WEBVTT - The Night of May 19th, 1983 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.159 Well, they were just catastrophic injuries, and it's really amazing 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.880 that all three didn't die that night. One sure, as 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.120 far as we know, was dead on arrival at Mackenzue 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:13.920 Alamat Hospital. The staff there was clearly not expecting this. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:18.200 They hear a car honking, and somebody runs out and 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.880 there's a mom or a woman standing by a car saying, 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.560 somebody shot my kids. So the doctors are dispatched out 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.840 there and the nurses and sort of horrified to find one, two, 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.560 and then a third kid, and they had been shot 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.600 in the chest. And the doctor would tell you that 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.839 there's just a few more catastrophic injuries essocially for a 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.920 young child than two have gunshots to the chest. And 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:47.200 I remember dying at one of her news conferences saying, 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.400 if I had shot my kids, would I had not 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.200 have done a good job of it. And I remember 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.240 thinking not too long after that, you did a tremendous job. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.040 If that was what you wanted to do, you did 0:00:59.080 --> 0:00:59.720 a great job. 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.560 The story of the crime begins on the evening of 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:21.479 May nineteenth, nineteen eighty three. Diane Downs and her three 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.440 children are riding along Mohawk Road. Dana Tims was a 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.600 reporter for The Orgonian at the time a correspondent for 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.120 Eugene County. He describes the area around the shooting. 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.360 It's a really pretty area. It's kind of a gateway 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.920 to a couple of different river valleys. The Mackenzie River 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.520 is really the defining water feature that comes down through there, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:43.360 with a couple of other branches going off of it. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:48.880 A lot of farming activity and ranches up there, some cattle, 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.000 a lot of grass, very green, very emerald. It's very pretty. 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.120 There were probably homes spaced out or maybe every half 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.200 mile or so, sort of the way that you would 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.960 have anticipated homesteaders in fifty years before that, everyone having 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:03.840 enough land to do what if they wanted to do. 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:06.840 Diane was on the road at ten pm on a 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.320 school night with her three young children. According to Diane, 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.480 her kids liked to sight see and they would just 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.520 drive for enjoyment. She stands by her story even now 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.320 after several decades in jail. She claims she saw a 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:23.080 stranger in the road who flagged her down and she 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:23.919 stopped to help. 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.160 She was portraying herself as a good Samaritan. But even 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.560 if you're going to do that, my sense would be 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.480 maybe you just stay on the road and you roll 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.080 your windo down a little bit and say what's the problem. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:40.680 But she pulled off the road, turned off the car, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.480 how the keys in her head, and gets out of 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.320 the car to go talk to this guy. It just 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.800 seemed like an a natural thing to do. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.359 According to Diane. The man then attacked her and her 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.680 family in an attempt to steal a car, a quote 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.600 unquote carjacking gone wrong. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.080 In her telling, this guy wants the car, so what 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.280 does he do. It's dark out, the headlights are shining forward. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:11.840 He walks up to the car, leans in and fires 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.959 five to seven bullets at sleeping kids. 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.360 The man then apparently fled, and Diane, having sustained a 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.240 gunshot wound to her forearm, wrapped the arm in a 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.880 towel and drove to a nearby hospital. But according to 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.280 a witness, she wasn't exactly driving with a sense of urgency. 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.520 One thing that has struck me then has always struck me. 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.400 It was the testimony of somebody who was driving behind 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.200 her on Old Mohawk Road as she was heading toward 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.080 the hospital, and she claimed she had driven as fast 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.960 as she could and yet her arm was wrapped in 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.240 a towel, in a perfectly folded towel that had been 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.160 placed obviously in her car for some reason. So she 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.400 was as a clinical narcissist, which is one of the 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:03.320 three personality disorders that was diagnosed for her. The driver 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.440 of that car said, we were going five to seven 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.400 miles an hour. I would have passed, but there was 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.600 a double yellow line and it was just pretty dark 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.680 and curvy out there, so he didn't feel safe doing that. 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.960 But identified the Arizona plate that hadn't been changed yet, 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:18.560 and again, you know that's not enough on his own, 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.240 but it was just a very very telling point to 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.320 me in terms of just the logic of the situation. 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:25.800 It's not that far from where the shooting occurred to 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.400 Mackenzie Lambat hospital where she ended up with the kids. 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.320 What is the distance from the location of the shooting 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:32.040 to the hospital. 