0:00

At first it was what does she look like? And

0:02

then it was more of where is she that

0:04

that person not loved me, you know,

0:07

and so that was kind of where that was coming from,

0:09

was the why. So when I

0:11

started pestering my mom about, you know, how

0:13

she looked, and then where she

0:15

was and you know, kind of why she didn't

0:18

want me, And that's how that opened

0:20

up to she's done

0:22

some bad things. She's in jail. I

0:25

can't tell you more that kind of

0:27

thing. She's like, when you're older, i'll tell you more.

0:30

A few years later, when I was about eleven, I

0:33

asked one last time, and my mom told me

0:35

that I'll never be old enough to know

0:37

and that it's something that I shouldn't

0:39

have to deal with, so she was never going to tell

0:42

me. So I was eleven and still

0:44

needed a babysitter. It was the same babysitter

0:46

that I had had since I was very very

0:48

young. I can remember the moment like

0:50

it was yesterday, which is so weird. I can't

0:52

remember exactly what was said, but I

0:55

remember standing at the top of the stairs. I

0:58

was in the doorway of my dream.

1:00

She was in the hallway, and I

1:03

just thought I am going to

1:05

ask, I'm going to find the answers that I

1:07

want. I'm just not going to stop until

1:09

I know who my biological mother was. And

1:12

so I talked to the babysitter

1:14

and made it sound like I already knew. She had

1:16

said, oh, so you know Diane Downs.

1:19

And that was at that point how I

1:21

had a name. I

1:26

will tell you I'm

1:39

not loving me well

1:45

we lost control. Hello

1:55

listeners. My name is Melissa Moore.

1:57

When I was a teenager, my father was a rust

2:00

did. His name is Keith Hunter

2:02

Jesperson, a serial murderer also

2:04

known as a Happy Face Killer. The

2:08

revelation came during an already challenging

2:10

time in my life, and for years

2:12

I buried the truth and didn't speak about it

2:14

publicly, and then one

2:17

day I gained the courage to confront the past.

2:19

I had a profound healing experience when

2:21

I met my father's last victim, Julie

2:24

Winningham's son Don Finley,

2:26

which you followed along with me on the Happy Face

2:28

Podcast. In that meeting, Don

2:30

gave me his support, which gave me the confidence

2:33

to continue on my mission to help other

2:35

relatives of murderers find meaning and step

2:37

out of the shadow. Of their parents crimes. I

2:40

met Becky Babcock ten years ago while

2:42

filming a documentary. Becky's

2:44

mother is Diane Downs, a woman who

2:46

sits in jail for the murder of one of her daughters

2:49

in the attempted murder of another son and

2:51

daughter during a shooting of the night of

2:53

May nine three. For

2:56

years, Becky has wrestled with the idea

2:58

of her own identity. And Becky

3:00

has struggled not only with the idea of who her

3:03

mother is, also who her father

3:05

could be. In this series,

3:07

I'll company Becky as she confronts the effect

3:09

her biological mother has had on her life

3:11

and choices, as well as seek out the identity

3:14

of our biological father, who may

3:16

or may not even know she exists. My

3:51

name is Dana Tim's. I was a longtime

3:53

writer for the Oregonian newspaper and

3:57

I still continue to write for Oregon publications.

4:00

Dana was a new reporter, just starting

4:02

his career in journalism and Cottage

4:04

Grove not much had ever made national

4:06

news. The timber wars are going

4:09

on back then, so battles over old

4:11

growth. There were protesters up in the Lama

4:13

National Forest doing sit ins and

4:15

trees a lot of police coverage, a lot

4:17

of government coverage also city

4:19

council meetings and whatever would come along. And

4:22

then one day came the Diane Downs

4:24

case. I

4:28

remember that that very well. It was on my

4:30

birthday, as a matter of fact, and

4:32

I had spent the previous twenty four hours following

4:35

a small circus. I went

4:37

to The Oregonian's main headquarters

4:39

and I was just kind of debriefly my editors

4:41

on the circus story, and somebody then said,

4:43

hey, there was a shooting in Springfield

4:46

last night. I

4:49

said, yeah, apparently, I'm mom was shot

4:51

and her kids were shot. One of

4:53

them might be dead. So I traveled back to Jeanne

4:55

that day and got involved in the story later

4:57

in that afternoon. Dana was cover

5:00

ring new ground at the time.

