Bio

Elizabeth Diane Frederickson was born on August 7, 1955, in Phoenix, Arizona. Her parents were Wes and Willadene Frederickson. They were young when they had her. She grew up in a Baptist household. She later said her father molested her when she was about eleven years old.

She went to Moon Valley High School in Phoenix. There she met Steven (Steve) Downs. After high school she enrolled at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in Orange, California. She attended about a year and then was expelled and went back to live with her parents.

On November 13, 1973, she married Steve Downs. Their first daughter, Christie, was born in October 1974. Their second daughter, Cheryl, was born in January 1976. The marriage was unhappy and they separated several times.

By 1978 the family had moved to Mesa, Arizona. Diane became involved with another man and became pregnant again. Stephen Daniel, called Danny, was born in December 1979. That child was not Steve Downs’s. Diane and Steve divorced in 1980.

Diane worked for the United States Postal Service. She served as a letter carrier in Chandler, Arizona, and later worked routes in Cottage Grove, Oregon. She moved to Oregon to be near her parents.

People who knew her described her in different ways. Some called her headstrong and single-minded. Others said she was promiscuous and had many short relationships. Friends and neighbors later said she often put herself before her children. A neighbor recalled that Cheryl once said she was afraid of her mother.

Investigators later found diaries and letters from Diane. The writings showed strong feelings for a married man she had known in Arizona. One passage dated April 21 read in part, "I still think of you as my best friend and my only lover, and you keep telling me to go away and find somebody else." These letters show how much she wanted that relationship to continue.

Murder Story

On May 19, 1983, Elizabeth Diane Downs shot her three children in Lane County, Oregon. One child, Cheryl Lynn, age 7, died. Downs drove the children to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital and reported an attempted carjacking. She had a gunshot wound to her left forearm.

Investigators found evidence that did not match her story. There was no blood on the driver's side of the car and no gunpowder residue on the driver's panel. Witnesses said the car was driven slowly toward the hospital. Unfired casings found in her home had extractor markings that matched the casings from the scene. A surviving daughter, Christie, later identified her mother as the shooter once she could speak.

Diane Downs was arrested on February 28, 1984. She was charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of first-degree assault. She was convicted in June 1984 and sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. Psychiatrists diagnosed her with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders.

Downs escaped from prison on July 11, 1987, and was recaptured on July 21, 1987. She received a five-year sentence for the escape. The two surviving children were later adopted by Fred Hugi, a prosecutor on the case. A fourth child born after the trial was taken by the state and later adopted.

Elizabeth Diane Downs was born August 7, 1955. She has maintained her innocence and was denied parole in 2008 and again in 2010. Her case is the subject of Ann Rule's book Small Sacrifices and a 1989 television movie.