The Murder of Diane Drake, Part Two

Mar 18

Written By Kristen Seavey

Diane Drake (Jean Fucile, digitized by Murder, She Told)

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This is the second is a two part series. Click here for part one.

Diane Drake’s Autopsy

On Sunday, March 23, 1980, Dr. William Sturner began Diane Drake’s autopsy, searching for clues about what had happened to her. We have a copy of Diane’s autopsy. The report’s conclusion reads, “It is [my] opinion that Diane Drake died from strangulation with submersion and blunt force trauma.” The wording is a bit mysterious—strangulation, drowning, and blunt force trauma could all individually be a cause of death, but it appears from the precise wording that the doctor believes that her death was due to a confluence of all three.

The finding of strangulation was supported by the abrasions on the left side of her neck along with the fracture of her left hyoid bone.

Regarding blunt force trauma, Diane had a lot of broken bones. Many of her ribs, particularly on her right side, had been fractured. Her pelvis was fractured. The spine in her neck was dislocated and fractured.

It’s unclear what caused the doctor to believe that drowning was a factor in her death. All that’s said regarding this finding is “postmortem chemical studies reveal evidence of submersion.”

Blood from her heart along with various other bodily fluids were taken and toxicology testing was performed. The results came back negative for alcohol and negative for marijuana.

Regarding the time of her death, there is nothing in the autopsy report that suggests when her death occurred. Even her death certificate says Friday, March 21st, or Saturday, March 22nd. The window of time between when someone last spoke to her on the phone—2:15PM on Friday afternoon—and when her body was discovered—10:25AM on Saturday morning—leaves a period of time during which she was unaccounted for of 20 hours.

According to a much later article in the Newport Daily News, “the state medical examiner determined that Diane was strangled Friday between 10:00PM and midnight.” If this conclusion was reached by the ME, it was not written in the autopsy report or on the death certificate.

Additional details from her autopsy can be heard at no cost in the full audio episode wherever you listen or at the podcast player above.

Investigation continues

Over the following weekend, police explored all their options to probe the memories of three people who thought they’d seen Diane the afternoon of her murder. They even brought in a hypnotist to speak to each witness, getting each of them to dig deep within themselves and relive the moments of the day.

Investigators were looking into three specific vehicles spotted in the Valley Road area where a woman who resembled Diane had been spotted walking. They described the cars as a light-colored van, a dark green or black sedan, and a light-colored sedan. Police also hoped to contact any hitchhikers in the area who might have seen something. More than 250 calls had come in since the murder, and 12 detectives were assigned full-time to the case. Customers and coworkers at Photo Patio were interviewed as a routine part of the investigation, and two theories were being considered by police—one was that Diane was involved in the drug trade, selling them from her Photo Patio; the second, that she was being harassed by certain customers.

Police were also looking for a woman who matched Diane’s description; discrepancies that had turned up in the investigation had led them to believe that they had a look-a-like situation on their hands. Several people had told police that a woman who looked like Diane had been on Purgatory Road or Crest Road the day of the murder; however, the woman spotted was carrying a shoulder bag. Diane hadn’t had a bag with her that day. They hoped to identify the woman and trace her movements in order to eliminate unrelated sightings.

By late April, there was little movement in the case and the number of detectives working it actively had dropped from 12 to 5.

FBI and ViCAP analysis

In June 2007, a new FBI analyst was assigned to Diane’s case. Two months later, a now-heavily-redacted memo indicated that the analyst had tried to contact the Newport Police Department multiple times about the case, but that, “no one ever returned her phone calls.” Only 40 of the 537 pages of the FBI’s case file on Diane have been released, so it’s unclear how many attempts were made to connect with Newport PD. The results of the analysis are not available to the public...

We requested these files from the FBI ourselves and aside from a few heavily-redacted reports, most of the pages were devoted to listing the many pages that they would not release.

In September 2007, another FBI analyst entered information about Diane’s case into ViCAP, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program database. ViCAP is a database of violent crimes with known offenders. It can be used to draw comparisons to similar cases and do statistical analysis about the perpetrators. The completed ViCAP report was sent along to Newport Police.

Diane’s final days

Diane’s sister, Jean, has rolled over the details of Diane’s final day of life for nearly 45 years. She did her own investigation into the case. She’s talked to everyone involved.

Jean walked us through that final day hour by hour. She said that Elaine’s boyfriend, Dean, and his buddy, Chris, were at the apartment that Friday morning. They told Jean that Diane was in her bedroom most of the time that they were at the cottage. They said that they left with Elaine around 1:00PM when she drove to Roger Williams for class. By that point, Diane had missed her second class of the day—Introduction to Political Power—which had started at noon.

In that period of time between 1:00PM and 2:15PM, Diane spoke with her sister and told her that she needed the money and that she needed to get ready for work.

The final call with Billy’s mother, Virginia, happened at 2:15PM.

Jean believes that it was unlikely Diane would have left on foot for work, considering the poor weather conditions and the nearly 3-mile distance. She thinks that Diane would have kept calling people until she found someone who would give her a ride. She wonders why Diane didn’t just wait until 2:30PM and call her roommate, who would, by that point, be at her Photo Patio. She could probably slip away for the twenty minutes necessary to pick up Diane, drop her off at work, and return to work herself.

Alarm bells seemed to ring almost immediately with Elaine. Within 30 minutes of her scheduled start, Elaine was calling around looking for Diane. Photo Patio had hours during the day and Diane’s shift was starting as another worker’s shift was ending. It’s never been reported who her coworker was, or whether they waited around, or if the manager for Photo Patio found an employee last-minute to cover Diane’s absence. It’s never been reported what became of the paycheck that Diane wanted to pick up.