5:02

This was a very unusual type of story.

5:04

These sorts of things didn't happen in Springfield.

5:07

Clearly, this was such an out of the

5:09

ordinary circumstance, it truly

5:12

just did not happen. The report was

5:14

that one child was dead and police

5:16

were still looking for an assailant. Clearly,

5:18

you couldn't have any more of a hot button situation

5:21

than that. Going on, the entire area was very

5:23

freaked out. During the first twenty

5:26

four hours after the shooting, Dana

5:28

and other reporters had few sources

5:30

for information. This was before

5:34

the widespread existence of global Internet

5:36

and quick access to information. We

5:38

were really relying on police agencies

5:41

to be giving us information and updates.

5:43

The kids were at Springfield or McKinney

5:45

Lammate Hospital in Springfield. Clearly

5:47

pressed did not have access to those places.

5:50

As important as the story was, it

5:52

was a little tough sledding to really

5:55

get a toe hold to figure out how

5:57

to go ahead and report this except for what

5:59

we were getting from the police, which is reually not much.

6:03

For instance, we had learned that the mom had been shot

6:05

also, so we were trying to figure out what are her injuries.

6:09

It would still take a few more days before

6:11

anyone got to really even have a chance

6:13

in interviewing the mom, who we found out was Diane

6:15

Downs. Dana

6:19

and his colleagues slowly began to

6:21

piece together information about the case.

6:23

At the time, it was believed that whomever

6:25

shot Diane and her kids was

6:27

still out there. It was Elizabeth

6:30

Diane Downs. That was the order that we

6:32

were referring to her, and it wasn't just Diane

6:34

yet, but we didn't know much. We knew that she

6:36

was a letter carrier, had been working in Cottage

6:39

Grove. The collective media effort had

6:41

uncovered that much. People were then

6:43

going down to the Cottage Grove Post Office

6:45

and trying to do interviews. They weren't very cooperative.

6:48

I think they were all stunned what was going on. Meantime,

6:56

this notion that there was an assailant on the

6:58

loose had people very rattled and nerved

7:00

in Springfield, and particular especially

7:02

somebody who can shoot children, because

7:04

that's a different type of predator. That

7:07

just didn't happen kids getting shot. The

7:15

primary source of information turned

7:17

out to be Diane herself, who

7:19

seemed more than eager to talk to the

7:21

press. I first saw

7:24

Diane when I walked into the house where she was living

7:26

with her parents Springfield. She had called a news conference,

7:29

so there were TV people their lights. She

7:31

talked at length and would address

7:33

any question, didn't seem to shy

7:36

away from anything, smiled and laughed

7:38

a lot, And even the first time I saw her, it

7:40

struck me that there are inappropriate

7:42

responses Diane.

7:44

From the very first time that I sat in that news

7:46

conference, struck me as somebody who

7:49

just didn't respond the way that you

7:51

might think somebody would. It

7:55

raised questions right off the bat, like what's

7:57

going on with her? Diane

8:01

presented herself like someone very

8:03

ready to be interviewed publicly. She

8:05

was probably five five

8:07

five six, longish hair, nicely

8:10

styled. She cared about her appearance.

8:12

I recall her wearing a dress and

8:14

looking nice and confident

8:16

and ready to take all the questions.

