Like pretty much everyone else who watched the news on Channel 5 that evening back in June of 1996, I was dumbstruck at the sight of Darlie Routier spraying Silly String on the grave of her two murdered little boys. Just 5 and 6, they had been savagely killed with a knife a few days earlier and buried together in a single casket, Damon’s hand entwined with that of his older brother, Devon. The spraying of the Silly String was shocking enough, but the 26-year-old homemaker from Rowlett in Dallas County was also beaming and chewing gum – hardly the image of a grieving mother. Channel 5’s camera captured every smirk and every smack.
What parent could ever do such a thing? I wondered. Others felt the same way, including the seven-woman, five-man jury in Kerrville that found Darlie guilty of murder and sent her to death row just months after the celebration of what would have been Devon’s 7th birthday.
Rowlett police claimed that Darlie gave differing accounts of what had happened in the early morning hours of June 6. In one story, she claimed that she had been awakened by an unknown intruder who attacked her and her children as they lay sleeping downstairs in front of the television, she on a sofa, the boys on the floor with pillows and blankets. In another, she said she woke when Damon poked her on the shoulder. Whether it was the intruder or Damon who caused her to awaken, Darlie has always claimed that there was a man in the house that night.
Darlie’s then-husband, Darin Routier, and their baby, Drake, who was almost 8 months old, were asleep upstairs and were unharmed. Darin said he was roused by the sound of breaking glass, followed by his wife screaming, “Devon! Devon! Devon!” When he ran downstairs and saw the glass top of the coffee table had fallen or been pushed off its base, his first thought was that the boy had been injured by it.
Darlie’s call to 911 came in at 2:30 a.m. In the recording of that call, Darin can be heard shouting as he was trying unsuccessfully to resuscitate Devon. The boy had been stabbed with such force that the knife nicked the concrete slab beneath the carpet. Blood soaked the light-colored fabric, and there was a trail of blood through the kitchen, where there were shards from a broken wine glass. Darlie’s white Victoria’s Secret nightshirt was saturated in blood. She said she didn’t realize that the blood was hers and that her throat had been slashed until she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror while on the phone with 911.
When Darlie was arrested on June 18, four days after wielding the Silly String at Rest Haven Memorial Park, Rowlett police announced that she had staged the whole thing, including her own injuries. Prosecutors in the Dallas County district attorney’s office began preparing to take Darlie to trial.
The Silly String episode had nothing to do with whether Darlie killed her children, and she and her family claim that she was heavily medicated at the time. Only after Darlie had been convicted and locked in a cell at the Mountain View unit in Gatesville did an uneasiness begin to settle over some in the public sector. Disturbing details about the case had begun to emerge.
Channel 5 had filmed a tearful graveside memorial service just prior to the birthday celebration yet didn’t include any of that footage in its news report, and lead defense attorney Doug Mulder did not use it at trial. Darlie’s family members had emptied their accounts to hire the high-profile lawyer, but Mulder would be widely criticized as having phoned in his defense of the young mother. He didn’t put on the stand two experts on bloodstain patterns who had formed an opinion different from the state’s, and he had gone to Hawaii on vacation prior to the trial, even though his defense team had been given precious little time to prepare.
The state’s timeline of events came under increased scrutiny. Damon’s wounds were so severe that he had only minutes to live after they were inflicted, but he was still alive when paramedics arrived. Darlie was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher for almost six minutes. Considering all this, did she really have time to run 75 yards down the alley to deposit a bloody sock, cut a window screen in the garage, slice her own throat, smash a wine glass, and do several of the other things that were necessary to stage the crime scene?
With Damon possibly able to identify his mother as his attacker, why would Darlie scream for her husband and dial 911 while the boy was still alive? Why would she plead for help to be sent quickly? “They’re taking forever,” she laments at one point in the call.
Could improper coaching by prosecutors explain the discrepancy between the notes taken by nurses during Darlie’s two-day stay at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and their damning testimony at her trial? If she was crying and distraught, as the notes reflected, why did the nurses testify that she had a flat affect and showed little emotion?
How could prosecutors claim Darlie was obsessed with her looks – going so far as to avoid damaging her breast implants with the knife – when she risked death or defacement by cutting her own throat at the kitchen sink?
If Darlie killed her children because they threatened her lifestyle, why would she murder two of them but not all three? Why would she spare the baby, who required the most of her time and attention?
Why would she kill Devon and Damon for insurance money when the policies weren’t even enough to cover their burial expenses?
Over time, public awareness and anger grew over the sexist character judgments that had been brought into the courtroom and the state’s counterintuitive theory of what happened and why. More questions arose about the ethics of some involved in Darlie’s conviction, including now-deceased state District Judge Mark Tolle.
Tolle wanted to preside over the trial, but, with jury selection expected to take several weeks and the trial estimated to last four to five weeks, the case could not be concluded before his retirement on Dec. 31. The only way he could retain control despite his retirement was to change the venue and start the trial in early 1997. Tolle moved it to Kerrville in conservative Kerr County, which had a much smaller, less diverse jury pool than Dallas County and was known for its death penalty convictions. It is located in the Hill Country and just happened to be where Tolle liked to hunt and where, Mulder told me, he was angling for a gig as a visiting judge. Tolle’s choice of Kerrville was made more suspicious by the fact that, even though courthouses in larger Texas cities were available to handle the high-profile trial, he chose one that was under renovation, had no heat, and was ill-equipped to handle the media contingent.
When court reporter Sandra Halsey’s transcript of the trial was found to contain a jaw-dropping 33,000 errors, 40 to 50 percent of which were deemed substantial, why did then-state District Judge Robert Francis order that it be cobbled together by other court reporters who had not been present at the trial? And why did the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals accept it, much to the astonishment of many in the justice system who had thought that the transcript fiasco would surely result in a new trial for Darlie?
At the time the crime known as 6-6-6 occurred, I, like Darlie, was a homemaker and mother, having given up my reporting job at The Dallas Morning News a couple of years earlier. My own sons were similar in age to Darlie’s and even shared the same birthday months – the first born in June, the second in February.
Darlie’s life stopped, but mine went on. For me, the ensuing years brought a move to Granbury, the challenge of raising my sons after their father died of cancer, and returning to journalism, though at a small community newspaper instead of a big-city publication. I went years not thinking a single thought about Darlie Routier.
But then one day I did.
*****
Darlie’s case has all the elements of a made-for-TV movie: a buxom Dallas blonde; a big, beautiful house; brutally murdered children; money problems; and a husband viewed by many as a character worthy of suspicion. Darin claimed several years after his wife’s conviction that at the time of the crime he had been seeking help to stage a home burglary to collect insurance money. Darlie’s story has everything except an ending.
The state has not yet set an execution date for the woman once dubbed “Dallas’ Susan Smith” – a reference to the South Carolina mother who had been convicted just 11 months before the murders of the Routier children of drowning her two young sons. Smith deliberately let her car roll into John D. Long Lake, the children strapped inside in their car seats, and then made up a story about a carjacking. Changes in the law pertaining to DNA testing led the courts to grant additional examination of items from the Routier crime scene, but the testing has been going on for a decade and still isn’t finished. Cases that have not yet gone to trial are given priority at backed-up labs. Darlie’s appeal has not yet moved up the ladder to the federal level.
But while no movie has been made about her case, plenty of television shows have aired segments about her over the years – programs such as 20/20, 48 Hours, and, in July 2015, CNN’s Death Row Stories. The episode on Darlie was Death Row Stories’ season premiere that year, and an on-camera interview was conducted with me thanks to TCU Press’ publication just a few months earlier of my book Dateline: Purgatory – Examining the Case that Sentenced Darlie Routier to Death. The show aired several times, but the exposure didn’t put my book on any bestseller list, and there has been no public uprising to demand a new trial for Texas’ most famous (or infamous) female death row inmate.
ABC, though, may accomplish what the other shows and my book did not. The network’s new docu-series, The Last Defense, will be the lengthiest, most comprehensive examination ever done on Darlie’s case. The first episode will air at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12.
Academy-award winning actress Viola Davis and Julius Tennon of Los Angeles-based JuVee Productions teamed up on the project with XCON Productions and Lincoln Square Productions. The docu-series consists of seven one-hour episodes that will air at the same time every Tuesday for seven weeks.
The first four episodes will focus on Darlie; the other three on Julius Jones, who was a 21-year-old black college student when he was sentenced to death in 2001 for the carjacking murder of a white father of two in Edmond, Oklahoma. The original plan had been to devote three episodes to Darlie, but the crew ended up with so much material that network executives green-lighted a fourth hour.
“In the beginning, when we first started the series, we predicted that three hours would be enough,” said Jeremiah Crowell of XCON Productions. “But when we got into this material and saw all the intricate story points, we realized that we had more material than could be contained in three hours. Everyone agreed we needed another hour in order to tell the story properly. The question that underlies her story is kind of jaw-dropping. The question is, did this woman do the worst thing that you can imagine to her own children, or has she suffered through the most tragic of events, having her sons murdered and then being convicted of that crime herself and being an innocent person on death row for more than 20 years?”
