The Chilling Case of Diane Downs: The Mother Who Shot Her Children to Win Back a Lover
- dthholland
- 3 minutes ago
- 7 min read
"My mom."
That’s all eight-year-old Christie Downs needed to say. After surviving a stroke and slowly regaining her ability to speak, this soft-spoken reply to investigators shattered the alibi of her mother, Diane Downs — and confirmed what many already suspected.
On 19 May 1983, in a quiet corner of Oregon just outside Springfield, Diane Downs pulled her car over on Old Mohawk Road and did the unthinkable: she shot her three young children — Christie (8), Cheryl Lynn (7), and Danny (3) — before turning the gun on herself to stage a carjacking gone wrong. Her story of a “bushy-haired stranger” failed to convince authorities for long. Two survived. One didn’t. The motive? To start a new life with a man who didn’t want children.
Nearly four decades later, the case still horrifies and perplexes in equal measure.
Early Life: Conservative Roots, Rebellion, and Discontent
Born Elizabeth Diane Frederickson on 7 August 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona, Downs was the eldest child of Wesley and Willadene Frederickson, a conservative couple of Danish and English descent. Her early home life, she later claimed, was dominated by her father’s strict discipline and emotional absence. "He spent way too much time with my mom, and my mom spent no time with me," she said in one interview.
Downs would later accuse her father of sexually abusing her during childhood — a claim she subsequently recanted, and one that both parents firmly denied. Her teenage years were marked by rebellion. At Moon Valley High School, she abandoned her parents’ rules and pursued older boys. One of them was Steve Downs, the man she would later marry — not for love, she would claim, but to escape her family: "I married Steve to get out of the family."
After a brief stint at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College, from which she was expelled for “promiscuous behaviour,” she returned to Arizona and married Steve in 1973. Children followed: Christie in 1974, Cheryl in 1976, and Danny in 1979. But domestic life unravelled swiftly. Financial strain, mutual infidelities, and resentment plagued the relationship. By 1980, they divorced after Steve became convinced that Danny wasn't his son, a suspicion later confirmed. The child's biological father was Mark Sager, a man Downs had seduced to compensate for Steve’s vasectomy.
By 1982, she gave birth to a fourth child , Jennifer, as a surrogate, despite twice failing psychiatric evaluations due to signs of psychosis.
The Road to Tragedy
Working as a mail carrier in Cottage Grove, Oregon, Downs lived in apparent ordinariness. But behind the scenes, her children were reportedly neglected and mistreated. Her ex-husband would later testify that Downs showed no maternal warmth, recalling an especially chilling moment when Cheryl asked,
“Is there a gun here? I want to kill me. My mom says I’m bad.”
In 1981, Downs began an affair with Robert “Nick” Knickerbocker, a married former co-worker from Arizona. She quickly became obsessed. Knickerbocker, however, wanted nothing to do with raising children and ended the relationship. Desperate and fixated, Downs saw only one way forward.
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, Danny, aged 3, was paralyzed from the waist down; Christie, 8, had suffered a disabling stroke; and Cheryl Lynn Downs, 7, was dead.Downs herself had been shot in the left forearm.
Downs 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 her 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.
Downs claimed that on a drive home from a friend's house, she decided to take a scenic route home. All her children were asleep and Downs claimed that during this drive home, at around 10 p.m., she saw a strange man standing in the road flagging her down. She said she pulled over and got out to talk to the man. She described him as a "bushy haired stranger". He then immediately demanded that she give him her car keys. Downs claimed she refused and they got into a physical altercation that resulted in his shooting her in the left arm. He then opened the driver's side door and shot all three of her children. Downs then said she pretended to throw her car keys in a bush and the man went to go look for them. While he was looking for the keys, she jumped back in the car and sped off to the nearest hospital.
The Evidence and the Arrest
Medical staff were immediately struck by her lack of emotional response. Dr Steven Wilhite, who treated Christie, later said:
“Not one tear... She says things to me like, ‘Boy, this has really spoiled my vacation,’ and she also says, ‘That really ruined my new car. I got blood all over the back of it.’ I knew within 30 minutes of talking with that woman that she was guilty.”
There was no blood spatter on the driver’s side door. No gunpowder residue. No sign of a struggle.
