Murder With My Husband - 12. Diane Downs - The Psycho Mother

Episode Date: June 1, 2020

In this episode of Murder With My Husband, Payton tells Garrett the story of Diane Downs. She was a mother who ultimately did not seem to have motherly love. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: https://www.thoughtco.com/diane-downs-case-971314 ABC 2020: My Mother’s Sins Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yes, you energy. Energy for everything. Captain Banner now to our podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. We're just going to jump right into it. So today we are doing the story of Diane Downs. I got my information from www.thoughtco.com and an ABC 2020 called My Mother Sins. There's also a lifetime movie called Small Sacrifices based on the Anne Rule book about

this murder. Diane Downs' full name was Elizabeth Diane Fredrickson Downs. She was born August 7th, 1955 in Phoenix, Arizona. On May 19th, 1983, which happens to be our anniversary. Oh, yeah. At around 10 p.m. Oh, yeah, like you don't know my anniversary. I know our anniversary, we just had it. I also just have my birthday just in case anyone was wondering. It was May 26

And that's all I'm gonna say okay, keep going and if you need our PO box So on May 19th 1983 at around 10 p.m Diane rushed into the McKinsey Willem at hospital with her three children Cheryl her child was dead and Danny and Christie were barely alive Diane had also been shot in the arm. Diane told the doctors and police that they were shot by a bushy-haired man who had flagged her down on the road and tried to hijack her car. When she had refused, the man began shooting her children. She said that she pretended to throw her keys while he was distracted and she jumped back in the car and took off.

Her daughter later claims that Hungary, like a was playing on the radio and the composite sketch that the police released of the man looks like the albino from the Princess Bride. The town after this was in paranoia so just to set up the way it was. Uh-huh. Okay. So Diane was oldest of four children in her family. She moved around until she was about 11 years old. Her parents had conservative values which Diane followed originally until she was about 14. And just like every other teenager she wanted to fit in. And so this is when she dropped her name Elizabeth and went by her middle name, Diane. And what?

Well, you know why she did that? Why she dropped her name Elizabeth? It just seems kind of random. Yeah, I think she just literally wanted to completely change herself. Okay, got it. So because she also changed her style, like everything about herself that she could change. She did. Okay. She began her relationship with Stephen

Downs who was 16 and lived across the street and her parents obviously did not approve but by the time She was 16 their relationship had become completely sexual they were they were very close they were full-on boyfriend girlfriend and Coming from conservative values. This was frightening for her parents. Yeah. After high school, Steven joined the Navy and Diane went to Pacific Baptist Bible College. They were supposed to do like the long distance thing and remain faithful to each other, but Diane failed at that after only one year and she was expelled from her college for promiscuity.

Which like, okay, so it's a Baptist college. So what is being promiscuous, like holding someone's hand walking down? It kind of reminds me of that movie. What's that movie with the A? It's a book too. Oh, yeah. Easy A. Oh, that's not. Yeah, sorry. Easy A. Yeah. That's a kind of what reminds me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they, they, uh, they Steven and Diane just keep dating though, even though she obviously was being promiscuous at college. And in November 1973, they decide to get married. And the marriage was obviously rocky from the beginning with them fighting about money and always fighting about infidelity.

Diane would leave Stephen to go to her parents' home a lot. But despite these issues, they had their first child in 1974. Her name was Christie. And guys, I'm just going to say say it once again a child does not solve Marital problems. It's most likely only going to make them worse and we see this happen case after case after case So six months after having Christy Diane joined

Well tried to join the Navy, but she came home after three weeks because of blisters on her feet. I wonder why she wanted to go to the Navy. Like, I wonder what made her listen and go, I want to be the Navy. I think probably just because she needed something to do. I mean, her marriage wasn't good. It was a way for her to get out. I mean, little foreshadowing. I don't think she loved being a mom. Yeah. Okay. So she later says though that the real reason she comes

home was because Steven was neglecting their daughter Christy. It wasn't because of blisters on her feet. But Diane liked being pregnant and that's in quotes. So in 1975 they had their second child Cheryl Lynn and also children are not something you should have just because you like being pregnant. There's 18 years after being pregnant, that's really hard. So Steven decided to have a vasectomy after this this, he was like, yeah, no more. But Diane gets pregnant again anyways, and claims that the vasectomy didn't work. Okay. But Steven claims she's having an affair.

