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 *507 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.
A week later West St. Paul police received information that Joseph Ture had been a suspect in a criminal sexual conduct case in Hopkins. At the time of his arrest on the Hopkins charge, defendant had in his possession a number of names of waitresses in the metropolitan area. Later, West St. Paul police learned that defendant had two outstanding misdemeanor traffic tickets in their city. Hoping to question defendant about the Edwards case, they obtained a warrant for defendant’s arrest for these traffic offenses. However, the warrants were never executed because West St. Paul police in the interim were informed by the Minneapolis police department that defendant had been arrested in Minneapolis on October 30, 1980 on charges of attempted rape and kidnapping.
The Dakota County sheriff’s department and the West St. Paul police questioned defendant several times over the next 2 months at the Hennepin County jail. Thereafter, any contact by officers from Dakota County or West St. Paul ceased until approximately 3 months later. Subsequently, as a result of further interrogations in April and May 1981, defendant was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree murder during a sexual assault, two counts of kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.
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“Diane” was inspired by the murder of St. Paul waitress Diane Edwards by Joseph Ture in 1980. Ture would later be tried and convicted for the murder of another waitress, Marlys Wolenhaus, and the murders of Alice Huling and three of her four children in 1978. The song was written and sung by Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart.
Interview with guitarist Bob Mould, drummer Grant Hart knew Edwards:
1984 interview: It’s based on a true story. There was this girl Diane Edwards who Grant knew sort of vaguely. She was working at the Perkins Restaurant, which is like Country Kitchen, one of those chains, and she was picked up hitchhiking. The guy who picked her up drove her down to Elk River, down by the Girl Scout camp there, and raped her and stabbed her over and over…it got a lot of publicity. It was in all of the newspapers, a real local thing. It’s not a condoning of anything, it’s just an account of what happened.
2012 interview: I stopped playing Diane because I could no longer stand putting on the mask of a monster. A book came out about one of Diane Edwards’ murderer’s other victims [Justice for Marlys by John Munday (2004)] and it made me physically sick. There was not as much info about the Edwards murder as the other girls. The cruelty that this psychopath confessed to made me bloody-minded myself.
Lyrics:
Hey little girl, do you need a ride?
Well, I’ve got room in my wagon why don’t you hop inside
We could cruise down Robert Street all night long
But I think I’ll just rape you and kill you instead
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane
I heard there’s a party down at Lake Cove
It would be so much easier if I drove
We could check it out, we could go and see
Oh, won’t you come and take a ride with me
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane
We could lay in the weeds for a little while
I’ll put your clothes in a nice, neat little pile
You’re the cutest girl I’ve ever seen in my life
It’s all over now, and with my knife
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane
Diane, Diane, Diane, Diane
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