Stephen Cooper, who has represented Darlie since shortly after her conviction, feels he has known the truth about her since the time he first met her back in 1997.
“I was just dumbstruck that she was not how she was portrayed in the media at all,” he said. “She was logical. Clear-headed. She had linear, progressive thoughts. She was on point.”
There was something else Cooper noticed as well.
“That big red scar was still very pronounced on her neck,” he said.
Although The Last Defense will detail the state’s case against Darlie like other shows have done, Cooper believes that ABC adding more air time can only be good for Darlie, especially since some associated with the case on the state’s side declined to participate. Former prosecutors Greg Davis and Toby Shook did agree to on-camera interviews, however, and Crowell said that others with the state provided statements.
Among others interviewed were several members of Darlie’s trial defense team – Mulder, Kerrville lawyer Richard Mosty, and investigator and former FBI Special Agent Lloyd Harrell. The interview was Mulder’s last. The 79-year-old, who had been the deadliest prosecutor for Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade and had coined the phrase from which the documentary The Thin Blue Line took its name, died on Jan. 14 of this year, several days after suffering a massive stroke.
With more than 20 years having passed since Darlie’s conviction, some of the people most intimately involved in what happened to Darlie are going to start dying off.
*****
Darlie’s mother, Darlie Kee – often referred to as “Mama Darlie” – has always been disappointed that the Innocence Project never came to her daughter’s rescue. No interest was shown in the case by either the original New York City-based organization founded at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck or by Innocence Texas, formerly the Innocence Project of Texas. Innocence organizations have limited funds and rarely take on cases in which the person convicted already has legal representation. In Darlie’s case, there is a team. In addition to Cooper, she is represented by Richard Smith and Richard Burr.
With the Texas organization, there is more to the story as it pertains to Darlie. Executive Director Mike Ware told me that he believes Darlie is guilty. So, too, does board member and treasurer Russell Wilson. Both men, at different times, headed up Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ groundbreaking Conviction Integrity Unit, which many Darlie supporters had hoped would undo what a previous regime had done to her. Watkins lost his bid for re-election to a third term in 2014. With all three men – Ware, Wilson, and Watkins – I never felt that I received a clear answer as to why they are so convinced that Darlie is guilty.
In a way, though, Mama Darlie has gotten her wish where the New York organization is concerned. Vanessa Potkin, director of post-conviction litigation at the Innocence Project, and Cardozo graduate Aida Leisenring, who worked with Potkin while a law student, approached XCON and Lincoln Square Productions about developing a project that re-examined death row cases. The impetus for the idea was a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which estimated that 4 percent of the people on death row are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. All of the production partners had a hand in creating the final product, which differed somewhat from the women’s original concept. Among the docu-series’ executive producers, Potkin and Leisenring worked with the other executive producers, as well as researchers, paralegals, and law students, to examine about 3,000 death penalty cases with the goal of choosing just two.
“Darlie’s case,” XCON’s Crowell said, “just rose to the surface.”
Potkin said that the case contains several elements that are now known to be among the leading causes of wrongful convictions, including a rush to judgment, tunnel vision, and character assassination.
“Once you delve into the facts of the crime, the investigation, the trial evidence, it becomes clear that there is a completely different narrative – one of innocence and a story that needs to be told,” Potkin said.
There is a common belief that law enforcement often deliberately prosecutes people it knows are innocent, Potkin said, but that’s not true.
“That’s not how most wrongful convictions occur,” she said. “I’m sure Toby Shook believes that Darlie did it, but his belief that she did it doesn’t equate to her actual guilt. I think he’s earnest. I think that that’s what they believe, and probably nothing will ever change their mind. This is a horrible crime, and they became convinced that Darlie did it. They invested a lot of time and resources and emotion in obtaining her conviction, and that’s very hard to undo.”
During production, Leisenring traveled with Crowell and others on the project to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. There, bloodstain pattern analysts Terry Laber and Bart Epstein –the experts who were ready to testify on Darlie’s behalf but were never given the chance – conducted on-camera experiments. They used their own blood to re-enact the scenario presented at trial by Tom Bevel, the state’s bloodstain pattern expert. Bevel testified that blood stains on the back of Darlie’s Victoria’s Secret nightshirt were from her raising the knife as she repeatedly stabbed her children and that blood marks on the kitchen floor were from a vacuum cleaner that Darlie had knocked over in her staging of the crime scene.
Darlie’s trial defense and appellate teams believe that blood from the dead boys ended up on the nightshirt because of transfer that occurred through sloppy handling of evidence by Rowlett police officers. Neither team felt that Bevel’s testimony about the vacuum cleaner made much sense.
Cooper also flew to Minnesota for the filming with Laber and Epstein. He said the experiments were staged in two large bays at the back end of the crime lab with a technical crew of about 15. Watching the re-enactments left a far more powerful impression, he said, than when he talked with the pair about their findings about 10 years ago.
“We flew them down, and the defense team sat around in Richard Smith’s office with notes and summaries and all this, but if you don’t have a frame of reference, you can only do so much,” Cooper said.
He added that the vacuum cleaner tests done by Laber and Epstein, as well as the pair’s blood-spatter experiments, yielded results that were very different from Bevel’s.
“And just on and on,” Cooper said, “and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God. These guys were ready to come down and testify on Darlie’s behalf 20 years ago.’ ”
Leisenring said that Laber conducted one of the only validated studies on blood spatter analysis and that the error rates among so-called experts “were shocking.” She said she believes that, had Darlie died that night, Darin would have ended up on death row.
“When you actually break down the elements and look at the objective, reliable forensic evidence in this case, you cannot make a determination beyond a reasonable doubt that Darlie committed this,” Leisenring said. “I can’t tell you, ‘Oh, I know she did this,’ or ‘I know she didn’t do this.’ I’m just saying what the evidence, when it’s properly challenged and reviewed and exhausted, can actually tell you in terms of the burden of the law.”
Christine Connor of XCON Productions said that jury verdicts in the United States are “practically sacrosanct” and “extraordinarily difficult to overturn.” She noted that, although the crew had access to the full trial transcript, none of those involved in the docu-series was actually in the courtroom when Darlie was found guilty.
“There are only a couple of people who know, or one person who knows, for sure what happened in that house that night,” Connor said. “I would say that, the jury verdict notwithstanding, I personally don’t know if [the perpetrator] is the person who’s sitting on death row for the crime.”
Potkin said that spending 18 years working to exonerate wrongfully convicted people has taught her that those in law enforcement “get it wrong at alarmingly high rates.”
In Darlie’s case, she said, “we are at real risk of executing an innocent woman. Once you examine the case, there’s just nothing here. There’s nothing to link her, nothing to suggest that she had any involvement with this crime other than character assassination and junk science. How could it be in 2018 that this woman is facing execution, knowing what we now know?”
*****
My pursuit of the truth about Darlie didn’t start with the random thought that came out of nowhere on a Sunday afternoon in April 2012, nor did it begin when Darlie later agreed to meet with me despite not having spoken to the media in more than four years. Its roots go back to the late 1980s, well before Devon and Damon were murdered. I was a young reporter at the Morning News and was assigned to write a feature story about Fan Benno-Caris, at that time a resident of University Park and a psychic of growing renown.
During that interview, Benno-Caris was accurate about things she had no way of knowing about me, but she also predicted something about my future. I would one day write a book, she said.
“What will it be about?” I asked.
She squinted as if trying to see something in the distance that wasn’t completely clear. Her answer seemed more like a question than a statement.
“To help a woman?” she said.
I thought many times about her intriguing prophecy, but, as one year melded into the next, I decided she must have been wrong. (Benno-Caris went on to run unsuccessfully for Addison City Council, win 75 major awards for speed walking after the age of 70, and become Miss Texas Senior America at age 87. She died on March 3, 2016, at age 98.)
The random thought about Darlie that visited me that April day in 2012 refused to leave, so I began researching her case. In June, after being unable to shake thoughts of her, I looked up Darlie’s inmate number on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website and sent her a J-Pay email. I had never met her and had no plan for how I might help raise awareness about the disturbing aspects of her case, but I told her that she had been heavy on my mind for two months. She wrote me back. By August, I was sitting on the other side of the glass from her in the visitation room at Mountain View, thinking how she seemed nothing like the psychopath that Davis and Shook had claimed her to be.
Darlie told me that she had responded to my letter in part because the month of April had meaning to her. She said she had begun praying in March for “certain things to happen,” and in April she saw clues that maybe her prayers were being answered.
