Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Princess Diana Look-alike Mom Shoots Her Three Little Children Point Blank

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

On May 19, 1983, Diane Downs drives her three children to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in a blood-spattered car. She tells police that a man trying to carjack the vehicle opened fire, striking everyone inside. Cheryl,7, was killed. Danny, 3, ended up paralyzed from the waist down, and Christie, 8, suffered a disabling stroke after being shot. She survives. Downs herself, was shot in the left forearm. Investigators and hospital workers were suspicious. They say her manner is just too calm for a person who experienced such a traumatic event. Ultimately, it is daughter Cheryl who tells everyone who did the shooting.Joining Nancy Grace today: Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, author “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego Dr. Jorey Krawczyn Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide” (October 2021) bw-institute.com Dan Corsentino - Former Police Chief, Former Sheriff, Served on US Homeland Security Senior Advisory Board, Private Investigator www.dancorsentino.com Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida www.pathcaremed.com Levi Page - Crime Online Investigative Reporter, Host, "Crime and Scandal" True Crime Podcast, YouTube.com/LeviPageTV Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Three children shot. Mommy shot as well. What evildoer would flag Mommy down, then unload a hell of bullets into the car? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace On a late night in May 1983, Diane Downs arrives at Mackenzie William Ed Hospital in a blood-splattered vehicle. In the back seat, her three children have been shot. Seven-year-old Cheryl is dead.

Three-year-old Danny and eight-year-old Christy are barely alive, but doctors are able to save them. Danny is paralyzed from the waist down. Christy has a stroke resulting from her injuries, and she's unable for some time to speak. Downs herself has been shot in the left forearm. Your three children shot, one left paralyzed, one gets a stroke and can't speak, a third child dies. Joining me, an all-star panel, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags on Amazon, and host of Today with Dr. Wendy, KCBQ San Diego. With me, Dr. Jory Cross, a police psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University, author of Operation SOS, Practical Recommendations to

Stop Officer Suicide. Dan Corsentino joining us, former police chief and sheriff, also formerly with U.S. Homeland Security. Now at DanCorsentino.com, private investigations. Dr. Tim Gallagher, the medical examiner for the entire state of Florida. You can find him at PathCareMed.com. But joining me right now from CrimeOnline.com, Levi Page. Levi Page, the mom shot, the three children shot. She barely makes it to the emergency room. Who, what, where, when, why?

Where did this happen? Let's start with that. This is 1983 Springfield, Oregon. And we're talking about diane down she's 27 years old a postal worker a divorcee and she's driving down a road she says that she's speeding to the er in springfield oregon inside her car it's blood soaked because she and her kids have been shot, according to her. You know, Wendy Patrick, I don't know if you noticed it when Levi Page is giving us the initial facts of the shootings. Mom and three children all shot in the car.

When he had to point out she's a divorcee, why? Why does that matter? Why is it when women are described, they're so often described as basically, you know, a tramp, a divorcee, that it just kind of like puts a slant on the whole thing? It really does, Nancy, right from the beginning. And it's unfortunate that we describe people certain ways because we have this hesitancy that we're almost afraid that there's going to be a stigma attached to one's status, whether it's single, whether it's divorced, whether it's, you know, unmarried or widowed. And the problem is when you're describing a crime that some might think that has something to do

with why you've been victimized or why you might be a suspect. And on the other hand, in Levi Page's defense, very often when women and children are targeted, it's by the male member of the family, i.e. an ex-husband, boyfriend, lover. But I do find that very interesting, Levi Page. You can put that in your pipe and smoke it for a few moments. In the meantime, take a listen to our friend Detective Doug Welch. Diane was driving down the road in this direction. She said a stranger appeared and flagged her down. She stopped her car, stepped out with the door open,

and said, what's the problem? He replied, I want your car. She said, you've got to be kidding. At which time, she claims that he pushed her aside, leaned in the vehicle, and shot the children. She claims to have faked throwing her car keys off into the field. He fired the weapon and struck her in the left forearm. She then pushed him away and jumped in her car and according to her version, roared off down the road to the hospital.

To Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor and author of Red Flags, you know, when we see a carjack case, I've prosecuted many of them, I'm sure you have too, what they want is the car. The perp wants the car. It's very rare that we see a perp unleash a hell of bullets on children. That's exactly right, Nancy. When you look at the motive for committing a crime, it's usually one or the other. If you're going to steal a car, you need the wheels. You don't need to leave victims in your wake, especially not with ballistics that are very easily traceable. So when you look at what happened here, it doesn't seem consistent with a carjacker to kill three children just to steal a car.

I could see him shooting mommy because every carjack case I've had, there was a murder involved. It ended up being a felony murder, although I think it's a malice murder. But I could see him shooting the mom, the shooter, and kicking the kids out or taking off with the children in the back seat sometimes, but not gunning down the children, all of them, many of them sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. Guys, take a listen to KEZI TV producer Sean Choppy. The side panels of the car were covered in blood. There was a young girl in the front passenger seat, another young girl and a small boy who they could hear gasping for air in the back all three were soaked in blood the girl in the backseat Cheryl was dead

what do I see most is blood coming out of Christy's mouth because that's what I see I can't see Danny and I can't see Cher medics quickly went to work on the other two children who were still alive. And in what doctors call nothing short of a miracle, both children were saved, despite Christy having been shot in the chest and Danny in the back. You know, a shooting in the back is very difficult to take in. How did that happen with a child in the back seat? We understand one child now curled up in the front seat.

To Dr. Tim Gallagher, how does a gunshot wound produce a stroke? Well, it's very easy for a gunshot wound to cause a stroke. If the bullet goes through a bone, it can release some of the bone marrow that is within the interior portion of that bone into the bloodstream, that bone marrow can travel to the brain and block one of the arteries. And if the artery to the brain is blocked, that part of the brain dies. And that is what we would perceive as being a stroke. That part of the brain that functions would be disabled and that the speech or the motion that that part of the brain provides will no longer be functioning. And that's what we can perceive as a stroke.

Because typically, wouldn't you agree, Dr. Tim Gallagher, that a stroke in a child is very unusual? Very unusual in a healthy child, absolutely. This child did not have a record of any coagulation problems in their blood. They did not have a history of stroke in their past. So this would be a direct result of the gunshot injury. So you've got one child dead, one paralyzed, and one suffers a stroke. Guys, we are talking about three children and mommy gunned down on the side of the road by a would-be carjacker. Mommy tricks the carjacker and takes off to the ER bleeding herself. Take a listen to KEZI-TV's Shawn Choppy. Danny is just crying real, real soft.

So that sound stays in my mind and the fact that Christy's choking. Downs told police a shaggy-haired stranger had waved them down. were real soft. So that sound stays in my mind and the fact that Christy's choking. Downs told police a shaggy haired stranger had waved them down. He pulled a gun on them, asked for the keys and when Downs refused to hand them over, opened fire on all three children. The gun kept firing and firing and firing and it made, it was monotonous. It just kept going. It was like a slow motion picture. An emergency APB was issued and the manhunt was on.

APB issued manhunt on. Guys, how did these three children and mommy end up riddled with bullets simply driving along in a rural area? Back to you, Levi Page, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Tell me about the area where this happened. Yes, so Diane had taken her children to a friend's house, and they were riding horses and seeing her friend's horse. And she said that she was coming back home, and she was driving down a dark, deserted country road. And that's when this bushy haired stranger came out in front of the vehicle.

She stopped, got out to see what he wanted. And that's when he said, I want your car. And he shot her and her kids, leaving one dead, two of them clinging to life in the hospital. With me is psychologist, adjunct faculty, St. Leo University, Dr. Joy Croson. Dr. Croson, I mean, you got to want that car a lot to gun down three kids and the mother, I guess, in the heat of the moment, people lose control and panic and start shooting all for a car. And it's not even a new car. Yeah, that really made no sense whatsoever, you know, to like a logical thinking person.

