Truth and Lies

32m

After many attempts to speak with Diane's family members, Diane's brother, James, finally agrees to sit down with Becky.

Melissa G. Moore: IG @melissag.moore; Tik Tok @melissa.g.moore

Lauren Bright Pacheco: www.LaurenBrightPacheco.com

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Press play and read along

Runtime: 32m

Transcript

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 This is Matt Rogers from Los Cultures with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

Speaker 3 This is Bowen Yang from Los Culture Resistance with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

Speaker 2 What if you could boost your Wi-Fi to one of your devices when you need it most? Because Xfinity Wi-Fi can. Like when you need to upload 200 photos of your cat in a Santa hat to post online.

Speaker 5 We've all been there.

Speaker 3 And what if your Wi-Fi could proactively fix issues before they even happen?

Speaker 2 Xfinity Wi-Fi does that too.

Speaker 4 It's like having a little holiday helper.

Speaker 3 And what if your Wi-Fi had parental instincts built right in? So your kids are always protected online.

Speaker 2 It's Wi-Fi that's not just smart, it's brilliant. And during the holidays, that's a gift we all could use.

Speaker 6 Xfinity, imagine that.

Speaker 9 Are your AI agents helping users or just creating more work?

Speaker 7 If you can't compare your users' workflows before and after adding AI, How do you know it's even paying off?

Speaker 11 Pendo Agent Analytics is the first tool to connect agent prompts and conversations conversations to downstream outcomes like time saved so you know what's working and what to fix.

Speaker 14 Start improving agent performance at pendo.io slash podcast.

Speaker 15 That's pendo.io slash podcast.

Speaker 16 Hey, Ron Reynolds here, wishing you a very happy half-off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited.

Speaker 3 To be clear, that's half price, not half the service.

Speaker 16 Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price.

Speaker 6 So that means a half day.

Speaker 16 Yeah? Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

Speaker 1 Upfront payment of $45 for three months plan equivalent to $15 per month required. New customer offer for first three months only.
Speed slow under 35 gigabytes of networks busy. Taxes and fees extra.

Speaker 1 See Mintmobile.com.

Speaker 17 Black Friday savings are here at the Home Depot, which means it's time to add new cordless power to your collection.

Speaker 17 Right now, when you buy a select battery kit from one of our top brands like Ryobi or Milwaukee, you'll get a select tool from that same brand for free.

Speaker 17 Click into one of our best deals of the season and stock up on tools for all your upcoming projects. Get Black Friday savings happening now at the Home Depot.

Speaker 17 Limit one per transaction, exclusion supply, full, eligible tool list in store and online.

Speaker 18 I've heard a lot of different theories about my biological father. I have heard that he was a reporter.
I heard that he was somebody that worked with her at the post office.

Speaker 18 I heard that it was another inmate's husband. I've heard that it was just some guy off the street.

Speaker 18 She knew she was gonna get pregnant and she wanted to get pregnant and just picked the first guy she saw. So, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 18 In 1983, Diane Downs shot her three children, killing her daughter Cheryl and forever altering the lives of not only her two surviving children, but the other people in her life.

Speaker 18 Before her imprisonment, she purposely set out to give birth to another child who would incidentally become another life permanently changed by Diane's actions.

Speaker 18 There's a tired old idiom that people often use when confronting the things they've buried and hidden. The truth will set you free.

Speaker 18 The fact is, sometimes the truth is its own prison, like when the truth of who your father is becomes a dark shadow that follows you and suffocates you until you finally are forced to confront it.

Speaker 18 When 11-year-old Becky found out her biological mother was Diane Downs, it disrupted her identity and changed the course of her behavior and her life.

Speaker 18 Now she's seeking the other half of that puzzle, the identity of her biological father, someone who may or may not even know she exists.

Speaker 18 Will that truth help bring balance to the weight of her own truth, or will it only further add to the chaos of her self-image?

Speaker 18 Without knowing for sure the identity of Becky's father, one has to wonder if he himself is even aware that Becky is

Speaker 18 It crosses my mind sometimes. I mean,

Speaker 18 maybe he just doesn't want to believe that I could be that child or that he could be that father. Because I've been public now for 10 years with my story.

Speaker 18 And if my biological father wanted to find me, he would have. The only things I can come up with are he doesn't know he's my biological father, he doesn't want to be my biological father.

Speaker 18 or he's deceased. I mean, if you are intimate with somebody and nine months later, there's a baby, I would question that.

Speaker 18 There was very little physical description of the father given, and what's there didn't help narrow down the possibilities.

