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Speaker 1: At first it was what does she look like? And

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Speaker 1: then it was more of where is she that that

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Speaker 1: person not love me, you know, and so that was

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Speaker 1: kind of where that was coming from, was the why.

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Speaker 1: So when I started pestering my mom about, you know,

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Speaker 1: how she looked, and then where she was and you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of why she didn't want me, And that's how

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Speaker 1: that opened up to she's done some bad things. She's

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Speaker 1: in jail. I can't tell you more that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: She's like, when you're older, i'll tell you more. A

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Speaker 1: few years later, when I was about eleven, I asked

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Speaker 1: one last time, and my mom told me that I'll

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Speaker 1: never be old enough to know and that it's something

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Speaker 1: that I shouldn't have to deal with, so she was

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Speaker 1: never going to tell me. So I was eleven and

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Speaker 1: still needed a babysitter. It was the same babysitter that

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Speaker 1: I'd had since I was very very young. I can

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Speaker 1: remember the moment like it was yesterday, which is so weird.

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Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly what was said, but I remember

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Speaker 1: standing at the top of the stairs. I was in

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Speaker 1: the doorway of my bed room, she was in the hallway,

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Speaker 1: and I just thought, I'm going to ask, I'm going

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Speaker 1: to find the answers that I want. I'm just not

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Speaker 1: going to stop until I know who my biological mother was.

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Speaker 1: And so I talked to the babysitter and made it

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Speaker 1: sound like I already knew. She had said, oh, so

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Speaker 1: you know Diane Downs. And that was at that point

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Speaker 1: how I had a name.

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Speaker 2: Do you want the trees? I'm willing to tell you.

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Speaker 1: Silly, this will.

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Speaker 2: Work, not wanting to harm me.

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Speaker 3: Well, we lost control.

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Speaker 2: Hello, listeners. My name is Melissa Moore. When I was

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Speaker 2: a teenager, my father was a rush. His name is

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Speaker 2: Keith Hunter Jesperson, a serial murderer also known as a

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Speaker 2: Happy Face killer. The revelation came during an already challenging

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Speaker 2: time in my life, and for years I buried the

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Speaker 2: truth and didn't speak about it publicly. And then one

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Speaker 2: day I gained the courage to confront the past. I

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Speaker 2: had a profound healing experience when I met my father's

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Speaker 2: last victim, Julie Winningham's son Don Finley, which you followed

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Speaker 2: along with me on the Happy Face Podcast. In that meeting,

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Speaker 2: Don gave me his support, which gave me the confidence

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Speaker 2: to continue on my mission to help other relatives and

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Speaker 2: murderers find meaning and step out of the shadow of

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Speaker 2: their parents' crimes. I met Becky Babcock ten years ago

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Speaker 2: while filming a documentary. Becky's mother is Diane Downs, a

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Speaker 2: woman who sits in jail for the murder of one

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Speaker 2: of her daughters and the attempted murderer of another son

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Speaker 2: and daughter during a shooting of the night of May nineteenth,

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three. For years, Becky has wrestled with the

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Speaker 2: idea of her own identity, and Becky has struggled not

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Speaker 2: only with the idea of who her mother is, but

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Speaker 2: also who her father could be. In this series, i'llccompany

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Speaker 2: Becky as she confronts the effect her biological mother has

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Speaker 2: had on her life and choices, as well as seek

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Speaker 2: out the identity of her biological father, who may or

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Speaker 2: may not even know she exists.

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Speaker 4: My name is Dana Tims. I was a longtime writer

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Speaker 4: for the Oregonian newspaper and I still continue to write

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Speaker 4: for Oregon Publications.

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Speaker 2: Dana was a new reporter, just starting his career in

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Speaker 2: journalism and Cottage Grove not much had ever made national news.

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Speaker 4: The Timber Wars are going on back then, so battles

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Speaker 4: over old growth. There were protesters up in the Wilamta

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Speaker 4: National Forest doing sit ins and trees, a lot of

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Speaker 4: police coverage, a lot of discovernment coverage, also city council

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Speaker 4: meetings and whatever would come along.

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Speaker 2: And then one day came the Diane Downs case.