Like you say, you want the car, you're just not going to shoot the children. Your most line of threat would be the driver, the mother, the adult. That's the one that you would shoot to kill. The children you could put out alongside the road and drive off with the car. Oh, absolutely. And this happened in a very rural area in Springfield, Oregon. And when I say rural, no stop signs, no red lights, no street lights. It's a city in Lane County, Oregon, near in the Southern Williamette Valley. It's off Interstate 5. Now, when you look at a crime like this to Wendy Patrick, when I say it's off an interstate, even though it itself is a rural area, the interstate will play a role in this. Let me point out Shasta and Dylan Groney,

who lived in a very rural area with their mom and her boyfriend in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. If you fly over their home in a helicopter, you see nothing but green, but an interstate was nearby. And a killer drove by, happened to glance over, and in the distance, through the trees, saw Shasta at an above-ground pool. Pulls in, kills the whole family to kidnap and molest Shasta and Dylan, ultimately killing Dylan. Shasta survived. So rural doesn't mean safety like it used to mean, Wendy Patrick. Oh, that's absolutely true. You know, rural, sometimes, especially as you mentioned,

if it's close to an interstate, that's an escape route. That is a place that a criminal can go and find a remote area without a lot of witnesses, which is also one of the things that could make a rural area dangerous, commit a crime, and then get right back on that inner street and escape into oblivion. You know, that is one of the reasons, sadly, as you and I know, that some criminals choose rural areas close to interstates. It's just an easy way to commit a crime, not get caught because of the lack of witnesses. According to the last census, there were only 59,000 people living there. Now, it's interesting too, Dan Corsentino, former police chief and sheriff, also formerly with Homeland Security, now PI at dancorsentino.com. Dan, when you think of a rural area, you think of low crime rate. And typically, that is true.

Typically, that is true. And you're also thinking open space. You're thinking isolation. And you're thinking that you would be away from any populated area. So that gives the individual, who is the suspect in this case, an opportunity to commit the crime. Take a listen to our friend Tyler Hunt at CrimeOnline.com. Diane Downs claims she was carjacked on a rural road in Springfield, Oregon. a crime. Take a listen to our friend Tyler Hunt at CrimeOnline.com. man standing in the middle of the road. Downs says she was pulled over and got out. That's when the shaggy-haired man demanded her car at gunpoint. Downs said she refused, and the man pointed the gun into the car and shot her children. Downs tells police that she fakes throwing her car keys into a field and gets into a brief struggle with the shaggy-haired man. She manages to get away and drive to the emergency room. Okay, I know it may sound crazy. Let me go to Dr. Jory Cross. Dr. Jory, do you have children?

Yes. Have you ever just taken them out driving? Yes. Me too. Some nights, you know, after dinner, and we've watched every single episode of every show that they like, and they've done their homework and it's still just, you know, 745. Especially, for instance, at Christmas, we'll go driving around for an hour and a half looking at Christmas lights or we'll drive around and end up at the frozen custard or the frozen yogurt place just to change it up. So, and we've always done that ever since they were little, you know, let the windows down and drive around. And they love it. We play music. They love that. So that does not seem out of the unusual to me, Dr. Jory, that she's out driving around, quote, sightseeing. Not at all. And, you know, for that rural area, like she said, she got lost and then encountered this man.

I mean, it all fits up to that point. You know, I mean, that is very feasible that that scenario could have happened and transpired. So while the driving around sightseeing makes sense, somehow fragments of facts start adding up to where it doesn't exactly make sense anymore. Take a listen again to our friend at KEZI-TV. This is Shawn Choppy. And who would have a motive to do this or if it is just some total stranger? As the night wore on, though, investigators and hospital staff were stunned by Downs' demeanor. She was not hysterical, not crying. She even left the hospital to show investigators the location of the shooting.

He did not take time to point the gun and shoot me, obviously, because he would have shot me the same way he did the kids. When he was swinging in the direction of the keys firing the gun, he hit my arm. Everybody says you sure were lucky. Well, I don't feel very lucky. I couldn't tie my damn shoes for about two months. Okay, just let that sink in for a moment. It's like a fine wine.

You just want to breathe it in, swish it around for a moment. I couldn't tie my damn shoes for two months. Did I hear that? I did, I did hear. Jackie confirms we did hear that. Her child is dead. One's paralyzed.

One's had a stroke. And she can't tie her shoes. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I can just go ahead and get the arrest warrant right now, but there's that pesky little thing called evidence. I don't feel lucky. I couldn't tie my shoes for nearly two months. I just had to say it again.

