DIANE DOWNS: MURDERER OR VICTIM
YOU BE THE JURY
MURDER WEAPON
Isaiah Chapter 41 Verses 10-13
The State said Diane used Steve Downs' gun to shoot her children. Diane said the gun was in Arizona with her ex-husband. She said she didn't have the gun, so I ran an ad in the Arizona Republic newspaper for a week in 1984, offering a reward for Ruger #14-76187. This ad resulted in a letter from Prescott, Arizona from a man saying he had the gun:
It was learned later that the man who sent the letter worked as a security guard at Fort Whipple, just outside of Prescott. The Sheriff's Office in Oregon eventually gave a press release that the report was a hoax. The newspaper article said that Detective Diffendaffer of the Prescott, Arizona police department had conducted the investigation.
A few years later I contacted Detective Diffendaffer and according to him, Detective Dick Tracy, from Oregon conducted the investigation alone. He said he did not go with Detective Tracy on the investigation.
A few months later the gun was found in a drug raid in Perris, California, and strangely enough, it was from the same area where Detective Tracy had been employed before moving to Oregon. Lane County, Oregon recovered the weapon and ran tests to determine if it was the gun used in the shooting. The ballistics from the shooting site didn't match Ruger #14-76187. The gun Diane had been convicted of using to shoot her children was not the murder weapon. The State then decided she must have used another gun.
It isn't uncommon for the prosecution to use deceptive tactics to gain a conviction. In addition, the prosecution doesn't like to give any advantages to the defense (even if the person is innocent). After all, "Aren't you guilty until proven innocent?" In this case it was no different. They found the gun was not the murder weapon, but no tests were run to verify whether or not this was the gun Diane and Steve Downs owned when she lived in Arizona. Ruger #14-76187 isn't the murder weapon. Where is the real murder weapon? Diane said a man shot her and the kids. The man disappeared and the gun disappeared with him, it's as simple as that. They said the ballistics from Diane's apartment was the lynch pin that brought about the conviction. I say that was another smoke screen and an out and out lie. Go to: BALLISTICS
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