Speaker 18 My adopted mom, she told me that on my adoption paperwork that he was listed as being like 6'2, blonde hair, blue eyes. That's all I know.
I think that he's German or Danish, and that's it.

Speaker 18 I don't know anything else.

Speaker 18 There's a certain piece to Becky's current situation. She's lived her entire life up to this point, not knowing the identity of her biological father.
And as far as she knows, he could be anyone.

Speaker 18 Someone good, someone interesting, someone loving, someone ready to embrace his long-lost daughter with open arms. He could fit any template Becky wants or needs him to.
I can decide who he is.

Speaker 18 And I can, you know,

Speaker 18 think that he's an amazing person. And

Speaker 18 even if he's not, as long as he's a decent human being, I'd be happy, but I'm scared to go on this journey because what if he is, you know, deceased? What if he doesn't want me in his life?

Speaker 18 It's very, very scary to open this door, but I am very lucky to have the parents that I do have.

Speaker 18 It's not just Becky's biological father who isn't a part of her life, but her two half-siblings, Christy and Danny, survivors of Diane's attack, also live their own private lives independent of any real relationship with Becky.

Speaker 18 I did reach out to them back in 2006. I found Christy online.
We had a little bit of a conversation going. We spoke every couple of days.
She told me a little bit about herself.

Speaker 18 I told her about myself. And one day I got a message that her and Danny don't want anything to do with me, that so much time had passed that they don't want to get to know me.
More rejection.

Speaker 18 Christy and Danny knew about Becky, that they were related, that they shared the similar link. and still wanted nothing to do with her.
And it's understandable what they went through.

Speaker 18 I could never even imagine. And maybe being in my life or meeting me would bring up some of that for them.
I'm not sure. Becky also reached out to Diane's father.

Speaker 18 I've spoken with Diane Downs' father, Wes. He was a sweet man.
He wanted to tell me a lot of the family history, but he also wanted to tell me about Diane and about her case and how she's innocent.

Speaker 18 Becky didn't set out with the intention of speaking to Diane's father about the crime, but to some extent it was unavoidable.

Speaker 18 I I asked both Diane and her father when we first spoke all those years ago that I didn't want to hear about her guilt or her innocence. I just want to hear about her.

Speaker 18 I just want to know about the family. I just want to know about my biological father.

Speaker 18 I wanted to leave the case out of it because I knew that all they were going to do was try and convince me that she's innocent. I just wanted to know them, that side of my family.

Speaker 18 Is there a part of you that questions whether she's innocent? Diane's innocence has been a question for a lot of people for a long time. I don't believe she's innocent, no, but I know that people do.

Speaker 18 There are some people like Diane herself who champion her innocence to this day. Her brother James Fredrickson is one of them.

Speaker 18 James was one of the only family members willing to talk to Becky and me about Diane and their family history.

Speaker 18 He believes that part of understanding who Diane was is understanding her relationship with her ex-husband, Steve, who she blames for much of what she became.

Speaker 18 She sent James a letter detailing her marriage and relationships leading up to the shooting, which is, oddly, written mostly in third person. James shares a bit of that here.

Speaker 6 Basically, Steve came into our lives in 1971. We'd moved to Chandler to a farm and Steve was a farmhand for the neighbors.

Speaker 6 My mom and dad wanted my sister to date other boys, but you know, she was head over heels for Steve Steve, and obviously Steve was head over heels for her.

Speaker 6 Judge married them on November 13th, 1973, with only Greg Roach and the judge's secretary as witnesses, because Diane had no friends of her own at that time.

Speaker 6 She said that she got married and whatever the date was, right? But the reality is that, you know, she got married because my dad went over to their house where they were at in the apartment.

Speaker 6 and said, you will marry my daughter. We were at the Baptist house, you know what I mean? It's like, you didn't want things to be bad or look bad.
And so, you know, you will marry my daughter.

Speaker 6 Well, it happened fast because my dad was there, you know, and it's like, I'm going to use the term, it was a shotgun wedding, you know what I mean? Steve didn't want problems with my dad.

Speaker 6 My dad was really,

Speaker 6 he didn't physically scare Steve, but he intimidated him.

Speaker 18 There is a theory in domestic violence cases known as the cycle of abuse, which often begins with rising tension and the need to placate the abuser.

Speaker 18 According to Diane, Steve began this cycle early into into his and Diane's relationship.

Speaker 6 Steve controlled everyone she talked to, and he didn't let her talk to anyone. She was working then when they married.
She was talking to other guys at lunchtime, and so he made her quit.

Speaker 6 He didn't permit a phone in her apartment. The grocery store was a three-minute walk from where they lived at 100 West Ray Road, but she wasn't even permitted to go shopping without him.