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Speaker 4: I remember that that very well. It was on my birthday,

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Speaker 4: as a matter of fact, and I had spent the

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Speaker 4: previous twenty four hours following a small circus. I went

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Speaker 4: to The Oregonian's main headquarters and I was just kind

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Speaker 4: of debriefing my editors on the circus story, and somebody

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Speaker 4: then said, hey, there was a shooting in Springfield last night.

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Speaker 4: I said, yeah, apparently Moham was shot and her kids

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Speaker 4: were shot. One of them might be dead. So I

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Speaker 4: traveled back to Jene that day and got involved in

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Speaker 4: the story. Later in that.

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Speaker 2: Afternoon, Dana was covered new ground. At the time, this

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Speaker 2: was a very unusual type of story. These sorts of

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Speaker 2: things didn't happen in Springfield.

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Speaker 4: Clearly, this was such an out of the ordinary circumstance,

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Speaker 4: it truly just did not happen. The report was that

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Speaker 4: one child was dead and police were still looking for

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Speaker 4: an assailant. Clearly, you couldn't have any more of a

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Speaker 4: hot button situation than that going on. The entire area

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Speaker 4: was very freaked out.

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Speaker 2: During the first twenty four hours after the shooting, Dana

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Speaker 2: and other reporters had few sources for information. This was

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three, before the widespread existence of global Internet

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Speaker 2: and quick access to information.

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Speaker 4: We were really relying on police agencies to be giving

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Speaker 4: us information and updates. The kids were at Springfield or

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Speaker 4: mackendi Willlammett Hospital in Springfield. Clearly pressed did not have

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Speaker 4: access to those places. As important as the story was,

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Speaker 4: it was a little tough sledding to really get a

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Speaker 4: toe hold to figure out how to go ahead and

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Speaker 4: report this except for what we were getting from the police,

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Speaker 4: which is really not much. For instance, we had learned

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Speaker 4: that the mom had been shot also, so we were

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Speaker 4: trying to figure out what are her injuries. It would

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Speaker 4: still take a few more days before anyone got to

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Speaker 4: really even have a chance at interviewing the mom, who

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Speaker 4: we found out was Diane Downes.

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Speaker 2: Dana and his colleagues slowly began to piece together information

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Speaker 2: about the case. At the time, it was believed that

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Speaker 2: whomever shot Diane and her kids was still out there.

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Speaker 4: It was Elizabeth Diane Downes. That was the order that

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Speaker 4: we were referring to her, And it wasn't just Diane yet,

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Speaker 4: But we didn't know much. We knew that she was

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Speaker 4: a letter carrier, had been working in Cottage Grove. The

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Speaker 4: collective media effort had uncovered that much. People were then

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Speaker 4: going down to the Cottage Grove Post Office and trying

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Speaker 4: to do interviews. They weren't very cooperative. I think they

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Speaker 4: were all stunned what was going on. Meantime, this notion

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Speaker 4: that there was an assailant on the loose had people

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Speaker 4: very rattled in nerved in Springfield.

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Speaker 2: In particular, especially somebody who can shoot children, because that's

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Speaker 2: a different type of predator.

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Speaker 4: That just didn't happen kids getting shot.

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Speaker 2: The primary source of information turned out to be Diane herself,

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Speaker 2: who seemed more than eager to talk to the press.

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Speaker 4: I first saw Diane when I walked into a house

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Speaker 4: where she was living with her parents Springfield. She had

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Speaker 4: called a news conference, so there were TV people there.

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Speaker 4: Liked she talked at length and would address any question,

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Speaker 4: didn't seem to shy away from anything, smiled and laughed

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Speaker 4: a lot and even the first time I saw her,

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Speaker 4: it struck me that there are inappropriate responses. Diane, from

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Speaker 4: the very first time that I sat in that news

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Speaker 4: conference struck me as somebody who just didn't respond the

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Speaker 4: way that you might think somebody would. It raised questions

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Speaker 4: right off the bat, like what's going on with her?

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Speaker 2: Diane presented herself like someone very ready to be interviewed publicly.

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Speaker 4: She was probably five five five six, longish hair, nicely styled.

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Speaker 4: She cared about her appearance. I recall her wearing a

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Speaker 4: dress and looking nice and confident and ready to take

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Speaker 4: all the questions.

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Speaker 2: Most of the reporters wanted to know what happened, so

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Speaker 2: Diane walked them through her account of the events.

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Speaker 4: That night, she was driving late at night with her kids.