Jean and the cops both wonder if perhaps Diane called one of the customers of her Photo Patio that was one of those lingering guys—maybe one of them had offered her a ride if she ever needed one. One of those customers, who we’ll call Daniel, was called into the station by police on Sunday, the day after Diane’s body was found, because of a tip that one of Diane’s colleagues gave to police. He was a guy that they should talk to. Another strange tip regarding Daniel came in ten years later. A woman went to the cops and said that she was in the car with him in the year following Diane’s death. Daniel exclaimed, “I’m so sorry, Diane” and started “flipping out.” The girl got out of the vehicle, afraid, and walked home. Ten years later she told her father the story and he insisted that she tell the police. Jean was told that the police went to investigate the tip, but Daniel lawyered up immediately.

Jean finds it difficult to believe that Billy could’ve had anything to do with it, but he was, nonetheless, hounded by the police.

What happened to Diane? Did the killer come to her cottage, beckoned by a phone call, and pick her up in a vehicle? Was it some bizarre accident or situation that got out of hand that was being covered up? Did the killer pick up a young woman who was out hitchhiking in the rain?

Never forgotten

Every year, Diane’s loved ones gather at Easton’s Beach to remember her. Her brother Bob shows up with a huge photo of Diane attached to the side of his van. He stays on the beach until dark, chatting with reporters, passersby, and his surviving siblings. The family hopes to place some sort of permanent memorial on the beach in honor of Diane. One has already been built and is waiting for approval. Onlookers slow to acknowledge the memorial, offering prayers and words of encouragement.

One of her nieces even went on to follow in her footsteps and pursued a degree in criminal justice.

2025 marks It’s been 45 years since Diane Drake was found murdered on March 22, 1980. Diane was just 19 years old, had her whole life ahead of her. She was a bright young student with a kind spirit, a full life, and loving friends and family.

I can’t help but think back to the tarot reading—Diane’s fate was spelled out in the cards just days before her death. And now, her life is defined by a different set of cards, the Rhode Island cold case deck, where Diane is the queen of clubs. Perhaps the card we’re waiting on most, Justice, will someday finally be dealt.

If you have any information on the murder of Diane Drake, please contact the Rhode Island Cold Case Unit tip line at (401) 468-2233 or email them at riagcoldcase@riag.ri.gov. You can also call the anonymous tip line at the Newport Police Dept at (401) 846-2606.

Donate to the Diane Drake Memorial Scholarship Fund at Roger Williams University. Choose 'Make a Gift to RWU', select Other, and write in Diane Drake Memorial Scholarship. If you donate, please email your me at hello@murdershetold.com for a gift.

This text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Murder of Diane Drake, Part Two. To hear Diane’s full story and Jean’s interview, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.

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Diane Drake, middle (Jean Fucile, digitized by Murder, She Told)

Drake house in Redwood Farms, Rhode Island (facebook.com)

Diane Drake wearing sash during parade (facebook.com)

“Redwood Farms Day,” 1971, (facebook.com)

Diane Drake, right, with friends Judy and Bob. (Jean Fucile, digitized by Murder, She Told)

Drake family, 1975, Diane second to left (facebook.com)

Diane Drake and family at Virginia Beach, 1976, Diane bottom left (facebook.com)

Diane Drake, driver's license (Jean Fucile, digitized by Murder, She Told)

Diane Drake, military ID (Jean Fucile, digitized by Murder, She Told)

Diane Drake, right, with Cindy (Jean Fucile, digitized by Murder, She Told)

Fotomat, typical drive-up photo kiosk (wikipedia.org)

Diane Drake and her father dancing at a family wedding, 1978 (facebook.com)

Map of relevant locations, Diane Drake case (Providence Journal)

Poem read at Diane's funeral (facebook.com)

Sources For This Episode

Newspaper articles

Various articles from Newport Daily News, Providence Journal, and The Quill, here.

Written by various authors including Anne Roketenetz, Cammy Bitel, Catherine Callahan, Gayle Gertler, Jim Gillis, Joanne Tiberio, Laura Damon, Lynne Sullivan, Margie Coloian, Pat Forte, Paul Duggan, Richard Salit, Savana Dunning, and Scott Barrett.

Online written sources

'Capt. John Francis Drake' (Memorial Funeral Home), 9/13/2006

'Newport, RI Area Cold Cases' (SpotCrime), 1/1/2007

'Obituary: Frances J. Drake, 86' (Patch), 11/10/2014, by Mark Shieldrop

'The Quill -- March 12, 1981' (Roger Williams University), 9/19/2015

'Richard E. Drake' (Legacy), http://legacy.com 6/11/2021

'Siblings push for renewed interest in 1980 Newport cold case' (WPRI), 3/21/2022, by Alexandra Lesli

'On 42nd anniversary of Diane Drake's murder, family asks for people to come forward' (Newport RI), 3/22/2022, by Laura Damon

'Diane Drake memorial' (Facebook), 4/20/2022

'‘She was a life that mattered,’ Diane Drake's family remembers 43 years on' (10 WJAR), 3/21/2023, by Cal Dymowski

'Murder victim's brother hopes to preserve her memory' (WPRI), 3/21/2023, by Allison Shinskey, Sarah Doiron

'Diane Drake's murder remains unsolved, her brother thinks it's time to honor her' (Newport RI), 3/22/2023, by Savana Dunning