One of those clues was an offer of help from a private investigator in Tarrant County. Cooper soon grew uneasy, though, over the P.I.’s insistence that he be allowed to meet one-on-one with Darlie –– something the protective lawyer didn’t feel was necessary. The two parties quickly parted ways.
One April connection fell away, but the other – the community newspaper reporter with no plan – remained. After that meeting with Darlie, I had an idea to write a series of newspaper articles examining her case through the lens of what we now know about wrongful convictions. The series, “Routier Revisited,” was made available to community newspapers through the TCU-based Texas Center for Community Journalism.
The series morphed into a book project for TCU Press. I was well into the project before I realized that Benno-Caris’ prophecy was coming true.
During the time I worked on the book, three of Darlie’s roommates on death row were executed, including her closest confidante, Lisa Coleman. There are just six women left. With support for the death penalty on the decline, Melissa Lucio, Linda Carty, Kimberly Cargill, Brittany Holberg, Erica Sheppard, and Darlie could be the final women to face lethal injection in Texas.
Defending Darlie was an interesting journey filled with several odd occurrences, but those involved with The Last Defense are probably the answer to her prayers much more than I have been. My book, I suppose, amounted to Darlie’s next-to-last defense. Cooper said the crew used it as a road map. The team was able to do so much more than I did or ever could have done. ABC wouldn’t comment to me about its financial commitment to re-investigate the case, but Cooper thinks the network spent millions.
Since first meeting Cooper in 2012, most of our face-to-face conversations have been on the day of the Dallas Bar Association’s annual Stephen Philbin Awards luncheon, which honors excellence in legal reporting. I frequently attend the luncheons, which are held at the Belo Mansion in downtown Dallas, a short distance from Cooper’s Gaston Avenue office. That pattern was repeated on a Friday afternoon last October.
As we had on prior occasions, Cooper and I sat in his second-floor office, the autumn sunshine streaming through the windows. This time, our conversation about Darlie centered on the docu-series, which was in production. Cooper told me about his recent trip to watch the filming at the lab in Minnesota and how impressed he was by the crew’s professionalism and knowledge of virtually every detail about the case.
“This is what has been needed all along – a well-funded team effort,” I told him.
The sun was considerably lower by the time we said our goodbyes. When I got into my car to begin the 90-minute drive back to Granbury, I was surprised to realize that we had been talking for five and a half hours. As I headed toward I-30, I kept trying to figure out why I felt that our conversation that day had been the best we’d ever had. There had been something different about Cooper, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Then it hit me. For maybe the first time since I’d met him, Cooper felt hope.
Please do take yet another look at this case. I fully believe in her guilt but want the truth to come out with facts and evidence, not just thoughts and opinions.
Prosecutor Greg Davis is a sexist. The way
he described Darlie Routier was so slanderous..
He went on and about how she was so materialist
so she must have killed her little boy. She liked
nice clothes, she liked to look nice and she bought some expensive outfits so she must have killed her sons. Oh yes according to Greg Davis she spent thousand on clothes and because The Routiers had some credit card debt She killed her kids. Each child was insured for 5 grand so Darlie killed them to pay for her clothes. He was totally
disgusted because she also had a boob job. I
believe she was framed by Davis he crucified her and the dumb jury bought into it. Oh Yes having Silky String music and praying at the kids grave sights. proved she was a terrible mother. Poor
Darlie she was framed and that dishonest over aggressive prosecutor thinks slander and how a woman likes to look nice means I want my kids death.
The reason why I began to suspect Darin Routier in murders of Devon and Damon.
Almost instantly after I heard about the Darlie Routier case, I learned that Darin claimed he was upstairs asleep during the entire attack on all three victims. I wondered how that was even possible. The more I dug into the details, the more convinced I was that his story did not fit the facts and evidence.
Darin described himself as being this perfect father and husband who had the perfect life and perfect family. He stressed there was no history of financial problems, or any issues in the marriage.
According to Darin there was no motive for him to have committed the crime.
I wanted to know more details about Darin to find out what the police had uncovered through their investigation to cause them not to invesigate Darin or his version of the story.
I was absolutely stunned to hear the announcement the police gave just 12 days after the murders. The police announced that they had arrested Darlie Routier for the murder of her two children.
A new documentary came out in July, 2018 and the police confirmed what they had said 22 years ago.
They went on further to say that Darin was not considered a suspect because his version of the story appeared to fit the facts and evidence? Appeared to fit? They claimed to have the case solved in 12 days, without ever investigating Darin Routier knowing that he was the only other adult in that home and he had no injuries what so ever? Was this even possible?
Here we had a mother 26 years old who had her throat slashed, beaten and bruised, stabbed in the arm and described by the 911 operator as being hysterical. She told the police right then she did not see the intruders face. She only saw the back of the intruder walking away. He had shoulder length hair, black t shirt and jeans on, he was also wearing a black cap. She didnt know if he shoes on. In police evdidence pictures it showed a cap laying on the floor. It also appeared to show another piece of black clothing that could have been a black t shirt.
In the garage there a pair of Darins runners with blood near them. Fibers from Darins runners appeared to be on that sock that was found in the alley.
Right after detective Cron arrived on the scene he met up with the forensic experts, he told them he already checked the garage and there was no blood, but when they went ahead and did their own search they found blood.
We had a boy six years old who had been stabbed several times in the chest while he slept. We had a five year old boy who had also been stabbed in the back four times who was still alive when his mother called 911.
The first red flag I got was why was this mother sleeping on the couch downstairs with her two boys? I know they both claimed she was there because the noise from the baby in the crib kept her awake at night. I could understand if she was there just one or two nights, but this wasn’t the case at all. She said she had been sleeping on the sofa several nights prior to the attack.
The reason this story didnt fly with me was because Darlie chose to have her 7 month old baby sleeping in her room in his crib at night. This wasnt something Darin did or wanted, this Darlie. That told me right there she had a special bond with her kids. Not only did these boys chose to sleep downstairs with their mother, but she kept her baby in her room at night. I knew right then this was not the type of mother who was chosing to sleep downstairs to get away from her children. Darlie often allowed the boys to sleep in her room also. I know not every mother choses to allow this, but I understood this behavior because my children never slept in a crib and they never slept in their own room until years later. I didnt care what the parenting experts said about allowing your children to sleep in your room. Many years ago experts discouraged parents from doing this, now the experts claim it is a great way to bond closer to your kids. I just did not believe Darlie chose to be on the couch to be away from her child.
I began looking into the history of their marriage. I was absolutely stunned to learn that nothing Darin claimed about his life or his marriage was the truth. What shocked me even more was Darlie appeared to be trying to tell some of the truth about her marriage, but somehow she came across as defending or agreeing with Darin.
Nobody wants to admit to the secrets or problems in their marriage, so I completely understood why Darlie might have agreed to go along with Darins version of the story.
Darlie’s accounts did differ from Darins only slighly though. She did admit there were issues and she was disappointed in Darin because he wasnt spending time with the boys or helping around the house.
Years later I learned of his affairs. Not just one affair, but several. I understood why Darlie was feeling like she hit rock bottom right around the time of the murders. She was despressed and did appear to lean towards ending it. That is when I realized that Darlie wasnt ever considering ending the boys life. In her diary she was asking the boys to forgive her for what she was thinking. This told me right then and there she had full intensions of the boys being around for a long time. She was leaving a message for them in the future.
This caused me to start digging into Darin much deeper. I contacted a few people who knew Darin and I never got one person who felt Darin was the honest loving caring person he was claiming to be. They described him as being selfish and greedy. He always had to have this image of being better than everyone else. He had to have the best house, the best wife, the best toys. Then I heard Darin in an interview where he described in detail of why this crime may have happened. Darin said to the reporter it must have been someone who was jealous because he had the best house on the block and best looking wife. There was no mention what so ever regarding his children.
I realized that in just a few simple phone calls into Darin sparked all kinds of suspicion so how could the police claim within 12 days that Darin and his story checked out?
I wanted to what Darin could have possibly said to the police to convince them not to investigate him.
I watched his many interviews and I began to realize that his stories kept changing. It wasnt just small details, it was huge ones.
Darin had originally told the police that he was upstairs asleep with his 7 month old son when he was woken by the sound of Darlie screaming on the phone with 911.
Jumping ahead here I wanted to know basically how long the attack went on before Darin heard anything.
According to the doctors Devon could have lived for up five minutes and Damon could have lived for up to 9 minutes. So doing the math and listening to the 911 call I learned that Devon had died with in 39 seconds of Darlie being on the phone with 911. The reason I know this is because of what both Darin and Darlie said.
Darin has always claimed that he ran over to Devon and he immediately started cpr on him, this is 15 seconds into the 911 call.
On the 911 call Darlie is heard screaming out, oh my no Devon, no Devon is dead. Darin has always claimed Devon never reponded after he got to him, even though Darlie claimed Devon was still alive when she first dialed 911.
So this puts a timeline of about 4 to 5 minutes that passed before Darin claims he heard anything at all.