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Speaker 4: There was a school night, so that seemed a little

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Speaker 4: bit odd. She said, they liked to sight see and again,

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Speaker 4: that area is very pretty, but it was about ten

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Speaker 4: o'clock at night, so you wouldn't be seeing anything except

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Speaker 4: your car lights. She claimed that a guy was in

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Speaker 4: the road flagged her down, and she stopped immediately and said,

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Speaker 4: what's wrong. And again, my first reaction, I think my

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Speaker 4: colleagues in the press have the same feeling of there's

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Speaker 4: no way on earth that I would stop in that

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Speaker 4: situation if I had young kids in the car, dark,

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Speaker 4: late at night, rural outpost area.

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Speaker 2: Diane painted herself as someone who was just being a

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Speaker 2: good person by stopping to help someone.

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Speaker 4: She pulled off the road, turn off the car, how

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Speaker 4: the keys in her hand, and gets out of the

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Speaker 4: car to go talk to this guy. It just seemed

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Speaker 4: like an unnatural thing to do. She claimed that when

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Speaker 4: she got out of her car, this guy said, I

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Speaker 4: want your car, and she said, and she's consistent as

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Speaker 4: far as I know to this day in saying, you

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Speaker 4: got to be kidding me. In her telling, this guy

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Speaker 4: wants the car, So what does he do. It's dark out,

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Speaker 4: headlights are shining forward. He walks up to the car,

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Speaker 4: leans in and fires five to seven bullets at sleeping kids.

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Speaker 4: We were just kind of running through our mind saying, well,

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Speaker 4: how would he even be able to see that there

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Speaker 4: was anyone in the car.

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Speaker 2: The stories began to release in the media about Diane

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Speaker 2: and the shooting, with Diane herself insisting that the perpetrator

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Speaker 2: she described was still at large.

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Speaker 4: There had been a sketch released by the police that

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Speaker 4: Diane had helped prepare of a guy with long hair

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Speaker 4: and sort of angry looking eyes. Right off the bat.

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Speaker 4: People were kind of smirking, thinking, Oh, it's the old,

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Speaker 4: bushy haired stranger, which is kind of the oldest trope

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Speaker 4: and law enforcement.

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Speaker 2: Despite this sketch and description, there were very few real

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Speaker 2: leads in the case.

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Speaker 4: There weren't solid leads. I know that the police got

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Speaker 4: a lot of contacts. They were tracking these leaves down

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Speaker 4: going and talked to the people who phoned them in,

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Speaker 4: but as far as we could tell, that never really

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Speaker 4: got a solid start. There was nothing that felt like

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Speaker 4: a breakthrough in terms of finding somebody else who might

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Speaker 4: be involved in this.

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Speaker 2: The press began to realize that the police saw Diane

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Speaker 2: as a potential aspect from the beginning parts of what

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Speaker 2: she said. Didn't it make sense.

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Speaker 4: I think that the press got the impression after about

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Speaker 4: four or five days that the police were the ones

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Speaker 4: who were perhaps looking at Diane. There hadn't been any

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Speaker 4: other suspects.

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Speaker 2: All eyes were on Diane at the funeral.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, all eyes were on Diane. For anyone who supported her,

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Speaker 4: They were thinking, this, poor griving mom, how is she

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Speaker 4: dealing with this, and for those who were skeptical, and

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Speaker 4: maybe by the time the funeral happened, which was not

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Speaker 4: that long after the shooting, there may not still have

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Speaker 4: been widespread skepticism. So I think people were still feeling

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Speaker 4: sorry for this mom and wondering how they would feel

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Speaker 4: in that situation if they had to go through it.

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Speaker 2: More details about the children were released, and the details

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Speaker 2: of their injuries were horrifying.

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Speaker 4: We learned in subsequent press conferences with medical personnel and

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Speaker 4: the police that the kids had been basically shot in

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Speaker 4: the chest, not in the head, but in the chest.

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Speaker 4: Close groupings of shots, it appeared to be that the

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Speaker 4: gun was just in which is from their bodies when

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Speaker 4: the figure was pulled. They were just catastrophic injuries. And

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Speaker 4: it's really amazing that all three didn't die that night.

