[snootchiebootchies]

There are lots of stories behind Grant Hart's songs but I'll post this one. Diane is about the murder of a woman named Diane Edwards in St. Paul, MN by a serial killer. More details about her murder is included in the spoiler. The Perkins restaurant where Diane worked is still there.

Spoiler!

On September 26, 1980, 19-year-old Diane Edwards was abducted while walking home from her waitressing job at a Perkins Restaurant in West St. Paul. Four teen-age girls witnessed her abduction. They saw a station wagon drive west on Moreland Avenue, pull onto the sidewalk and stop by a woman walking there alone. The girls heard the woman scream and observed the driver of the station wagon force the woman into his car through the driver's door. They immediately reported the event to the police. Although they were unable to identify the driver or to precisely describe the make, model or year of the vehicle involved, they did inform the police that the abducted woman wore a Perkins uniform and was driven away in a dark-colored station wagon with wood-grain panels.

Kathy Dahn, who was sitting in her car in a laundromat parking lot on Moreland Avenue, also witnessed the abduction. She noticed a man driving an older, brown, somewhat rusty station wagon jump out of the wagon, pick a woman up over his head and throw her into the car through the driver's door. She also heard the woman screaming. She did not contact the police until she heard a news report of the missing Diane Edwards the next day.

A few minutes prior to the abduction, Tomi Willems had been forced off the road near the intersection of Thompson and Oakdale in West St. Paul by an older model, dark brown station wagon. She had stopped at a stop sign when the station wagon lightly rear-ended her car. When she turned around, the driver of the station wagon was grinning at her. The man then drove alongside her car, hopped out of the station wagon, and attempted to open the locked passenger door of Ms. Willems' car. In an attempt to avoid him, she turned left, but the man pursued her in the station wagon and forced her to stop by driving ahead of her and blocking the road. Thereupon, she began honking her automobile horn. As a car approached her from the rear, the station wagon drove away. This incident happened within minutes before, and only a few blocks away from, the abduction of Diane Edwards. Later, Ms. Willems was unable to positively identify the man but described him as being in his mid-20's, unshaven and with brown hair below ear length.

On October 9, 1980, a hunter discovered Diane Edwards' purse on a side road in rural Sherburne County. A few hours later, police discovered Ms. Edwards' naked body lying face down in a ditch close to where the purse had been found. Ms. Edwards' clothes were lying in a pile next to her. Further search uncovered Ms. Edwards' glasses, but nothing was discovered providing a possible lead to the abductor's identity.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner concluded that Ms. Edwards had died from loss of blood resulting from stab wounds in the chest area. In his opinion the stab wounds had been caused by a single-bladed instrument, such as a buck knife, with a 6-inch long blade. He concluded she had died between 11:30 p.m. on September 26, 1980, and 1 a.m. on September 27, 1980. In addition to the stab wounds, the examiner noted four bruises on the face, one bruise on the right shoulder, and what looked like rope marks on the arms. A sexual assault examination was also conducted on the body. It revealed traces of sperm in the cervical area. Because of decomposition, blood-typing on the sperm sample was inconclusive.