So then I looked at Damon. Damon was stabbed in the back 4 times and he lived for at least 7 minutes. So the police version that Devon was stabbed first and then Damon seemed to fit the evidence.
What was most disturbing to me was when the doctors claimed that there was no reason the boys couldnt have been screaming out in pain. There was no evidence to prove that there was no sound coming from any of the victims, so how could 4 to 5 minutes go by and Darin not hear a sound?
This brings me to the dog who was sleeping upstairs with Darin. This was Pom dog who was too small to get down the stairs himself, so he slept upstairs and on June 5th, he was sleeping upstairs with Drake and Darin.
Darin had heard rumors that people were suspicious of why the dog wasnt barking earlier in the 911 call when he claimed to have run out of his room. Darin explained this away by saying that the reason the dog didnt bark was because he must have known the intruder.
I just about jumped right out of my seat. I knew instantly this was a complete lie told by Darin.
First of all witnesses were questioned about the dog and his behavior. Karen Neal was one of those witnesses. She stated that the dog barked at every single little sound all the time. She said the dog knew her very well for years, but when she went over to visit Darlie that dog would start screaming long before she even reached the house. He would barked frantically when she was in the kitchen right up until he was able to see her.
Darlie also described this exact behavior of her dog. So I never understood why she was not suspicious when Darin told this lie? She knew the only way that dog was not heard on that 911 tape at the start of that 911 call was if Darin had locked that dog up. So if Darin came out of his room when the 911 call proves she first spoke to Darin that dog would have been heard on the tape and he wasnt. I was convinced that Darin was not in his room when he claimed, and he had locked that dog up sometime earlier.
Now that I knew that Darin had been changing his story and was not in his room when he claimed I had to know if he had a motive for comitting the crime. I know Darin had a history of cheating, but I also knew that this was not motive enough to murder.
Darin told the police there were no issues in the marriage. He claimed they were perfectly happy and there was no reason for either of them to have murdered their boys. He went on further to say he only had a five thousand dollar rider on his boys. Even at that small amount it peaked my interest. Not sure why a parent would have an insurance policy on their five and six year old child, yet he had no insurance on baby Drake. Darin claims he just didnt get around to adding him on the policy.
There was no mention of the insurance he had on Darlie, but never the less he claimed there was no financial issues what so ever.
I had watched an interview done by Skip Hollingsworth. Darin had opened up to this reporter and told him he had not only comitted insurance fraud in the past, but he had been asking around trying to find out if someone was interested in helping with a home robbery he was planning to do on his own house. There has been different versions of the story Darin had given. He told Skip Hollingsworth in and interview he was going to have someone rob his home while he was on vacation. He had a family trip planned on the 14th of June, only days from when the murders happened, but he also told other people he was planning on robbing his home and storing the stuff in storage until the insurance company paid out.
One thing I did learn about Darin is he was very materialistic. He took alot of pride in his car, his house, his boat, he attractive wife, the jewellry he bought for her. It made no sense to me that Darin would allow anyone to touch let alone take any of his property.
In 1993 Darin had comitting insurance fraud involving his Jag car. Darin had stored the car at a friends place then left town and contacted his employee and had her report the car stolen. Darin admitted to skip Hollingsworth he had collected on that false insurnace scam. So it made no sense to me that Darin claimed the robbery was going to happen while he was out of town with his family on vacation from the 14 of June for two weeks.
The more I looked into his stories the more I was convinced that this was not about a home robbery for Darin.
Darin has always claimed there was no financial issues, but through the court trial and evidence that was uncovered by the prosecution there was over whelming evidence to prove Darin was hurting financally. Why would deny financial problems, yet admit to planning another insurance scam to collect money? People who are financially stable do not plan or risk a home an insurance scam unless they are desperate.
In my opinion when the murders occured and months leading up to the crime Darin was desperate. His business was failing, he owed the IRS over 10,000, he was behind on his mortgage, and he owed thousands on credit card debt. He had very little money in the bank. So why didnt the police know this before they arrested and charged Darlie?
One of the biggest issues regarding Darlies case was the fact that she had told the police right from the start Darin was not the intruder, but this was not an issue for me. When I realized that Darlle had just woken up when she saw a man walking away from her at the end of the couch, only seeing him from behind, there was no possible way she could have known if it was Darin or not.
I read her description of the intruder and I was convinced she described Darin. I was not alone in this belief. There were several people I spoke to who believed it was Darin. She only saw him from behind. It wasnt up to Darlie to decide or say it was or wasnt Darin. It was up to the police to investigate Darin and make sure it wasnt him. Darlie was asked in court if it was possible that Darin could have been the intruder. Darlie didnt jump up defending Darin saying no way he could have been the intruder, she said she didnt know. Darlie knew it was very possible for Darin to have gotten from the garage to the landing of the stairs without her ever seeing him. She knew there were two seperate paths to get to and from the garage to the landing of the stairs.
Darlie described what she saw with the intruder from behind. She said he had shoulder length brown hair at first, but she later claimed she didnt know what color his hair was. There was no possible way Darlie could have known for sure if that intruder was Darin or not.
Darin did many interviews and each time he did an interview I kept seeing more and more inconsistancies in his stories. One of those inconsistancies was when he claimed to have appeared in the hallway.
In his original version Darin claimed he never appeared on the scene until after Darlie dialed 911. After listening to the 911 call several times I realized this version of the story was the correct one.
Darin wasnt heard on the 911 call at all for the first 30 seconds, but more importantly Darlie is heard telling Darin to Hurry, 15 seconds into the call. This proving for a fact Darin was not already over with Devon before she dialed 911.
00:00:00 911 Operator #1 …Rowlett 911…what is your emergency..
00:01:19 Darlie Routier …somebody came here…they broke in…
00:03:27 911 Operator #1 …ma’am…
00:05:11 Darlie Routier …they just stabbed me and my children…
00:07:16 911 Operator #1 …what…
00:08:05 Darlie Routier …they just stabbed me and my kids…my little boys…
00:09:24 911 Operator #1 …who…who did…
00:11:12 Darlie Routier …my little boy is dying…
00:11:25 RADIO …(unintelligible) clear…
00:13:07 911 Operator #1 …hang on …hang on… hang on
00:15:03 Darlie Routier …hurry… (unintelligible)…
Darlie is not talking to the 911 operator. She has said hurry and then she pulls the reciever away from her mouth and she continues on to say something. This is consistant with the first version of the story Darin gave to the police.
If Darin had been in his room and came out right after he heard Darlie screaming to 911 we would have heard that dog bark. To further confirm this Darin admitted that he went upstairs at some point and we know this to be true because we hear the dog bark for the first time at 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the 911 call.
03:30:27 SOUND …(dog barking).
(Darins police statement)
Police came in and I told them that my babys were stabbed and she told them that he went out of the garage. I ran upstairs to put my pants on. I looked over and Drake was crying and I felt [illegible] he was ok.
I knew for a fact this entire statement was false. First of all officer Waddell testified in court that when he arrived at the home Darin was running from the house screaming someone stabbed my wife and kids. Officer Waddells version of the story matched the other witness who also testified to seeing Darin run from the front door yelling.
Mr. Gorsuch is a neighbor who lived across the street directly to the left of the Routier home. He had arrived home just after 1am. He had gone to bed and was woken first by a sound then he was fully awoken by Darin yelling. He immediately sat up in his bed and he could see directly out of his bedroom. He saw officer Waddell in front of the house and Darin was there with him. He said the spoke for a second then they both turned and went back into the house together. This is also consistant with Officer Waddells version of the story.
03:18:20 Darin Routier …what…
This is when Darin realizes the police have pulled up to the house.
03:30:27 SOUND …(dog barking)…
This is when we know Darin has gone upstairs and opened the door to where the dog was locked up in his room.
Darin says in his police statement that he goes upstairs as police are coming in the door, but we know for an absolute fact that Darin did not go upstairs as police were coming in the door. Darin had gone upstairs, ran back down the stairs and ran into officer Waddell, and came right back into the house.
Officer Waddell describes in detail what he saw when he came in. He said he saw Damon who was alive on the floor moving breathing, trying to crawl looking up at him. He says he looked over at Devon and knew immediately he was already dead. He then turns his attention to Darlie who was bleeding all over and screaming on the phone.
03:45:19 Police Officer …look for a rag…
Officer Waddell instructs Darin to go and get a rag, but Darin does not go and get a rag. Officer Waddell describes in detail how Darin immediately ran past Damon who was alive and moving and he went right over to the child who was obviously dead. He said he watched Darin do cpr on this child. He then turned his back and his focus on Darlie. At this point we know Darin is in the home.
