you? - [Diane] If you say anything
about what happened here, that they'd come back and kill me. - Then she starts claiming
that she knew the person who shot her and she just wasn't saying
who it was for some reason. And when police pushed her to
try to get a name out of her, she got really mad and ended
up storming out of the room. - [Welch] Come on, Diane. It's your turn to back. - [Diane] Since you guys tend to think that I should have brought
the guy in with me, I'll go get him myself because I know who did it. - [Welch] You do know who did it? - [Diane] Yes I do. I damn sure do. - [Welch] You know him by name? - [Diane] Yes I do, yes. - [Wuest] You saw him shoot your kids? - [Diane] Yep. - [Wuest] That's pretty important. - [Diane] I saw him grab
my arm and yank my arm out and shoot my arm and say, "Now try to get away with it (beep)." And I'm leaving 'cause
I know who did it, bye. - [Welch] The time is now 17:46 and Diane is just departed the office. - By this time, people were completely over Diane. I mean, no one was really believing her and people wanted her
to be held accountable. People were really calling for her arrest and the police wanted to arrest her too but they needed a little
bit more evidence. And the one thing that they wanted to do was talk to Christie, but
she was still unable to talk. However, she was on the path to recovery and they felt like if
they waited a little while that eventually they would
be able to talk to her. Now they knew that Christie had to be extremely
emotionally traumatized after being in that car ride and seeing her siblings get shot potentially by her own mother. So they knew they had to just
go about this really slow. They didn't want her to be scared and question her own memory
of what happened that night or feel like she needed to defend and protect her mom in any way. So they decided it was best that she start by
working with a therapist. So she did, she started seeing a therapist and eventually this therapist really started to gain her trust. And the therapist starts
having her write down the name of who hurt her that night
and then throw it into a fire. And hopefully one day
she won't want to burn it was the idea. She did this over and over again and eventually she was comfortable enough to let the therapist
read the piece of paper. And on the piece of paper
that she gave her therapist, she wrote down, "My mom." At this point, it was clear to everyone that the shooter was Diane Downs. So nine months after
the shooting took place, Diane was arrested on February 28th, 1984. Of course, once the arrest happened, media coverage totally blew up and she was back in the spotlight again. And Diane seemed to really enjoy it, the renewed media attention. Diane was said to have be
flirting a lot with the officers and the guards. And she would smile for cameras like none of it really mattered to her. She acted so lighthearted about it all. She didn't seem to have any guilt. Diane was charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted
murder and criminal assault. And by the time the trial
started on May 10th, 1984, Diane was noticeably pregnant. Yup. That's right. Diane was pregnant once again. There's a clip of her
walking into the courtroom showing off her pregnant belly and smiling as if she's very proud of herself for getting pregnant once again. Later on, they interviewed her and she said that the reason
she got pregnant again is because she missed her children and she was lonely. Once again, it was clear that
Diane was using pregnancy to get something that she wanted. And this time it was sympathy. Maybe Diane thought she would
get better treatment in jail or have a better outcome on her case if she was pregnant. Maybe she thought that the
jury would be emotional about sending an expecting
mother to prison. - I was extremely lonely. I miss my kids desperately. I had just seen Christie
on the 2nd of October. And it just, it's like opening
a wound and pouring salt in. And I was extremely lonely beyond belief and beyond explanation. And on October 13th I
just went and got pregnant because I was so lonely. I love my children. I miss my children. And I know that sounds simplistic. It really does. And I have to admit that. And that's why I said, there's
so much more feeling inside that I can give in two minutes. I got pregnant because I miss
Christie and I miss Danny and I miss Cheryl so much. I'm never gonna see Cheryl on earth again. And I just, you can't replace children, but you can replace the
effect that they give you. And they give me love. They give me satisfaction. They give me stability. They give me a reason to live
and a reason to be happy. And that's gone. They took it from me. But children are so easy to conceive. - And going into trial
Diane seemed very confident that she was gonna get away with this. I mean, Diane's confidence
really never slipped. And the way that she was
acting in the courtroom was just as bizarre as
her media interviews. To really paint a picture
in the jury's mind, the prosecution played
"Hungry like the wolf" in the courtroom and
Diane was dancing to it and like tapping her feet,
having a good old time. They also played her interrogation tapes. And while she was watching them, she still had absolutely no emotion. The prosecution also brought
in a model of her car and they use dolls in
the car to demonstrate how Diane would have killed her children. And this was very effective in court because it really helped the jury see how this would have happened and understand how the
