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Killer Psyche

The Woman Who Shot her Own Children: Diane Downs, Part I

Killer Psyche

Wondery | Treefort Media

True Crime, Exhibit C

4.64.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Retired FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong dives into the case of Diane Downs, a troubled woman who longed for motherhood, yet murdered her daughter and shot her other two children.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to Killer Siky, add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.

0:09.0

A listener note, this episode contains adult content and is not suitable for everyone. Please be advised.

0:18.0

The Night of May 19, 1983 was a quiet one for the doctors and nurses at the McKenzie

0:32.0

Willemette Emergency Room in Springfield, Oregon. But all that changed a few minutes before 10.30pm

0:41.0

when a car horn lasted outside, summoning the nurses in the ER. A woman was standing by the car.

0:50.0

She calmly told them that someone had shot her children and then she begged the nurses to help them.

1:00.0

But when they opened the car door, the nurses realized that it was not going to be that simple.

1:07.0

The nurses lifted a little girl out of the car and rushed her into the emergency room.

1:14.0

Calling out a code to alert the hospital staff of an incoming emergency, nurses and doctors returned outside

1:22.0

where they found two more children, a boy, gasping for error in the back seat, and another young girl who was face down and appeared not to be breathing.

1:35.0

As doctors and nurses worked furiously to save the children, the mother looked on blankly.

1:43.0

She was not crying and she did not appear nervous.

1:50.0

Those who were there that night believed her flatness could have been from shock.

1:56.0

And if we did not know the ending of this tale, we might just believe that.

2:03.0

The mother, Diane Downs, told how she and the children had been the victims of a man trying to steal her car.

2:12.0

But Diane was no victim.

2:20.0

Hello, I'm Hannah.

2:21.0

And I'm Sirete.

2:22.0

And we are the hosts of a Redhanded, a weekly true crime podcast.

2:25.0

Every week on Redhanded, we get stuck into the most talked about cases.

2:29.0

From the Idaho student killings, the Delphi murders and our recent rundown of the Murdoch saga.

2:34.0

Last year, we also started a second weekly show, Shorthand, which is just an excuse for us to talk about anything we find interesting because it's our show and we can do what we like.

...

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