03:48:03 Police Officer …lay down …ok …just sit down …(unintelligible)
Officer Waddell is now focused on Darlie just as he claimed he was. He is trying to get her to sit or lay down, but Darlie still believes the intruder is in the garage because the last time she saw the intruder was just before she went back to where Damon and Devon were. It is at this time I believe Darin came from the garage and took the other path taking him past the nook to the dining room which is only a few feet from the landing of the stairs.
03:52:13 Darlie Routier …no …he ran out …uh …they ran out in the garage …I was sleeping…
Officer Waddell and Darlie are closer to the kitchen now and she is explaining to him where she last saw the intruder go. It is at this time that officer Waddell says he turns around and he looks over at towards the boys and Darin has left the home. He describes this in detail in his interview.
When Waddell first saw Darin he asked him what he was doing. Darin told him he was fleeing the house to go over to the neighbors for help. Waddell assumed that Darin had left the house at this time and had gone over to get the nurse to help. But we know for a fact that Darin did not go over to Karens. He left the house through the sliding doors which lead to the back yard and to the alley. Officer Waddell now admits and realizes that Darin had the opportunity to lose or plant the sock in the alley.
03:59:29 Darin Routier …(unintelligible) phone is right there…
This is where alot of the confusion is with this case. Darin is not in the home at this time. This statement heard on the 911 call is not Darin speaking. This is a statement that was made by one of the employees at the 911 operator station. This same statement was made earlier by another employee on the 911 call. Darin had no reason to make this statement. I didnt make any sense at all. Waddell was not asking for the phone and he had no reason to be wanting to use the phone. Darlie was on the phone talking to 911.
04:35:12 Darin Routier …they took (unintelligible) …they ran (unintelligible)…
From 03:45 to 04:35 Darin is not heard on the 911 call, proving that Officer Waddell was telling the truth when he said Darin left the home. This gave Darin at least 90 seconds to leave the house run the 75 yards down the alley and get back inside the house by 04:35am.
What is even more disturbing about this is what Darin is saying. Damon is still on the floor living, breathing, bleeding to death from wounds in his back. We have Darin coming back into the home and the first thing he is saying to the officers is the took and they ran. He is desperately trying to convince them to take their investigation outside the home. What some people do not realize is this sock was found right next to a manhole in the alley. The police never searched this manhole because they claimed it had an ackward twist to it and they were not able to search it.
Another very important fact is the 911 operator does not realize that the police are already in the home.
To further prove Darin had fled the home and was running at some point officer Walling said when he walked in he saw Darin in the living room and he was just standing there, but he was red faced out of breath as though he had been running.
Officer Waddell was not part of the investigation so he had no idea what Darin was claiming happened. Before the murders Officer Waddell had applied for a new job in a near by town so he had no idea of the details of this case. He had no idea that Darin had performed cpr on Devon long before he had arrived at the home. He had no idea that both Darlie and Darin knew Devon had died 39 seconds into the 911 call.
When I bring up the two seperate cpr attempts Darin did on Devon almost 4 minutes apart I am told this is not proof of what his real intent was.
What they dont know is this is proof of what his real intent was. Darin had gone out of his way to make sure he never went near or even touched Damon (his living son). Darin made several different excuses as to why he never tried to help Damon. Darin has claimed many times the reason he didnt help Damon was because he had no pulse. We know for a fact that was an outright lie. Then Darin claimed he didnt help Damon because he didnt know he was hurt. That is just ridiculous. Why would the boy be laying there on the floor barely moving if he wasnt hurt. Darin said in an interview he looked over at Damon, he started to claim he wasnt moving or alive, but he caught himself and claimed he was barely moving. This was proof Darin not only knew he had a pulse, but he knew Damon was injured.
When Darin was confronted by Davis in court he claimed he didnt help Damon because his cpr training taught him not to turn him over. Darin had 7 years of cpr training. There is no possible way Darin could not have known for a fact that Damon needed pressure put on his wounds to stop the bleeding.
Darin also claimed in court that he had lifted up Damons shirt and saw his wounds. Everything Darin did that morning was to obstruct help to not only one victim but all three.
Darin also claimed that the reason he didnt help Darlie was because he didnt know she was hurt. Darlie herself said she not only told Darin she was cut, she showed him.
This wasnt just negligence what the police did, it should have been considered criminal.
They claimed that Officer Waddell had breached crucial rules in police procedures and that being the reason for the errors.
This was not too at all. The only mistake I saw with Waddell was the fact that he didnt call in when he went to the Routier home. Officer Waddell was 1.9 miles from the Routier home. He arrived at the house with in 2 to 3 minutes. He testified to that. He used his alarm and lights when driving there. He didnt just pull up and run from his vehicle. He was parked out front when Darin fled the home.
In the house we know for a fact that when Darin heard the police pull up he ran upstairs and back down and right out that front door. This 911 call is consistant with what officer Waddell has always claimed.
To further prove Darins desperation in trying to convince the police of an intruder you only need to listen to what is being said.
Darlie is desperately trying to get this 911 operator to help her, and Darin is there trying to convince the police there was an intruder.
You can hear Darlie finally change her tone and get angry with Darin. She knew this was no robbery, she knew nothing was taken and she told him that at least twice.
I remember Greg Davis bringing up a phone call Darin made. The first call Darin made was to his sister in law. He called her and asked her to call his employee and have her come over immediatey and give a statement about this suspicious black car that he claimed was stalking the home.
Here is the real glitcher. His employee, Barbara Jovell admitted that Darin had asked her to help with the setting up of the home robbery. She showed up at the house right after the murders and gave that false statement to officer Patterson knowing the whole time that she was the one who sent that person to the Routier home weeks before making sure it appeared that some one was stalking the home.
During the trial Darin was questioned about this. He immediately tried to claim that it was his neighbor who had spotted the car stalking the home and she brought it to his attention, but he then admitted he was the one who brought up the car to the neighbors.
Karen Neal testified that she came home from work and found this car parked right in front of her house. She immediately noticed how suspicious it was because it was pointed at the Routier home obviously watching it. When she walked over and tried to talk to the driver he sped off. This was all part of the set up done by Darin and his employee.
To further prove that Darin and his employee set up the car Darin hired his employees mother to come into the home and help Darlie with the house and kids.
This made no sense to me what to ever because Darin was broke. He couldnt pay his bills, he had no money, he was turned down for a 5000 dollar loan. Darin had no shame in lying to police or prosecution. He claimed he had applied for this loan to get Darlies sister a car. That was absurd.
To further prove how obvious this was, Darlies younger sister was already staying at the Routier home. It would have made perfect sense that she would have stayed with Darlie and helped with the house and kids, but she didnt. Darin was broke, business was slow and yet he hired Dana to go to work at the shop with him.
This nanny Darin hired was only in the home for the second day when she just happen to spot this suspicious black car Darin and Jovell set up.
These women werent just involved in the staging of this insurance scam, they testified against Darlie in court. They accused her of being a negligent mother. They accused her of sharpening her knives the day before the murders. They even accused Darlie and her little neighbor friend of being negligent and cruel. This was a 12 year girl they accused of doing these things.
This girl, (Rebecca) testified in court and denied all the accusations being made by Darins employees mother.
According Jovell she felt that Darin should have made her a partner in the business. Years later she came forward to say she now believes Darin was more than involved in the crime. She stated this in an interview she did with Bryan st John.
As if all this wasnt enough police and other witnesses came forward to comment on some of the remarks Darin made about his family and crime He joked about how lucky he got that the intruder missed Darlies implants. Then he kept asking the police if they noticed his wifes body and looks. It was sickening to hear him talk about her.
In the hospital Darin was commenting how this crime was bigger than movies and books and much money it was going to make them.
On the day that Darlie was arrested Darin was spotted at the house laughing and joking with Dana. Climbing the fountain out front and tossing the toys around. This was a 28 year old man trying to impress a 16 year old child.
Darlie was only a child herself when she met Darin. They dated for three years then married when she was only eighteen. Darlie never grew up. She never knew who she was outside of being Darins wife and the mother of three boys.
Darin cheated on Darlie with the women who he is now living with. Darlie never cheated. Darin got herpies from one of the affairs.
Darlie was at a breaking point, but she never gave any indication she ever wanted to harm or kill her children.
Everything Darin did pointed to wanting to hurt or destroy his family. Darin sat there at trial bragging how he would park his car on the corner of the street to make it safer for his children. He would say how it was better than they his car than his kids.
The truth behind that story is the exact opposite. Many of the neighbors in came over and asked, told Darin not to park his car there. They told him he was obstructing the view of the drivers and making it dangerous for all the kids in the neighborhood. It was as though he was hoping an accident might happen and he could make an insurance claim.
The most convincing thing Darin did to prove his guilt was those two seperate cpr attempts he did almost 4 minutes apart. It wasnt just the cpr attempts, it was all the lies and exuses he gave for why he never tried to help Darlie or Damon.
People have said to me if it was Darin and he left that house and went down the back alley then the light in the back yard would have turned on and stayed on even after the police arrived.