So Diane decided to abort the baby, and she named her Carrie. In 1978, the Downs moved to Mesa, Arizona and both found jobs at a mobile home manufacturing company. There, Diane started having another affair with lots of milk co-workers and became pregnant again. So in December of 1979, Stephen Downs, known as Danny, Jr. was born. Stephen the older, the dad, decided to put his name on the birth certificate, even though he says that he was for sure not the father. Like the first time was okay, maybe the second we didn't work the second time was like, okay, she's cheating on it.

Does they even know which kid, which father, the father is the kid considering she was sleeping with that many co-workers. Yes, I think that she did know. Okay. So the marriage of Stephen and Diane lasted until 1980 and then they decided to get a divorce. They have three kids. Diane spent the next few years moving in and out with men, having affairs with married men and also trying to rekindle things with Stephen. It seems like having affairs with married men was kind of her thing. Okay. So to help support herself, Diane decided to try to become a surrogate mother. Remember, she likes being pregnant. Yeah. But she fell to psychiatric exams that required for the applicants.

This test showed that Diane was actually intelligent but was psychotic. Surprise, surprise. Diane thought this was hilarious though, and would brag to all of her friends about it. About failing the test. About being psychotic. Oh my god. Because you thought it was like a joke, like, oh, they thought I was crazy. Yeah.

Okay. So in 1981, Diane gets a full-time job as a postal carrier for the US Post Office. Go girl. During this time, the kids would spend a lot of time with her parents, with Steve and the father, and even with Danny's father. So they did know who the father was.

If the kids were with Diane, though, neighbors really voiced concern for the kids. They said that the kids were poorly dressed for the weather, and they would ask for food a lot. And if Diane could not find a sitter, that she would just leave six-year-old Christie to stay home and care for the children. So I'm just it's safe to say that she was not being a very good mother at this point. I know that things were hard

in her life. But she decided to have three kids. And so your responsibility is taking care of three kids. Yeah. So Diane finally gets accepted after trying again into the surrogate program later that year. And she was paid $10,000 for carrying a child to term. She decided after this to try and open her own surrogate clinic, but it quickly failed. And I'm just going to say like we see this erratic behavior

of like I was a surrogate one time. I'm now an expert and I'm gonna open my own like I see that common practice with a lot of these cases and the suspect that is involved. Just like extreme behavior. Yeah. Okay. So not saying that it's wrong to try to start something, but it's more like I've done it one time. Now I'm an expert going in full force, gonna start it and it fails. I mean, she did fail that test too. I was sure there was some accuracy to that. Yeah. So it was around this time that Diane met coworker Robert Nick Nicarbacher. Their relationship, his name was just Robert Nicarbacher, but they call him Nick. Robert Nick Nicarbacher. Yes, but they call him Nick. Okay.erbacher. Yes, but they call him Nick.

Okay. So, their relationship was strong, and Diane wanted Nick to leave his wife for her surprise, surprise. He was married. Nick started to feel suffocated by Diane and decided he was still in love with his wife. So he ended the relationship with Diane. Diane moved back to Oregon because of it and she just could not get over Nick. She would write him and they had their final visit in April of 1983.

During this visit, Nick completely rejected her and told her that the reason that their relationship could not continue on and he couldn't leave his wife for her was because he had no interest in and I quote Being a daddy to her children. I wonder if him rejecting her is what made her want him so bad Oh, yeah, I think with all these other guys. She was just bouncing around probably because maybe they liked her I thought she was you know cute or whatever I completely agree I mean I've done that. So I'm sure that she's done that. So I do think though that that comment

and this final visit of rejection and for sure her relationship with Nick being over is what made Diane decide to do what she ends up doing in this story. What is she end up doing? So Diane was unusually calm during the whole aftermath of the carjacking experience. She even voiced surprise that a bullet hit hit

Danny's spine and not his heart. So like the doctor comes out and is like, oh, he was hit in the spine and she was like, wait, he wasn't hit in the heart. So she had absolutely no tears. She told the doctor that the blood was going to ruin her new car. The blood that was on the seats in her new car was gonna ruin. Oh my gosh, that's okay.