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.800 Oh, I'm sure it's less than two miles, and a 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.520 lot of that's rural, so you can you can move 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:38.960 along at a pretty good clip if you need to 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:39.360 get there. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.359 Diane's brother, James maintains that Diane had an excuse for 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.240 driving slowly and that she still made it as quickly 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.839 as possible. When I spoke to him about it, he 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.160 was quick to point out that the witness who saw 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.600 her driving wasn't behind her the entire way to the hospital. 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.400 So one question I did have is why was she 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.279 driving her vehicle very slowly on the way to the 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:06.960 hospital after the incident? Real hard to describe that one. Basically, 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.880 I think Enman was his name, said he was following 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.760 her on Old Mohawk Road. The following period took place 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:19.400 for about two maybe three miles, right, so the shooting 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.200 was two miles away from where and he followed her 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:28.040 on Curby Roads for two miles. We must remember, really 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:33.200 truly must remember. She was just shot. She just had 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.680 her child in the back seat, was gurgling with blood 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.440 because she got shot alung right, Her lung had collapsed 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.919 and she couldn't breathe, and she had to maybe tend 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:45.839 with the child in the back seat, getting her to 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.760 roll over so she would stopped gurgling. Her other boy 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.080 in the back seat had been shot in the chest 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.520 and he was also in the midst of dying. She 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:55.640 was maybe reaching over to the child that was laying 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.520 on the floor and saying Cheryl, Cheryl, Cheryl Cheryl, I 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.599 wasn't there, right, But I mean it's like I maybe 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.760 she was obviously wrapping her arm with a towel. You know, 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.640 I don't know. I can't really talk about the towel. 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.440 I don't have any idea, But I don't know why 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.760 she was driving slow. But if you can imagine, put 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:19.600 yourself in that situation being shot. And he only followed 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:22.680 her for about I don't really know, be honest with 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.040 that two or three miles, but I know it wasn't 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.880 a long waist. And yes, indeed she was going slow, 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.200 and she almost drove off the road and things like that. 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:35.360 But then what's important from my point of view is 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:37.800 that when she got to that stop sign where she 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.960 went right and he went left, that it's a fifteen 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.760 minute drive to the hospital from that point, right, she 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.960 did it in ten minutes. So yes, on the wine 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:53.280 he rode, she was driving slow, right, tending to her 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.720 childs that have just been murdered and shot. Right. And 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.320 but once she got to the open road and where 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.560 all the kids were, I'm going to use the word 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.200 stabilize in her mind, then she went to the right 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.279 and she drove to the hospital and she got there 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.080 and fast than the police could get there. 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.040 The next day, I think she was saying it took 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.240 something like twenty minutes and her telling to get there. 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.640 It just wouldn't have taken that long, especially if you 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:31.080 were hurrying along with your shot kids. 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.640 No matter which version you believe. In the end, when 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.560 Diane arrived at the hospital, the injuries to her children 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.000 were catastrophic. Cheryl, her seven year old daughter, was dead 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.520 on arrival, Danny three was paralyzed, and Christy Ate had 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.800 suffered a stroke due to massive blood loss and was 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.880 unable to speak. James recalls the moment he heard about 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.760 the shootings. Let's go back to the night of the shooting. 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.600 How did you hear the news. You're in California. I 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:02.920 want to know your experience. What happened that night? 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.200 I was sleeping. My dad called me at two thirty 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:11.880 in the morning and said, your sister has been attached. 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:13.080 She's been shot. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.480 I wondered whether or not James believed her ex husband 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.640 had anything to do with it. Even when talking about this, 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.480 James can't resist starting to put the pieces into place 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.040 to demonstrate his sister's innocence. What did your mind go to? 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:27.920 Did you think, Steve, what did you think? 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.120 I didn't think any of that. I really just I 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:36.640 stayed in the moment, and I said what my dad said, Yeah, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.160 your sister has been shot. No, I didn't think anybody 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.840 the state actually thought. Steve, that's a really valid question. 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.760 And Diane says that the state, Doug Welch, actually came 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.920 to her and he said that we don't we know 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:56.480 you didn't do this. And Steve has given us three alibis, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.600 and none of those three alibis turned out to be 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.400 any good. So we really want to look at him, 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.720 but we need you to testify against him. We need 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.720 you to say it was him, so we can do that. 