Here are some factual errors:
Diane Downs' children had the same father.
Terri has had two children, two fathers.
Diane never completed the first year of college.
Terri has a Master's degree.
Diane claims someone else did it.
Terri has never said anything other than she did not.
Diane had no one who could verify her story.
Terri's alibi has so far checked out, having been to stores and a gym and someone seeing her.
These are just a few factual errors. There are no doubt more. Wanting Terri to fit into the mold of Diane Downs, using gossip and speculation is easy. When you add facts, it falls apart. Or it should. Perhaps it won't.
Carry on.
I respectfully disagree with your recitation of factual errors on the article:
1. Diane Downs' youngest child, the boy she crippled, was not from the same father as her girls. He was the product of an affair.
2. There is no mention of the two women's educational backgrounds in the article.
3. There is no mention in the article of both women wither saying they did not do it or saying nothing.
4. I have yet to hear anyone but TH say that her "alibis" check out. Instead, it appears, based on her own comments, that there is an hour or more during which she was "wandering" around on back roads, supposedly to soothe her child, coincidentally on the very day her kid went missing.
But regardless of whether there actually exist factual error or not, (actually, I think the article states as fact things that have yet to be substantiated, like the cell phone pings, but that are not necessarily incorrect), I don't see much of a resemblance between the two women. Diane Downs was a wild and strange woman and always was considered such. She couldn't stop talking about the day her kids were shot. TH does not seem to have that reputation. Her own husband says he was shocked by what he now believes and that this is out of character. And TH has remained very quiet.
I respectfully think it's an unfair comparison. The only similarity is they are both women from Oregon and both have been suspected (Diane later convicted), of harming their child (or children).
I like Ms. Fanning's books but I think journalists should be careful about stating as fact things that have not been proven yet. It's very easy to add caveats to such statements, such as, (if reports are true, her cell phone pings show...). Not qualifying such statements may act to undermine the point they are trying to make. IMHO.
