THE RUNAWAYS

It was the stuff of nightmares. Raleigh Hills mom Diane Walden, 40, goes out to play a few rounds of golf at Progress Downs with Peter, a 13-year-old family friend, in August 1991. They don't come back.

Initial news reports played up speculation that Peter and Diane had been kidnapped--even murdered.

But as the weeks dragged by, investigators began to suspect that the odd couple had run away.

The pair had become almost inseparable. Peter worked as an assistant at Diane's daycare center and often accompanied her on errands. Increasingly uncomfortable about the relationship, his mother had ordered him to quit spending time with her.

The two were captured in the parking lot of a New Jersey casino 40 days after their disappearance. This spectacular elopement captured headlines across the nation. Local musician (and Oregonian reporter) Tony Green even recorded a song about them.

At the subsequent trial, Peter testified that he and Diane had engaged in sex on about 20 occasions, both before and during their trip. Diane denied any sexual contact. In an exceedingly nasty defense, her lawyers suggested that Peter had fabricated the allegations under pressure from his parents.

The jury found Diane guilty of custodial interference but deadlocked on the sex charges. Rather than hold a new trial, prosecutors dropped those charges.

Peter, now 26, lives in Redmond, Ore., with his wife and family. He declined to speak to WW.

Diane, now 53, was sentenced to two years in prison and served out her time at the Columbia River Correctional Institution. She was discharged in 1993.

Computer records list her current address as a post office box in Quartzsite, Ariz., not far from the Yuma Proving Ground, where the U.S. Army tests missiles. Efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.

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