My Mother’s Sins l 20/20 Diane Downs l Part 3 — Transcript

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1. 0:01in the immediate aftermath of the crime
2. 0:04it was so horrific that I think there
3. 0:06was an enormous well of public sympathy
4. 0:07for this mother who had had her three
5. 0:09children shot I went down the sheriff's
6. 0:11office and said please arrest me so that
7. 0:13I can prove I'm innocent so my kids can
8. 0:15come home and they wouldn't but as Diane
9. 0:17tells her story
10. 0:18slowly but surely that public sympathy
11. 0:21begins to shift reporters covering the
12. 0:25story were getting hints the Downs
13. 0:26herself was a suspect in the case people
14. 0:28are starting to get suspicious of
15. 0:30Diane's story even her own father
16. 0:33questions really is she telling the
17. 0:36truth I made the comment it looks to me
18. 0:38like Diane did it because the children
19. 0:39have been shot in the chest and Diane
20. 0:42has only been shot in the arm if I had
21. 0:45shot my own children would I not have
22. 0:46done a good job of it it was such a
23. 0:51shocking story that and little kids
24. 0:54they'd look at their mothers as if they
25. 0:56were thinking well you wouldn't shoot me
26. 0:57would you
27. 1:00but I go to bed I cry at night even now
28. 1:03I still cry I dream about Cheryl I talk
29. 1:07to her for about two hours on camera and
30. 1:11she didn't cry it was uncanny that she
31. 1:15didn't cry I mean I wanted to cry
32. 1:21Downs is now expecting another child it
33. 1:24was a shocking revelation I got pregnant
34. 1:29because I miss Christy and I miss Danny
35. 1:32and I miss Cheryl so much I'm never
36. 1:33gonna see Cheryl on earth again nobody
37. 1:36could believe she was pregnant this is a
38. 1:38woman who's suspected of trying to kill
39. 1:40all three of her children and succeeding
40. 1:42with one of them who is pregnant again
41. 1:46the contrast is extraordinary you can't
42. 1:51replace children but you can replace the
43. 1:54effect that they give you and they give
44. 1:56me love they give me satisfaction to
45. 1:58give me stability they give me a reason
46. 1:59to live and a reason to be happy and and
47. 2:01that's gone they took it from me but
48. 2:04children are so easy to conceive she
49. 2:07didn't have babies so she could love
50. 2:09them she had babies so they could love
51. 2:12her and she said I wasn't alone I had
52. 2:15somebody inside that I could talk to
53. 2:16Diane just loved the attention she got
54. 2:19when she was pregnant apparently not so
55. 2:22much raising kids
56. 2:25when I heard Diane was pregnant one of
57. 2:28the first thoughts was well who's the
58. 2:30dad does the father know who he is yeah
59. 2:32yeah and that's why I won't talk about
60. 2:34it because he feels us privately about
61. 2:36this child as I did she was a letter
62. 2:39carrier so she was carrying mail and she
63. 2:44picked one of her men on her route who
64. 2:48had good bone structure he was
65. 2:49intelligent and it was good looking and
66. 2:51she showed up at his door one evening
67. 2:54with whiskey and some marijuana
68. 3:01she told me she knew her cycles so well
69. 3:04that she knew if she had sex with this
70. 3:08guy that she would immediately get
71. 3:09pregnant and it was a snap
72. 3:12so that guy didn't know exactly what he
73. 3:16was getting into
74. 3:19well Diana's busy talking herself into
75. 3:22the prime suspect chair police are
76. 3:24quietly gathering evidence Downs also
77. 3:26says the children were shot inside the
78. 3:29car but police reports claimed
79. 3:31high-velocity blood spatters were found
80. 3:33on the outside of the car we went to a
81. 3:36site where the vehicle in which the
82. 3:38child was shot was sword looking at it
83. 3:41from the passenger's side
84. 3:43I saw a blood stain on the lower
85. 3:47doorframe Diane Downs had said that the
86. 3:49shooter leaned into the car and fired at
87. 3:53her and her children and if that was the
88. 3:55case how did this this blood spatter get
89. 3:57on the outside of the car
90. 3:59[Music]
91. 4:02we believe that Cheryl the
92. 4:05seven-year-old was able to open the door
93. 4:07and fell out on the ground and Diane
94. 4:11reached across the seats and shot her a
95. 4:16second time then let's talk about the
96. 4:20weapon a 22 caliber handgun she tells
97. 4:24police she does not have a handgun we
98. 4:28discovered that she had bought a pistol
99. 4:29and it was a 22 and I was a Ruger well
100. 4:33bingo they searched Diane bounces home
101. 4:37and they found a rifle and there were
102. 4:40some 22 shells in the rifle that had
103. 4:43been ejected from some other weapon I
104. 4:46took the cartridges that were found in
105. 4:50the rifle and examined them under a
106. 4:52microscope and I could see extractor
107. 4:55marks on the rims of those cartridges
108. 4:58these are unique marks they are unique
109. 5:03to only one weapon markings on those
110. 5:07bullets matched the markings on the
111. 5:09shell casings found at crime scene
112. 5:13there are so many holes in Diane downs
113. 5:17story it's like shooting a fish in a
114. 5:19barrel after the bushy-haired man shut
115. 5:25all of her children she got away from
116. 5:26him she raced pedal to the metal to the
117. 5:30hospital to the emergency room but guess
118. 5:33what there's a problem with that the
119. 5:38police find a witness who stated that he
120. 5:41actually came up behind Diane on a road
121. 5:44and she was driving so slowly that his
122. 5:49speedometer was not even registering
123. 5:52what was she doing waiting for the other
124. 5:54kids to die that's what she was doing
125. 5:56that's how evil she was police are
126. 6:01obviously looking for a motive in this
127. 6:04case and so they go back to the Diaries
128. 6:09when you read Diane downs diary you read
129. 6:13Nick nobody's ever been able to take
130. 6:16your place in my heart my kids aren't
131. 6:20any trouble like kids but he said I
132. 6:25didn't want to be a daddy
133. 6:26Diane considered the kids to be
134. 6:28hindrance to Nick's arrival and as long
135. 6:32as he said that he wasn't going to be a
136. 6:36father
137. 6:37to anyone's children they had to go if
138. 6:40she didn't have these kids in the way
139. 6:42anymore
140. 6:42she could have her lover that she was
141. 6:45having trouble living without
142. 6:46[Music]
143. 6:47when you look at mothers who kill their
144. 6:51children their own narcissism and desire
145. 6:53to lead another life without these
146. 6:56children basically overrides any caring
147. 6:59than II may have at night when I close
148. 7:02my eyes I can see Christie reaching her
149. 7:04hand out to me while I'm driving and the
150. 7:07blood just keep coming out of her mouth
151. 7:09and that maybe it'll fade too with time
152. 7:11but I don't think so that haunts me the
153. 7:14most