Other than Diane Downs, most of the names have been changed; her children's names were changed from Christie to Karen, from Cheryl to Shauna, and from Danny to Robbie.
Also Diane Downs' ex husband's name was changed from Steve to Boyd Paul; and the prosecutor Fred Hugi to Frank Josiac.
Also Diane Downs' ex husband's name was changed from Steve to Boyd Paul; and the prosecutor Fred Hugi to Frank Josiac.
The film omitted the real-life situation of Diane Downs having affairs with other men while carrying on her affair with Robert "Nick" Knickerbocker (named Lew Lewiston in the film). She eventually caught an STD, which prompted Knickerbocker to confess to his wife about his affair with Downs. Knickerbocker's wife knew about the affair all along and was waiting for him to admit it. She ended up forgiving him despite Downs' persistence and hold on Knickerbocker.
Rebecca "Becky" Babcock, the woman who was the baby girl that Diane Downs was pregnant with during her trial, would fast-forward through the moment in the first trial scene where Downs was moving her head and hands rhythmically to the song, "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, which was playing in Downs' car on the night of the shootings. This moment makes her understandably heartbroken and emotional. While the song was playing in the courtroom, jurors and spectators were aghast at seeing Downs' apathy and carelessness as she easily danced to the song that was playing while her children were shot.
Another situation that this film left out was that Diane Downs had actually opened her own surrogacy clinic in Arizona.
It's not mentioned in the film, but Diane Downs wasn't an only child; she was the eldest of Wes and Willa Dean Frederickson's five children.