She Said Intruder, Texas Said Otherwise: Darlie Routier

On June 6, 1996, five-year-old Damon, and six-year- old Devon Routier were stabbed to death in their Rowlett, Texas home. The mother, Darlie Routier was found injured on the living room couch and claimed an intruder attacked her and the boys. Investigators quickly came a to a different conclusion, arguing the crime scene was staged, and her wounds were self-inflicted.  What followed was one of the most divisive trials in modern true crime--a conviction built on blood patterns, fibers, and a controversial home video, and decades of appeals that continue to split public opinion. This episode breaks down the crime, the investigation, and the long fight over what really happened in that house on Eagle Dr.

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Edited by: Wojciech, B

Covert art: @curlyinkstudio (Instagram)

At Dead Serious, I strive to tell stories in a truthful manner, although press media and other resources can not always be verified.

Case Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie_Routier

https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/routierdarlie.html

https://www.txcourts.gov/All_Archived_Documents/ccaInformation/opinions/72795.htm

https://www.injusticewatch.org/archive/2019/darlie-lynn-routier-remains-in-prison-awaiting-long-overdue-dna-testing/

https://www.aetv.com/articles/darlie-routier-children-murdered-june-

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 APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1896929129

 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QcspQIAcBaK2ZsoSzwYnE?si=2D6M514USTaYKXsJ8TKASw

 Edited by: Wojciech, B

 Covert art: @curlyinkstudio (Instagram)