8:19

Most of the reporters wanted to know

8:21

what happened, so Diane walked

8:23

them through her account of the events. That night,

8:26

she was driving late at night

8:28

with her kids. There was a school night, so that seemed

8:30

a little bit odd. She said, they liked to sight see,

8:32

and again, that area is very pretty, but it

8:34

was about ten o'clock at night, so you wouldn't

8:36

be seeing anything except your car lights. She claimed

8:39

that a guy was in the road flagged her down,

8:41

and she stopped immediately and said,

8:43

what's wrong. And again my first

8:45

reaction. I think my colleagues in the press

8:47

have the same feeling of there's no way on

8:50

earth that I would stop in that situation

8:52

if I had young kids in the car, dark

8:55

late at night, rural Outpost

8:57

area. Diane painted herself as

8:59

someone who was just being a good person

9:01

by stopping to help someone. She pulled

9:04

off the road, turn off the

9:06

car, how the keys in her hand, and

9:08

gets out of the car to go talk to this guy.

9:11

It just seemed like an unnatural

9:14

thing to do. She claimed that

9:16

when she got out of her car, this guy said, I

9:18

want your car, and she said, and she's

9:20

consistent as far as I know to this day

9:22

and saying, you gotta be kidding me. In

9:25

her telling, this guy wants the car, So what does he do.

9:28

It's dark out, headlights are shining forward.

9:31

He walks up to the car,

9:33

leans in and fires five

9:35

to seven bullets at sleeping kids.

9:41

We were just kind of running through our mindsetking, well, how

9:43

would he even be able to see that there was

9:45

anyone in the car. The

9:57

stories began to release in the media about

9:59

di Anne and the shooting, with Diane

10:01

herself insisting that the perpetrator she

10:04

described was still at large. There

10:06

had been a sketch released by the police

10:08

that Diane had helped prepare of a

10:11

guy with long hair and sort

10:13

of angry looking eyes. Right off the bat.

10:15

People were kind of smirking, thinking, oh, it's the

10:17

old, bushy haired stranger, which is kind of the oldest

10:19

trope in law enforcement. Despite

10:22

this sketch and description, there were very

10:24

few real leads in the case. There

10:26

weren't solid leads. I know that the

10:28

police got a lot of contacts. They were

10:31

tracking these leaves down, going and talk to the people

10:33

who phoned them in, but as far as we could

10:35

tell, that never really got

10:37

a solid start. There was nothing that felt

10:40

like a breakthrough in terms of finding somebody

10:42

else who might be involved in this. The

10:56

press began to realize that the police

10:58

saw Diane as a potential aspect.

11:00

From the beginning, parts of what she said

11:02

didn't make sense. I think that the

11:05

press got the impression after

11:07

about four or five days that

11:09

the police were the ones who were perhaps

11:11

looking at Diane. There hadn't many other suspects.

11:15

All eyes were on Diane at the funeral,

11:18

Yeah, all eyes were on Diane. For anyone who

11:20

supported her, they were thinking this, poor gravy mom,

11:22

how is she dealing with this? And for those

11:24

who were skeptical, and maybe by the time the

11:26

funeral happened, which was not that long after the shooting,

11:29

there may not still have been widespread skepticism,

11:31

so I think people were still feeling sorry

11:33

for this mom and wondering how

11:35

they would feel in that situation if they had to go

11:38

through it. More

11:41

details about the children were released,

11:43

and the details of their injuries were

11:45

horrifying. We learned in subsequent

11:48

press conferences with medical personnel

11:50

and the police that the kids had been basically

11:52

shot on the chest, not in the head,

11:54

but in the chest. Close groupings of shots,

11:57

it appeared to be that the gun was just

11:59

in is from their bodies when the

12:01

trigger was pulled. They were just

12:04

catastrophic injuries. And it's really amazing

12:06

that all three didn't die that night. One

12:09

Sry, as far as we know, was dead on arrival

12:11

at Mackenzie Alloment Hospital. The doctors

12:13

are dispatched out there and the nurses and horrified

12:16

to find one, two, and then a third

12:18

kid, and they had been shot

12:20

in the chest. I remember dying

12:23

at one of her news conferences saying if

12:25

I had shot my kids, would I had not have done a

12:27

good job of it. I

12:29

remember thinking not too long after that you did

12:31

a tremendous job. If that was what you wanted to

12:33

do, you did a great

12:35

job. Finally

12:45

Diane was arrested for the murder. Yeah,

12:47

it was a big deal. It was. It was a huge deal.

