Darlie Routier /// Part 1 /// 489 | Forensic Files

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[Applause] 2023 [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] special [Music] [Music] in September of
2014 USA Today ran an article about parents who killed their children or filicide the article cites three decades
of FBI homicide data it shows on average 450 children are killed every year by their parents Northeastern University
criminologists applied statistical models to the records USA Today analyzed the database for a detailed look at who
kills who is killed and how several patterns are apparent the vast majority of child victims three out
of four are under 5 years of age nearly half of all victims died from physical beatings or other injuries at the
parents hands fathers are more likely to kill quote violence is a masculine Pursuit
says Jack Levan a Northeastern University criminologist when mothers kill they are
far more likely to kill victims under the age of one than children of any other age psychiatrists and
criminologists say parents who kill their children tend to fit one of five categories a parent suffering a
psychotic break a parent who thinks he is killing out of altruism because he does doesn't want a
child to grow up without him a parent acting out of revenge against a spouse or partner a parent who kills an
unwanted child a parent who kills from neglect or recklessness quote they are all twisted
perspectives of Love loyalty and altruism Levan says there are mixed motives in many of these cases when a
parent is accused of killing a child it dominates headlines and social media people are fascinated by this says
Sarah West a forensic psychiatrist at University Hospital's Case Medical Center in Cleveland it's an unfathomable
concept this week We examined one of the most highly debated cases to come out of
the great state of Texas a case that had everyone asking did the mommy do it darly rotier was a young wife and mother
of three but did she murder two of her sons that will be for you to decide this is true crime garage and this is a case
of darly [Music] roer one of my favorite True Crime writers is the great almost legendary
status skip hollandsworth who writes for Texas monthly magazine and using some paragraphs from a piece he did for Texas
monthly's special crime issue back in July of 2002 here skip briefly takes us through
some events leading up to the attack as well as events after the murder of two small boys the people in this True Crime
Story are parents Darren and darly rotier and their three sons Damon Devin and Drake on June 5th the boys play in
the hot tub and that evening Damon and Devon huddled under blankets in front of a television Darren had just installed
in the living room darly and Darren would later say that they stayed up talking past midnight they kissed each
other good night Darren went upstairs to the master bedroom where Drake then just
7 months old was asleep while darly curled up on the couch downstairs next to the two older boys she had been
sleeping on the couch that week she said because she wanted to watch over Damon and Devon who had been spending the
night downstairs since school let out and because she was a light sleeper and would sometimes be awakened by Drake
turning over in his crib a few hours later a 911 dispatcher and roulette received a frantic call
quote someone came in here darly screamed they just stabbed me and my children in the early morning morning
hours of June 6th 1996 Devon rotier who was 6 and Damon five were murdered as they slept on the
ground floor of the family's well-kept brick home in roulette a suburb east of Dallas Devon was stabbed twice in the
chest with such force that the knife almost went all the way through his body Damon was stabbed half a dozen or more
times in the back darly who was also sleeping downstairs had two slight wounds to her right forearm and one in
her left shoulder and her throat had been cut doctors said she survived only because the knife stopped 2 mm short of
her cored artery in a written statement given to the police a few days later darly then
26 told the following story she was awakened by Damon's cries of mommy mommy in the dark she didn't even notice she
was hurt she saw a man moving through through the kitchen and followed him as he went toward the
garage when she got to the utility room she saw a knife and picked it up only then she said did she return to find
Devon and Damon and realized that she had been stabbed too darl's husband Darren who was sleeping upstairs with
their infant son Drake came downstairs after hearing his wife's screams and began administering CPR to Devon by then
the as salent had disappeared 12 Days After Damon's and Devon's deaths the police arrested darly
for their murders they had no eyewitnesses no confession and no motive what they did have was an
intriguing trail of circumstantial evidence that suggested there was no Intruder that night physical evidence
suggested that darly had staged the crime doctor statements suggested her wounds were self-inflicted and there was
a peculiar scene caught on videotape a few days after the murders on what would have been Devon's 7eventh birthday darly