I just keep saying it and saying it and listening. It's almost like when Jodi Airy is saying, oh, holy night. You just can't get past that moment. I can't really even describe what it is. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We are talking about the cold-hearted shootings of three little children ages 8, 7, and 3. The 7-year-old Cheryl Lynn died. And Mommy is complaining she couldn't tie her shoes for two months. Okay, right there, we've got to investigate Mommy.

You know, it's so interesting. Isn't it interesting to you, Dan Corcentino, that one utterance, one sentence can turn an investigation totally around? Absolutely. That was a tipping point in this case as to what her articulation was, if you will, at that point in time. Also, I was deeply troubled by the fact that she didn't even cradle her children. There was no attempt to show affection. There was a coolness that existed. And there would have been at that time with the shooting that took place by the stranger in the road, not only an effort from my professional opinion to go to her children, to hold them, to cradle them, which in turn would have had a blood transfer to her garments and her clothing. She didn't do any

of those things. You know, Wendy Patrick, prosecutor, author of Red Flags, host of Today with Dr. Wendy, KCBQ, San Diego. Dr. Wendy, I often rail against the fact that women are held to a higher standard than men. I mean, I didn't hear Levi Page on any case we've ever covered say he's a divorcee. I've never heard that, but he said it today about this woman. So I gave him a little H-E-double-L. But on the other hand, if a mother doesn't even try to hold her child or comfort her child that's just been shot, I mean, I don't think this is a stereotype. There's something wrong with that, Wendy. There is something way wrong with that. It is exactly the opposite of what you would expect a maternal instinct to look for. It is the opposite of what we expect every mother to feel

is deep love for her three children. So to behave in the exact opposite fashion is in and of itself highly suspicious. Now, as we know, you need more than that. You need evidence. But that red flag that's waved is so strong that it very, at the very least, should draw suspicion onto her. You know,

Levi rightly points out that if someone's divorced, you think, well, maybe there's a motive for the ex to come after the victim. But if a mother doesn't behave like a mother, then you obviously are going to say she may be more of a defendant, a suspect than a victim. Man, you're not kidding. Let's circle back to our friend Tyler Hunt at Crime Online. When mommy complained, she couldn't tie her shoes. Cops get wise and they start investigating. Mommy, listen. As police began investigating Diane Downs, they uncovered her journals filled with details of her affair with a married man, Robert Knickerbocker. That man, she wrote, did not want children. Prosecutors say that made Downs view her children as a burden.

Wow. Is this Susan Smith all over again? I mean, think about it. Susan Smith at a rural intersection claims a guy, comes up to her car, carjacks it with her children strapped in the backseat, her two little boys, then ends up driving it into a lake. And she makes a very convincing public plea. Now you've got this woman, Diane Downs, just 27 years old. The similarities are incredible. Take a listen to our cut seven inside edition. Detective Doug Welsh was the original investigator on the case. He has concluded that Diane, although consistently pregnant, was a disinterested mother.

Here was a woman who was completely apathetic about the welfare of her kids. She was just emotionally flat and preoccupied with something else. Well, once she had the kids, you know, it was another story. Well, she treated them like crap. She really didn't treat them very good. So now we're finding out that this affect toward her children existed before she starts the affair with Knickerbocker. What is that? Let me go to psychologist Dr. Jory Crawson.

I heard several issues, hot spots that jumped out at me during that from Tyler Hunt at Crime Online. From Inside Edition, that she was perpetually pregnant and that she developed a flat affect and uncaring attitude toward her children. There's got to be some sort of a mental defect connected to that. Her narcissistic tendencies, it's all about her i mean you know even when she was waiting on trial remember she went and got pregnant by somebody on her mail route that she didn't even know so she was pregnant during the trial so it all becomes about her even to the point where she's got a problem, the children are the problem.