At Dead Serious, I strive to tell stories truthfully. Press media and other resources can not always be verified.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Dead Serious, a true crime podcast. I'm your host, James Murray. This podcast contains mature themes. Your discretion is advised.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Hey guys, welcome back to Dead Serious, the show where we cover true crime, the cases, the courts, and the absolutely unhinged way everyone loses their minds about it. We take the crime seriously, we take the victim seriously. Everything else is fair game. Hope everyone's having a fantastic week so far. This week's case, we're going back in time. We're going to the 90s. It's a case of a mother killing her children, which almost somehow seems commonplace. It's many women have done it. Many women will do it. And why is that, right? What do we think drives women to kill their very own children? This is where my love for psychology comes to play. Like I really want to know why, but are we meant to be able to understand something like that? Or should the common person not know what that is? I mean, we're all human. Are we all able to have some understanding of these feelings somewhere inside of us? Today we're talking about Darley Routier. Darley Lynn Peck Routier was born on January 4th, 1970, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Larry and Darley Peck. You're gonna notice a theme here, lots of names starting with the letter D. It's not really known the number of siblings that she has other than Danielle, who has publicly spoken out. Darley moved to Lubbock, Texas at the age of 15 with her mother and stepfather, Robert Key. Darley was described as well developed for her age and the complete package, blonde hair, curves, and charm. She met her husband, Darren, at a Western sizzling restaurant where her mother worked. Darren, only 17 at the time. He was the regional manager. They went on a date that first night that they met and became inseparable. They married in 1988, three years after meeting. Darren started a business, test neck, that tested electronic equipment. It became very successful. And they bought a new $130,000 home on 5801 Eagle Drive, Rowlet, Texas. Okay, number one, $130,000. I can't even wow, it must be nice. And this was a two-story, three-bedroom, three-bathroom with a bonus game room, quite common in Texas. The master bedroom had a balcony and a fireplace. And for $130,000, please, let's go back in time. The home is currently on the market for $408,000, if uh if anyone's interested. The couple had three sons. Devin Rush Routier was born on June 14th, 1989. Damon Christian Routier on February 19th, 1991, and Drake Anthony Routier on October 18th, 1995. In 1995, business was booming and the company brought in half a mill, which Darren gave himself $125,000 out of. He also purchased a 30-foot boat to use on nearby Lake Ray Hubbard. Darley got breast implants, 36 Triple D. Everything truly is bigger in Texas. Darlie was described by her neighbors as a fun, loving, stay-at-home mom. She had that classic Texas look: bleached blonde hair, long painted nails. The couple seemed to be happy. No one ever noticed the couple fighting, even when things went south, which they did. In the summer of 1996, Darren's business took a hit and the bills started mounting and their mortgage held behind. They owed the IRS $10,000 and had racked up $12,000 on credit cards. Although they did somehow manage to make a payment for a friend who had cancer. Even with all of this going on, the spending did not slow down. In fact, Darlene had an upcoming trip to Cancun Plan with her friends. On May 3, 1996, Darlene wrote an entry into her journal, kind of like a foretelling. She said, I hope that one day you will forgive me for what I'm about to do. My life has been such a hard fight for a long time, and I just can't find the strength to keep fighting anymore. I love you three more than anything in this world. I don't want you to see a miserable person every time you look at me. Your dad loves you all very much, and I know my heart, he will take care of my babies. Please do not hate me or think in any way that this was your fault. It's just that I dot dot dot. Now we come to the fateful night. It was June 6th, 1996. Ooh, I just realized that's like 6'696. That's creepy. Okay. At 2:31 a.m., a frantic Darley called into 911 saying that an intruder had broken into her home and stabbed her and the children. She said that her sons were dead. This call would go on for five minutes and 44 seconds. She also explained how when she was going back through the kitchen to check on her boys, she found a knife that she picked it up. And so her fingerprints would be on it. Yeah, sounds sus to me. It's always when people do that. Oh, I touched this. Like, why are you telling me that? The police arrived within three minutes, but paramedics couldn't get in right away as the police were still clearing the scene. Darley was just kind of standing there, not really helping or doing anything, covered in blood. Uh, police did observe a cut window screen suggesting an intruder. Now, what Darley told investigators was that she had fallen asleep on the couch that evening because the boys wanted to stay up and watch movies in the living room. Baby Drake slept upstairs in his crib in the master bedroom with Darren. Darley said when the baby moved around, it would wake her up. Next, she awoke to the sound of Damon pushing on her shoulder, yelling, Mommy, mommy. She saw a man standing by her feet. He then took off running and she went after him. She heard glass breaking as he went through the kitchen. Once she got halfway through, she turned on the light and saw the man running towards the garage. She spotted a large knife lying on the floor and yelled for Darren as she ran back through the kitchen, noticing blood everywhere, and saw her boys lying in pools of blood. Darren came running down and saw Devin first and noticed two large gashes in his chest. He could see exposed muscle and blood coming. Darren said he slapped Damon but got no response. And then he began CPR. Unfortunately, Devin was already gone. Let's go into the injuries. Autopsy reports revealed Devin was stabbed twice in the chest, once in the left forearm, and once in the left thigh. The chest wound had broken his chest cavity and exited through his back. I believe I've either read or seen on documentaries where they were saying the knife, you know, actually went into the carpet. I'm not sure if that's 100% true. Damon had been stabbed four times in the neck and incise wound in the left shoulder and one cut in the left upper back. Darley also sustained injuries, two wounds to the right shoulder, and her throat was slashed. She went in an ambulance to Baylor University Medical Center. Damon was also en route there, but unfortunately passed away during the ride. At the hospital, her wounds were assessed and the slash to her throat stopped just two millimeters from the carotid artery. Had that been hit, she would have bled to death in minutes. Her blood was tested while there and it came back positive for amphenamines. Back in the 90s, fenfen was a big uh diet drug. So that's what was believed that she was taking. She was upset that she had not lost the weight from her last pregnancy. The surgeon said that the neck wound was superficial and also noted that there were injuries to her arm that did not appear until several days later. So she comes back to the hospital and she's got her arm. You can see the pictures online, it's like just completely bruised. He stated that these were old, like approximately 24 to 48 hours. Like they couldn't have been from the night of the murder. And then