Crime Library Files: Diane Downs

"Somebody just shot my kids!" The blond woman yelled to the emergency room nurses.

The two nurses teetered when they looked through the windows of the Nissan. Side panels were soaked in blood and amidst the blood lay three small children, one in the front passenger seat, two in the back. First glance told the nurses the children had been shot at very close range. Two of the children still breathed, although strenuously; the boy gasped for air. The child found slumped in the front seat appeared beyond help; despite frantic efforts by the doctors at the operating table, the damage had been lethal. She was pronounced dead moments after being wheeled to emergency.

Someone without a heart had deliberately attempted to murder three kids in cold blood, and, despite the odds, despite a fate that looked gloomy, the caretakers hastened to keep that fate at bay and beat it at its own game: with deliberate intention.

Who in the name of God could have aimed a pistol at three small children and pulled the trigger?"

The facts came to light in a most suspicious manner and unlike those explained by the mother, Diane Downs.
[CrimeLibrary.com article]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just like Casey Anthony, this woman let a relationship with a man morph her mind into thinking she needs to kill her children to compensate for keeping their romantic relationships. It's sickening!

This Woman Needs To Fry..

Mother charged in killing of 18-month-old daughter

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Emma Leigh Barker's body was found in Sylmar. Authorities think it is likely she was suffocated.

Stacy Barker told authorities she was knocked out and her daughter abducted from a park in Lancaster. The girl had been suffocated hours before Barker contacted authorities, detectives say.

An Antelope Valley mother who alleged that an attacker knocked her out and abducted her 18-month-old daughter is believed to have suffocated the girl hours earlier and dumped her body in Sylmar, detectives said Monday.

Stacey Barker, 24, was charged with one count each of murder, assault on a child causing death, and child abuse in the death of Emma Leigh Barker, authorities said.


"At this point, as best as we can determine, the infant died through suffocation at the hands of the mother," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Pat Nelson. "After her third or fourth version of events, we knew she wasn't telling the truth, and we were able to determine what happened. At this point, we believe she acted alone."

Detectives arrested Barker last Thursday because of "indications she might flee or disappear," Nelson said. Barker had been staying with relatives since the March 18 disappearance of her daughter and discovery of the child's body near Roxford Street and El Dorado Avenue in deep brush along a fence.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the Los Angeles County coroner's office has yet to determine the cause of death, but based on the information available at this point it is likely the girl suffocated.


Detectives believe that the girl was already dead four or five hours before Stacey Barker contacted authorities to report the child missing and tell of her mysterious abduction.

"Our belief is the child died in the early evening of March 18," Nelson said.

Barker initially told detectives that she was at a Lancaster park near the 14 Freeway and had just placed Emma in her car seat when she was struck from behind by an unknown assailant. She told them that she awoke about 10:30 p.m. five hours later and several miles away at a Palmdale park-and-ride lot, and that her daughter was missing.

But the next day, Barker recanted the tale of assault and abduction that had launched a massive manhunt, Nelson said. She eventually helped sheriff's detectives find her daughter's body and told them she had died in an accident. Detectives then discovered the toddler's body in Sylmar near Interstate 5.

Prosecutors allege that Barker willfully caused and permitted her daughter to be harmed and that the injury resulted in death. Barker, of Quartz Hill, was arrested last week at her grandparents' home in Lancaster.

Barker's arraignment hearing was postponed Monday until May 11. She remains in custody in lieu of $1-million bail.

Yes! They Got the Hit and Run Killer!!

Bond Denied For Hit-And-Run Suspect

ATLANTA -- A judge denied bond Thursday afternoon for the woman who police said confessed to the fatal hit-and-run crash that killed five people on Easter Sunday.

Aimee Michael, 22, was arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide and hit and run overnight after police found the BMW that they believed was involved in the wreck on Camp Creek Parkway.

Michael, in handcuffs and clad in a blue Fulton County scrub suit, sat quietly as Judge James Altman read the charges against her. Altman denied bond because Michael had nearly two weeks to turn herself in but did not.

"While this has been in the news with them looking for the car, she has done absolutely nothing to fulfill those responsibilities," said Altman.

Acting on a tip, SWAT officers converged on a home in south Fulton and impounded the vehicle in the driveway. Police spokeswoman Sgt. Melissa Parker said officers went into the home but found no one there.

According to Fulton County police, the Michael’s family sent her out Easter Sunday to get cake and ice cream.

That's when, police say, Michael's BMW collided with a Mercedes sending the Mercedes into oncoming traffic.

The Mercedes hit a Volkswagen head on.

Police said instead of stopping, Michael drove her wrecked BMW back home and parked it in the garage.

She told her family she had a headache and went to her room.

For two days, the BMW sat in the garage.

Michael's mother and grandmother told police they don't enter the house through the garage, so they didn't realize it was wrecked until two days after the wreck.

Police said that's when Michael broke down and told her family what happened.

At that point, investigators say, the family did not go to police.

Her mother and grandmother apparently knew about Michael's involvement for at least eight days, but did not come forward.

Instead, someone from the family had the car repaired.

Robert and Delisia Carter, their newborn son, and Delisia Carter's 9-year-old daughter, Kayla, died in the chain-reaction crash near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Also killed was Morgan Johnson, 6, whose mother, Tracy Johnson, 43, of Atlanta was injured.

John Mattox, who said he's a cousin of Tracy Johnson, said he needed to be in the courtroom as Michael faced her fate.

"I wanted to see to make sure she didn't get bond so I can feel happy about it," said Mattox.

Michael's relatives, clearly shaken from the ordeal, did not want to talk.

Will Rumph didn't know his neighbor by name, but he often saw her driving to and from her house.

He said at a recent neighborhood association meeting, a police officer attended.

"They had a flyer and they said they were looking out for this 1995 gold BMW,” said Rumph.

At the time that didn't register.

Police won't say yet whether they're going after the mechanic or Michael’s mother and grandmother.

That's up to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard and people at his office tell CBS Atlanta News he's looking into it.

[OLDER BLOG ABOUT THIS TOPIC]

Previous Stories:
April 16, 2009: Hit And Run Survivor Improving
April 13, 2009: Five Die In Accident, Driver Sought

YESSS!!!!! NOW SEEKING DEATH PENALTY!!!!

Defense attorney, Jose Baez, visited the Orange County Jail yesterday after the state announced they would seek the death penalty in their case against Casey Anthony.

According to official jail records, Baez entered the jail shortly after 8 p.m. and left at 9:15 p.m. Casey has not received any other visitors.

Around 4pm Monday, Lead prosecutor, Linda Drane Burdick, of the state attorney's office, filed the letter to seek the death penalty for Casey Anthony.

Baez is not qualified to defend Anthony in a death penalty case because he lacks the required credentials by the Florida Bar.

"This is not a death penalty case. We will do whatever is necessary to defend Casey Anthony from the State trying to take her life. We already have death qualified defense lawyers on our team and are prepared for a vigorous defense ... We plan on making this a whole tougher for the state now," said Baez.

Click here to read the State's Notice Of Intent To Seek Death Penalty

"Based upon additional information that has become available since the waiver of intent to seek the penalty of death filed on December 5, 2008, sufficient aggravating circumstances exist to justify the imposition of the Death Penalty," the filed letter stated.