The Mother Who Blamed a Stranger - The Diane Downs Case
Today’s episode is one of the most disturbing cases we’ve covered, because at first it looks like a mother’s worst nightmare.
In 1983, Diane Downs drove up to a hospital in Oregon with her three children shot in the car.
She said a stranger had flagged her down on a dark rural road and opened fire on her family.
But Diane’s story didn’t make sense. Her behavior didn’t make sense.
And eventually, her surviving daughter would say the thing no one wanted to believe: there was no stranger.
Full description
In this episode of Tell Me The Crime, we cover the Diane Downs case: the hospital arrival, the stranger story, the relationship with Robert “Nick” Knickerbocker, the children she may have seen as obstacles, and the daughter who survived long enough to tell the truth.
In 1983, Diane Downs drove up to a hospital in Oregon with her three children shot in the car. She said a stranger had attacked them on a rural road.
But her story quickly started to fall apart.
This case raises disturbing questions about motherhood, obsession, performance, self-deception, and what happens when a person treats real people as obstacles in a fantasy life.
Listener discretion is advised. This episode discusses violence against children, child death, severe injury, and parental violence.
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