Speaker 6 My sister was barely 18 and in her own mind going on 12 and had never given her new husband cause to suspect her of infidelity but he was just sick with suspicion and jealousy soon after they married steve was openly unfaithful to diane two weeks after their marriage steve came home from work at the tire company where he worked in mesa and announced he was going out with janet the receptionist diane was a bit confused by that they were married after all Steve blew up and he said, hey, I promised Janet they'd go out.

Speaker 6 The marriage vows came so quickly he forgot to call off their date. He said Diane just needed to iron his shirt and not make things harder for him.

Speaker 6 One month later, Steve went out with his buddies for New Year. Diane was told to wait at home until 11.45.
She got tired of waiting and she walked to his friend's house.

Speaker 6 She did what she was told, but Steve wasn't there. Then they told Diane she'd have to wait in the line behind Debbie.
So Steve was at the party with other women.

Speaker 18 Diane was pregnant with Christy, her oldest daughter, and allegedly Steve saw this as an inconvenience and didn't want to deal with her.

Speaker 6 Two months later, Diane got pregnant. She had morning sickness, like most women do.

Speaker 6 But instead of Steve hanging around and supporting her, Steve took her to his parents' home in Gilbert because he wasn't ready to live with a sick wife.

Speaker 6 While Diane was at his parents' house, Steve moved in with Jackie. When Jackie's husband, Dale, returned from California, Steve retrieved Dale from exile.

Speaker 6 These are just a little parts about the infidelity. So then we we start talking about the abuse.

Speaker 6 Man.

Speaker 18 According to Diane, Steve wasn't only controlling and unfaithful, but his abuse crossed the threshold into physical. In the meantime, Diane had a second child, Danny, and another daughter, Cheryl.

Speaker 6 In 1982, Diane was talking on the phone. Steve came home and heard her talking on the phone.
He thought she was talking to a man on the phone, so he picked up the phone and slammed it down.

Speaker 6 They argued and he slapped and punched her and the phone rang and Diane obviously answered it and it was actually Holly on the phone saying that Karen was afraid Steve was hitting her.

Speaker 6 Diane looked at Steve and said to Holly, yes he is. He's still here.

Speaker 6 So he grabbed the phone and he hit Diane with it. She wrestled the phone from him, hung it up and engaged him.

Speaker 18 Diane and Steve were divorced at this point, but he still lived with her and the kids. Eventually, the abuse reached a breaking point and she started to fight back.

Speaker 18 A judge issued a restraining order, but Steve didn't stay away. In the meantime, Diane had bought a gun in an effort to protect herself.
And then one day, Steve had her cornered in a bathroom.

Speaker 6 When he was kicking the door open, she fired a warning shot into the floor. The next week, he moved his furniture out of her home as a stealthy as he moved in.
That was September 14th, 1982.

Speaker 18 In October of that year, Diane's four-month-old mobile home burned down, and she sent her her kids to live with Steve so they wouldn't be homeless.

Speaker 18 She eventually found another place to live, but Steve wouldn't allow her to have the children back. During this time, Diane saw affection from other men.

Speaker 6 Yeah, she was seeing Nick that time.

Speaker 18 Nick is Robert Knickerbocker, a married man who supposedly didn't like children, a fact that some believe may have later played into Diane's motivation for the shooting.

Speaker 6 Married men showed her the most affection because married men were safe to her. Because married men didn't want to leave their wives.
They just wanted some affection.

Speaker 6 And really, that's all Diane ever really wanted. She was still that 12-year-old little girl striving for that affection.
And she went out and she got that affection from married men.

Speaker 9 Are your AI agents helping users or just creating more work?

Speaker 7 If If you can't compare your users' workflows before and after adding AI, how do you know it's even paying off?

Speaker 11 Pendo Agent Analytics is the first tool to connect agent prompts and conversations to downstream outcomes like time saved so you know what's working and what to fix.

Speaker 14 Start improving agent performance at pendo.io slash podcast.

Speaker 15 That's pendo.io slash podcast.

Speaker 4 Lowe's knows that saving is always top of mind this season. Shop early Black Friday deals like 25% off select pre-lit artificial Christmas trees.

Speaker 4 Plus, get free select Dewalt, Cobalt, or Craftsman tools when you buy a select battery or combo kit.

Speaker 4 Lowe's, we help you save. Valent through 12-3 while supplies last.
Selection varies by location.

Speaker 19 Visit your nearby Lowe's on East Starquez Avenue in Sunnyvale.

Speaker 20 Did you know Delta Airlines just turned 100?

Speaker 22 That's a century of connecting people to the world.

