The night of May 19-20, 1983, may have been another quiet, warm night in the city of Springfield, Oregon (USA). It could, but it was not. Around 10:30 PM, staff at the local hospital sprang to their feet when a car appeared in the driveway of the emergency department. A distraught young woman sat inside. Time and time again she pressed the horn, begging for someone to help her children. Eight-year-old Christie, seven-year-old Cheryl, and three-year-old Danny, who were also in the car, were just bleeding to death.
Doctors immediately rushed to help the children. They immediately realized that each of them had been shot with a firearm. The condition of all three was very bad - Christie and Cheryl were unconscious, only Danny showing faint signs of life. The woman in the car was also injured - there was a bloody bandage on her left arm, but no one was paying attention to her. Her life was not in danger.
The woman hysterically begged the doctors to save her children. They were to be shot by a degenerate who unexpectedly appeared on the side road that the family was traveling on. Christie and Danny survived. The boy was to be paralyzed for life, and the girl lost her speech due to a brain injury. Cheryl died.
The receptionist, who accompanied the injured mother in the hospital corridor, notified the police about the tragic incident. During subsequent questioning, she testified that the whole thing seemed very strange to her. First, madmen who shoot helpless children at night for no reason are extremely rare. She was also surprised by the unusual self-control of the woman she was dealing with. She seemed almost unnaturally calm as if cut off from any emotions. Would a loving mother act like this?
The mother of the toddlers was Diane Downs. Newly divorced, only recently living in Springfield. That night, she maintained, the four of them had taken their red Nissan to a friend, Diane, who lived on the outskirts of town. On the way back, the children became sleepy. To speed up the journey, Diane decided to turn into a small street called Old Mohawk Road, which led through a picturesque, but lonely, neighborhood.
At one point, an unknown man jumped on the road. Diane stopped and got out and asked if she could help him. The man demanded the car keys. "You must be kidding," the woman replied. After a short conversation, the stranger took out a gun and started shooting at the children who were sleeping in the car. The shocked mother lunges at the attacker. They started struggling. A shot was fired, and Diane felt a pain in her left hand. This infuriated her completely. Eventually, she managed to jump into the driver's seat and sprint toward the hospital.
The shocking case touched everyone. Capturing the psychopathic child killer became a priority for the Springfield Police Department, and a search was immediately launched from a memorial portrait based on Diane's testimony. The wanted man was white, had curly and disheveled hair, was 180 cm tall, 80 kg weight, and stubble. His outfit was dirty and sloppy. He was carrying a 22 mm revolver. He must have been very dangerous to have committed such a terrible act as attacking God the spirit of a guilty mother with young children, whose only "crime" was that they were driving a lonely road after dark.
Diane informed the police that she also had 2 guns - one was kept in the trunk of the car and the other was at home. None of them matched the wounds on the children's bodies. In addition, a test for the presence of gunpowder was carried out on the hands of the woman, which turned out to be negative.
Police officers searched Diane's car and secured all traces that might have helped them solve the case. 22 mm caliber shells with the distinctive letter "U" were found. In the trunk there was a gun described by the woman - it was confirmed that it could not be a murder weapon.
The woman pressed the officers to search her home as well. It also happened. The only interesting find was Diane's diary, which later turned out to be the main evidence in the murder of her children.
The night of May 19-20, 1983, may have been another quiet, warm night in the city of Springfield, Oregon (USA). It could, but it was not. Around 10:30 PM, staff at the local hospital sprang to their feet when a car appeared in the driveway of the emergency department. A distraught young woman sat inside. Time and time again she pressed the horn, begging for someone to help her children. Eight-year-old Christie, seven-year-old Cheryl, and three-year-old Danny, who were also in the car, were just bleeding to death.
Doctors immediately rushed to help the children. They immediately realized that each of them had been shot with a firearm. The condition of all three was very bad - Christie and Cheryl were unconscious, only Danny showing faint signs of life. The woman in the car was also injured - there was a bloody bandage on her left arm, but no one was paying attention to her. Her life was not in danger.
The woman hysterically begged the doctors to save her children. They were to be shot by a degenerate who unexpectedly appeared on the side road that the family was traveling on. Christie and Danny survived. The boy was to be paralyzed for life, and the girl lost her speech due to a brain injury. Cheryl died.
The receptionist, who accompanied the injured mother in the hospital corridor, notified the police about the tragic incident. During subsequent questioning, she testified that the whole thing seemed very strange to her. First, madmen who shoot helpless children at night for no reason are extremely rare. She was also surprised by the unusual self-control of the woman she was dealing with. She seemed almost unnaturally calm as if cut off from any emotions. Would a loving mother act like this?
The mother of the toddlers was Diane Downs. Newly divorced, only recently living in Springfield. That night, she maintained, the four of them had taken their red Nissan to a friend, Diane, who lived on the outskirts of town. On the way back, the children became sleepy. To speed up the journey, Diane decided to turn into a small street called Old Mohawk Road, which led through a picturesque, but lonely, neighborhood.
At one point, an unknown man jumped on the road. Diane stopped and got out and asked if she could help him. The man demanded the car keys. "You must be kidding," the woman replied. After a short conversation, the stranger took out a gun and started shooting at the children who were sleeping in the car. The shocked mother lunges at the attacker. They started struggling. A shot was fired, and Diane felt a pain in her left hand. This infuriated her completely. Eventually, she managed to jump into the driver's seat and sprint toward the hospital.
The shocking case touched everyone. Capturing the psychopathic child killer became a priority for the Springfield Police Department, and a search was immediately launched from a memorial portrait based on Diane's testimony. The wanted man was white, had curly and disheveled hair, was 180 cm tall, 80 kg weight, and had stubble. His outfit was dirty and sloppy. He was carrying a 22 mm revolver. He must have been very dangerous to have committed such a terrible act as attacking God the spirit of a guilty mother with young children, whose only "crime" was that they were driving a lonely road after dark.