12:50

Diane has been arrested. I think among most

12:52

people that there was just no goodwill

12:55

left for Diane. With no other suspect

12:57

ever having come close to being

13:00

charged or arrested or identified, she was

13:02

in the spotlight. She was the one. After

13:04

the arrest, Diane was no longer

13:07

the well composed woman she had been at the

13:09

time of the murderer. She was looking tired,

13:11

bedraggled. The emotional strain I

13:14

think had taken a toll on her. She was

13:16

still kind of prone to smirk and

13:18

smile a lot, whether she should be or not, But

13:21

she was I think, kind of beaten down by a circumstance

13:23

when they finally took her into custody.

13:26

It turns out there was a reason she

13:28

looked that way. Diane had gotten

13:31

pregnant again during her first

13:33

appearance in court, and I was there for

13:35

that. I don't think anyone in the

13:37

press knew that yet. If it was any way,

13:39

somebody was going to try to take control

13:41

of the situation, that's what they would do. I

13:44

was a real Diane skeptic from early on, not

13:46

that I would know whether she was having

13:49

an ongoing serious relationship with anyone.

13:51

I wasn't aware that she did. But

13:53

when they said she's pregnant, I just thought,

13:56

of course she is. Eric

14:13

Mason was a local reporter who followed

14:15

the Diane Downs case alongside

14:17

the grand true crime writer and

14:20

rule. During the trial, they attended

14:22

daily sitting in the press section, watching

14:25

every milestone moment happened in real

14:27

time. After the end

14:29

of the trial, they had stayed in communication

14:31

and often shared how they wondered, whatever

14:33

happened to that baby that Diane given

14:36

birth to. Did that baby grow

14:38

up to know her mom was infamous? Was

14:40

the child doing well? What became of

14:42

her life. I'm just starting work

14:45

as a private eye doing criminal defense

14:47

cases. I go to the Ben

14:49

Film Festival, and after the

14:51

Ben Film Festival, there's a weekly discussion

14:54

about scriptwriting over there, and

14:56

I meet up with somebody and we were talking

14:58

about my life as a reporter,

15:01

and she goes, oh, I remember you at

15:03

the CBS station in Portland, and

15:05

so what are you doing now? And I said, well, I'm

15:08

working on a script. And so each

15:10

week we would come with our scripts and

15:14

after one of the meetings over

15:16

there and Ben, she said, you know, I think I've met

15:18

the long lost child of Diane Downs.

15:20

And I said, really, how do you know?

15:24

Well, she's connected to this

15:26

church I go to, and we've

15:28

been out to pizza and she's

15:30

had several conversations with me, and

15:33

I thought, oh, man, I'd love to meet her.

15:35

I mean, and at that point, I didn't even know what

15:37

I would do with it. I had no idea

15:40

where to go with that kind of story since I

15:42

no longer worked in television. When

15:45

I met her, it's almost like

15:48

I'm across the table from Diane Downs.

15:51

I mean, it's a different age,

15:54

it's a different demeanor, but

15:56

there are some similarities that are clearly

15:59

there. And there

16:01

is a way that Diane

16:04

Downs would toss her head

16:06

back with her hair and

16:08

Becky would do the same thing. And I'm

16:10

not sure that Becky really even watched

16:12

a lot of video of Diane.