She's still at the hospital. One of her children is dead and the other two are dying. And all she can think about is the blood in her car. Interesting. So she seemed concerned with getting in touch with Nick. But did not care to tell even the children's father, Steven, or ask how the kids were doing. So when the doctor would come out, she would say,

hey, can I use your phone? Like, I really need to call this guy. Not, hey, how are my kids doing? Not, hey, I need to call the kids' father. Yeah, it's like she, it's like not even her kids. She could hear her emotions for the kids are just like completely off. Yeah. So obviously Diane's story does not hold up during the investigation. The blood splatters in the car did not match her version of what had occurred that night. And there was blood splatter on the outside of the car,

but Diane had said that the kids were shot inside. So there's no way that it would have splattered onto the outside of the car. And gunpowder residue was not found where it should have been based upon where she said they were shooting from, the guy, the bushy-haired man. I feel like people forget all the time

that how much forensics and how much you can do to catch somebody that murders people. She's like, oh, my story's gonna be great. I got this. Yeah. The markings on the bullets found in Diane's home. So the cops like went and searched her house and found bullets.

We're also found on the shell casings at the crime scene. So if you've ever watched CSI, literally you can picture the scene I'm talking about. They put it under the microscope, they turn it a little bit, and then they put the other sample under it, and they turn it a little bit, and then they match up the lines on the two. And that's exactly what happened here. Her bullets from her house, and the shell casings from the crime scene, were the same bullet. That's so cool. So, so Diane's arm had been broken when she was shot, but it was completely superficial compared to the children's wounds. I mean, one of her children was dead, the other two were like severely injured ones in a coma,

the other one was shot in the spine, and all she did was break her arm with a like a bullet. So she also felt to admit that she had a 22 caliber handgunned. The cop said that a 22 caliber handgun was the weapon used for the crimes. Oh, I forgot I had that there. So I mean, they didn't like match the gun specifically and say it's for sure this one, but it was that type of gun. When cops discovered her diary, they found an obsessive amount of writing about her love for Robert Nickerbacher and a lot about him not wanting to raise her kids. Like she just kept stewing over the fact that he didn't want to be a part of her kids life.

Oh my gosh. They also discovered a unicorn that Diane had purchased a couple days before the crime. The kid's names had all been inscribed onto it as if it was like a shrine to their memory. But keep in mind they weren't dead or dying yet. Okay you guys we are getting into an ad. I know you guys have both heard the story about how Garrett and I were both paying separately for peacock. And then we used rocket money and realized how dumb we are and our so happy rocket money helped us stop doing that. Rocket money is a personal finance app

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That's better help, help.com slash husband. So a man ended up coming forward later to tell the police at that night of the hijacking. He had actually passed Diane on the road because she was driving five miles per hour to the hospital with the kids in the car has with the kids in the car dying. She told the police she rushed. She sped to the hospital and the sky vividly remembers passing her on the highway because she was only driving five miles an hour. What in the world? She was waiting for them to die. Yeah, that's horrible. So my favorite line from the interrogations, which keep in mind a lot of these interrogations

are broadcast because of this crime. I mean, these three kids are shot. One of them dead. The other two critically injured and it's a mom. It kind of went widespread. This is a pretty popular case. And so you can watch a lot of these interrogations. But the detective says, Diane, your story stinks. And she says, better go get some deodorant. Literally genius. What in the, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of where the cops said your story stinks though. I guess it's kind of language. I don't know. But I just think it's hilarious. Yeah, that she said. So during the interrogation, she changes her

story multiple times and also admits that one time that she knows who did it But she isn't gonna tell the cops so they're like Diane Diane you've been changing your story Wouldie and she's like you know what actually I think I know who did it But I'm not gonna tell you cuz you're the cops and that's your job so you go figure it out. It's super secret Yeah, my kids are once dead and they're rest are dying, but I can't I can't do your job for you. Oh my gosh They're rest are dying, but I can't I can't do your job for you. Oh my gosh The strongest evidence against Diane and it up actually being her surviving daughter Christy who was old enough

To kind of comprehend what was going on, but she was in a coma She couldn't talk months after the crime because of a stroke The she had suffered from the attack. Oh, it's horrible When Diane would visit Christy in the hospital, so keep this in mind, like, her kids are still in the hospital and she has access to them because they're her children. Yeah. Christie would show signs of fear and her vitals would spike,

but she couldn't say anything because she'd had a stroke and she couldn't talk, which is just scary. Yeah. When she had finally relearned how to communicate, she went to therapy and she went talk about what happened. They would ask her about that night and she was too traumatized. She did see him. Yeah. The therapist finally told her to write what happened and write down the name of who had shot her and then they would just burn it. Because it wasn't like she was

admitting to it if it was getting burned. And the therapist wouldn't look at it. So they kept doing this until over and over and over until she wasn't ready to burn it anymore and she was ready to read it. And so finally when the therapist read it, she went and told the prosecutors the truth. She said that that night, Diane had randomly pulled over on the side of a quiet road and got out and got something from the trunk. This is what the daughter wrote. Yeah, she's telling this to the prosecutors. Okay.