That was not true, it was nonsense. There was a chair tipped over right beside the sliding doors. The only way that light in the back yard would have turned on was if Darin went up to the door of the spa. After the light is triggered it stays on for 17 minutes. That light was off when the police arrived.
This brings me to another very important fact about this case. When I read the prosecutions explanation for the sock being in the alley it was laughable. Greg Davis made sure by the time he got through with this case the jury was going to hate Darlie.
Greg Davis theory on the sock in the alley was not only not believable it was laughable.
Greg Davis claims that Darlie stabs the boys, she risks leaving Damon in the house to plant this sock, but this happens before she attacks herself and that explains why her blood was not on the sock. He then claims she comes back stabs Damon again, leaving him alive only to attack herself and then call the police. Mean while Damon is still left alive to testify against her.
Another disturbing statement the prosecution made was they claimed Damon was crawling away from Darlie and trying to go towards the stairs to his dad.
That is completely wrong. If you think about the timeline. The last thing Darlie did before she went to get the phone was she had Damon lay down. Darin appeared right after Darlie was out of sight and went to the kitchen to get the phone. He ran over to Devon in the living room. Darin never once went near or touched Damon and he was crawling away from his dad.
Another fact that proves that Darin was trying to make excuses as to how or why he ran past Damon to get to Devon he claimed that the reason he ran to Devon was because the glass table was tipped over on him. Through police evidence we know for a fact that the table never tipped over and it never landed on Devon. Darin did not go over and pick the table up off of Devon as he claimed.
Darlie was drug tested to some extent and no illegal drugs were found in her system, yet they found cocaine in Darins room, yet he was never drug tested. The police knew one of the side effects of cocaine is extreme anger and mood swings.
Did it make sense that Darin went to bed very angry after Darlie told him she wanted to seperate.
Was it possible Darin did cocaine and let the anger build up.
Was it possible that Darin decided at some point to lock the dog up and come down to start staging the crime scene.
Was it possible that Devon woke up and that set Darin off in a rage.
Was it possible that Darin then went to the kitchen to wash the knife but then realized Damon saw everything so he had to crab a second weapon and use it on Damon then Darlie explaining why only Damon and Darlies blood was on the knife.
Was it possible Darlie did not recognize Darin because she had just woken up and only saw him from behind.
Was it possble Darin went into the garage and waited until Darlie left the kitchen so he could use the other path to get to the dining room.
Was it possible Darin heard Darlie go to the kitchen and then run the few feet from the dining room to the stairs.
Was it possible Darin lied about Darlie being at the foot of the stairs when he claims he came down, because there was no blood puddle where he claims she was standing.
Was it possible that Darin did go down that alley when Officer Waddell stated he left the house and went to karens, but later learned he didnt.
Was it possible that the reason only the boys blood was on the sock because the sock was in Darins pant leg dragging on the floor and only came into contact with the boys blood because they were on the floor and Darlie was on the sofa.
Hi ~ I agree with you all the way
Question(s) if Darin is the killer ~where is the blood on him and his clothes ~ perhaps why he ran to the drain to throw all that away and missed the sock?
The police took the kitchen sink~ Darlies blood all over it~ but cleaned up ~ testing showed her blood ~did Darlie ever say she leaned over the sink and bled over in it and tried to clean it?`
If Darin is the one who did this or an intruder~ regarding the cut the screen ~ why is it only Darlies prints on the knife that was believed to cut the screen? If Darin or intruder did it and wore gloves then wouldn’t Darlies prints be smudged at least?
Again I feel she is not guilty but there are questions that point to Darlies DNA not an intruder or Darin~
I truly believe there is nothing wrong with the silly string video ~if you look at the video Darlie looks exhausted, overwhelmed ~ Darin does not ~ maybe chewing the gum was a comfort to her and better than smoking a cigarette~
I am 51 at the time this happened 28 pregnant with my 3rd child ~ Even then and now I do not think Darlie did anything wrong at the gravesite~
Darlie liking to look nice and appearing attractive does make a person guilty of murder
Though her interviews she does appear to smile at times when it should be somber for the typical person ~ however we all have our own physical reaction to the events in our lives.
I was 8 when my father died and the accident happened in front of me and I saw him taken away ~ to this day if someone gets hurt in front of me I laugh ~ I have upset many ~ however those that know my back story understand this is my physical reaction how I handle the stress of seeing someone in distress ~ to this day when i talk about it I laugh ~ its not funny it was horrible however that is just how my body reacts to it
I feel that is exactly how Darlie is ~ to me her interviews hurt her ~it is not what she says ~ it is how she says it and her demeanor ~ that does not mean she killed her kids
but that is what the jury and the public see and in my opinion why she was found guilty.
correction on Darlie liking to look nice and appearing attractive does make a person guilty of murder
I meant to write does not make a person guilty of murder 🙂
Classic parapraxis.
Oh, Kezzy. You really need to learn what “facts” and “proof” are. Your assumptions are not facts; your saying a thing does not make it proof.
Yes, Darin lied like a rug. He did it to protect Darlie. Every lie you point out was made to protect Darlie, because he knew she killed those children.
You look at the facts with the assumption that Darlie is innocent. You look at the facts with the assumption that Darlie saw someone in the house who attacked her. You make all sorts of other wild assumptions about her (“I knew right then that she had a special bond with her children,” really? No, you interpreted something innocuous and decided your interpretation was absolute truth), all of which are incorrect. Because you assume she is innocent, you twist the facts to somehow “prove” that. You prove nothing but that Darin lied to try to protect his wife, and you ignore Darlie’s many, many lies and the ridiculousness of her story.
If Darin had been the killer and wanted Darlie dead, she would be dead. It is complete and utter nonsense to think he would have just slashed at her throat but stabbed the boys. NONSENSE. It is complete and utter nonsense to think he would have just run away instead of finishing the job on her. It is complete and utter nonsense to believe that Darlie got wounds and bruises on herself while “fighting the intruder,” but Darin managed to come away from that “fight” without a mark on him. It is complete and utter nonsense to have to arrogance to believe, as you do, that you are smarter and better at investigating than the police and the DA, despite your clear lack of intelligence.
You have proven nothing but that you do not know how evidence and investigations work; that you have a very rich fantasy life that enables you to invent ludicrous stories; and that you lack the intellectual capacity to differentiate your stories from truth. You can show up on every video and every place this case is discussed with your fact-torturing theory, and insist that you and you alone have cracked the case, but that doesn’t make it true…because it’s not.
Darlie killed those boys, period. Every fact–the real ones, not the ones you made up–points to her as the killer. She did it. She is guilty.
Yes darlie did it
Wow, you got it all figured out. Just one small problem…..you’re wrong, Darlie is guilty as sin and is stting right where she belongs.
I agree with Kesler Douglas. The facts point to Darin as the murderer. I have spent countless hours researching what happened that night as well as the background of their marriage. My conclusion is Darin is guilty.
How can you come to that conclusion? What is it about this case that leads you to convict her to death. Be real look at all if the people already set free from death row.
The society we have lived in since the Seventies has been on a downwards spiral.
Lack of human life has no value.
But I have lots of hope that this Mom didn’t kill her Children.
You are one crazy bitch kesler douglas
Guilty as charged and The Last Defense isn’t going to change that.
Thank you, Detective Armchair. Would you like to solve JonBenet Ramsay and Tupac Shakur’s murders, while you’re at it? I’ll wait…
Poor JonBenet was struck in the head with a toy gun by her brother. An accident, kids fighting over an Xmas gift. Parents thought she was dead so they staged the whole thing. So sad for all of them. Darlie is innocent based on the timeline alone. They need to look to the husband getting insurance money.
This must mean it’s getting really close…
Not a shred of logical evidence against her. The knife they claim was used to cut the screen is a bread knife, the forte of which is always used to cut through twist ties on French loaves the exact consistency of window screen. The blood spatter analyst has a degree in graphic design and his blood analysis is responsible for three other wrongful convictions I know about. In the meantime two other blood spatter analysts with degrees in blood spatter found Mrs. Routier could not have committed the crime but their testimony was not allowed in evidence. I could go on and on. This is an innocent woman on death row for 20 years!
Lying is a bad, bad thing, Patrick. Bevel has a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice and there is no such thing as “a degree in blood spatter”–and their testimony, aside from never asserting that Darlie couldn’t have committed the crime, was not allowed in evidence because there’s no such thing as Open Mic Night in a criminal trial.
https://hubpages.com/politics/Darlie-Routier-deserves-a-new-trial-and-Darin-Routier-needs-to-be-investigated
You sound like you could easily go on and on, and none of it would be even the tiniest bit more valid than the drivel you already posted. I regret having wasted a few seconds of my life reading your foolish blather.
“Not a shred of logical evidence.” Except for all the evidence that proves she is absolutely guilty.
Read the trial transcripts.
