Darlie Routier: Child Killer or Home Invasion?

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In the early morning hours of June 6th 1996, a 911 operator in Rollin, Texas received a called from 26 year old, Darlie Routier. The hysterical mother of 3 claimed that there had been an intruder who attacked her and her two young sons.

When the police arrived at the scene, they realized that many things did not match Darlie's story at all.

Beginning:

Summer of 1996 in Texas was extremely hot. Darlie who lived with her husband and 3 young sons in a pretty large home, found herself uncomfortable and sweating even with the air conditioning on.

She decided to sleep in the living room because it was cooler than her upstairs bedroom. She was joined by 6 year old Devon and 5 year old Damon.

The boy's father gave them a kiss and went upstairs to the master bedroom with their third son, 8 year old Drake.

Downstairs, Devon and Damon snuggled into the bedding on the floor while Darlie got comfortable on the couch. All of them fell asleep after watching television.

The Incident:

Around 2:30am, Drake woke up to Damon's voice yelling 'Mommy'. When Darlie opened her eyes, she saw something so strange that she thought she was still dreaming.

A long haired man wearing dark clothing and a baseball cap was leaning close to her. She had never seen this stranger before. At first, she didn't scream, her sleepy brain tried it's best to make sense of what was going on and her body remained frozen.

Even after she saw the big knife in the right hand of the intruder, Darlie automatically turned her head to look towards her son.

She saw Devon on the floor with a pool of blood around him, too quiet and still.

Damon who had initially awoken his mother with his scream, now slid back onto the floor with his clothes full of blood stains. Both the children had been stabbed multiple times.

The stranger began to back away as soon as he noticed Darlie had woken up. She immediately broke free of her sleepy haze and went after the attacker.

The two struggled and the man was slashing the knife at Darlie again and again. He then pushed her off of him and escaped through a garage window.

Darlie returned to the living room where her sons remained motionless and screamed as loud as she could to call her husband.

After which she called 911.

Aftermath:

When police arrived, Devon was already dead and Damon died in the ambulance before reaching the hospital. Both boys had numerous stab wounds that impenetrate vital organs.

Darlie was injured as well, but not as serious. She had a long cut on her neck that missed a major artery by millimeters and two stab wounds on her right forearm. She spent 2 days in the hospital and told her story to the police. Based on her account, police searched the crime scene and the neighborhood to look for the intruder.

Investigation:

The more they looked, the more they started to doubt the fact that there was an intruder in the house that night. They did find a torn window screen in the garage, but untouched layers of dust indicated that no one had actually climbed through it.

Although, according to lab results, there were fingerprints that did not belong to Darlie, her husband or any of the law enforcement officers.

Evidence:

A sock was found with Damon and Devon's blood on it was found several houses down.

The murder weapon, an 8 inch butcher knife, was found on the kitchen counter. Darlie claimed that she picked it up as the attacker ran out of the house.

The investigators did not find any blood in the escape route of the intruder but they did find a lot of it near the sink, as if someone had tried to clean it up. The knife was from the family's kitchen themselves. Darlie had also made a rather curious comment about the weapon in the 911 call saying about fingerprints.

To the detectives, it looked like a staged crime scene. Even though Darlie's injury was extremely close to an artery, her injury could have been superficial and self inflicted.

Suspicions of Darlie's involvement became stronger when she was seen behaving strangely after the boy's death. She threw a birthday party for Devon in the graveyard. She sung happy birthday and threw around silly strings.

According to the detective, it was strange that this mother who just suffered a violent attack and should be grieving her two boys, was literally dancing on their graves.

Arrests:

Four days after the cemetery party, on June 18th 1996, Darlie was arrested and charged with capital murder. Since there was only circumstantial evidence against her, the prosecution focused mainly on Darlie's character.

They painted the picture of a pampered wife, distraught because her husband's business wasn't making enough money to support her lavish lifestyle. With that reason, Dalrie wanted to get rid of her two sons to have more money to herself.

Investigators also found one of Darlie's diary that was used after the birth of her third son. It said 'Forgive me for what I'm about to do'. Prosecutors believe that she cut the window screen before attacking her sons. After that, she ran towards the street to plant the bloody sock and came back home to self inflict injuries and finished staging the crime scene.

The infamous silly string recording from the grave party that was filmed by local cameramen, played a huge part in he trial.

The jury was extremely disturbed when they saw it.

According to the defense, Darlie did not have any motive or the time to kill her own children. They believed that the silly string footage was edited as well.

In the end, Darlie was found guilty and sentenced to death for the capital murder of her sons. More than 25 years later, she still maintains her innocence and appealed her sentence multiple times without success.

She has exceeded the average time on death row in Texas, that is 16 years and 11 months.