drove to the cemetery with friends and family wished her son a happy birthday and then sprayed Silly String all over
his grave quote here's a mother who has supposedly been the victim of a violent crime said Dallas County assistant
district attorney Greg Davis the lead prosecutor in the case she has just lost two children and yet she's out there
literally dancing on their graves after the murders darly gave conflicting account of what exactly the Intruder had
done to her one officer said she told him that she had struggled with her as salent on the couch another officer said
she told him the struggle was at the kitchen counter a friend who talked to darly while she was in the hospital said
darly told her that she remembered lying on the couch as the man was running the
knife over her face but in her formal written statement to police darly said her only view of the man came as he was
walking away from the couch she said she just couldn't remember any distinct details about the attack or the killer
except that he was wearing dark clothes and a baseball cap was it really possible that darly who could be
awakened by her baby moving in his crib had slept through the stabbings of her sons a few feet away now Captain Rolette
PD were suspicious regarding darly ear early in their investigation saying that they were tipped off by a few different
things one being the 911 call darley's Behavior and the crime scene evidence versus dar's account of the events of
that night we're going to play a little clip of her 911 call it's really hard to
make out what's happening but just so you can hear her energy on the call and then how intense the call is1 what is
youry Bren ma'am just stab me my children whatab me my children who hang on hang on hang
on hang ma'am [Music] ma'am' ma' I'm trying to get an ambulance to you hang on I my baby
forgot what's going on ma'am oh my [Applause] God oh God [Music] [Music] i1 oh my God
[Music] ma' I need you to calm down and talk to [Music] me1 listen listen to me I need you
to oh my God and that was just the brief start of a call that came into the rette police
department June 6th 1996 at 2:31 a.m. and because the police are saying that this is one of the things
that pointed them toward darly as being their prime suspect in the murder of her
two sons I think that we should go through the transcript of that call to see if we agree with their assessment
and reading for the responders will have the captain and reading for darly roer you have yours truly rette 911 what is
your emergency somebody came here they broke in ma'am they just stabbed me and my children what they stabbed me and my
kids my little boys who who did my little boy is dying hang on hang on hang on hurry stand by for medical emergency
ma'am hang on ma'am ma'am unknown medical emergency 581 Eagle Drive ma'am ma'am I'm trying
to get an ambulance to you hang on a minute oh my God my babies are dying what's going on ma'am oh my God thought
he was dead oh my God I don't even know attention 901 unknown medical emergency 5801 I don't even know Eagle Drive box
238 cross street Linda Vista and Willow Brook ATT attention 901 medical emergency who was breathing are they
still lying there maybe possibly stabbing 5801 Eagle Drive box 238 cross street Linda Vista and Willow
Brook oh my God what do we do timeout 232 oh my God oh my God needs units going towards 5801 Eagle Drive 5801
Eagle Drive oh my God my baby's dead Damon hold on honey hysterical female on the phone says her child has been
stabbed I saw them Darren oh my God came in here ma'am I need you to Cal down and
talk to me okay didn't you get my address 5801 Eagle yes we need help Darren I don't know who it was we got to
find who it was ma'am ma'am listen listen to me yes yes oh my God oh my God ma'am yes I need you too I need need you
to talk to me what what what my babies are dead do you want honey hold on ma'am I can't understand you yes you're going
to have to slow down calm down and talk to me I'm talking to my babies they're dying what is going on somebody came in
while I was sleeping me and my little boys were sleeping downstairs some man came in stabbed my baby stabbed me I
woke up I was fighting he ran out through the garage threw the knife down my babies are dying they're dead oh my
God okay stay on the phone with me oh my God what happened hold on honey hold on
who was on it was the white phone hold on they are wondering when we need to dispatch so I sent a double team oh my
God oh my God okay thanks oh my God oh my God ma'am who's there with you Karen ma'am what is there anyone in the house
besides you and your children no my husband he just ran ran downstairs he's helping me but they're dying oh my God
they're dead okay okay how many little boys is it two boys there's two of them there's two what's AC cross street on
the address on Eagle oh my God who would do this listen to me calm down I feel really bad I think I'm dying when are
they going to be here 5801 Eagle Drive 5801 Eagle Drive when are they going to be here going to be a stabbing when are
they going to be here ma'am they're on their way I got to just sit here forever oh my God who would do this who would do
this ma'am how old are your boys what how old are your boys seven and five okay oh my God oh my God oh he's dead
