189. Sins of the Mother: Diane Downs

It was Thursday, May 19, 1983, at 10:48 pm when a red Nissan pulled up to the McKenzie-Willamette Hospital emergency room drop-off door honking the horn repeatedly. A blonde woman hops out of the car, screaming for help, and points to her car. Someone shot my kids, she yelled. Nurses Rose Martin and Shelby Day ran to the car and were momentarily stunned, noticing all the blood inside the vehicle. Inside there were three small children, one in the front seat and two in the backseat. When confronted with what was in front of them, hospital staff were called to come into the ER to help assist. Dr. John Mackey, the physician in charge, called the hospital’s number one surgeon Dr. Fred Whilhite came back to work because it was bad, it was very bad. Chest wounds to children and the conditions were grave. The girl in the front seat seemed to be already gone, but the ER staff tried desperately to bring her back to life, but it was too late; she would be pronounced dead in the ER. While the two in the backseat were still alive, they were struggling to breathe. The staff continued to try to save the other two children. They were not sure if they could be saved; with the gunshot wounds, each had severe loss of blood. To try to make breathing better for them, each was given a tracheotomy. So far, what they were doing was working; the children were alive and seemed to be stable. What was more important was why would anyone do this and, more importantly, who?

Join Jen and Cam on this episode of Our True Crime Podcast entitled “Sins of the Mother: Diane Downs.”

Listener Discretion is courtesy of @octoberpodVHS

EP/Music is by @wetalkofdreams

Sources:
https://www.amazon.com/Small-Sacrifices-Story-Passion-Murder/dp/0451166604
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsMXTsU4eqE (Oprah Episode)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QJ0roe2xSM (20/20)
https://www.insideedition.com/true-story-diane-downs-how-mother-shot-her-3-kids-her-lover-51520
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/downs/index_1.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/06/12/the-mother-38/13b24fdf-7294-4623-ad2d-0665435ceed4/
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/11/09/diane-downs-latest-parole-hearing-is-next-month/
https://web.archive.org/web/20081206005041/http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_120208_news_diane_downs_parole.2513dd69.html
https://murderpedia.org/female.D/d/downs-diane.htm
http://www.dianedowns.com/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/man-who-hid-convicted-child-killer-diane-downs-after-her-prison-escape-regrets-decision-i-shouldve-turned-her-in
https://www.distractify.com/p/diane-downs-now
https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/04/notorious-convicted-child-killer-diane-downs-believes-coronavirus-swept-through-her-prison-compares-it-to-classic-gothic-horror-story.html
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/diane-downs-52772.php