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Speaker 4: One sure, as far as we know, was dead. On

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Speaker 4: arrival at Mackenzie Alama Hospital. The doctors are dispatched out

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Speaker 4: there in the nurses and horrified to find one, two,

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Speaker 4: and then a third kid and they had been shot

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Speaker 4: in the chest. I remember dying at one of her

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Speaker 4: news conferences saying, if I had shot my kids, would

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Speaker 4: I had not have done a good job of it.

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Speaker 4: I remember thinking not too long after that you did

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Speaker 4: a tremendous job. If that was what you wanted to do,

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Speaker 4: you did a great job.

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Speaker 2: Finally, Diane was arrested for the murder.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a big deal. It was a huge

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Speaker 4: deal Diane's been arrested. I think among most people that

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Speaker 4: there was just no good will left for Diane. With

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Speaker 4: no other suspect ever having come close to being charged

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Speaker 4: or arrested or identified, she was in the spotlight. She

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Speaker 4: was the one.

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Speaker 2: After the arrest, Diane was no longer the well composed

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Speaker 2: woman she had been at the time of the murderer.

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Speaker 4: She was looking tired, bedraggled. The emotional strain I think

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Speaker 4: had taken a toll on her. She was still kind

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Speaker 4: of prone to smirk and smile a lot, whether she

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Speaker 4: should be or not, but she was I think, kind

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Speaker 4: of beaten down by a circumstance when they finally took

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Speaker 4: her into custody.

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Speaker 2: It turns out there was a reason she looked that way.

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Speaker 4: Diane had gotten pregnant again during her first appearance in court,

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Speaker 4: and I was there for that. I don't think anyone

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Speaker 4: in the press knew that yet. If it was anyway,

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Speaker 4: somebody was going to try to take control of the situation,

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Speaker 4: That's what they would do. I was a real Diane

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Speaker 4: skeptic from early on, not that I would know whether

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Speaker 4: she was having an ongoing serious relationship with anyone. I

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Speaker 4: wasn't aware that she did. But when they said she's pregnant,

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Speaker 4: I just thought, of course she is.

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Speaker 2: Eric Mason was a local reporter who followed the Diane

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Speaker 2: Downs case alongside the Grand Dam true crime writer and rule.

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Speaker 2: During the trial, they attended daily sitting in the press section,

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Speaker 2: watching every milestone moment happen in real time. After the

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Speaker 2: end of the trial, they had stayed in communication and

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Speaker 2: often shared how they wondered, whatever happened to that baby

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Speaker 2: that Diane given birth to. Did that baby grow up

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Speaker 2: to know her mom was infamous? Was the child doing well?

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Speaker 2: What became of her life.

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Speaker 3: I'm just starting work as a private I doing criminal

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Speaker 3: defense cases. I go to the Ben Film Festival, and

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Speaker 3: after the Ben Film Festival, there's a weekly discussion about

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Speaker 3: scriptwriting over there, and I meet up with somebody and

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Speaker 3: we were talking about my life life as a reporter,

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Speaker 3: and she goes, oh, I remember you at the CBS

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Speaker 3: station in Portland, and so what are you doing now?

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Speaker 3: And I said, well, I'm working on this script. And

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Speaker 3: so each week we would come with our scripts. And

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Speaker 3: after one of the meetings over there in ben she said,

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Speaker 3: you know, I think I've met the long lost child

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Speaker 3: of Diane Downs. And I said, really, how do you know? Well,

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Speaker 3: she's connected to this church I go to, and we've

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Speaker 3: been out to pizza and she's had several conversations with me,

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Speaker 3: and I thought, oh, man, I'd love to meet her.

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Speaker 3: I mean, and at that point I didn't even know

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Speaker 3: what I would do with it. I had no idea

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Speaker 3: where to go with that kind of a story since

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Speaker 3: I no longer worked in television. When I met her,

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Speaker 3: It's almost like I'm across the table from Diane Downs.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's a different age, it's a different demeanor,

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Speaker 3: but there are some similarities that are clearly there. And

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Speaker 3: there is a way that Diane Downs would toss her

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Speaker 3: head back with her hair and Becky would do the

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Speaker 3: same thing. And I'm not sure that Becky really even

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Speaker 3: watched a lot of video of Diane, and the only

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Speaker 3: portrayal of Diane was Farah Fawcett, but Farah Fawcet got

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Speaker 3: some of the mannerisms right.

