Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder, by Ann Rule (1987)
In 1983, Elizabeth Diane Downs, who went by Diane, drove her car to the emergency room at a hospital in Oregon with her three bloodied children. She claimed that a shaggy-haired would-be carjacker had shot her children when she stopped to offer the stranger assistance. Seven-year-old Cheryl was dead and the other children, 8-year old Christie and 3-year old Danny, were seriously injured. Miraculously, the two injured children survived.
Police initially searched for the carjacker, but the evidence didn't match up and soon led them to believe that Diane had shot her children. As they probed into her background, they discovered that she had married young and had a disastrous marriage. She had a string of affairs, and was particularly "in love" with Lew, a fellow postal worker. Lew had indicated that he didn't want children, which may have provide the motive for Diane to eliminate her children.
The book goes into much detail about how the police and prosecutor put together their case. The author used actual transcripts from the trial, which is riveting.
Read: January 24, 2018
4 Stars
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