calm down can you oh God Devon no oh my God is your name darly yes this is her is your husband's name Darren yes please
hurry God they're taking forever there's nobody in your house there was was you don't know who did this then a police
officer is on the scene and you can hear him say look for a rag darly replies they killed our babies the police
officer says lie down okay just sit down darly roer says no he ran out uh they ran out in the garage I was sleeping my
baby's over here already cut can I phone is right here you all look out in the garage look out in the garage they left
a knife lying on there's a knife don't touch anything I already touched it and picked it up who's out there is anybody
out there I don't know I was sleeping okay ma'am listen there's a police officer at your front door is your front
door unlocked yes ma'am but where's the ambulance okay they're barely breathing if they don't get it here
they're going to be dead my God they're hurt hurry please hurry okay there there
police officer says what about you is 82 out on Eagle huh they took they ran we're at Eagle 5801 Eagle my God hurry
82 are you out police officer nothing's gone Mrs roer oh my God oh my God why would they do this police officer the
problem Mrs rotier what' he say why would they do this I'm okay l'sen ma'am need to need to let the officers in the
front door okay ma'am what what need to let the police officers in the front door his knife was lying over there I
already picked it up okay it's all right it's okay God I bet if we could have gotten the prince maybe maybe ma'am hang
on hang on a second somebody who did it intentionally walked in here and did it Darren there's nothing touched okay
ma'am there's nothing touched oh my God ma'am is the police officer there yes okay go talk to him okay the total
length of the call is 5 minutes and 44 seconds [Music] long this show is sponsored by better
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can do this when you Angie [Music] that all right we're back with our great acting skills cheers
mates cheers captain speaking of acting skills ours are not good enough to win a
Daytime Emmy obviously but what's your thoughts captain on darly roer you've had a chance to actually listen to the
911 call she's hysterical through most of it it's very chaotic but it's 5 minutes long so it's long enough to
really get a feel for what's going on and probably have an opinion on what it is you're hearing and deduce maybe some
of the emotions the thoughts or even suspicions going on with her on the call yeah it's hard to tell if she's acting
or reacting because mhm it is a mom supposedly coming out of her sleep and seeing her kids dying in front of her
and the amount of blood that's probably at the scene but it seems like there's no coherent thought that she's giving to
the dispat except for a couple lines and those seem to be the lines that are suspicious where she you know his knife
was laying there and I already picked it up I bet if we could have gotten the fingerprints maybe that line almost
seems to me that she's about to say well I bet if if I hadn't touched the knife we could have got fingerprints mhm
but also she is basically establishing a reason why she touched the knife and why her fingerprints would
be on the murder weapon and that's what law enforcement will point out as well as the prosecutors later that this is
the problem with her 911 call that she's referencing the knife does not need to mention the knife does not need to
mention that she picked it up it's almost like she's planting that information for everybody to be aware of
hey you'll probably find my fingerprints on this knife because I'm telling you now I picked it up and you might not
find an intruder's fingerprints on the knife because I picked it up after he threw it down the thing is though it's a
little difficult when you review the transcript of the 911 call and after you've heard the actual audio for the
call itself because the first time that she mentions really finding the knife or
that somebody threw down a knife she's responding to she's answering the operator's question the operator's
question was what is going on to which she says someone came in while I was sleeping me and my little boys were
sleeping downstairs the other issue with the transcript too is you have multiple
dispatchers or operators communicating they're at times in the 911 call communicating with each other and not
darly you know they're responding to oh we need emergency services to this address and then you have the other
dispatcher or operator saying something to the effect of Emergency Services have
been dispatched or have been dispatched at this time and one of the things we weren't able to do because it was just
us two reading the transcript and I don't think the transcript is that clear but if you listen to the 911
tape at some point when her husband comes downstairs and she's going oh my God oh my God he he starts going oh my
God oh my God reacting the same level of intensity she is so for somebody to say that she's
acting I would say well then I guess the husband's acting as well which is difficult again because as you know you
hear him come into the scene the way that he's behaving suggests to me that he might be