Speaker 5 But they're not just looking back, they're launching forward with the Delta Sustainable Skies Lab.

Speaker 21 You won't see it on a terminal map, but it's where Delta and its trailblazing partners are reimagining the future of flight and making it real.

Speaker 20 Think electric air taxis, next-gen aircraft designed to cut fuel use significantly, and modifying today's planes to lower emissions.

Speaker 21 And this isn't just future talk.

Speaker 5 Today, the Boeing 737 features marine-like finlets that reshape airflow to reduce drag, helping each journey go farther on less fuel.

Speaker 5 Travel isn't going away, and the future of travel is more sustainable, with Delta leading the way.

Speaker 25 Learn more at delta.com/slash sustainability.

Speaker 26 Life gets messy. Spills, stains, and kid chaos.
But with Anibay, cleaning up is easy. Our sofas are fully machine washable, inside and out, so you never have to stress about messes again.

Speaker 26 Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics, that means fewer stains and more peace of mind.

Speaker 26 Designed for real life, our sofas feature changeable fabric covers, allowing you to refresh your style anytime. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly.

Speaker 26 Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes. Plus, they're earth-friendly and built to last.
That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch.

Speaker 26 Get early access to Black Friday pricing right now. Sofas started just $699.

Speaker 26 Visit washable sofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com.
Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Speaker 18 Diane's attention from other men is what led to her earlier divorce from Steve. Despite his own unfaithfulness, he believed she'd actually become pregnant with Danny due to an affair.

Speaker 18 He ended their marriage believing the pregnancy shouldn't have been possible due to vasectomy. Diane, it seemed, enjoyed being pregnant.

Speaker 18 She had a fourth child before Becky, but this time as a surrogate.

Speaker 6 So yeah, it was just basically, she went through the surrogacy program, delivered a baby, gave it to a family. She got $10,000 for that, and that helped her in her life, right?

Speaker 18 When Diane became pregnant with Becky, James dismissed it as if it were almost like another surrogacy.

Speaker 6 But I wasn't going to have another niece and nephew. I was basically having another surrogate child.
I wasn't attached to it. I wasn't bonded with it.
I wasn't any of that.

Speaker 18 After Diane's trial and Becky's birth, James didn't give the baby much thought.

Speaker 6 Yeah, they took her away. I mean, I knew that she existed, but I didn't know anything about her.

Speaker 18 And that was that. Out of sight, out of mind.

Speaker 18 And then one day, Becky appeared on 2020. James' first impression was not a great one.
What did you think when you first saw her on a news program?

Speaker 6 Honest answer, I didn't understand

Speaker 6 why she was making a fuss out of something if she had two perfectly wonderful loving parents.

Speaker 6 I don't remember what exactly she said, but she basically said that she's going to make sure that Diane doesn't gain parole. I didn't like her

Speaker 6 at all.

Speaker 18 James had made an earlier attempt to contact Becky and tried to convert her to his version of the truth.

Speaker 6 I reached out to her on social media and we talked and I tried talking to her about what I know is truth and the story that she knows is the public story, the Ann Rule story.

Speaker 6 She really wasn't willing to listen. Did that frustrate you? It's always frustrating.
Yeah, every single time.

Speaker 18 Watching 2020, James grew increasingly frustrated with Anne Ruhl, author of the book book Becky First Discovered in the bookstore as an 11-year-old.

Speaker 18 He believed that she had many things about Diane's story and the crime wrong, and that Becky's view of her biological mother's guilt had been colored by that book.

Speaker 18 He also doesn't believe that Anne knew the identity of Becky's father, despite her claims.

Speaker 6 So

Speaker 6 people that are adopted, some of them have a desire to find out who they come from, whether it's be Diane the murderer or Diane the victim.

Speaker 6 She still knows that she comes from Diane and she doesn't know who her father is.

Speaker 6 And unfortunately, there's only two people that do. The author didn't know who the father was because she wasn't there during conception and has never been told by my sister who the person is.

Speaker 6 The only people that know are the mother and the father of Becky. It was some guy in her route.

Speaker 6 You know what I mean? It wasn't even a coworker. It was just some guy in her route.
You know, I mean,

Speaker 6 I

Speaker 6 don't,

Speaker 6 I don't have any idea who it is. He knows.

Speaker 18 Or maybe he doesn't.

Speaker 6 I would imagine so. I don't know.
Yeah, Diane's never told him. So maybe he doesn't, you know, because I mean, it's like, you know, she had a reputation of sleeping around.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 She didn't. But that was her reputation.

Speaker 6 So, I mean, as a guy, if you're just, you know, sleeping with somebody just once or twice, then, you know, it's like, you're not really concerned whether that person gets pregnant or not until they come knocking on your door.