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:16.200 And she says it wasn't him. You know, if it 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.679 was him, I would be telling you that it wasn't him. 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:25.040 I mean if it was two thirty in the morning 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.480 and somebody just attacked my sister. And so it's like 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.040 I just started thinking about getting up there to be 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.480 with family, and that's about all. That's all my mind was, just, 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:37.120 you know, I need to go. I need to leave. 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.240 James also states that Diane was tested for gunpowder residue 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.320 and none was found, which he also attempts to explain. 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.760 James has spent years trying to prove Diane's innocence and 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.880 has a counter argument for nearly everything that might potentially 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:56.240 point to Diane's guilt. 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.800 The shooter that killed Cheryl, shooter that wounded Christy and 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:07.840 wounded Danny and shot my sister. When he was killing 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.640 the family, he got in her car. The inside of 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.440 that car was covered with blood spatter. The inside of 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:22.360 that car had gunpowder residue, and my sister didn't have 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:27.440 any on her. The driver's seat was clear or void 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.960 of any gunpowder residue, and blood spotner where the shooter 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.520 would have been sitting or kneeling when he shot them. 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.200 And so you come back and you put it all together, 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:43.240 it's like, well, she didn't really have the gun, so 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:47.559 somebody else did. She didn't have any gunpowder residue on her, 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.719 somebody else did. She didn't have any blood spatter on her, 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.040 even though it was all over the car, so somebody 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:56.600 else did. 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.040 It's worth noting that while Diane hast to negative for 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.400 gunshot residue or GSR, the bullets were from a twenty 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.120 two caliber gun. We spoke to forensic scientist Jim Pex, 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.280 who worked on the Dian Down's case. He explains more 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:12.960 about the residue test. 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:18.280 It's my understanding that the deputy who was took the 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:23.920 initial report at the hospital swabbed her for GSR, and 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.440 at the time we would send those to a consulting 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.760 laboratory for analysis. But in this case, you have to 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.800 keep in mind that when we talk about swabbing person's 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.320 hands for GSR, which you're looking for are two rare 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.360 earth elements that are not common in nature. One is 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:48.480 burium and one is animony. These are intentionally placed in 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:54.480 the primers of center fire cartridges. A twenty two is 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:59.200 a rim fire. There is no barium in animony in 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:04.400 a rimfire cartridge, so there is nothing to find. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.760 Diane also sustained an injury at close range, so testing 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.320 her for lead would have been somewhat inconclusive because she 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:22.199 was and what's referred to as the LUOD cloud. Hex explains, No. 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.560 That's a when a weapon is discharged and the bullet 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.479 exits the barrel, there is a cloud of vaporized gases 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.480 that contain these trace elements and a little bit of 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:39.200 trace element lead, and in center fire casings, he would 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.679 find your burium and animony he posited from this cloud 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.720 and the fact that she was shot herself, you would 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.560 have found lead on her hands anyway. 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.600 Despite this, James stands by his theory that Diane was 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:54.920 not the shooter that night. 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:57.839 Actually, it's a funny thing. There was a picture of 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.199 Dian at the hospital when she was sitting there, and 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.800 you notice that it's been destroyed at this point. Actually 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.760 they destroyed it, and you can notice that her fingers 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.680 are not full of dirt where she might have buried something, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.040 her hands are not clean, or she might have washed 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:17.679 her hands, because there's been a lot of theories out 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:22.240 there that while she did this and that she washed up. Well, 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.800 my sister was shot in the left arm. The common 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:28.680 theory out there is that when you get wounded in 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.480 the left arm, it must be self inflicted. If if 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.960 you self inflict your wound, you have stippling around where 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.200 the gun was next to your arm. There was no 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.240 stippling on her arm. And more importantly, when you talk 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.800 about her left arm being broken, it didn't have a 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.320 hole in it. She had one inch of bone that 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.040 was removed from her arm where it shattered her bone. 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.080 And so if you say, well, she didn't have any 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.520 gunpowdered residue on her because she washed her hands. She 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.840 didn't have any blood spot around her because she washed up. Well, 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.720 it's impossible. If you've ever broken your arm, you would 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.679 know it would be impossible to move your arm. It's 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:15.720 impossible to lift anything with your arm. It's possible to 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.080 do anything with your arm, especially when you have a 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.440 one inch bone shattering. It was not a flesh mound, 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.720 it was a traumatic, traumatic injury to her arm. 