Where is Diane Downs Now? Is She Still in Jail or Not?
Where is Diane Downs Now: When Diane Downs’s three kids were sick in May of 1983, she took them to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, Oregon. Diane had been shot in the left arm and they were both covered in blood. The truth was much more nasty and frightening than what she told the police, which was that they had been the victims of an attempted carjacking. Diane killed her own children and then herself because she was in love with a married man who swore he didn’t want any more children.
The police would eventually track down Diane, and she would be found guilty of murder and attempted murder. Diane was expecting her fourth child during her trial; she gave birth to the baby two days after being sentenced to prison. The couple took the child to a hotel room and raised her as their own; they eventually gave her the name Rebecca or Becky. In light of recent developments, a new 20/20 episode offers an exclusive interview with Becky Babcock in which she discusses meeting her birth mother, Diane Downs, and the subsequent search for her.
Who is Diane Downs?
In May of 1983, American criminal Diane Elizabeth Downs murdered her daughter and attempted to kill her other two children near Springfield, Oregon. She told authorities that a man had tried to carjack her and shoot the kids after the crimes were committed. A jury found her guilty in 1984, and she was given a sentence of life in prison plus fifty years. In 1987, she managed a short escape before being caught again.
In December 2008, December of 2010, and again in 2020, Downs was denied parole.
Is Diane Downs Still In Jail?
The answer is yes; Downs is currently incarcerated in the Valley State Prison for Women. As a result of Christie’s testimony at her trial, she was found guilty of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and criminal assault. Downs was captured on July 21, 1987, in Salem, Oregon, after escaping from the Oregon Women’s Correctional Center on July 11. For her attempt to evade capture, she received an additional five-year prison term. She had two attempts at parole in 2008 and 2010 both of which were unsuccessful. By late 2020, Downs had applied for parole, but he was turned down.
Where is Diane Downs Now?
Diane Downs has been incarcerated at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, since August 1993, when she was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years for her crime. Diane has been transferred from the Clinton, New Jersey, maximum-security women’s prison where she was previously confined. Prison officials “said they wanted Downs placed in a more guarded facility in a state where she is less recognized because she is an escape danger who continuously craves publicity,” UPI reports, explaining why she wasn’t in Oregon, where the crimes took place.
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Diane was more than just a potential escapee; she actually escaped from the Oregon Women’s Correctional Center. Diane escaped from prison on July 11, 1987, by climbing over the perimeter fence when no one was looking. She jumped over the barbed wire at the top, using her clothing as protection, and made it to the house of Wayne Seifer, whose wife was also an inmate.
Diane Downs’s Crime
On May 19, 1983, Downs fatally shot her three children before bringing them to the emergency room at McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, Oregon. Christie, age 8, suffered a severe stroke, and Danny, age 3, was paralyzed from the waist down when they arrived. Cheryl, age 7, had already passed away.
An arrow had pierced Downs’ left forearm. She claimed a mysterious man carjacked her and her kids on a deserted road near Springfield and opened fire. Contrary to Downs’s testimony, the police found no blood spatter on the driver’s side of the car and no gunpowder residue on the driver’s door or the inside door panel.
Unlike Steve and Knickerbocker, Diane did not tell the police that she owned a gun, but she did tell them that it was a.22 caliber. The investigation uncovered that she bought the weapon in Arizona. While the murder weapon itself was nowhere to be found, unfired rounds bearing extractor marks were discovered in her home.
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Her claim that she rushed to the hospital after the event was contradicted by the fact that witnesses saw her automobile traveling at a snail’s pace of only 5-7 mph (8-11 km/h). Nine months after the incident, on February 28, 1984, Downs was arrested and charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and criminal assault based on this and other evidence.
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