Speaker 6 And so, no, he may not know.

Speaker 6 He may not know.

Speaker 18 Despite the fact that James and Becky didn't see eye to eye in his earlier attempts to contact her, he wants another chance to explain, which may be his primary reason for his willingness to meet with her again.

Speaker 6 10 years ago on the social media and then via phone and then she didn't really want anything to do with the truth.

Speaker 6 As we've stated earlier, you know, it's like talking about some of the letters that Diane wrote her after being in solitary. You need to believe that she's psychotic.

Speaker 6 You need to believe that she's a deviant sociopath or whatever those words are that they're throwing out there. But she wasn't willing to listen is my whole point.
I talked to her then.

Speaker 6 She did not listen. And I'm hoping today she listens.
And I'm always willing to talk to anybody who's willing to listen because the truth needs to be out there.

Speaker 18 While I spoke to James, Becky was waiting in the studio to speak with him.

Speaker 18 Before bringing her in, I spoke to her alone for a few minutes to gauge her feelings on the situation and brief her on what to expect.

Speaker 18 I've been talking to James here, asking him about his feelings today about meeting you, finding out his intentions.

Speaker 18 When we first got in the studio, he's quite overwhelmed because there's so much he wanted to share. And then

Speaker 18 what I found interesting, though, is that he really, really cared about today

Speaker 18 and wanted to come today with something sort of as an offering of information that he could provide.

Speaker 6 First of all, he has a letter from Diane

Speaker 6 and it's written to Amy to you and it's going to talk about her time being pregnant with you.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 6 One thing that I am concerned about is Diane still denies that I'm her biological daughter.

Speaker 6 And so this letter is written to Amy,

Speaker 6 who I guess I don't identify with because she doesn't claim to be my biological mother. So there's been like a disconnect there.

Speaker 6 I'm not sure how to respond when James reads that letter because my initial like knee-jerk reaction would be uncomfortable and upset. The truth is, is that regardless of the name Amy or Rebecca,

Speaker 6 you were that baby. It doesn't feel like that, you know? It feels like almost a separate person completely, especially because she doesn't believe that it's me.

Speaker 18 She may not believe it's you, but your physical being had that experience as a newborn, as a child, as a baby girl coming into this world.

Speaker 6 And regardless of name, it was your experience.

Speaker 6 I wrote her back in 2006 when I put my son up for adoption, wanting to connect with her.

Speaker 6 It feels like this letter that you guys have been talking about is almost going to be that connection that I needed back then.

Speaker 6 And after we had such a meltdown with her in the last letter where she was very cruel, I don't want that connection with her. So I'm nervous about hearing this letter and I don't know how I'll feel.

Speaker 6 If I'm being completely transparent and honest, honest, I'm almost scared that I want to have that connection.

Speaker 6 Like, there's that conflict of being the adopted child, that you want that connection with your biological parents.

Speaker 6 But it's a battle in my heart or my head because I don't want to be connected to her.

Speaker 9 Are your AI agents helping users or just creating more work?

Speaker 7 If you can't compare your users' workflows before and after adding AI, how do you know it's even paying off?

Speaker 11 Pendo Agent Analytics is the first tool to connect agent prompts and conversations to downstream outcomes like time saved so you know what's working and what to fix.

Speaker 14 Start improving agent performance at pendo.io/slash podcast.

Speaker 15 That's pendo.io/slash podcast.

Speaker 4 Lowe's knows that saving is always top of mind this season. Shop early Black Friday deals like 25% off select pre-lit artificial Christmas trees.

Speaker 4 Plus get free select DeWalt, Cobalt, or Craftsman tools when you buy a select battery or combo kit.

Speaker 4 Lowe's, we help you save. Ballot through 12-3 while supplies last.
Selection varies by location.

Speaker 19 Visit your nearby Lowe's on East Starquez Avenue in Sunnyvale.

Speaker 20 Did you know Delta Airlines just turned 100?

Speaker 22 That's a century of connecting people to the world.

Speaker 5 But they're not just looking back, they're launching forward with the Delta Sustainable Skies Lab.

Speaker 5 You won't see it on a terminal map, but it's where Delta and its trailblazing partners are reimagining the future of flight and making it real.

Speaker 20 Think electric air taxis, next-gen aircraft designed to cut fuel use significantly, and modifying today's planes to lower emissions.

Speaker 21 And this isn't just future talk.

Speaker 24 Today, the Boeing 737 features marine-like finlets that reshape airflow to reduce drag, helping each journey go farther on less fuel.

Speaker 5 Travel isn't going away, and the future of travel is more sustainable, with Delta leading the way.