seeing this all for the very first time right he's walking into some [ __ ] and he's like oh my God what what the hell
is going on yeah I have no clue and I've just walked into pure chaos blood all over my family yeah so the first time
she mentions that knife it's her reacting to the operator's question of what is going on and at that point when
she says that the man he ran out through the garage through the the knife down my
babies are dying they're dead oh my God mhm she makes no mention of her picking up the knife on that first go round of
that question which is interesting to me because if it was information that she really thought that she needed to plant
and get out there and provide to everyone in the Heat of the Moment well she certainly passed on it on the first
opportunity well and then the other one she says uh you all look out in the garage look out in the garage they left
a knife laying on there's a knife don't touch it and that's when she says well I
already touched it I picked it up but but I think it's weird though and I don't know what she's actually intending
to mean when she says somebody who did it intentionally walked in here and did it that's odd that intentionally there's
nothing touched and I don't know if she she meant that the Intruder came in and didn't touch anything but that's an odd
line to me but again she I mean she's stabbed over four times how much of her body is in shock how much is she in
shock from seeing her not just her kids dead but they're dying they're dying in front of her yeah if she's not guilty
she's 100% in shock regardless of injuries or or what have you she would be absolutely in shock just at the sight
of her children being bloodied like that and you can hear let's pretend for a moment that she is in fact innocent you
can hear that she is fully aware the visuals that she is waking up to and seeing that she is aware that they are
dying and that is that's the got to be the complete shock but to address the first thing that you had mentioned back
to the knife when it's brought up the second time as you pointed out that the information is prompted by the operator
don't touch anything well I already touched it you know she doesn't mention touching it until it's brought up by
someone else and then as you pointed out I think the difficult thing here is at some point there's a lot going on and
and very quickly in the call there's a lot going on because What You Can Hear What I Hear anyway and I'm sure
everybody will have a slightly different opinion on what they are hearing and what they believe after reviewing the
transcript what I am hearing or believe that I am hearing is that darly is trying to give
the proper information to the operator but she's also kind of running and scrambling around the house I mean
Envision this if if she is innocent she's waking up to the children dying and she's got injuries herself probably
doesn't fully understand what had happened if she did in fact see or chase someone as they were leaving out of the
home there's probably a lot of running around to make sure they're not coming back but also she doesn't know what
happened to her husband or what happened to her her newborn and she's also trying
to tend to the children from time to time I mean you can hear her kind of checking in on the children even though
we will have officers and People First Responders later saying that she didn't seem to want to tend to the children but
they weren't there for the early parts of this call this is very similar of a 911 call to me as as the Michael
Peterson where he's talking to the dispatcher and then going back and checking on his wife and then going back
and talking to the dispatcher it seems very similar but it's it's tough because I think your gut tells you if if they're
over dramatic that they're putting on a show but if they're under dramatic about
it then they're coldhearted so it's it's almost like you can't win either way as
far as what your gut reaction is going to be to a 911 call like this still on some of the things that you had brought
up here Captain the portion of saying someone intentionally came in here nothing was touched nothing was touched
I don't know we can if we can understand what she means by that first of all and
second of all I don't think we know who she's even speaking to when she's saying
those words right cuz we also don't know if the police off officer that's there that's where it's confusing too is the
transcript states that the police officers are there way before the dispatcher is able to get darly to
confirm that the police officers are there so did the police officers say something did her husband say something
to her to prompt that like maybe the police officer says to her don't touch anything and she says nothing's been
touched like other than the knife nothing's been touched I haven't touched anything right and again she we don't
know who she's speaking to because we have Darren that arrives downstairs at some point she is interacting with him
at portions of the call she's interacting with the operator and then you can hear operator and additional
dispatchers on so there's some confusion there as well and again I hear Parts where she's clearly at least looking