She denied owning a gun — but both Steve Downs and Knickerbocker told police otherwise. Though the weapon was never recovered, unfired cartridges found in her home matched the gun’s extractor markings. Her diary was littered with obsessive entries about Knickerbocker. Meanwhile, he told police that Downs had stalked him, and said he feared she might harm his wife. He was relieved when she moved to Oregon.
Her behaviour only worsened suspicion. Instead of staying by her children’s side, she made a phone call to Knickerbocker. She remained disturbingly composed. Nine months later, on 28 February 1984, Downs was arrested and charged with one count of murder and two counts each of attempted murder and criminal assault.
Trial, Conviction, and Testimony of a Child
During the trial, prosecutors painted a chilling picture: Diane Downs murdered and attempted to murder her own children to free herself for a man who didn’t want them. Their case relied heavily on forensic evidence — and the devastating testimony of Christie Downs, who by then had regained her ability to speak.
When asked who shot her, she answered simply: “My mom.”
Psychiatrists labelled Downs as suffering from narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders. One described her as a “deviant sociopath”, stating: “She shows no remorse. She regards her children with no empathy and as objects or possessions.”
On 17 June 1984, Diane Downs was convicted on all charges. The judge sentenced her to life plus fifty years and made it clear she was never to be released. Downs was eligible for parole after 25 years, but the structure of her sentence made release almost impossible.
Escapes, Transfers, and Life Behind Bars
In July 1987, just three years into her sentence at the Oregon Women’s Correctional Center, Downs escaped. She scaled an 18-foot razor-wire fence and vanished. For ten days, she eluded a 14-state manhunt before being captured. Aided by a fellow inmate’s husband, she had been hiding in a nearby house.
Concerned for the safety of Christie and Danny — who were living just 66 miles from the prison — lead prosecutor Fred Hugi successfully lobbied for Downs to be moved out of state. She was transferred first to New Jersey and later to California, eventually ending up at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla until its conversion to a male facility in 2013.
She earned an associate degree in prison but continued to deny her guilt, repeating her “bushy-haired stranger” story during parole hearings in 2008, 2010, and 2020 — all of which were denied. Lane County District Attorney Douglas Harcleroad noted in 2008:
“Downs continues to fail to demonstrate any honest insight into her criminal behaviour... she continues to fabricate new versions of events.”
The Children Left Behind
Immediately following Downs's trial, prosecuting attorney Fred Hugi and his wife, Joanne, adopted Christie and Danny, per ABC News.
According to Heavy, Christie, who is now 49 and testified against her mother during the trial, went on to graduate from college, get married, and start her own family, including a daughter she named after her late sister Cheryl. She is said to be living a happy and private life with her husband and kids in Oregon.
As previously mentioned, Danny, who is now 44, was adopted along with his sister Christie by the prosecuting attorney in the case. And, like his sister, Danny also went on to graduate from college and live a happy and private life. It's unclear where he ended up, but he was known to be a whiz with computers.
Downs had been pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth to a baby girl, Amy Elizabeth, just one month after her conviction. The child was seized by the State and adopted by Chris and Jackie Babcock, who renamed her Rebecca.
Rebecca Babcock has spoken publicly about her identity and the difficult emotions that came with discovering who her biological mother was. In a 2010 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, she described Downs as “a monster” and expressed regret about reaching out to her. Rebecca was later the subject of Happy Face Season 2, a podcast detailing her attempts to find her biological father.
"My childhood was of dreams and we had every opportunity that we wanted," she told ABC News. "My parents wanted us to prosper, to learn, and to grow,"
Sources
People v. Downs, 1987.
Oregon Board of Parole Hearings – Hearing Transcripts, 2008, 2010, 2020.
Oregonian Archives: Downs Family Background Reports.
Ann Rule, Small Sacrifices, 1987.
ABC 20/20, “My Mother’s Sins” episode, 2010.
The Oprah Winfrey Show, Interview with Rebecca Babcock, 2010.
Happy Face Podcast, Season 2 (2020) – iHeartRadio.
Wilhite, S. – Interview in ABC’s 20/20.
Court documents and police files from Springfield, Oregon, 1983–1984.
Testimony of Fred Hugi, Lane County Court Records.