16:15

And the only portrayal of Diane

16:17

was Fara Faucett. But Fara Faucet

16:19

got some of the mannerisms right. Eric

16:22

is referring to the made

16:24

for TV movie Small Sacrifices,

16:27

in which Fara Fawcett played the part

16:29

of Diane Downs and so

16:32

I wondered if this was sort

16:34

of a genetic tick. So

16:36

I just wanted to make sure that it was done with

16:38

as much well

16:41

as little glare and fascination,

16:44

but more understanding of what it's

16:46

like to wake up one day and

16:48

to watch a movie on

16:51

television and say that's

16:53

my life being played out, and

16:55

I would like to say something about it. I would like, for the

16:57

first time to be able to say something about

17:00

my life. And I think that's the

17:02

sense I got from her. And

17:04

so when I called and Rule

17:07

in Seattle, I just said, you know, I think I've met

17:10

Diane Downs child that once

17:12

she gave birth to during the trial, because oh,

17:15

I would definitely get a

17:17

d n A test, because

17:19

I've been approached by all kinds of people

17:22

who say they were the baby

17:24

of Diane Downs. And I said, oh,

17:26

Anne, this is

17:28

the right person. I don't need a DA

17:31

test. I can see it. I've talked

17:33

to her. Up

17:41

until this point, Becky had really kept

17:44

her existence pretty quiet as far as the

17:46

media goes. Becky's

17:48

family kept her bile mother's identity

17:51

a secret as a feared it would

17:53

be harmful information to a child who

17:55

was developing her own identity. They

17:58

vowed to give her the best life, and part

18:00

of that promise was to protect her from

18:02

the media circus they had previously witnessed

18:04

around her birth. I think people,

18:07

the people who were from

18:09

the state of Oregon that set everything

18:11

up, realized someone was

18:13

going to have to have some

18:16

means to be able to

18:18

find a place that was

18:20

off the beaten track and that

18:22

she could hide kind of in plain

18:24

sight, and that it was up to her then

18:27

to decide what to do. Becky's

18:29

adoptive parents arrived during Diane's

18:31

trial. They had done the research themselves

18:34

and set it up in a very short amount of time.

18:36

I think there was this idea that

18:40

they went on a waiting list of parents

18:43

to get high risk kids.

18:46

They were also expressing

18:48

interest knowing that that story

18:50

was going on. Probably not that

18:52

many I want to high profile

18:56

adoption of somebody who

18:58

is going to come from a very difficult

19:00

situation and then

19:03

have a lifetime of real big challenges

19:05

probably on her hands. Not many people

19:08

would probably take that on. And here were these

19:10

really well to do, highly

19:13

intelligent, successful

19:15

folks in the pharmaceutical world who

19:17

are willing to do it, and so I think sort

19:19

of like both sides understood

19:22

what the deal was. The

19:27

babcox provided well for Becky

19:29

and her sister, who was also adopted.

19:32

They lived on a large piece of land in bend

19:34

Oregan, in idyllic surroundings.

19:37

It was better than anything her biological

19:40

mother could have possibly provided. For

19:43

the first decade of her life, everything

19:45

was perfect. Her parents

19:47

did their best to keep her from the truth. And

19:50

then one day, after trying multiple

19:52

times to get the information from her mom

19:54

and being denied, being told she would

19:57

never be old enough to know and interact

20:00

and with the family, babysitter changed

20:02

everything. Next

20:06

time on happy face, present to

20:08

face the fact that now

20:10

there was this third person. Now there

20:12

was reality of who my biological mother

20:15

was. I think it would have been three years

20:17

of asking that. It just I didn't think I'd

20:19

ever know, And at that point I wish I

20:21

hadn't known. It was really scary. Our

20:26

executive producer is Ben Bolin, Melissa

20:29

Moore is our co executive producer, Maya

20:31

Cole is our primary producer, and

20:33

Paul Decant is our supervising producer.

20:36

Our story editor is Matt Riddle.

20:38

Research assistance from Sam t Garden.

20:41

Featured music by a dream Tent. Happy

20:43

Face Presents to Face is a production

20:46

of My Heart Media

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pas A passing

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ms has pinsks

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Mas