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.479 Not long after Diane and her children's arrival at the hospital, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.400 she became the main suspect. However, no arrest or charges 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.080 were brought against Diane right away. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.520 I think that the press got the impression after about 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.800 four or five days that the police were the ones 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.920 who were perhaps looking at Diane. There hadn't been any 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:49.160 other suspects. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.120 Police began to gather evidence to build their case. Officers 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.280 were dispatched to search Diane's Springfield home and look for 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.680 any potential clues or evidence, and found some not so 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.360 subtle clues that might point to Diane. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.360 They did get a break a little bit when they 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:12.520 searched Diane's apartment in Springfield and found bullets that appeared 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.960 to have very similar markings on them from the extractor 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:20.600 mechanism in a gun that moves bullets through the chamber. 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.560 The rifle they found in her apartment was the twenty 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.960 two caliber rifle, but so the bullets were also twenty 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.760 two caliber that they would also fit into a handgun. 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:36.000 After examination, the rifle was determined not to be the 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.840 same weapon that fired the bullets at the crime scene. 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.840 The bullets and the rifle, however, had markings as if 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:45.280 they had been ejected from another weapon, possibly a pistol, 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.360 and then loaded into the rifle. Jim Pecks explains, we. 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.880 Looked under the bed and there was a rifle, twenty 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.480 two rifle under the bed. First thought was, oh, is 0:15:55.520 --> 0:16:00.040 this a possible murder weapon, and so we seized the 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.880 rifle and I took it back to the laboratory after 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:10.120 we finished processing, and the rifle had cartridges in the 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:14.440 tubular magazine and there were nine of them. That's a 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.840 significant number because a lot of twenty two caliber semi 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:23.800 automatic pistols have nine cartridges in the magazine, and it's 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.160 not uncommon for people when they're through shooting and they 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.120 still have ammunition in the weapon. To take it out 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.360 and maybe use it in another weapon, which appeared to 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.720 be the case here, because there weren't any markings on 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.440 these cartridges that they had worked through the action of 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.960 the twenty two rifle. There were only markings from some 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:45.720 other weapon. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.680 This wasn't enough to charge Diane with a crime. There 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.200 was also something else strange about Diane's apartment. It was 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:54.080 nearly empty. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.720 She had just moved there, but it was very spare, 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:03.640 very spartan inside beds for the kids. But when police 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.480 who went there as soon as they could, looks at 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:09.240 the refrigerator, there was nothing there, nothing to eat, a 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.399 real shortage of comfortable and warm, suitable clothes for the kids. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.600 I think Diane's closet was probably the best stocked thing 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.679 in the house, and besides that, no books, nowhere to 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.800 really sit. There was a TV because she liked to 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.080 watch TV, so she was taking care of her her 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.600 own needs there, but apparently nobody else's being thought about. 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.080 Diane's brother, James, offers his own explanation. He believes the 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.399 lack of possessions was a product of circumstance and not 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:38.760 a sign of a bad mother. 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:44.520 My mom and dad drove to Arizona with a pickup truck. 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:47.520 That's sort of you know, as part of the state's 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:52.040 theory is that her house was she was a bad mother. 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.320 She had a house in Oregon and there was no 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.920 furniture in it. There was no food in the refrigerator 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.120 or dad lived about, you know, four blocks away, and 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.560 the kids were always over there because my sister was 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.000 always working. There was no furniture because they just got 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.639 there six weeks previous with a pickup truck. They didn't 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.639 her house just burned down four months before that. 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.200 Can you remember what she packed up in that pickup? 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.199 Just personal items. I was not there. My mom and 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.479 dad drove down there and did that. I was in 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:30.120 California working, But yeah, I did not. I was not there. 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:31.600 I just thought it was just a pick up, so 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.640 you can't have too much, But yeah, there was. Her 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:35.960 house was very sparse. 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.960 They did, however, find Diane's journals and letters to a 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.880 lover in Arizona, which helped paint a picture of who 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.120 she was and what investigators would later argue could serve 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:46.760 as a motive. 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:51.840 One thing she had kind of pointed them out, like, hey, 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.800 I've got all these diaries. The writings in the first 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:01.080 diary were all about this guy thin Arizona, long poems 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:03.160 she wrote voluminously. 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.240 The guy in Arizona was Robert Nick Nickerbocker. