Small Sacrifices

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Small Sacrifices is a 1989 made for TV movie based on the real life events of Diane Downs , a mother who on May 19, 1983 at approximately 10:48 p.m drove to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital near Springfield, Oregon with a gun shot wound to her arm and claimed that an unknown assailant attempted to carjack her and shot her three children: Christie Downs, 8; Cheryl Ann Downs, 7; and Danny Downs, 3. (In the movie they are known as Karen, Shaunna and Robby). Her oldest daughter was a witness to her crime and lost her speech so she couldn't tell the real story, based on fear and shock, her youngest son was paralysed, and her middle child, a daughter, was shot and did not survive. The movie is based on the best selling true crime book by Ann Rule.

The film stars Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal, Gordon Clapp, John Shea and Emily Perkins. The film was first aired on ABC on November 12, 1989.

The movie ends with Diane Downs sentenced to life in prison and her two surviving children adopted by the prosecutor who convicted their mother, (Fred Hugi and his wife Joanne) known as Frank and Lola Joziak in the movie. Later in the movie, it shows what happened to the kids about fifteen years later, seeing their mother for the first time in 15 years.

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