The Diane Downs Case

THE DIANE DOWNS CASE
A Mother, Three Children, a Mysterious Stranger, and a Crime That Refused to End
She said a stranger shot her children. Her surviving daughter told a different story.
On a quiet Oregon road in May 1983, Diane Downs drove her three children toward a hospital after they had been shot.
One child would not survive.
Two others would.
And the mother's story about a mysterious, bushy-haired stranger would soon come under intense scrutiny.
What followed became one of the most controversial and unforgettable true crime cases in America.
Was Diane Downs the victim of a random attack-or was the story of the stranger a carefully constructed explanation for something far more disturbing?
The Diane Downs Case takes you inside the investigation, the evidence, the courtroom, and the decades of consequences that followed.
Inside, you'll discover:

• The night of the shooting and the desperate drive to the hospital.
• The mysterious stranger story that Diane repeated from the beginning.
• The evidence that raised investigators' doubts and changed the direction of the case.
• Christie's testimony, as the surviving child became a crucial witness against her mother.
• The prosecution's motive theory and the relationships that became central to the trial.
• The 1984 courtroom battle that ended with Diane Downs's conviction.
• The prison escape that briefly put the convicted murderer back on the outside.
• What happened to Christie and Danny after the trial and their adoption by prosecutor Fred Hugi and his wife.
• The parole hearings decades later, when Diane continued to maintain her innocence.