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Clearly it should have come as no surprise that Mr. Jagger failed to have the case reopened when Diane's ex-husband's gun surfaced after the trial and proved not to be the murder weapon. In this case, the murder weapon was never found. State agencies searched the murder scene, searched the road from the scene to the hospital, dragged the river between the scene and the hospital, (App 63 and 80). Searched Diane's car and apartment, and never found the murder weapon. The Ruger ( # 14-76187) the State looked for had been stolen from William Proctor, by Steve Downs, in 1981, (App 61). Diane knew that gun was with Steve Downs in Arizona, so she asked him to turn it over to the Oregon authorities in June,1983. Steve Downs, who still carried a grudge because Diane divorced him two years earlier, denied having the gun. This claim by Steve Downs should have been regarded with suspicion by Oregon authorities who knew of his criminal nature and admitted physical abuse of Diane, (App 24, 74). Ruger # 14-76187 was put into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). Two months after the trial Ruger # 14-76187 turned up in a drug raid in...California. The authorities immediately sent it to Jim Pex in Oregon. Following his own forensic tests however, Pex concluded that it was 'not' the Ruger they sought! He could not connect it to the crime. Not to be beaten however, the State decided to simply eliminate this Ruger but still maintain the Downs Ruger as the murder weapon. This was achieved following an interview Investigators said they conducted with William Proctor, the man Steve Downs had stolen the Ruger from. Two years after Ruger # 14-76187 was stolen from him Proctor used hand-gun registration papers to file the police report of his stolen gun. District Attorney Investigator Paul Alton wrote....'Proctor suddenly remembered'!. A tale emerged in which Proctor told Investigators that he had 'forgot' to inform them that he had possessed 'two' Ruger's. He traded in the first Ruger the day after he purchased it for another. The Ruger Steve Downs took was his 'second' Ruger. Had this second (mythical) Ruger not been fabricated Diane would have been exonerated of the crime. Instead it turned out to be just one more inconceivable and timely event in this case which benefited the State. They could now continue their pretence of a search for the Downs Ruger and of course, keep Diane in jail. This Ruger however, was to come back and haunt them. In December 1984 D.A. Investigator Paul Alton generated a report in which the State admitted that the gun they used to convict Diane Downs with was not the murder weapon. Furthermore in response to Ruger #14-76187 on the N.C.I.C. database the FBI responded saying....'However, the N.C.I.C. Gun File contains no record under the identifiers provided'. The Department of the Treasury (A.T.F.) responded similarly reporting... 'The initial search failed to locate any information relative to serial number 14-76187'. In other words, Lane County, Oregon never put in a search request with the N.C.I.C or A.T.F. for Ruger # 14-76187. So California could not know to contact Oregon as Alton said they did. In the most highly publicized case in Oregon's history, Lane County was not looking for the Ruger they used for a conviction. How could anyone know to contact anyone in Oregon or anywhere else about Ruger # 14-76187?. The truth is they didn't.
In Perris, California. Deputy District Attorney, Dodie Harmon, who prosecuted the felon in the above drug raid said that Ruger # 14-76187 was not recovered in the raid, if it were she would have listed it. She did not, because it wasn't there. There was no record of Ruger #14-76187 in the warrants or warrant returns. Nevertheless D.A. Investigator Paul Alton claimed there was a gun find (irrelevant that the N.C.I.C. and A.T.F had no record of 'identifiers provided' in any warrants for it and a California D. A. said there wasn't one). The truth was the State was not looking for it because of the simple fact that, 'they knew' Diane had not committed the crime. So who was the author of the fabricated documents?, who was the link or contact between California and Oregon?, (by a strange coincidence Detective Tracy worked in the Perris area before taking up a post in Oregon). A recent article by Ann Rule, author of 'Small Sacrifices' may have (inadvertently) solved this twenty year mystery. In the October 2004 edition of the magazine 'Readers Digest'. Ms Rule told the magazine she became involved in the Downs case when an old friend (the late Pierce Brooks), who was once a Captain with a California, Police Department and an expert on serial killers, called her. This was in the Spring of 1984 and he called Ms Rule from his Oregon home. He told her that he was a consultant on an amazing case in Eugene ! This was Diane's case of course. I wish to make it clear that I am not suggesting any involvement by Ms Rule. Diane's father, shocked at his innocent daughter's conviction, 'was' looking for Ruger # 14-76187 however. He believed the Ruger was still in Arizona where Steve Downs lived. He ran a want-ad in the most widely read newspaper in Arizona for the gun, and included its serial number. He didn't have long to wait. A man from Prescott, Arizona responded to the ad claiming he had the gun. Diane's father informed the Lane County authorities of his discovery. Arizona Detective, Diffendaffer however claimed that the gun find was a hoax. In 1991 Diane's father held a telephone conversation with Detective Diffendaffer of Prescott, Arizona. The Detective told him that he had not in fact carried out the interview with the ad respondent. The interview was conducted by Oregon Detective, Richard 'Dick' Tracy of Lane County. Detective Tracy arrived alone he said, or was alone with the respondent when the interview took place, (App's 36 and 41). There is no record of Tracy's visit or interview. Not long after the trial Detective Tracy moved to New Zealand. The gun, given this investigations track record, I would argue 'was' seized by Lane County, and that new evidence should have barred the upcoming sentencing procedure and overturned Diane's conviction.
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