The easiest way to solve it with her personality is to kill them, shoot them, eliminate them. You know, it's amazing to me that that was her idea of an alternative. But I also hear, straight out to you, Dan Corsentino, former police chief, I hear the theory that was also consistent with the Susan Smith murders that she had a new lover and the lover did not want to be saddled down with additional children. And therefore, she had to get rid of him. her, Mr. Knickerbocker was the individual who made it very clear to her that he wanted to have no children and have no anchor to any children. So she had a choice to make, and it was either her lover or the kids. And with that, she started her plan. She started to make a decision on how she was going to solve this issue. And the only option that she came up with was to eliminate her children. Poor Christy, Cheryl, and Danny

became the victims of the mother's greed in this very tragic situation. Earlier, you were hearing from our friends at Female Killers. Now take a listen to our cut number 10. This is Madison Glassman, KEZI. May 1983, Diane Downs speeds into an emergency room at McKenzie Willamette Hospital with a bizarre story to tell. She took a detour off of Mercola Road to do some sightseeing when a bushy-haired stranger flagged her down and shot her and her children. A story that was nothing but lies. Diane is being a mother and doing what she did. She has a special place in bizarre murder cases in Lane County. Doug Welch's

career was never the same after he was assigned to be the lead investigator of the case that same night. At the time, he had only been a detective for less than three months and had never seen anything like this and hasn't since. Nothing of this magnitude where you've got a mother shooting her kids. You know, it always sticks in everyone's mind, Wendy Patrick, when a mother kills her children. I mean, we all have the names of, for instance, Andrea Yates at the tip of our tongues. Why is it that we never forget murder moms? Oh, we never forget, Nancy, because it goes contrary to everything

that we expect from parents in society. I mean, a mother's bond with her child is, as you know, just something that is second to none. So to think that a mother can actually commit the most unspeakable act against her own flesh and blood is something that chills us to the bone and remains with us for a long time to the point as you mentioned we even remember the names of women that did it yeah susan smith andrea tiana lacey goes on and on and on the names that stick in our minds and the stories Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We are talking about three children riddled with bullets in the backseat as Mommy drives by a, quote, shaggy-haired stranger that flags Mommy down in the night on a detour off a country road. The facts, seemingly abnormal, start to stack up

until, shocked by Mommy's lack of affect toward her children, they begin investigating. Mommy, like Susan Smith, mommy is arrested. Listen to what happens. Doctors took the stand and told stories of a woman who showed up to the hospital with a dead daughter and two other kids clinging to life, yet who shed nary a tear. Jurors were taken to the scene of the crime. A model of the car was brought in. The blood splatters on the outside of the car showing Downs shot Cheryl outside of the car. We saw pictures of this so-called spatter. It's drops. When they took the kids, they took Chris and Cher

out of the driver's side of the car, and it's blood droplets. The children's bloody clothes were shown, but the most dramatic and probably most damning evidence came when Christy Downs, now eight years old, took the stand. Downs' own daughter testified against her. Christy Downs was asked by prosecutor Fred Hugie, do you know who shot Cheryl? Christy said quietly, yes. The prosecutor struggled to keep his own composure. Who? The young girl sobbed, my mom.

Well, that is why perps very often kill witnesses, because they can point the finger very accurately in front of a jury. Straight out to Wendy Patchett, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags. What do you make of what you just heard? That's from our friends at KEZI. I can only imagine the jurors' reaction to seeing that dynamic in the courtroom. You know, there were no cameras allowed in there, but you can only picture this young girl, this precious young girl, taking the stand and being asked that question. The whole trial probably hinged on that testimony and her answering it truthfully. That had to be one of the most

tear-jerking points of that trial for every single man and woman in that jury box to see her take the stand and bravely have to say that. Levi Page, the case goes to trial. What happens at trial? Who takes a stand other than the children? So, Nancy, police officers testify, and one of the biggest aspects of the prosecution's case was that Diane Downs changed her story multiple times. She said that one shaggy-haired man came out into the road. Then she said that there were multiple men that came out into the road. And at one time, she was even blaming corrupt police officers for these killings, for the killing of her daughter. So she changed her story multiple times. We also heard about the murder weapon, a.22 caliber handgun.

She said she did not own one. However, there was evidence that contradicted that. They were unable to find the actual murder weapon, but they found unfired casings in her homes with X-tractor markings from a.22 caliber handgun. And her ex-husband, Steve Downs, told police she did own a.22 caliber handgun, as well as Robert Knickerbocker, the man that she had an affair with. You know, to Dr. Tim Gallagher, a medical examiner for the state of Florida, Dr. Gallagher, you have handled so many gunshot wound autopsies. A.22 caliber is very often described as a woman's gun because it's small.