Wow Patrick you’re getting worse. Still trying to convince someone Darlie cut her bread ties using the serrated bread knife while the rest of us just untie them. That is the silliest excuse for that screen fibre so far.
Defending Darlie & The Last Defense
That is, precisely, what It sounds like – a one sided presentation to show Darlie as innocent. Very easy to do, with no rebuttal.
It would be interesting to find out if former prosecutors Greg Davis and Toby Shook were able to view all other segments of The Last Defense, prior to their interviews.
This IS the rebuttal, genius
Dudley Sharp, I agree. Kerry Opperman apparently has poor understanding.
Totally innocent woman, I have believed it for so very long. Let me assure anyone that I would be first to say let the woman rot if I even remotely thought she was guilty but as someone pointed out there is not one shred of logical evidence against there is not even a concrete motive, it’s all guess work, you can’t kill someone for guess work.. if you do that is also murder.
Yes she’s innocent…. anyone with a brain who researched this case can see that Darlene is innocent. Go back and research everything…. she had no motives but her husband had plenty.
If u think shes innocent at least get her name correct Darlie not Darlene Darlie Lynn routier
Barf. A stupendous waste of time and effort.
When I saw the silly string fiasco I immediately thought Darlie was guilty. That video sickened me so! Never could I have imagined any mother acting so joyous following a horrid killing of her children. The whole video was despicable, Darlie was despicable, her actions & attire was despicable. BUT it stops right there.
After seeing & hearing what that prosecutor had to say is when my mind changed 100%! That guy & the ignorant power he has is what’s keeping Darlie Routier’s life on death row. She needs to be free but it just might be too late. What a terrible miscarry of justice! A narrow minded freak!!
No life is a waste of time. Especially an innocent life. You may check inside to see if these responders have a heart.
Your family had a corrupt structure of values. Your daughter is guilty and this is the legacy she has left your family and the Routier family for eternity
I did not know the Routiers prior to the murders of their sons. I met Darin several times donating furniture to his garage sales towards her defense. Several years later, I had the pleasure of meeting Darlie at Gatesville. I found her to be very sweet and loving in spite of her surroundings. I picketed the police station, and although I was on friendly terms with most of Rowlett’s police force at the time, our opinions of each other changed drastically as I voiced my opinion loudly about the case. Darlie is innocent and was wrongfully committed for a crime she did not commit.
I’ve just begun watching and reading about the case, the only evidence I’ve seen so far is evidence to her innocence not guilt. How in the world one juror with half a brain could fine her guilty let alone 12 is beyond me. As for the so called birthday video where she’s seen laughing and smiling, how does anyone know how someone should grieve or handle a situation like that? Maybe she knew her son would want her to smile so that’s what she did, maybe she decided to focus on the joy that was his life and not the sadness that was his death. It’s atrocious this woman was ever arrest let alone convicted. If they carry out her sentence they’ll be the ones guilt of murder; not her.
I have always felt she was innocent. I was next to her in DCJ in the single cell pod, awaiting a transfer for 3 months. She maintained her innocence and prayed out loud morning and night for God to help her. I’m ashamed that the trial got moved to a town full of retirees, I feel that she would have had more of a fair trial in Dallas County. I’m ashamed of our judicial system, especially in my home state of Texas. She needs a new “fair” trial, bottom line!
I’m not sure how I feel about this now. Back then I was certain of her guilt but do you remind me that this was not necessarily based on any solid, physical evidence. As an older and wiser person, I understand that people do not always react to things the way “we” think they should. I am all for the case being re-examined but sincerely hope that you are not against the death penalty in general and will support it in cases where guilt is more clearly based on physical evidence and/or credible eyewitness testimony.
Darlie clearly did not commit this crime, and anyone who is still firm in the belief that she did after all of the new evidence and facts have come to light, is either brainwashed or being willfully stupid. For every argument made that she is guilty, there is at least one, if not more, rebuttal arguments that can be made to show an alternative and perfectly plausible scenario in which she is innocent. That’s what we call “reasonable doubt”, folks. I don’t understand why Kathy Cruz won’t name the man known as “Dwayne” in her book, since he is a felon. This man needs to have his fingerprints compared to the unknown print found at the Routier home, and his DNA needs to be compared to the pubic hair that was found.
Tried and convicted through public opinion, she never had a chance. I wanted to “go with the flow” a bit, being a fairly conservative mom of 2, but it just doesn’t make sense! They proved she was a buxom ditzy blonde, but she didn’t kill her boys! I still believe she was still in shock when the whole “silly string incident” occurred. They talk about her being self-centered and that they believe her kids were “in the way of her happiness”…Balderdash! This poor woman has been railroaded and her whole life has been taken, 1st by her boys being murdered then by the (in)justice system. For the love of God admit you’re wrong and let her have some semblance of a life!
SEVERAL things come to mind..Makes no sense to kill 2 of the kids and still have one toddler if u want to be free. This seems like a botched robbery. Maybe all 3 were the intended victims. I wonder if she had any life insurance on her. Or if there would have been some kind of payoff of mortgage or debts if Darcie would have been killed. They should of taken a closer look at the husband. Maybe he was the one who wanted to be free. I mean financially he was not doing well. His families death would have sort of set him free.
I missed the first 2 shows on ABC, but after watching tonight and this article, I think she is innocent – Just like ‘Making a Murderer’ Case on Netflix. Very Sad how broken the Justice System is – Jerry Spence, best defense lawyer to ever live, talked about this alot in his books. Let me know if there is anything i can do to help. I live in Fort Worth.
I think where a lot of people go wrong on this story is that they are so concentrated on the who could have done it if not Darlie?! It could have been a case of mistaken identity, with someone being in the wrong home. The idea that someone did this because Darin wanted his home burglarized to collect insurance money doesn’t ring true because of the children being killed. For what reason would they kill the kids and try to kill Darlie? But most ridiculous is the idea of her slitting her own neck to the point where it was so deep it was only a couple millimeters from her carotid artery and the chain she was wearing was imbedded in her skin with a couple of the links breaking from the knife. I know that things must be extremely biased in Texas that they were able to prevent another trial for Darlie when they didn’t have the entire transcript from the first trial due to the transcriptionist’s errors. There was also the history of the Judge falling asleep. How the hell do these things happen to anyone when they are fighting for their life and are then ignored? This is a travesty of justice and Darlie Routier shouldn’t have to pay with her life for the incompetence of the Rowlett P.D. and the Texas judicial system.
Her husband’s alleged motives… money and the affair he was “allegedly” having with a 16yr old. Research.
The necklace was NOT embedded in her skin. No links were broken. Read the trial transcripts, not the stories of Team Darlie.
1. Darlie did it. 20 years and still no proof she didn’t do it.
2. How long is Kathy Cruz going to be permitted to hide behind the pretext of being a journalist to act as a propagandist for Darlie?
the narrow mindedness and incompetence on the prosecutors side is incomprehensible.
superficial judging – twisting to get to some ‘evidence’ that would serve them…. them, who never worked a case like this.
deception on the state’s side…
to bring materialism into this is just pathetic.
funny the prosecutors reaction to the question how much the kids funeral would cost when they pondered on the 5000$ life insurance money.
they won’t admit being guilty of having made a mistake. even if they know it. a very good example of ‘being decent’…what hypocrits
Kerry O, there is no new evidence. This show The Last Defense is a crock of shyte full of lies and mistakes.
Cami I think you are a crock of shyte and should find better things to do with your time besides talking out of your a**! I hope Darlie gets her new trial! There is evidence that was never examined such as the print and the sock and I hope the police department stops trying to cover their mistake and starts doing their job!
Fairly new to this case, so I could have missed this answer elsewhere. Did the police ever check the sewer drain for more evidence? The Dateline series implied that the killer was trying to throw the sock in it when he/she fled, so I am curious if they checked to see if the killer did manage to throw something else in drain.
Our justice system is corrupt, it’s obvious the investigators made mistakes and didn’t do their job. That alone should throw case out! What kind of judges allow this?
Judges who at one time were prosecutors. It’s a corrupt system ran by corrupt people. The Prosecutors and judges who wrongfully convict someone in a death penalty case should be charged with murder themselves. Prosecutors are known to hide or skew evidence to their favor and what’s worse is that there is no repercussions even when they’re caught red handed. The justice system is a complete joke. They don’t care about the truth. They only care about who has the better story even when neither matches what actually truthfully happened. There is NO justice.
I have always believed she was innocent. Being a state employee for 25 yrs in TDCJ i learned alot about the state of Texas, they will never admit wrong on their part
I seen an interview or an FBI investigator said in all the years he had been investigating never once has he known of a crime scene where somebody got into the house grab the knife went outside cut the screen and then came back into the house
So with all the evidence not used in the case, and Darlie was convicted by the police and media prior to her hearing, of course Darlie would be very careful of what she shared about her marriage. It was the only support person she had.