Diane informed the police that she also had 2 guns - one was kept in the trunk of the car and the other was at home. None of them matched the wounds on the children's bodies. In addition, a test for the presence of gunpowder was carried out on the hands of the woman, which turned out to be negative.
Police officers searched Diane's car and secured all traces that might have helped them solve the case. 22 mm caliber shells with the distinctive letter "U" were found. In the trunk there was a gun described by the woman - it was confirmed that it could not be a murder weapon.
The woman pressed the officers to search her home as well. It also happened. The only interesting find was Diane's diary, which later turned out to be the main evidence of the murder of her children.
Attacks by unpredictable madmen, the more so brutal, are rare. The police suspected that Diane did know her tormentor, but refused to reveal his name. So they decided to take a closer look at the woman and her immediate surroundings. The diary provided a lot of interesting information.
Diane was recently divorced from Steve. Their marriage, successful at first, deteriorated over time. Diane had romances on the side, and Steven had raised his hand on her several times. In 1981, Diane had a crush on Robert Knickerboker, who introduced himself as Nick.
Finally, in April 1983, Nick decided to sort out the marital matters. He confessed his betrayal to his wife, and she promised to forgive him if Nick immediately severed all contact with his lover. The man complied with this order - Diane communicated his decision, supporting her with a statement about his reluctance to be a father. Disappointed, the woman realized that they were the ones standing in the way of her happiness with Nick.
The Diane Downs case was investigated by three detectives: Dick Tracy, Cart West, and Doug Welch. At first, they suspected that the children's father, Steve, might have something to do with the case. The man no longer lived in Springfield. When he found out about the shooting, he came to the hospital to see the children. He was later questioned by police officers.
Steve was in another city on the day of the tragedy. He was on a date - as a freshly baked single, he decided to enjoy life. He testified that to his knowledge his ex-wife had three, not two, weapons. A rifle and two revolvers caliber 22 and 38 mm. Investigators quickly picked up the topic and asked Steve a ghastly question: would Diane be able to harm her own children if it would improve her relationship with her lover. Steve flatly denied it.
The testimony of Diane's ex-husband did not deter the policemen. Christie confirmed their feelings. The girl reacted very badly to her mother's visits to the hospital. Officers noticed that she began to stutter in her presence and her pulse quickened.
Christie ended up in a foster family, where she was recovering from her foster parents and a psychiatrist. Thanks to him, she was able to finally deal with the trauma and learn to speak again. In due course, the child was questioned by police officers. Her confession was shocking - she, Cheryl, and Danny were shot by their own mother.
Diane Downs was arrested on February 28, 1984, at 6:58 on the way to work. The woman was then in another pregnancy with another, accidental lover. The pregnancy belly was clearly visible now. For the press, the sight of her handcuffed mother was a sensation. Her photos landed on all covers.
Pending trial, Diane was in custody and had an extensive correspondence, especially with men. Her "chosen one" was Ranall Woodfield, a murderer sentenced to life imprisonment. Diane Downs found him nice, however, and was glad that the letters made cell time faster.
Diane Downs' trial started a year later. The woman was charged with murder and two attempted murders. She pleaded not guilty. Her ex-husband still claimed that Diane might have committed such terrible things.
The defenders of the accused questioned the credibility of the prosecution's witnesses. They stubbornly repeated the story of the madman's attack, which seemed to become more and more incoherent and not logical over time. Diane changed her often, too - once she even stated that she knew perfectly well who attacked her but would not tell.
The prosecutor, in turn, painted the image of a degenerate mother as a person addicted to men. It was around them that her whole life went on - the children were only an obstacle. Getting rid of them was supposed to make it easier for Diane to continue her promiscuous lifestyle.
Eventually, Diane Downs was bogged down by the testimony of her own daughter, Christine. She still had trouble speaking during the trial but told her without hesitation what happened. The girl's testimony caused a lot of emotions, not only within herself but also among the members of the jury. There was sobbing in the courtroom. Christine testified that her mother shot her, Danny and Cheryl, and herself to distract investigators. In the end, the girl said that she still loves her mother.
The trial lasted 31 days. During it, an unusual staging of the entire crime was organized. A car with puppets representing children's bodies appeared in the courtroom. A policeman pretending to be a murderer would approach each doll and pretend to shoot. It made an electrifying impression on everyone present. Suddenly the whole story was brutally tangible and real.
The Diane Downs case was shocking for the public, the police, and psychology specialists. The woman was examined by them. She has been diagnosed with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders. It turned out that the woman was abusing her children. She was treating Cheryl particularly badly.
Diane Downs was found guilty of all alleged acts. On June 17, 1984, she heard the sentence: life imprisonment plus 50 additional years' imprisonment. The sentence was not eased either by the stories of her traumatic childhood or the fact that the murder weapon had never been found.
During the trial, Steve changed his mind about his ex-wife's innocence. After the convictions were announced, he said, "I wish there was a death penalty in Oregon."
In prison, the woman did not behave perfectly. In 1987, she escaped from an Oregon prison but only enjoyed 10 days of freedom. After this prank, she was transferred to a maximum security facility. The woman never pleaded guilty. She claimed her children were killed by a Native American.
Steven did not take care of the two survivors of the toddler shooting. Danny and Christie were adopted by Attorney Fred Hugi. The man was the chief prosecutor in their mother's case. Danny never regained control of his legs, but he lives a happy life passionate about computers and information technology. Christie got married and became the mother of a boy and a girl. The latter was named Cheryl.
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