She picked someone on her postal route to seduce prior to her arrest for murdering her 3 children

In 1983, Diane Downs said a stranger shot her 3 kids, but police decided she was lying – “The more she talked, the more things didn’t make any sense.”

Watch the full story on “20/20” Friday, March 22, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Late one May night in 1983, Diane Downs sped into an emergency room dropoff in Springfield, Ore., with a horrifying story to tell.

Her three small children, Christie, 8; Cheryl, 7; and Danny, 3, were inside her blood-soaked car, shot at close range.

In the frantic scene, hospital employees quickly determined that Cheryl was already dead and that Christie and Danny were clinging to life.

Downs had also been shot, in the left forearm, though her wound was not life threatening.

When police arrived at the scene, Downs, 27 at the time, told them a bizarre story of being flagged down by a bushy-haired stranger on a dark and deserted country road.

“[She said] she had been out visiting a friend who had a horse up in the Marcola area — she and the kids — and when it grew dark they headed home. She took a detour off of Marcola Road onto Old Mohawk Road to do some sightseeing.”

“By this time it was dark, and the kids were sleeping. And as she drove down the road, a man stepped out from the brush, the side of the road, and she stopped the car. And got out and ask what he wanted. And he replied, ‘I want your car.’ She said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ at which time he pushed her aside and reached in with a gun and began shooting the kids– the three kids.”

Downs said she then faked throwing her keys to divert the gunman’s attention, pushed him out of the way, jumped back in her car and raced to the hospital with her badly wounded children. She says it was during the struggle with the stranger that she was shot in the arm. Read more at ABC News

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