SALEM, Ore., Dec. 10 (UPI) -- An Oregon parole board rejected a convicted child-killer's bid for parole after a three-hour hearing at which Elizabeth Diane Downs continued to deny the crime.
Downs, who was sentenced to life plus 55 years, for the 1983 murder of her 7-year-old daughter, Cheryl, and for shooting and wounding her other daughter and son, is imprisoned in Chowchilla, Calif. She was transferred out of state after a 1987 escape.
The application for parole was Downs' first, The Portland Oregonian reported. She became eligible after serving 25 years.
Appearing at her hearing by video link, Downs answered questions from parole board members. She claimed that she had tried to escape several times because she wanted to find the person who actually shot her children.
"I did not shoot my children," she said. "I will never say I shot my children. I think my children deserve better."
Prosecutors said Downs, usually known as Diane, decided to kill her children because she was interested in a man who did not want to take on a ready-made family. True-crime writer Ann Rule wrote a book about the case, "Small Sacrifices," which became a TV movie starring Farrah Fawcett.
Her surviving children, both permanently injured by the shooting, were adopted by one of the prosecutors.
