Eight-year-old Christie and three-year-old Danny were critically wounded. Seven-year-old Cheryl Lynn Downs had died before the family reached the hospital. Downs also had a gunshot wound to her left forearm.
Downs told hospital staff and police that an unknown man had stopped her on a rural road, demanded her car, and opened fire. Investigators initially worked from that report, but inconsistencies emerged as they examined the vehicle, reconstructed the journey to the hospital, and compared her statements with the forensic evidence.
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| Diane and Steve Downs with Christie, Cheryl, and Danny in a family photograph taken before the 1983 shooting. |
The Night on Old Mohawk Road
According to Downs, she had been driving with her children on Old Mohawk Road near Springfield when a man with shaggy hair flagged her down and demanded the car. She said she pretended to throw her keys away, after which the man shot the children and wounded her before fleeing.
Investigators examined the car, the distribution of blood, possible firearm residue, and the timeline. Witnesses reported seeing Downs drive toward the hospital at approximately five to seven miles per hour, a detail prosecutors later contrasted with her claim that she had rushed there after the attack.
Some doctors and hospital employees also described her demeanor as unexpectedly controlled. Reactions to trauma vary greatly, so demeanor could not establish guilt. It became relevant only when investigators considered it alongside the contradictions they believed they had found in her account.
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| The front passenger seat of Diane Downs’ vehicle, photographed as part of the investigation into the shooting. |
The Children: Cheryl, Christie, and Danny
Cheryl Lynn Downs was seven years old when she was killed. Christie, eight, survived after suffering severe injuries and a stroke that affected her speech. Danny, three, survived but was paralyzed from the waist down.
Because of the effects of the stroke, Christie was initially unable to give investigators a complete account. Her recovery required extensive medical care and therapy. As her ability to communicate returned, she was able to describe what she remembered from the car.
Christie ultimately identified her mother as the person who had shot her and her siblings. Her testimony became central to the prosecution’s case.
The Evidence That Contradicted the Account
Downs described a random roadside attacker, but investigators said important parts of the vehicle did not support that sequence of events. They reported finding neither the blood distribution nor the firearm residue they expected on the driver’s side if the shooting had occurred as she described.
The weapon was never recovered. Investigators learned that Downs had owned a .22 caliber handgun and found unfired cartridges in her home. At trial, prosecutors presented testimony connecting markings on that ammunition to the type of firearm used in the shooting.
Investigators also documented changes in her descriptions of the encounter. Taken together, the forensic findings, the slow drive toward the hospital, and the inconsistencies led them away from the theory of an unknown attacker.
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| The composite sketch produced from Diane Downs’ description of the unknown man she said had attacked the family on Old Mohawk Road. |
The Affair and the Alleged Motive
Prosecutors argued that the motive was connected to Downs’ relationship with Robert “Nick” Knickerbocker, a married former coworker from Arizona. Knickerbocker had made clear that he did not want to take on a parental role. The state’s theory was that Downs came to see her children as obstacles to the relationship she wanted.
That theory became an important part of the trial, but the relationship alone did not prove the charges. Prosecutors combined evidence about the alleged motive with Christie’s testimony, the condition of the car, the ammunition evidence, and the contradictions in Downs’ statements.
Downs was pregnant during the trial, a fact that attracted considerable media attention even though it did not establish what had happened on Old Mohawk Road. The child was born after the verdict and later adopted.
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| Diane Downs, visibly pregnant and in custody during the 1984 court proceedings. |
The Interview and Public Perception
Television footage recorded before Downs’ conviction had a lasting effect on how the public viewed the case. In an interview with Oregon journalist Anne Jaeger, Downs described the night of the shooting while continuing to maintain that an unknown man was responsible.
A brief change in her expression while discussing Christie was repeatedly shown and interpreted by many viewers as inappropriate. Such images can be powerful, but an expression cannot reveal who committed a crime and should not be treated as forensic evidence.