The therapist is telling this to the prosecutors. Yes. Okay. So Diane had randomly pulled over on the side of a quiet road and got out to get something from the trunk. She got back in, nailed on the front seat, and began shooting Christy and her siblings. Oh my gosh. She then shot herself, wrapped her arm up in a towel, and drove slowly to the hospital. So this is what I think is, I mean, that whole

that whole paragraph I just read is atrocious. Yeah. But as a mom, she wrapped her own wound and continued driving, but didn't wrap any of the children's homes. Oh, yeah. I mean, she obviously didn't care about it. I don't have any kids, but I have your siblings. I have people in my life that I care dearly for. And I would always instinctively not even thinking about it. Make sure that they were being taken care of. I think that's as a natural instinct. Yeah. 100%.

Diane continued to put off the police by claiming that the man might have known her, but the police obviously did not believe her. And on February 28, 1984, after Christie had admitted what happened nine months after the tragedy, Diane Downs was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, and criminal assault for her three children. Diane ended up getting pregnant again. Oh my gosh. Before going to trial. And it came to be discovered that she showed up to someone who she used to deliver milk to. Like on her route, she showed up to this man's house with whiskey and some pot and slept with him

randomly. So it was 100% on purpose. She claims that she was missing her children so much that she needed another one and she knew she was ovulating. Whoa, this lady's crazy. Yeah. So the trial began May 10th, 1984 and lasted six weeks. Diane was so super pregnant at the trial. And so the prosecution was worried because how do you convict a nine month pregnant woman to life in prison for killing her children? Well, one of her children. It's a good point. So prosecutor Fred Huggie laid the state's case out

and Diane's daughter Christy testified against her own mother which is a really big deal. Yeah, that is. Super traumatic, not only for children to revisit the trauma they've been to and talk about it, but to get up in front of an audience and in front of their own mother who's sitting in front of them and talk about it.

Yeah, because I think would be easier if that girl was older, like me, right? Because I know logically, like, what? My mom just tried to kill me. Yeah. But she wasn't that old. I mean, old enough to know what happened, but. Exactly, which probably made it so hard.

That's crazy. So during the trial, the prosecutor even played the song Hungry Like a Wolf, because that was the song that the Christy claims was playing on the radio when her mom started shooting her and her siblings killing one of them and when they played the song for the jury and everyone Diane is sitting obviously next to her team and she starts dancing like just you know clapping along moving her head not in her head tapping her feet to the song,

that she killed one of her children too, but shot the rest of her children. What? And so, obviously her person was like, her defense team was like, stop! What are you doing, stop, you know? Yeah. She's just grooving out in the middle of court.

The defense claim that Diane's father had sexually abused her, and that was her reason for being promiscuous, getting pregnant again, and her inappropriate behavior. The jury found Diane guilty on all charges. All the evidence was stacked against her, was stacked against her, and she was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years. Oh, pregnant nine months pregnant about to give birth. So she's gonna be in there. Yeah. So in 1986, prosecutor Fred Hugi, the guy who put her in prison, adopted Kristian Danny, the two remaining living children. Diane gave birth

to her fourth child who was named Amy but she was immediately removed from Diane and adopted. She was given a new name of Rebecca Bapcock and Diane's father denied the accusation of incest and Diane later recanted the claim stating she was only doing it to try to help the child. Okay, so can we go back for a second to the car? So she just pulled over, shot all of them. Like there's no other information to just shot them.

And. Yeah. She pulled over, got the gun out of the trunk, came back and nailed on her front seat, which is why the blood splatter. So what she claimed was the bushy-haired man leaned in through the window and shot them. So that's what she nailed.

Yes. So she opened her door and nailed. And her whole story with the bushy-haired man doesn't make sense. Because think about this time, it's what, the 80s. And she's driving a car which most likely was not a push to start. Am I correct? Yes, you are correct. So she claims that she had taken taken the keys out right? Yep, and then pretended to throw them

But then so that he could go get them But then somehow got back in the car and somehow hungry like a wolf was playing Hmm would music still play if a car was started? Yeah, if you turn your key at least and like truck that had But she claimed that she had the keys outside of the car. The key was not in the English. Oh, well then no, I don't think it, I don't know. I can't remember. I feel like sometimes when I would take my keys out, it would actually play until I opened my door. Yeah, but her door would have been open. She'd gotten out to talk to the guy. Yeah, they probably they probably would have done. So from the get go, the story just didn't make sense in general.