with the slashing of her throat. So she's not the first person who's done this. The neck is a very fragile area. You do not have to go very far to get a lot of blood. And it actually is very easy to go too far and to kill yourself. The investigation consultant, Jim Cron, he came on board and he examined the crime scene and within 30 minutes came to the conclusion that there was no intruder. He questioned what would the motive been? You know, why would the intruder have killed the children first and not Darley, a capable adult? Nothing was missing from the home. There were multiple diamond rings that Darley had left on the kitchen counter prior to going to bed or laying on the couch. The murder weapon was an eight-inch white-handled butcher knife that had been taken from the wood block in the kitchen. Darlene had stated she'd followed the intruder to the garage, but no blood was found in the garage or the garage window or the fence in the backyard. The window screen that had been cut still had dust on it. The molt around the floor beds nearby, not disturbed. No blood was found on the couch where Darley said she was attacked. Blood was found in the kitchen sink, and luminol revealed attempts to wipe away the blood from the countertops and the basin. Also found was a sock near a trash can 75 yards from the house. Darren stated this was his and that the family kept a rag pile in the utility room of old socks. DNA revealed that the sock had two blood spots from Devin and Damon. In the kitchen, a vacuum cleaner was overturned and on top, bloody footprints, and there was blood on the handle. DNA on the vacuum came back to Darley. Those bloody footprints came back to Darley. Uh, next was the glass breaking that Darley had said she had heard the only glass that was broke was a wine glass. Apparently on the kitchen floor, that was the only thing that broke, a wine glass. This would suggest the footprints were there before the glass broke. Impressions of Darley's feet, as I said, taken, examined, and were consistent. Trace evidence also found a fiber consistent with the same material as the window screen on one of the knives in the block. Whoever caught the screen put the knife back into the kitchen block. Darley's white nightshirt analysis showed casts of blood droplets, meaning blood was casted off of an object in motion, kind of like a knife in a stabbing motion. There were cast-off stains of Devin's blood on the front and the right shoulder of Darley. Damon's blood was also found on the back, suggesting the knife was swung from the top of her head and back down over and over. Obviously, things are, you know, they're not looking really good for Darley right now. What really did her in, though, was a video of her just eight days after the murders, throwing a celebration for what would have been Devin's seventh birthday. In the video, Darlie is shown smiling, laughing, singing, and spraying silly string on the graves. Many thought this was unusual behavior for a mother who had just lost her sons the week prior. One prosecutor, Greg Davis, saw this and he argued this was proof. Like Darley had no grief for their deaths. Family argue that the reporters did not see Darley crying during a prayer service that was held prior to the birthday party. Four days later, on June 18, 1996, Darley was arrested and charged with murder. The prosecution depicted Darley as a materialistic, self-centered, and cold enough to murder her own children. She had court-appointed attorney Doug Parks. He requested a change of venue due to how she was being portrayed in the media. The judge granted, and the case was moved to Kerrville, Texas, 303 miles from Routette. It is one of the most conservative counties in Texas. This ended up being in favor of the prosecution. In mid-October 1996, her attorney was replaced with well-known defense attorney Douglas Mulder. He filed a motion to get the case back to Dallas County, but that was denied. The trial began on January 6th, 1997, and included seven women and five men. Immediately, Darley is being judged for her breast implants and bleached blonde hair. Prosecution decided to indict Darley for Damon's murder, since at age five, the killing was a capital offense. In the event of an acquittal or a successful appeal, then they could try her for Devin's death without having to worry about a double jeopardy situation. The prosecution's theory for the why the murder was just purely financial. Both boys had a $10,000 insurance policy. They believed Arlie had literally just staged the whole crime scene. Her defense, you know, of course, argued that wouldn't have been enough to even cover funeral expenses. And if that was the case, why not kill Darren? He had an $800,000 life insurance policy. Also, if it was about maintaining a luxurious lifestyle, why did she let baby Drake survive? Defense said there was no motive, no confession, or witnesses to the event. Although Darley, of course, was advised to not take the stand, she did, and she definitely got a bead down. The trial lasted five weeks and had around 52 people testifying, ranging from police officers, forensics, even a local business familiar with Darley. The jury watched the silly string video seven times. You can also go and see this online. It's interesting. They only deliberated for nine hours before reaching a verdict. On February 1st, 1997, Darley Rutier was found guilty of the murder of Damon. On February 4th, 1997, she was sentenced to death by lethal injection. She is currently one of seven women on death row in Texas. She has been held in the Mountain View unit in Gatesville since 1997. And throughout the whole thing, Darley has always maintained her innocence. She did end up getting a new defense team, and it included Stephen Cooper, whose first task was to go through the transcript. He found 18,000 errors within the 6,000-page document. This seemed to be an opportunity for a retrial. After reconstructing the transcript, a judge approved the revisions in November of 1999. Darley's team then filed an appeal in 2001. That one was rejected. And then in 2008, another appeal was sent in to conduct further DNA testing on crime scene evidence, which was granted. These are the items that they are looking at. The blue jeans that were worn by Darren, hair taken from the tube socks in the alley, the night shirt worn by Darley, the butcher knife, an unidentified fingerprint on the glass coffee table, pubic hairs found in the living room, and an unidentified facial hair. As of 2022, these things are still undergoing testing. As for baby Drake, he ended up being placed into foster care after the arrest. The paternal grandparents ended up getting custody as Darren wanted to get himself together financially and emotionally prior to attempting to even remain or regain custody. Today, Drake does believe in his mother's innocence. Darren has always believed in Darley's innocence. He paid all of her court fees all of these years. Though in 2011, it was a mutual decision that they decided they should divorce to kind of end the limbo that they were in. Darren at the time was also allowed supervised visits. So the most recent documentary that you could watch would be The Strange Case of Darley Routier, a part of that chapter series on TV. And then a book, The Monster Next Door, The Darley Rootier Story by W.G. Davis. I have not read the book. I've watched several shows like documentaries on Darley Routier throughout the years. So there's a lot out there. As always, you can find me on socials at dead underscore serious pod. Please subscribe, love it, share it, and listen on your favorite audio app. Thanks for all the support. I truly do appreciate it. Until next time, stay sharp, stay safe, and stay serious.