The interview did not determine the verdict. The jury considered testimony and physical evidence presented in court. The footage did, however, show how strongly public opinion can be influenced by expectations about how a mother should speak or display grief.
In this archival television interview with journalist Anne Jaeger, Diane Downs described the night her children were shot and maintained that an unknown man was responsible.
Christie’s Testimony
After months of treatment and therapy, Christie Downs was able to tell investigators what she remembered. She identified her mother as the shooter and later repeated that account in court.
Her testimony carried exceptional weight because she had been inside the car and had survived the attack. It provided a direct account that prosecutors used alongside the forensic evidence and the inconsistencies in Downs’ statements.
It was also the testimony of an injured child asked to recount violence committed against her family. Any account of the trial should recognize both its legal importance and the burden placed on Christie.
The Trial and Conviction
Downs was arrested on February 28, 1984, approximately nine months after the shooting. She was charged with Cheryl’s murder and with offenses connected to the shootings of Christie and Danny.
At trial, prosecutors presented Christie’s testimony, the physical evidence from the car, the ammunition findings, Downs’ changing statements, and the state’s theory of motive. The defense challenged the prosecution’s interpretation and maintained that Downs was not responsible.
On June 17, 1984, Downs was convicted of murdering Cheryl and of charges arising from the attempted killings of Christie and Danny. She received a life sentence plus an additional fifty years, with much of the punishment ordered to run consecutively.
The Child Born After the Conviction
On June 27, 1984, shortly after the verdict, Downs gave birth to another daughter, whom she named Amy Elizabeth. The child was placed for adoption and renamed Rebecca Babcock.
As an adult, Rebecca spoke publicly about learning the identity of her biological mother and the effect that discovery had on her life. Her experience belongs to the wider human aftermath of the case, separate from the question of Downs’ criminal responsibility.
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| Rebecca Babcock, the daughter Diane Downs gave birth to after her conviction. She was later adopted and publicly spoke about discovering the identity of her biological mother. |
The Prison Escape
On July 11, 1987, Downs escaped from the Oregon Women’s Correctional Center. She remained at large for ten days before being captured on July 21. The escape caused particular concern for the safety of Christie and Danny.
Christie and Danny had been adopted in 1986 by prosecutor Fred Hugi and his wife, Joanne. After Downs was recaptured, she was transferred out of Oregon. Christie and Danny have since chosen to keep most details of their adult lives private.
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| Diane Downs discussing her conviction during an interview at the Correctional Institution for Women in Clinton, New Jersey, on March 12, 1989. |
Where Is Diane Downs Now?
As of July 2026, Downs remains incarcerated in California and continues to maintain her innocence. Her conviction and sentences remain in force.
In December 2025, the Oregon Board of Parole again denied her release after a hearing held earlier that year. The board concluded that she continued to present a danger to others. She will not be eligible to request another parole hearing until 2031.
Why the Diane Downs Case Still Matters
The case remains significant because the violence came from within a family and because one surviving child was required to testify against her own mother.
Downs’ television appearances became part of its public memory, but the conviction did not rest on a single interview or an interpretation of her emotions. It followed a trial in which the jury considered Christie’s account, the evidence from the vehicle, the ammunition findings, and contradictions in Downs’ statements.
Cheryl lost her life at seven years old. Christie and Danny survived with injuries that changed their lives. Their experiences should remain at the center of the story, ahead of the notoriety surrounding the person convicted of attacking them.
Sources: ABC News / 20/20, My Mother’s Sins; KATU News, Anne Jaeger coverage of the Diane Downs case; Good Morning America, The Diane Downs Story; The Washington Post, Former Surrogate Mother Sentenced for Murder; Justia Federal Court Records, Elizabeth Diane Downs v. Sonia Hoyt; People, Where Are Diane Downs’ Surviving Children Now?; Glamour, Rebecca Babcock’s account of discovering her biological mother was Diane Downs; Oregon parole board and KPTV reporting on later parole proceedings.