blood would have gotten on the passenger side door. And it really painted a picture for them of how injured the kids were and how heartless Diane had to be to drive slowly to the hospital. I mean, it was obvious that she thought the longer that she took, the less of a chance the
kids would have of surviving. - They brought in a mock-up
of the car and Fred Hugi got a gun and he was reenacting the crime. And when he was going through
the motions of firing the gun at the Christie doll
and at the Sheryl doll and at the Danny doll, he
couldn't shoot the Danny doll because the Danny doll was
back here and he raised up and he looked at me and I
went like this and he went, hid his face. He had a look of incredulation on his face and his mouth started to open. And I nodded my head yes. And he had to switch the
gun to the left hand. A right-handed person could
not have shot the Danny doll. - They also made the
very difficult decision to have Christie actually testify but it was vitally important. They were worried that
Christie may not be able to handle it. You know, testifying with her
mother in the room against her that maybe she would be just
too emotionally traumatized to even talk about it in front of people. Christie was only nine years old. She had survived a horrific incident and they just had no
idea how she would handle all of that pressure. But she did a really good job. She told the court that
she remembered her mom stopping the car, getting out and going back to the
trunk to get something out. She said that Cheryl was in the front seat and that her and Danny were in the back. And then Diane came around
the car with something in her hand. And she recalled her
mother leaning into the car and shooting Cheryl first
at point blank range. And Christie was watching all of this. Then she leaned over the back seat and shot Danny and then reached
over and shot her as well. Then she said she watched
Diane shoot herself, wrap a towel around her
arm and get back in the car and start driving slowly
towards the hospital. Now there's no video of this testimony but according to everyone that was there, it was extremely emotional
listening to Christie describe all of this happen. And then she was cross-examined and a defense attorney actually
tried to get her to admit that someone coached her
into saying all of this but she stayed strong and
said that her mom shot her and her siblings. So then Diane gets up there and testified as well and
claimed that she was innocent. She tried to deny everything,
but then she also blamed a lot of her behavior on her multiple affairs, her obsession with Robert and on her abusive childhood as well. In fact, she accused her father
in court of molesting her when she was about 12 years old. The defense also tried to
argue that the bullet casings that were found on the ground
were placed there by police in order to frame Diane but clearly that's not true. They also tried to argue
that she was manipulated by detectives when she
was being interviewed. But anyone who listens
to the interview can tell that that's not true either. Luckily, the jury was
not buying any of this. They knew that Diane was guilty. There were nine women on
the jury and three men and they ended up
deliberating for over 36 hours trying to come to a conclusion. But after all that, luckily
the verdict was unanimous. Diane was guilty. - I don't know. What is there to say? - After she was found guilty, Diane still tried to convince
people that she was innocent. In fact, she still tries to claim that she's innocent to this day. - I wouldn't walk in there and say, this weird person came up out of nowhere and shot us for no reason and just left. I mean, that's not a believable story. If I had done this I could've come up with
a believable story. It really happened. I could smell the blood. I could smell the gunpowder. It was just a really,
really horrible feeling. - Before she was even sentenced, 10 days before she was
supposed to be sentenced, she gave birth to a baby girl
who was named Amy Elizabeth. Of course, she only saw this baby once before she was taken away from her. And she was adopted and renamed
Rebecca, nickname, Becky. Around this time, Diane was
also examined by psychiatrists and she was diagnosed
with being narcissistic and had antisocial personality disorders. Luckily Diane Downs
ended up being sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years. And she wouldn't even be given the chance for possible parole for
25 years after that. But very unlikely that
she would ever get parole. Her father West, denied her
accusations of the sexual abuse. And Diane later admitted
that she just made it all up. But even after all these
false allegations were made against him, he continued
to support his daughter and believed that she was innocent. He passed away in 2017, but
up until he died, he believed that Diane was in prison
for something she didn't do. So then in July of 1987, Diane decided to try and escape prison. She was out in the exercise
yard getting some fresh air when she decided to execute her plan. She climbed a 16 foot fence. Somehow used her jacket to get over the top and actually escape. She hid underneath the
car outside of the jail. And then when it was clear, she just ran. And Diane is considered to
be a very dangerous person. So a massive manhunt for her started. The story was reported on
the news in multiple states. And they had searches