over or tending to the children in some form or fashion so we don't know who those words were intended for so it gets
difficult to say that she's planting information for people later to use that as part of their
investigation and then there's one part that became a point of contention in this case and that was where she says
some man came in stabbed my baby stabbed me I woke up I was fighting he ran out through the garage threw the knife down
my babies are dying they're dead oh my God okay so the reason why this is a point of contention is because
the law enforcement and the prosecution will point out that oh you told the dispatcher you were fighting with the
Intruder so how do you not have a description of this guy if you if you remember if you were
actively fighting with him you should have some kind of description to provide to us and we know that she had such a
very vague description she said later that and would you agree that the quality of the call the audio for the
call is not the best it's awful it's it's it's not good so if she says that she said I woke up and I was frightened
or it was frightening I don't know exactly what she says I've listened to it a bunch and I could be swayed either
way I could be swayed either way the audio quality is so poor I can't tell if she's saying it was frightening I was
frightened or I was fighting tell me if I'm wrong in this statement but investigating this a couple things jump
out as far as her story whether her story changed or not we have police officers saying that she told them
different stories we have friends saying that she Twisted her stories here and there like little tiny details altered
her husband is saying whatever statement that she gave to the police the final statement that's the statement she's
stuck with all these years and they even have you know defense attorneys and and lawyers saying hey
whatever story she initially told that's the story she stuck with mm she's never
changed it so one could she have just messed up uh some of the details because she was in shock and because of all the
stuff that was going on we know that eyewitnesses can be wrong so are these people just reporting the information
wrong that she told them well and we have to keep in mind what's going on at the scene when she calls when she first
places the call again the call is 5 minutes 44 seconds long before she hangs up the phone before the end of the call
police are on the scene and she's unaware that they are there the officer's probably calling into dispatch
saying hey I'm here but the front door is locked yeah they're saying ma'am are the
police there and she says yes and she go well is the front door unlocked and she
says yes and she then the dispatcher comes back and says you're going to have to unlock the front door so one thing in
I think in her favor here for her to be innocent is the fact that the the call is this length of time and she's on the
phone with the dispatcher still when police arrive on the scene so we we have we we can't see what she's doing right
we don't know exactly what she's doing physically during the course of this call however we do know that she is at
least busy with the call itself for this amount of time so during this time it would be it makes it a little extra
difficult for her to be further staging the scene while on the phone and police are arriving before the end of the call
plus as you pointed out at some point Darren comes downstairs after he hears the commotion she does not it doesn't
sound like she woke him you know intentionally went upstairs and woke that that he heard the commotion and
came down on his own to walk into this horrific scene one just to let everybody know to
understand the way in which this Intruder entered the house they they cut a screen and a
window in the garage got through that window in that garage got inside the garage and then
went through the house that way so I think the fact that the police show up in the front doors
locked at least leads more towards her story making sense and when they show up on scene we
have Devin who is already dead we have Damon who is still alive when First Responders get to the scene we have
darly who's bloodied she's running around and we have Darren who is downstairs performing CPR on Damon and
baby break is still upstairs at this point yeah so hold on for one second cuz Okay postpartum
depression what's the motive here can anybody give me a motive of why should want to do
this you want to get rid of two of your kids but not all the kids you you didn't try to kill your kids and
then blame it on your husband to get rid of him you don't you didn't try to attack him nobody else was attacked
other than who was in that front room and if if she's guilty and she wanted to kill her
kids why would she wake her husband up before the kids were dead well you see what I'm saying
because but again she doesn't actively it doesn't show any intention of her purposely waking
Darren what I where where my questions go to is if she were to kill her sons and Stage the
scene right why would she call 911 when one of them is still alive right because
now you're running a huge risk of you know these kids are old they're still little kids but they're old enough that