It's very small, easily held in a small hand. And consequently, the bullets are small as well. But they can kill. Well, they sure can, Nancy. And the.22 caliber gun is considered to be a woman's gun because the recoil or the kickback on it is almost negligible. So it's very easy to fire. It's very easy to aim. The problem is that the bullets don't

have a lot of impact. So it is very easy to survive a gunshot wound of a.22 caliber variety than it would be, say, a 9mm or a.38 special or a.40 caliber gun. So it's not surprising that the children did survive their gunshot wound. You know, another thing that we heard earlier, Levi, I think you may have reported it, is that the blood spatter on the outside of the car showed that Mommy was outside of the car when she shot in. Is that correct? You're correct, Nancy. You know, it's amazing to me, to Dan Corsentino, former police chief, what you can tell from ballistics, whether the shooter was firing, for instance, from the front seat back. So this would have to mean that mommy got out of

the car and had the windows down and started her shooting her children from outside the car. Can you imagine what those children were imagining at the time? Mommy unloads bullets into the back seat. No, I think the kids were just in total shock. I mean, at that age, there had to be surprise. There had to be complete emotion that their mother would be harming them in this way. The thought process that she is in at this point certainly was probably, from my experience, she was in a state of, she had tunnel vision in a sense.

And she was focusing on trying to solve her problem so that she could be with her lover this was her answer and she found this lonely road to do it on and these poor children once again were victimized i bet i know one thing wendy patrick i bet the lover uh nothing seen of him but elbows and tail hole because if he owned a 22 and these children were shot with a 22 i bet he was ready to point the finger in about 30 seconds flat oh can you imagine yeah that that's the worst nightmare is somebody you get accidentally get fingered in a crime because somebody steals a weapon from you or take something that belongs to you or or facts match up when there's

actually no connection in reality. Yeah, you can only imagine what ran through his mind at the time. That's for sure. And you're not kidding. So Levi Page, after all of this evidence and testimony, what was the jury's decision? So they convicted her, Nancy, of murder and attempted murder. And she was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years. So it wasn't the shaggy hair man after all. Take a listen to our friends at Inside Edition that locate murder mom Diane Downs behind bars. We interviewed the real Diane Downs in the New Jersey prison she now calls home.

She contends her conviction is wrong. I wouldn't walk in there and say, this weird person came up out of nowhere and shot us for no reason and just left. I mean, it's not a believable story. If I had done this, I could have come up with a believable story. It really happened. The horrid tale is that Diane had divorced her husband and taken on another lover, Robert Knickerbocker,

who promised to divorce his wife and marry Diane. The hurdle, as Diane saw it, was that Robert didn't like or want children. The belief of the courts is that Diane took her kids out on a lonely road one night and shot them, and then herself. She says a man who stopped her car on the road shot her kids. The gun and the man were never found. And you can't discount the fact that the little daughter takes a stand and tells the jury, Mommy shot me. And Diane Downs, a murder mom in such infamy, her story even becomes a movie. Take a listen to this. Millions of Americans watch Farrah Fawcett portray the sociopathic mother, Diane Downs, in the TV miniseries, Small Sacrifices.

It is the story of a mother who hurt her own children. It is a story that has riveted the nation for more than six years. In the movie version of the case, as in real life, Diane Downs' 10's 10 year old daughter was the key witness against her mother some cases you never forget listen to madison glassman kezi it was here on this quiet country road near springfield where diane downs pulled over shot her three children killing one 36 years later well says this case will always be a part of his life. The first murder case you work, there are things that are just burned into your brain that you don't tend to forget. Welch worked on this case for 15 months.

A lot of us were attached in one way or the other. I certainly was, probably closer to an obsession. In that time, Welch's wife Tamara says the story pulls her in too, consuming their lives. In the midst of the investigation, Diane really became the fifth member of our household. Doug was, as he said, very involved, even to the point of being obsessed. That obsession fueled by a murderer who was motivated by love and nothing could stand in her way, not even her own children. We see that justice has unfolded, die in, down, still behind bars. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off.

Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.