across multiple states to make sure that Diane was found. People were really worried at the time that she could
possibly go after Christie. Detectives searched the cell phone that she had in jail with her. Yeah, she had a cell phone. And they didn't find any clues about where she possibly could have gone, any details about her escape. All they found was a clipboard with a piece of blank paper on it. But they noticed that there
were indentations on the paper. Clearly another piece
was pulled off the top. So they did that classic
trick where you sketch over the bottom piece and
you can see what was written on the paper that was before it. And there was actually a drawing with a map and an address. 2262 State Street, which is just a few
blocks from the prison. And this address ended up being her former
cellmate's husband. So they went there and it turns out Diane had been hiding
there the entire time with this girl's husband. And she had managed to
stay there for 11 days before they finally brought
her back to the prison. And because of her attempted escape, they tacked on an extra
five years to her sentence. After this, Diane was transferred to a maximum security prison in New Jersey and was denied parole multiple
times while she was there. And by this point, she
was looking pretty rough. So now that Diane was back in prison, hopefully Danny and Christie could move on with their lives after being
through so much trauma. But luckily they were both alive. Her youngest daughter
who is now named Becky and had been adopted, was living a really good
childhood thankfully, away from Diane and had
no idea that Diane existed or anything about her biological mother. But as she got older, she
started to have suspicions that there was a reason that her parents didn't want her to know who
her biological mother was. And when Becky was 11 years old, she came up with a plan
to trick a babysitter into telling her who her mother was. Basically, she pretended
to know who it was when she really didn't and
the babysitter just said it. Then she found the book,
"Small Sacrifices" by Ann Rule at a local bookstore. And this is the most famous
book that's been written on Diane Downs. Anne Rule is a very famous author, but finding this book was
absolutely shocking to her. Finding out who her mother
really was scared her so much. Finding out that her biological
mother attempted to kill her other siblings was devastating to her. Becky was so upset at the time that she just left the bookstore and tried to kind of forget about it all. Then she was hanging out
with one of her boyfriends and she watched a mini
series on Diane Downs. And something about that
just really got to her. It just really made it all sink in. And she was devastated by
the time she left his house. Becky felt totally lost. I mean, she was scared that she had come from this woman. Scared that she could
have ended up with her. - A part of me was afraid
that that's where I came from. Does that mean where I'm going? - And with all this stress, she ended up turning to drugs. She dropped out of school and she ran away from her parents' house. At this point, her life
just spun out of control. And she was severely traumatized for years after finding out who
her mother really was. Becky got pregnant young,
just like her mother when she was 17 and her child was taken
away from her right away. She got pregnant again at 21. And at this time she was
living in a homeless shelter and she made the decision to
put this baby up for adoption. After that she wanted
to reach out to Diane. And so she ended up writing
her letters in prison. And surprisingly Diane
actually got back to her and she had seen pictures of her. And the first thing that she
said to her in the letters was, "Wow, you look just like me. Don't you hate that chin we have?" In the beginning of the letter, she was talking about
how Becky was beautiful and it was great to hear
from her blah, blah, blah. But as it continued, she
started accusing Becky of being involved in a mass
conspiracy against her. She accused Becky of being a spy. So Becky decided that it was
time to stop talking to Diane. After some time and some self-healing, Becky came to the conclusion that just because she was
biologically related to Diane that didn't mean that she
had to be anything like her. She worked really hard and ended up getting her life together and was a really great mom
to her son, Chris, after all. She got a degree in psychology and ended up working as a
behavioral health coordinator for children. And there was also
somewhat of a happy ending for Diane's other two
children, Christie and Danny. They were actually both adopted by one of the prosecutors
in this case, Fred Hugi and his wife, Joanne. Danny tragically was paralyzed from the waist down
because of his injuries. And Christie also has a speech impediment. But they were adopted by great people. And they made sure that they had all the resources
that they could to heal and process everything
that they had been through. - He adopted my children
and according to Christie, never said a bad word against me ever. That was out of Christie's mouth. Fred Hugi, in all the
time that he raised her never spoke ill of me. I believe that Fred Hugi knows that there is a man out there
that was hunting my children. And it wasn't until after
Christie told her schoolmates, she drew pictures in school and she said, "This is the man who shot us. I didn't, I lied in court because
they wanted me to say this and they wouldn't leave me alone." Dr. Peter, she said, "Dr.