they could tell yeah my mom stabbed me yeah if they're still alive they could tell the First Responders what went what
actually went down so you can hear her on the phone she is aware that one of them is still
alive so why would she call why wouldn't she just wait a few more minutes right and then call and act all hysterical and
and I guarantee you she was being hysterical way before the 911 call and again that points towards why would
you want to wake I mean look you don't know if the she's not a medical expert so if she
again if the purpose was just to kill these kids and to get rid of them then her husband comes down but at the time
he comes down aren't both of the boys alive so that would give I two chances for the victims to say mom did
this that I don't know I all I can say is that when well in fact actually we do have
some evidence toward that that thought there captain and we will get into that a quick little timeline here before we
get to what I believe are two very key parts of this whole story which would be the statements of darle and the
statements of Darren okay that's going to add us a little more insight into what is actually going on and you
already referenced some items at the crime scene itself and we'll get into those as well but real quick here
captain on June 6th 1996 that is when Devon and Damon ages 6 and five were murdered again Damon is still alive at
the point when the First Responders get to the scene darly is taken immediately to the hospital because she has suffered
some injuries during the course of this attack then we have a situation where on
June 8th darly gives a written statement to police okay so this statement that she provides to police the information I
have says that it took her approximately 30 minutes to write this statement for the police and this she gave to them a
written statement once she was released from the hospital so she's released from
the hospital and she is immediately directly taken to the police station at the police reest to provide this
statement and in her statement she says Darren and Dana her husband and my sister came home
from working at the shop the boys were playing with the neighborhood kids outside I was finishing up dinner Damon
came home and Devon called and I told him to be home soon because we were going to eat Darren played with the baby
this is the infant Drake with Dana her sister while I pulled everything together to eat Devon came home and we
all ate dinner together there's too many people with d names after we ate we cleaned all the plates I CH I was
changing Drake while Darren put everything in some containers for leftovers we all talked a little bit
about how happy we were that the shop had been so busy for the past 3 weeks as that we had hoped it would continue
since work had been slow for a couple of months Devon and Damon asked if they could play with one of their friends a
little longer so we said okay Darren Dana and I sat around and watched a little TV later I'm not sure of exact
time I asked Darren to drive Dana home because I wasn't feeling too well while Darren was gone the boys brought down
their blankets and pillows and asked if they could watch TV I said yes they came
downstairs and played on the floor in front of the TV with Drake while I made some popcorn about 20 to 25 minutes
later Darren came Darren came in and sat down with us while we watched TV Drake started to get fussy so I made him a
bottle soon after the boys fell asleep Darren took the baby upstairs and put him in his crib and came back downstairs
we talked about a few problems we were having with the car and the boat and had a few words between us since I had the
baby I have been having some depression I told Darren I was depressed because I hadn't been able to take the boys
anywhere because we only had one car he told me he loved me and asked me if I wanted him to sleep downstairs with me
because I wanted to stay up and watch a little TV I told him no because I didn't
think he would be able to sleep on the couch and get any sleep I had been sleeping on the couch the past week or
so off and on because the baby slept in our room in the crib and when he moved he woke me up Darren and I laid together
for a little bit while then decided to go to sleep because he had to work the next day this was around 12:30 or 1 I'm
not sure he kissed me and said he loved me and I told him I loved him and would see him in the morning after a while I
started to get sleepy the next thing I wake up and I feel pressure on me I felt Damon press on my right shoulder and
heard him cry this made me really come awake and I realized there was a man standing down at my feet walking away
from me I walked after him and heard glass breaking I got halfway through the kitchen and turned back around to run
and turn on the light I ran back towards the utility room and realized there was
a big white handled knife lying on the floor it was then that I realized I have blood all over me and I grabbed the
knife thinking he was in the garage so I thought he might still be there and I yelled for Darren I ran back through the
kitchen and realized the entire living area had blood all over everything I put the knife on the counter and ran into
the entrance turned on the light and started screaming for Darren I think I scream twice and he ran out of the
