An intriguing story was told on last night’s ABC 20/20 report Children Now, about the legacy of being the secret child of a killer. In 1983 the case of Diane Downs became infamous in the U.S. as it involved a mother (Downs), who shot her 3 children, injuring two and killing another. When it evolved that she’d done it as she was involved with a married man who didn’t want to take on her children, the country was even more shocked and horrified.

Diane Downs was convicted of the shootings and just before she started her prison sentence, she actually gave birth to another baby who was taken away for adoption, as reported by Gather.com. Rebecca Babcock was that baby and she is now 26 years old and spoke last night for the first time, about how it felt to hear that her birth mother was an infamous child killer.

When Rebecca was very young her adoptive parents had to tell family and others close to Rebecca, exactly who she was, as Diane Downs had escaped from prison, but Rebecca didn’t actually find out herself until she was a teenager. Today Diane Downs still declares her innocence but was denied parole in 2008 and remains in jail.

Rebecca’s moving testimony will have amazed many as she spoke with dignity and eloquence; her upbringing with her adoptive family certainly looks as though it was the best thing that could have happened to her. You can see her on the video below this story. For more on this go to gather.com. We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this story.

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