1. Elizabeth Diane Frederickson (Diane Downs)

2. Born in Phoenix, Arizona to Danish and English American parents Wes and Willadene Frederickson
Born August 7, 1955 (age 60)
She claims that father Molested her when she was a child
She was the oldest of four children
She graduated from Moon Valley High School in Phoenix
After High School she attended Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College
Was expelled after one year for “promiscuous behavior”
Met her husband in High school (Steve Downs)
Married her high school sweetheart after running away from home
Had many problems in their marriage

3. Diane’s BACKGROUND In 1974 Downs had their first child, Christie.
In 1975 Downs had their second child, Cherly Lynn
She got pregnant again and had an abortion. She named the aborted child, Carrie.
They were divorced in 1980 about a year after the birth of Danny
Downs was employed by the United States Postal Service
before her 1984 arrest and trial.

4. Crime
She had no criminal history until May 19, Diane pulled over on the side of the road near Springfield, Oregon and shot her three children multiple times. She then shot herself in the arm and drove slowly to the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital. The hospital staff found Cheryl dead and Danny and Christie barely alive. Diane told the doctors and the police that the children were shot by a bushy-haired man who flagged her down on the road then tried to hijack her car. When she refused, the man began shooting her children.

5. Investigation
Diane's diary found during a police search helped to piece together the motive she would have for shooting her children.
There was also a unicorn found which Diane had purchased just days before the children were shot. Each of the children's names had been inscribed on it, almost as if it was a shrine to their memory.
Also a man came forward who said he had to pass Diane on the road on the night of the shooting, because she was driving so slowly. This conflicted with Diane's story to police in which she said she sped in terror to the hospital

6. Just prior to her arrest Diane told them (investigators) that the shooter was someone she may have known because he called her by her name. Had the police bought her admission, it would have meant several more months of investigation. They did not believe her and instead suggested that she did it because her lover did not want children. On February 28, 1984, after nine months of intensive investigation, Diane Downs, now pregnant, was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, and criminal assault of her three children.

7. The trial began on May 10, 1984 and would last six weeks
The trial began on May 10, 1984 and would last six weeks. Prosecutor Fred Hugi laid out the state's case which showed motive, forensic evidence, witnesses which contradicted Diane's story to police and finally an eye witness, her own daughter Christie Downs who testified that it was Diane who was the shooter.
On the defense side, Diane's lawyer Jim Jagger admitted that his client was obsessed with Nick, but pointed to a childhood littered with an incestuous relationship with her father as reasons for her promiscuity and inappropriate behavior after the incident.
The jury found Diane Downs guilty on all charges on June 17, She was sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years.

8. Aftermath
On July 11, 1987, Diane managed to escape from the Oregon Women's Correctional Center and was recaptured in Salem, Oregon ten days later. She received an additional five-year sentence for the escape.
Diane was first eligible for parole in 2008 and during that hearing she continued to say she was innocent. "Over the years, I have told you and the rest of the world that a man shot me and my children
She was denied parole.
In December 2010 she received a second parole hearing and again refused to take responsibility for the shooting. She was again denied and under a new Oregon law she will not face a parole board again until 2020.

9. Diane Downs: Best Kept Secrets
Cultural Reference
Diane Downs: Best Kept Secrets
Small Sacrifices by: Ann Rule(Daughter of Diane)

10. Social Control Theory
Diane Down’s reasoning behind her crime supports the social control theory. Diane was obsessed with Nick and he felt suffocated by her demands and he was still in love with his wife. Nick ended the relationship with Diane. He told her it was over and that he was not interested in being her kids “daddy”. She cared so much about what he thought and would do anything to prove to him that she was the one for him. This lead her to think she had to do something in oder to make him want her. Her kids should have kept her from committing the crime but instead her kids were the whole reason she did it. She cared what he thought of her and conformed to what she thought she had to do to be with him.

11. Sources