bedroom with his jeans on and no glasses and was yelling what is it what is it I
remember saying he cut them he tried to kill me my neck he ran down the stairs and into the room where the boys were I
grabbed the phone and called 911 Darren started giving Devon CPR while I put a towel on my neck and a towel over
Damon's back I remember telling Damon to hang on mommy was there I looked over at
Darren and saw the glass table had been knocked halfway off and the flower arrangement had been knocked over I then
stood up and turned around and saw glass all over the kitchen floor I tried to glance over to see if anything was out
of place or if anything was missing I took a few steps and opened the door and screamed for Karen okay so this is Karen
Neil it's their neighbor and friend she's also a nurse I was still on the phone with 911 and I don't recall what
all was said because everything was happening so fast I went back to Damon and by then he had stopped moving and
the police walked through the door the paramedics came and tried to work on the children Darren was screaming who did
this who did this and I started asking if my babies were dead Darren was crying and said yes after I just remembered
screaming and showing Darren my neck Darren took me out to the front of the house and by then Darren ran upstairs to
make sure the baby was okay and then hand him to Karen our neighbor I remember them holding a towel on my neck
and wrapping my arm and then they put me in an ambulance Darren got in but they told him he needed to leave so they
could take care of me I remember we got to the hospital and them telling me they
were taking me to surgery they took off my necklace and put me to sleep I woke up and minutes later the detectives were
there making me all kinds of questions at the same time here Captain keep in mind dar's been rushed from the hospital
directly to the police station to give that statement we have her husband Darren he's now providing a written
statement as well at the same time and his statement reads as follows we were watching TV in the Roman room watching
movie on HBO baby Drake had fallen asleep about 10 10:30 I took him up to bed in parents room put blanket on him
him and turned out lights I went downstairs to talk to darly we talked about the boys not being able to start
baseball yet because we were so busy with the baby right now we talked about the business bills and how darly was
having a hard time with taking care of the babies today darly said she wanted to sleep on the couch because she would
sleep better because the baby would keep her awake the boys were asleep with pillows and blankets on the floor Devon
was asleep face up in front of the TV and Damon was asleep between the couch and coffee table by the couch mom was on
so I went upstairs to get her a blanket and pillow and came back downstairs to cover her up we talked a little more
about her going to Cancun with some friends across the street and gave her a kiss good night told her to dream about
me and went upstairs around 1:00 a.m. I went and turned on TV in our room and watched for 10 to 15 minutes I took my
glasses off and turned TV off I could not go to sleep for a while but finally I fell asleep unconsciously I heard a
noise and then darly screaming loud she was yelling Devon Devon oh my God Devon I woke up quickly and grabbed my glasses
on the nightstand and ran downstairs as fast as I could going into the living room I ran over to Devon lying on the
floor where he was when I saw him last and kneel down over over him to see if he was hurtt and then looked at the
coffee table to see it tipped over on him when I looked again at his chest there were two holes in his chest with
blood and muscles piercing out I slapped his face to get him to say or look at me
no response I started CPR and when I blew into his mouth air came out of his chest I blew five or six times and held
my hand over the holes on on his chest then when that didn't work I blew into one of the holes in his chest I looked
over at darly and she was on the phone calling 911 I ran over to Damon lying on the floor in the hallway between wall
and side of couch he had no pulse but I could not see any injuries police came in and I told them that my babies were
stabbed and she told them that he went out of the garage I I ran upstairs to put my pants on I looked over at Drake
was crying and I felt he was okay I noticed my wallet left on the floor and all I could think to do was to go to
Karen's house for help I needed someone to help and the paramedics when they arrived I went downstairs ran out the
house ran across the street to Karen and Terry door I banged five six times as hard as I could until Terry comes to the
door first and when I told them that Devon and Damon were stabbed they were in shock
and ran over with me to the house and that was when they were putting Damon on a stretcher I knew that Devon was dead
before I ran across the street and Damon had no pulse but the paramedic carried him out in a blanket out the front door
I ran out yelling that we have to find who did this and Karen told me that darly was cut too I never knew that she
was hurt yet she had blood all over her from the neck down to the bottom of her night shirt she was standing in the