Speaker 25 Learn more at delta.com slash sustainability.

Speaker 26 Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Wash away your worries with Anibay. Anibay is the only machine-washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices.

Speaker 26 That's right, sofas start at just $699.

Speaker 26 Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and changeable slip covers made with performance fabric.

Speaker 26 Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime.

Speaker 26 Shop washable sofas.com for early Black Friday savings, up to 60% off site-wide, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund.

Speaker 26 No return shipping or restocking fees. Every penny back.
Up right now at washable sofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

Speaker 6 All right, so how are we going to do this?

Speaker 6 Because he's going to want to say hi the moment he walks through the door. it's fine where she's bringing it right now the recording

Speaker 6 hold on yeah we've got it set up

Speaker 6 ready

Speaker 6 James this is Becky hi hi

Speaker 6 good to see you yeah how was your trip it was good yeah it was good yeah

Speaker 6 and how were you

Speaker 6 nervous getting through it

Speaker 6 it's a little different yeah like we were mentioning it's the first time i've actually met anybody from the biological family so it's it's different

Speaker 6 so this is all different too after some setup and light chit-chat they get right into it james immediately begins to read the letter he received from diane it says i was four and a half months pregnant when i was arrested amy and i were locked in a jail cell alone for nearly four months before she was born She gave me the strength to keep calm during the trial.

Speaker 6 Every day I'd tell her that she was going to be okay. I'd pat her bottom and rub her back and calm her.

Speaker 6 I didn't let myself get consumed with worry for her sake. Then when we returned to our jail cell after my first day on the witness stand, there was a court order waiting in our concrete slab bed.

Speaker 6 The state had seized custody of Amy even before she was born. The trial wasn't even over yet.
and the state was taking her.

Speaker 6 I was physically ill, but couldn't dwell on it because I didn't want Amy to feel my pain. It was a different story after she was gone.
I cried and cried.

Speaker 6 It felt like I'd lost a friend as much as a child. That's a loss from which I'll never recover.
That's what my sister said about you. Wow.

Speaker 6 So.

Speaker 6 I didn't realize that she felt that way. There's been pictures painted of my sister as being a callous person, not a good mother.
That's the way she felt about all of her kids.

Speaker 6 That's not the way she felt about the surrogate child. You're not a surrogate child.
I struggle with her connection with me because of the fact that

Speaker 6 she got pregnant with me on purpose because she knew she could and she wanted to replace Cheryl and she knew that she would get sympathy from the courts. And

Speaker 6 those are Anne Rule's words. Those are writers' words.
Those aren't true.

Speaker 6 Okay.

Speaker 6 Isn't it? I saw something about it. I've never read Anne Enrule's book.
There was one of her recordings or something that I thought.

Speaker 6 I don't know. Anyways, I never knew she felt that way.

Speaker 18 James shifts almost immediately into defensive mode with regards to Diane. There's a bit of tension between James and Becky, and James is eager to push through his agenda for meeting.

Speaker 6 So when did she write that? About two weeks ago. Wow.

Speaker 6 I asked her to share something with me because she doesn't want

Speaker 6 I said, the world needs to understand what you felt like when you were having the the baby taken away.

Speaker 6 She says, she can't really talk about when the baby was taken away because it's just crying. She cried and cried.
What else is there to say? She was induced. She didn't have it natural.

Speaker 6 They told the court before she was convicted

Speaker 6 that they're going to take the baby away. They told the jurors that,

Speaker 6 already finding her guilty before the jurors even started deliberating.

Speaker 18 It is really interesting.

Speaker 6 It's very interesting. And she did,

Speaker 6 I don't think the word replace is a good word to say, because you can never replace you

Speaker 6 with another baby. She can't replace Cheryl with another baby.
She can't replace Christy with another baby. You're her daughter, and you're very much loved.

Speaker 6 The state did not want you to be raised by her. or see the family, so you were given to another family.
So I feel

Speaker 6 a sort of a disconnect i reached out to diane um i think it was in 2006 and her first couple letters were you know oh my gosh i've always known where you were i knew you'd write me someday they were excited and happy but now to this day you know she denies that i'm her biological child yeah um there's a lot of letters in between too right

Speaker 6 yeah crazy letters we might say right they they're pretty intense yeah and threatening and you know saying that there's been somebody watching me my whole life and trying to kill me and

Speaker 6 scary stuff. Whenever she did that, did you feel like you were watching a movie and that she was threatening you from in the jail?

Speaker 6 Or did you feel like that she was being sincere? She was truly worried for you because,

Speaker 6 again, she didn't commit this crime, right? Whoever did this to her is still out there. And if you are her child, in her opinion, then you're in danger.