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Speaker 2: Eric is referring to the nineteen eighty nine made for

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Speaker 2: TV movie Small Sacrifices, in which Farah Fawcett played the

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Speaker 2: part of Diane Downs.

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Speaker 3: And so I wondered if this was sort of a

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Speaker 3: genetic tick. So I just wanted to make sure that

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Speaker 3: it was done with as much well as little glare

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Speaker 3: and fascination, but more understanding of what it's like to

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Speaker 3: wake up one day and to watch a movie on

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Speaker 3: television and say that's my life being played out, and

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Speaker 3: I would like to say something about it. I would like,

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Speaker 3: for the first time to be able to say something

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Speaker 3: about my life. And I think that's the sense I

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Speaker 3: got from her. And so when I called and Rule

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Speaker 3: in Seattle.

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Speaker 5: I just said, you know, I think I've met Diane

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Speaker 5: Down's child that once you gave birth through during the trial,

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Speaker 5: because oh, I would definitely get a DNA test, because

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Speaker 5: I've been approached by all kinds of people who say

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Speaker 5: they were the.

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Speaker 3: Baby of Diane Downs. And I said, oh man, this

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Speaker 3: is the right person. I don't need a DNA test.

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Speaker 3: I can see it. I've talked to her.

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Speaker 2: Up until this point, Becky had really kept her existence

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Speaker 2: pretty quiet as far as the media goes. Becky's family

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Speaker 2: kept her bile mother's identity a secret, as I feared

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Speaker 2: it would be harmful information to a child who was

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Speaker 2: developing her own identity. They vowed to give her the

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Speaker 2: best life, and part of that promise was to protect

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Speaker 2: her from the media circus they had previously witnessed around

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Speaker 2: her birth.

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Speaker 3: I think people, the people who were from the state

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Speaker 3: of Oregon that set everything up, realized someone was going

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Speaker 3: to have to have some means to be able to

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Speaker 3: find a place that was off the beaten track and

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Speaker 3: that she could hide kind of in plain sight, and

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Speaker 3: that it was up to her then to decide what

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Speaker 3: to do.

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Speaker 2: Becky's adoptive parents arrived during Diane's trial. They had done

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Speaker 2: the research themselves and set it up in a very

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Speaker 2: short amount of time.

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Speaker 3: I think there was this idea that they went on

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Speaker 3: a waiting list of parents to get high risk kids.

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Speaker 3: They were also expressing interest knowing that that story was

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Speaker 3: going on. Probably not that many want a high profile

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Speaker 3: adoption of somebody who is going to come from a

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Speaker 3: very difficult situation and then have a lifetime of real

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Speaker 3: big challenges probably on their hands. Not many people would

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Speaker 3: probably take that on. And here are these really well

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Speaker 3: to do, highly intelligent, successful folks in the pharmaceutical world

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Speaker 3: who are willing to do it. And so I think

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Speaker 3: sort of like both sides understood what the deal was.

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Speaker 2: The Babcocks provided well for Becky and her sister, who

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Speaker 2: was also adopted. They lived on a large piece of

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Speaker 2: land in Bend, organ in idyllic surroundings. It was better

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Speaker 2: than anything her biological mother could have possibly provided. For

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Speaker 2: the first decade of her life, everything was perfect. Her

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Speaker 2: parents did their best to keep her from the truth.

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Speaker 2: And then one day, after trying multiple times to get

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Speaker 2: the information from her mom and being denied, being told

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Speaker 2: she would never be old enough to know, and interaction

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Speaker 2: and with the family babysitter changed everything. Next time on

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Speaker 2: Happy Face presents two face.

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Speaker 1: The fact that now there was this third person, Now

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Speaker 1: there was reality of who my biological mother was. I

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Speaker 1: think it had been three years of asking that. It

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Speaker 1: just I didn't think I'd ever know, and at that

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Speaker 1: point I wish I hadn't known. It was really scary.

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Speaker 2: Our executive producer is Ben Bolan. Melissa More is our

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Speaker 2: co executive producer. Maya Cole is our primary producer and

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Speaker 2: Paul Dekant is our supervising producer. Our story editor is

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Speaker 2: Matt Riddle. Research assistance from Sam Teagarden. Featured music by

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Speaker 2: dream Tent Happy Face Presents to Face is a production

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Speaker 2: of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 4: A schools pages in Games

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Speaker 3: Schools