As far as silly string at gravesite- it would be something we would suggest to a grieving mother on the birthday/ funeral of a child. No different than releasing balloons.
I’m disgusted they used Darlies want for jewelry, boob job, fun times etc against her. This was before all the hype with selfies you can actually see! It’s normal behavior for women that age to be playful and take pics AND spend more money than they should.
Bloody Sock, finger print/ yes she deserves another trial. Those cops that screwed it up- know they did but are willing to let her die to save their reputation.
Do we need Kim Kardashian on this to help ?
I’m just wondering- what now- who does what- what can be done.
Darlie is guilty. There is so much evidence not covered in The Last Defense that is in the trial transcripts. Luminol revealed blood clean up at the sink, Damon was attacked and stabbed in two different locations, Darlie never asked Darin if Drake was ok because she knew he was, Darlie accused her neighbor, Glenn Mise, of the crime and it was proven he had nothing to do with it. She was more concerned on the 911 call about finding “who did this” than she was about saving her kids. She kept saying “I don’t know who did this ” on the 911 call. Her top concern should have been saving her boys and it just didn’t seem to me that was her top concern.
Refreshing to see one of the few people here who can actually think. Thank you, Sally.
I have noticed many of those convinced she’s innocent can’t even get the names of Darlie or darin correct .they speak such utter rubbish they obviously have never read the evidence ,all most of them cling to is the nearly cut ” carotid ” artery ,do they not realise if it was darin who did this Darlie would defo be dead she had a massive insurance bounty on her head ,some ppl no common Sence
I have followed this case for years and never felt Darlie got a fair trial. She should have a new trial in Dallas County.
I agree she was not allowed the benefit of the doubt and treated as guilty based on the inexperienced cop who arrived first and the retired investigator. The trajectory of the opinions by the men involved was that she was guilty and they were not going to even try to prove she was innocent or take any time looking for the real perpetrator because it was just too easy to blame Darlie. Darin could have been as easily been on trial. She deserves a new trial or exoneration. The evidence against her presented was not countered
By her defense. So many liberties were taken by the prosecution but Darlie’s civil liberties were walked all over in every possible way.
I always believed that Darlia is guilty, as a mother I can’t understand how someone comes in my house killes my children who’re sleeping next to me n I hear nothing, there’s no way, I believe she frickout for whatever reason, then Darien realize the problem, they will be send to Death row, so, he help her covering the mess. He’s guilty too, there’s being too many things that went wrong, the dog never barked, if a dog knows of an outsider in the house, it will let the owners know. blood by the sink, was n top of foot prints, blood was under vacuum cleaner, are so many sad evidences. I want her to die n prison, n also for the media n all the people who never think of those angels’ pain, stop. If a poorblack or white, would had done it, he or she would have being death years ago. Why is that people are so unjust, everyone look at evident which was presented by respected directives. I being looking how all these palls of new evidence has come up, but that is a waits is time, because, they not getting away with, Darien n Darlie, God hate unjustice,He loves children
Ether, deep sleep from not sleeping in the previous nights,loss of blood, shock
Smack to the head all could have caused unconsciousness.
Darlie did not do this!!! I believe it was intruder like she said and I have my suspicions that Darin hired them and staged the house to look like there were intruders.I believe Darlie was to be killed as well but thankfully lived.Also I believe Darlie was drugged in her wine which may be reason why she didnt wake up til her son nudged her.Truly sad.I pray Darlie will be freed soon!!!
Can someone explain why the bruises on Darlie’s arms are far more severe after she had left hospital. She was examined in hospital and several nurses testified the bruising was nothing like the photos shown after. They can’t all be mistaken or lying surely.
Bruises can take days to show up and they always get worse before they get better.
On the whole this conviction has some major flaws. All it takes to find innocence is REASONABLE DOUBT, not actual innocence and there is plenty to be found here. Darlie had ineffective counsel if anyone ever has. They did nothing to rebutt any of the states evidence. Blood spatter experts should have been called, experts on grief and/or PTSD, CSI experts to explain how contamination could occur in regards o the ONE SMALL fiber found on the bread knife and many more. The silly string video should have been rebutted with the prayer service held before. Hell, here in New Orleans we have second lines, where the casket is paraded down the streets by people dancing and playing music. Death doesn’t just call for grief, but a celebration of life. The attorneys should have argued against the venue and done a better job with jury selection.
I don’t believe she’s guilty, but regardless of what I think, the fact is she wouldn’t have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt had she been effectively represented. Her attorneys dropped the ball and a woman was sentenced to death.
Beyond that, she has an impressive number of the legal community and experts who believe she is innocent. They have reviewed and studied the case extensively. That should cause some pause. The juror interviewed for the show made it clear she was convicted due to the image crafted and not the evidence presented and that is a true travesty of justice. I guarantee if she was put on trial today she would be acquitted, given the proper defense was presented.
Impressive amount of the legal community that thinks she’s innocent? Where? Where are they except for her current crew? Darlie is a killer and coward husband belongs behind bars for perjury. Darin Routier your a spineless coward pussy whooped by the tits you paid for. Tits over your children. Who the fuck does that! Your a piece of shit Darin Routier
‘Hannah’ – The ‘ineffective counsel’ argument was shot down on appeal. You’ll have to do much better than regurgitating failed arguments.
I’m sure most convicted murders want a second bite at the apple, 23 years later, when evidence has degraded, people have retired, expired, memories have faded… Not happening. The evidence presented at trial is overwhelming.
There are also an impressive number in the legal community who are associated with Project Innocence who won’t take her case because they believe the physical evidence proves she is guilty.
Never mind the stupid gum chewing and silly string stuff at the gravesite. It proves nothing.
The Luminol showing cleaned up blood splats, audio analysis of the 911 call which shows she was staging the scene as she was screaming, the window fibers on her knife, the drips of blood down the front of her shirt which show she was upright when her neck was cut, the hesitation wound, the undisturbed dirt outside the window, the slit too small for a person to squeeze through…all proves she did it. WHY she did it not important. Defense attorneys don’t have to supply motive.
Those who are in the Darlie is Innocent! camp are all trying to make money for themselves by writing books and producing TV shows. It’s sick.
People trying to get notariety for themselves by writing books or making shows on her “innocence” are truly disgusting. All physical evidence points to or at least does not exclude Darlie as the perpetrator. Case closed. Enjoy hell, Darlie.
I feel she’s innocent for many reasons. It appears her husband then had a motive for killing them all – insurance money (something he even discussed with someone prior to was “insurance fraud”) People who are hateful towards her that want to crucify her don’t know all the facts, some might even be jealous of her beauty and the lifestyle she had because people are so petty nowadays. I hope the truth comes out before it’s too late. They don’t want to release her because she’d be entitled to a very hefty claim for wrongful conviction and imprisonment. It’s such an injustice. She has been through hell on earth.
Darlie did it look at the evidence ,darin knu she had done it & chose to lie for her, she’s as guilty as sin.why did an intruder murder sleeping children yet leave the adult alive.her injuries were pathetic wen u look at the boys injuries,why did darlie think to say she picked up the knife & say ” you could have got prints maybe ,she’s were she belongs
Anion, if Darin would’ve killed Darlie, then that would’ve left him as the only possible suspect. (Besides the intruder theory.)
All supposition on this case is just mudding the waters of the core issue. Those poor boys were killed by their own mother! I’m not happy to say this, but science has no opinion. And the science, not the judge, jury, or D.A., the science says Darlie is guilty folks. If you feel otherwise, please look at ALL the facts. It’s sad, but so, she did that. May God save her soul!
It’s absolutely mins boggling the prosecutors in this case actually have a job. Its appauling the evidence they showed or lack there of!! For a jury to convict her on the case they presented has me feeling very uneasy about our jucial system! The window that was slashed was no where near a mulch bed, that mysterious sock that was found so far from the house, is shocking the response feom the prosecutors response that Darla placed it there. Are tou kidding me?? The comment on the 911 call about touching the knofe was clearly in the transcripts that she was responding to the operator. A juror making a comment on her expensive lifestyle does not make her a murderer. Im beyond floored that any educated or even uneducated human could ever say that it was beyond a reasonable doubt to convict her!! There was zero evidence!! The jurors and prosecutors have an obligation to examine evidence and there was zero, and a woman sits on death row! Shame on you and a disgrace to our justice system!!!!
Darlie Lynn Routier is totally innocent! She is an innocent crime victim… She deserves justice and freedom ! Justice and freedom for Darlie Lynn !!! May God punish everyone that tell bad things about her (…) Bunch of morons : open your eyes! Darlie Lynn is innocent!
The partial bloody smeared fingerprint, exhibit 85J, came back unidentified after being run through AFIS in January 2020. Darlie’s right ring finger hasn’t been ruled out. It was found to have no male DNA present in 2015. Team Darlie loses again. Prepping the needle. Lol.