Speaker 18 Things with James start to grow a bit tense.

Speaker 6 There's not a single person that I know that is

Speaker 6 backing me in doing this because the media has been very violent, very vile. And the media is one of the reasons why I

Speaker 6 don't want to use the word fearful to meet you, but I wasn't looking forward to meeting you.

Speaker 18 They go back and forth about the details surrounding Diane's public behavior at the time of the shooting and her seeming lack of emotion when reenacting the scene.

Speaker 18 Becky pokes holes in James' argument for Diane's innocence, which he repeatedly defends.

Speaker 6 I can tell you that for many years, I've been very angry at you, mainly because when I tried to talk to you, you didn't want to talk to me.

Speaker 6 One of the things that you said was: the purpose of doing what you're doing is so you can be sure that Diane does not get parole.

Speaker 6 Right?

Speaker 6 I don't want to be a part of that. I don't want to be a part of somebody that was trying to keep my sister in prison because how she acts is just,

Speaker 6 I've never been shot. I've never had my child killed in front of me you know what i mean

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 6 i just it's just how are you supposed to act

Speaker 6 well you're wrong because you don't know right you know what i mean at this point the tension is palpable straight out in english language i could not in any way shape or form be a part of somebody's life that thought my sister was guilty i understand that and really

Speaker 6 my life is now consumed with my sister, which is why I'm sitting here. And what I want,

Speaker 6 what I believe

Speaker 6 is that

Speaker 6 if you looked at not actions and evidence, that there would be no doubt that you would believe that she's innocent. I understand that you came here solely to speak of her innocence

Speaker 6 and not to meet me. I wanted to reach out to you to give you your voice and to get to to know you.
So that just really hurts. I talked to your dad for years.
I don't want to be just some person.

Speaker 6 And I understand that you're angry. I would be too, but why are you here? My sister's in prison.
She doesn't belong there.

Speaker 6 And I want you to be her mouthpiece. I want you to go out there and tell the world that she didn't do this.

Speaker 18 It becomes clear that James believes Diane when she says that whomever she claims is the actual shooter is still out there, a theory he has also adopted.

Speaker 6 You want me to be an advocate for her. That's right.

Speaker 6 But that would require me to believe she's innocent. That's right.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 why would I even say that to you? If I didn't believe that if you stopped and you looked at what happened here, and if you looked at everything that I've got to show you,

Speaker 6 if you really had an open mind and you weren't thinking about how crazy she was, there is no doubt in my mind that you would be.

Speaker 6 And then you could use your voice to help get her out. Is she your mother? She's my biological mother.
There you go. I don't constantly say mean things about her.

Speaker 6 I defend her even when people, you know, say horrible things. I say, she was in solitary for so long.
Even a sane person would go crazy.

Speaker 18 Those letters that she wrote,

Speaker 6 they were crazy. She also believed she was protecting you.
Those letters when she was saying to keep quiet, quit talking, because he's still out there. She was protecting you.

Speaker 6 That's part of her theory about what happened to her. Okay.

Speaker 6 And she believes that she's being watched still. She believes that we're all still in danger.
Do you believe that if she was released, she could get help for her mental issues as is?

Speaker 6 Do you think she would be safe? I know she would be safe. It's really strange talking to her at times because as

Speaker 6 incoherent about the man watching and things like that, she is so incredibly coherent about if she doesn't talk about that,

Speaker 6 she's incredibly coherent, incredibly normal.

Speaker 18 There was finally an opening and Becky decides to ask what she believes is the most important question she has for James.

Speaker 6 Yeah, do you know who my biological father is? No, I don't. Sorry.

Speaker 6 I do know that he was a guy on her poster, but is all I know. There's only one person that knows.
We were talking earlier, and it's like the father may not even know he's a father.

Speaker 6 And that's what I'm thinking. It's either he's passed away, he doesn't know, or he doesn't want to know.
She didn't tell him. She didn't tell him she was pregnant.

Speaker 18 James and Becky finally both have their respective agendas for the conversation out in the open. For James, Diane's innocence, and for Becky, her biological father's identity.

Speaker 18 James agrees to take a DNA test to help her in her quest.

Speaker 6 I mean, I think that would be wonderful. It might settle Diane a little bit to know for real.
It might help me find my biological father. It might.
Probably not, but it might.

Speaker 6 It'll let you know your heritage. So that's cool.
Yeah, that's what they say.

Speaker 6 I'm from Denmark.

Speaker 6 About two or three years ago. My dad probably told you, right? Yeah, yeah, from Denmark.
Denmark royalty.