Yeah. So, um, her father, who she claimed sexually abused her, still believes to this day that Diane is innocent. And he is offering $100,000 to anyone who can offer information on the man, the bushy haired man who shot her and her children. If anybody finds the bushy haired man and let me know, I'd be really interested. I just think it's like parents can't accept. I don't know, I'm not a parent. Unless, I don't know, maybe is he still alive? I don't know. Oh, okay. So on July 11,th 1987 Diane actually escapes the correctional center by scaling

A barbed wire fence. Was she pregnant? No, okay, but still this girl And she claims that she was looking for the bushy-haired stranger that Had hurt her children. Oh my gosh, But she was recaptured 10 days later, and she received an additional five-year sentence for the escape and was moved to California after the attempt because the prosecutor who adopted her to children was scared that she was coming back

for the kids and he didn't live that far away from the correctional center. Yeah. Myad, I just add, when she escaped prison, she went to a, they found her at a house of an inmate's husband So someone that she was in prison with a girl Said oh, yeah, this is where I live and then she went to that address and was sleeping with the inmates husband That's why that's where they found her out of all the she could have escaped like she could have left the country

No, she went just a little bit of ways. Because it was 10 days. Yeah. What? Yeah. So she was eligible for parole in 2008, but claimed her innocence and was denied. I mean, I don't know, it seems like sometimes to get parole, you have to say you're guilty. Yeah. Which is kind of hard if there's people who aren't guilty. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know. But she has continuously changed her story around, even accusing the police of being the Bushy-Harrad man. And she received a second parole hearing just in 2010 and refused to take responsibility

again. And so she was denied and she will be eligible for parole again this year in 2020. So she's still in prison in California. Okay. So the interviews for this story that was on the media because it blew up were so bad. I think it was the main reason that America prosecuted her, not the jury, but like Everyone thought she was guilty because of the interviews which she was giving and we see this with narcissistic psychotic behavior There's interviews where she talks about the blood spilling out of her daughter's mouth while she was driving and then she like

Finishes up the sentence with a smile like oh, yeah, the blood was just spilling out of her mouth. What? She laughs when she's reenacting the gruesome shootings. Like she's going, oh, he came to the car and he did this. And she's all chuckle in and like making like conversation with the people. She claims that they were out sightseeing that day. And she just talks so nonchalantly

about the death of one of her children and the attempted deaths of the others. That's crazy. I'm surprised that her defense team didn't try to claim insanity. I know. Because she sounds like she's a little baby. I bet she wouldn't have let them.

That's the type of shit. Yeah, she seems like yep. Okay, that's a good point. So she also complains in interviews that people were calling her lucky, like someone was like, well, do you find yourself lucky? I mean, your children were severely injured and you just got shot in your arm.

And she was like, I don't count myself lucky. I can't eat, I haven't been able to tie my shoes for two months. My kids were lucky because they just died. They didn't have to endure this pain of having to go through the pain. The pain that I'm going to be in. Kewal, I'm glad she's in prison. Yeah.

That's crazy. So yeah, those interviews, you can look them up on YouTube, just die and downs. Interviews, she's so creepy. She laughs. She smiles. It's so easy. That's nuts. Yeah.

And I'll put, I will post some of these clips and images on our social media. So go follow us. We are murdered with my husband on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Also those are linked in the episode notes as well as all of our sources. Yeah, we are continuing to do one a week. Every single week. Yeah. We've been getting a lot of good feedback on our social media, so if you're interested

in joining in those conversations or, you know, kind of seeing what other people were thinking about some of these murders, go check those out. And we can start like discussions on Facebook or Instagram or I don't know anything. Totally. And also. Well, my wife can. Yeah. Just remember that a share, a like, a follow, word of mouth really truly helps us out, leaving reviews. I mean, we really want to keep doing this and we really want to take it farther. So we're trying to work on, you know, doing that on our end and we would really appreciate the help on your end.

Yeah. Like, please leave a review if you can. Like my wife said on Spotify, Apple, whatever it is, it really does help. Yeah, we would love that. And yeah, that is the story of Diane Downes. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye. Thank you.