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.120 I did not know Nick existed until the state went 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.240 to her house the night of the shooting and collected 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.040 her diary letters. She gave them permission to go to 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.440 her apartment and get the letters or get I'm sorry, 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.159 to go get evidence that might help. I don't know 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:25.840 why they'd want to go to her house and get evidence, 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:27.960 but they went to her house to get evidence, and 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.320 some of that evidence was I'll call them diary letters. 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.119 They weren't really in a diary. They were just handwritten letters. 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.120 The letters were unmailed, James claims, but there were, according 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.320 to law enforcement accounts, tons of journals where Diane had 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.359 written nearly every day about Nick. 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.080 Basically told Nick, you know, it's like, you know, I 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.240 wish that you were here. I wish that I was 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:53.200 with you. I wish things were different. I want you, 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.159 you know, I you know, I never read the letters. 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.640 But there were just love letters, you know. I mean, 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:02.600 there's no doubt which they were loved letters, and that 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:03.359 was their motive. 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:06.080 James theory is that the letters were just a way 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.159 for Diane to vent privately, and the fact that they 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.600 were never mailed, he believed, shows that they weren't an 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.480 act of a woman obsessed with a man, despite the 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:15.760 claims to the contrary. 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:21.119 Well, I mean, it's really just a think about it situation. 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.800 It had been six weeks since she left Arizona. She 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.320 hadn't called him, she hadn't emailed him. There was no emails. 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.240 She hadn't written him. You know, there was letters written 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:34.119 to him but never mailed. 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.600 It also came out that Nick may have half heartedly 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:42.960 proposed to her at some point. 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:44.960 It seemed to go back and forth a little bit. 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:48.399 He did, I think I proposed, but maybe in a 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.720 kind of a backhanded kind of way, and like, well, yeah, 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.920 sure that might be interesting, but nothing that would last 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.840 for more than a day perhaps. But when Diane heard that, 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:00.960 she was just convinced that, well, he wants to be 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.000 with me. If I just kind of hang in there, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:05.359 I think I can make this work. 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:09.560 As for the question of why the relationship with Nick ended, 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.719 a person she clearly cared for, the belief is that 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.439 Diane's promiscuity led to her contracting an STD that she 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.720 later gave to Nick, who subsequently gave it to his wife. 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.760 He basically had to tell her, I think that I 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:25.800 have this and you probably have it. Now you better 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:29.040 get tested, and here's where I got it. And so 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:33.000 he had to sort of admit that, and I think 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.879 his wife ultimately forgave him, and I think that was 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:38.679 kind of a turning point where it's not that he 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:42.600 never saw Diane again, her wasn't physical with her again, perhaps, 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:46.639 but it did seem to mark something of a break 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:47.880 in their relationship. 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.439 Even with Diane supposedly over the relationship with Nick, the 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.240 police still believed he was a motive behind the killing, 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:59.000 and would eventually push that narrative during Diane's trial. A 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.320 phone call that apparently took place between Nick and the 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.119 police didn't help to dissuade them the motive. 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.840 Yes, I read a police report, and on the police 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:12.000 report it shows a conversation between when the police called 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.960 him to tell him what had happened Nick. They says, 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.359 you know, basically, Diane and the kids have been shot, 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.760 and his first words were, I cannot believe she did 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:29.080 this for me. I cannot believe she did this for me. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:45.200 While Diane's children were hospitalized for their injuries. Diane herself 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.120 was also undergoing surgery for the injuries to her arm. 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.520 It was during this time that full custody of Diane's 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:53.240 children was taken away. 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:57.960 So she was initially hospitalized. Herself released really soon after that, 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:00.159 but she still had visitation right. She was still the 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:04.359 mom with one right to go see her kids. But 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:08.240 we learned at some point that Christie's heart rate was 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:12.440 just spiking on the monitor when her mom came into 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.639 the room. Again, some of this is hindsight, but you 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:20.119 now know that she sees the person who killed her 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:23.040 sister and shot her and her brother is right in 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:29.720 the room with her little scary. Also, the county authorities 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:35.080 moved to limit Diane's access to the kids after hospital 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.520 staff were reporting that Christie appeared to be very traumatized 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.800 when her mom was in the room. And I think 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:44.720