Speaker 6 I don't feel complete.

Speaker 6 I don't feel complete talking to you. I want to.

Speaker 6 I feel like you've judged her because of how she acts. And I just

Speaker 6 believe that if you need to open

Speaker 6 your

Speaker 6 looking for things,

Speaker 6 and I'm not saying you're looking in the wrong area because nowhere you look is wrong.

Speaker 6 But maybe you need to look at what was done to her, what was done

Speaker 6 to her.

Speaker 6 So you couldn't be with her even. They stopped you from being with her.
She didn't stop it. They stopped it.

Speaker 18 James calms a bit and sort of seems to regret being so outwardly aggressive, but still can't help pushing his agenda.

Speaker 6 I mean, I understand that you have a lot of emotion, right? And I'm sorry if I dissed your emotion. I just need you to really think about,

Speaker 6 you can send it to me in email.

Speaker 6 This is why I think Diane did this. Okay.
Okay.

Speaker 6 All right. Thank you guys.
I think that's a wrap for today.

Speaker 6 That was a lot for both of you. No apologies.
No,

Speaker 6 I really, really do care, right? Thank you. I don't want you to be sad.
I don't want anybody to be sad for any reason. Yeah.

Speaker 6 And believe me when I said that.

Speaker 6 I mean that with my heart, that I believe that you're going to be your voice.

Speaker 6 I didn't see it, envision it, or anything.

Speaker 6 It's just my heart believes that.

Speaker 6 Yeah. My heart believes that.
Well, we can definitely talk more.

Speaker 18 We'll follow follow up on this.

Speaker 18 It's hard to say if Becky got what she wanted from the interaction with James.

Speaker 18 It's the first member of the Frederickson side of the family who's agreed to meet with her and have a real conversation about Diane.

Speaker 18 So in many ways, it's as close as Becky has ever been to the maternal side of her family line.

Speaker 18 Despite the tension between them, James agreed to give Becky a key piece of the puzzle to help confirm her genetic identity, his DNA.

Speaker 18 With this, Becky will hopefully finally be able to confirm once and for all that she's in fact the biological daughter of Diane Downs.

Speaker 18 On the next episode of Happy Face presents Too Face, we unpack the details of exactly what happened on that fateful night in May of 1983 when Diane Downs and her three children arrived at that Springfield, Oregon hospital, all with gunshot wounds.

Speaker 9 Are your AI agents helping users or just creating more work?

Speaker 7 If you can't compare your users' workflows before and after adding AI, how do you know it's even paying off?

Speaker 11 Pendo Agent Analytics is the first tool to connect agent prompts and conversations to downstream outcomes like time saved so you know what's working and what to fix.

Speaker 14 Start improving agent performance at pendo.io slash podcast.

Speaker 15 That's pendo.io slash podcast.

Speaker 27 Fall is the perfect time to explore California in a brand new Toyota hybrid with 17 fuel-efficient options like the stylish all-hybrid Camry, the adventure-ready RAV4 hybrid, or the spacious Grand Highlander hybrid.

Speaker 27 Toyota has the perfect ride for any adventure. Every new Toyota comes with Toyota Care, a two-year complimentary scheduled maintenance plan, and an exclusive hybrid battery warranty.

Speaker 27 Visit your local Toyota dealer and Test Drive One today. Toyota, let's go places.
See your local Toyota dealer for hybrid battery warranty details.

Speaker 4 It's the gaming event of the year featuring T-Pain's Nappy Boy Grizzlies versus Neo's Gentleman's Gaming.

Speaker 4 It's a 4v4 matchup featuring Call of Duty, Tetris, Track Mania, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 Plus 4, and Tekken 8. Season Zero of the Global Gaming League is live streaming on YouTube and Twitch.

Speaker 4 Head over to globalgamingleague.com.

Speaker 23 Oral health goes beyond just aesthetics. It's deeply connected to your general health and well-being.
That's why preventing oral health problems before they start is so important.

Speaker 23 When you use the Colgate Total Active Prevention System, you're not just helping to prevent oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis. You're laying the groundwork for overall wellness.

Speaker 23 Colgate Total's three-product routine includes a reformulated toothpaste, an innovative toothbrush, and a refreshing antibacterial mouthwash that all support a healthy mouth.

Speaker 23 In fact, the three products were designed to work together to be 15 times more effective at reducing bacteria buildup in six weeks, starting from week one, compared to a non-antibacterial fluoride toothpaste and flat trim toothbrush.

Speaker 23 Take control of your oral health and get the Colgate Total Active Prevention System today so you can be dentist dentist ready. Visit shop.colgate.com/slash total.

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.