Peterson kept pressuring me and he wouldn't leave me alone." - They now live a very quiet and peaceful life with their families and they stay out of the media. Diane is currently in
the Central California Women's Facility in
Chowchilla, California. And in 2020, she actually got COVID and
had pretty bad symptoms. But she said she worked
really hard through it. She actually said, "I
dragged myself to work on the 11th and 12th of March, exhausted and fuzzy in the
brain, dry cough, headache, sinuses clogged with very thick mucus. I showered and slept for four
hours, woke up and drank water and then went back to
sleep for 16 more hours. When I see what others have suffered, I think my boss probably saved my life." She also spoke about her children and said, "Every time the world
news shows big red circles on the national map, I look at Oregon because that's where
Christie and Daniel are. Compared to other states, it appears that Oregon's
red circle is smaller than most places. Is Oregon relatively virus
free or are my children in greater danger than the
red circle size suggests? I still worry about them and love them though they will never know it." So clearly Diane is
still in complete denial and she probably will never
show any type of remorse for what she did to her
children that night. - Do you remember now
pretending to throw the keys? - Yes I do. That was after he turned back towards me. - And kicking him and
managing to jump in the car and race to the hospital. - Yes, Anne. And as a matter of fact,
you didn't mention the fact that my arm was so absolutely contorted after the shooting. It was twisted and shoved back two inches. Twisted at a 90 degree angle, which proves that there was a struggle. And there was also blood
on the driver's seat, which is evidence of the
fact that I jumped in the car and my arm fell against the
seat helplessly, as I stated. - But there was no blood
at all in the driver part and your arm when you got to the hospital was completely wrapped
in a triangle bandage made out of a towel. - Oh geez. Oh geez, Ann, you're comical. You are so far-fetched, I'm serious. There was a towel wrapped around my arm. Yes, there absolutely was. And I don't know how it got there any more than you know how it got there. - I think Diane should
definitely be up there with some of the most
evil women of all time. I mean, she is cold to the core. Like she has no ounce of
empathy in her soul at all. I really wanna know what you
guys think about this one. So leave me a comment below and tell me your thoughts on Diane Downs. I mean, Diane still claims
that she's innocent to this day and maybe you agree with her. So if you do plead your case below. And if you want some more
content on this case, you should check out "Small
Sacrifices" by Ann Rule on Audible. It is so well done. I mean, Ann Rule is one
of the greatest writers in true crime history. And it's even better when
you listen to it on Audible. If you guys have been watching
this channel for a while you know that I absolutely love Audible. I just love the service especially because I'm a dyslexic person and it makes the reading experience just so much more enjoyable for me. At Audible you can find
the largest selections of audio books ranging from bestsellers, to new releases, celebrity
memoirs, languages, business, motivations. And with their newest plan, Audible Plus, you get full access to
their popular Plus catalog. Now you can listen all you
want to thousands and thousands of popular audio books, original
entertainment and podcasts including ad-free versions
of your favorite shows and exclusive series. And audible is offering my
viewers a free 30-day trial so that you can check out Audible too. All you gotta do is go
to audible.com/kendallrae or you can text Kendall Ray to 500-500. And a huge thank you to Audible
for sponsoring my content. It really allows me to
not hold back as much when talking about these cases in fear of being flagged by YouTube. But that is it for me today, guys. Of course, let me know
your thoughts below. I wanna hear 'em and I will see you guys in my next video. But until then, stay safe out there. (soft music)