doorway with the paramedics said she needed to go to the hospital so we helped her into the stretcher and she
said Darren you have to promise me we will find this man he killed our babies I walked back into the house pushed my
way through the police and saw the knife on the bar in the kitchen with blood all
over it went to garage to look at the window that the police had said he had entered and I went out of the house and
walked across the street and the neighbors were there to confront me and ask about what happened I sat for a
minute on the curb and walked over to the ambulance where Damon was and asked paramedic was he alive and they said no
I was in shock Karen told me to go with darly in the ambulance so I got in and they threw me out
said they needed to work so then they asked me questions from the fire department he
says they wanted to know his social security number address and name and such and I asked what hospital and no
one knew so found out where darly went this would have been Baylor Dallas hospital and drove over to the hospital
at hospital I was questioned by detective fros for hours is there any eyewitness statements neighborhood
statements that heard her scream or saw anything suspicious that night so in reviewing the trial and the testimony of
witnesses and such no there doesn't seem to be anybody that was aware that something was going on that night until
they were alerted by either Darren or police or you know saw the the flashing lights and heard the sirens right there
were plenty of people to have an opinion about dar's Behavior what kind of mother she was and plenty
of opinions about the rers in general so to me Captain the thing that jumps off both Pages here from their statements is
they don't seem to line up 100% with each other statements and second of all they don't
seem to line up 100% with what it sounded to me like what was going on during the course of the 911 call right
because it sounds like darly has the recollection that she may have woke Darren up as she's getting ready to call
911 but to back that up a little bit his statement does say that he comes in sees
what's going on reacts to it and then the first he really sees darly after that she's in the process of calling 911
are already on the phone with them now my general thoughts are this though in regards to Darley statement and Darren's
statement I don't know that I would fully expect them to 100% line up I mean this is a if they're innocent it's too
much trauma for their stories to line up this is a a whole lot of chaos within a
five to six minute window of time yeah chaos is probably a better word than trauma and for them to have a full
understanding and a point by Point blow byblow recollection of what went down and how it went down and in every second
and every minute of what was happening you know what to be honest with you I would be more suspicious of
them together if their statements did 100% line up yeah Bingo because there were two days between the time that the
murders took place and these statements were given or a day and a half I don't know exactly what time of day these
statements were were given at the police department but the murders were on the sixth the statements written by these
two individuals individually on the eth but the other thing I do want to point out too you know because one thing that
law enforcement will use against darly is that her statement does not line up with what they were seeing at the crime
scene and the problem I have with that is look I agree first off I agree that her statements do not line up perfectly
with with some of the physical evidence at the crime scene itself but her words they took me to the
hospital they get me there they take off you know my jewelry my clothing they knocked me out put me to sleep so they
could put me into surgery right next thing I know I wake up she says minutes later anybody that's ever been knocked
out for a surgery will tell you and I've had this happened twice in my lifetime I've been put under two maybe three
times put under and then had a surgery and you swear to God that you're waking up and you're like I was I can't believe
you guys work so fast I was only out like 30 seconds and then somebody tells you like no you were out for a couple
hours or you were out for a day that's one that I feel like Rings true in her statement there where she says they took
off my clothes they took off my jewelry they put me out and then I went into surgery and then I woke up a couple
minutes later or I woke up minutes later and the police are asking me questions and then they took me off to the police
station and then we have later where we have uh people testifying that she was drugged up afterwards as one would
expect because she's been pretty severely injured in my opinion but again that goes
to the opinions vary depending on who you talk to regarding her injuries well and and painkillers affect everybody
completely different and so if I was in the hospital all for a couple days and the day I got out I was still on pain
medication I wouldn't be I wouldn't be able to put together my correct thoughts I mean I already sound like a stoner and
I'm not stoned I mean can you imagine if I'm all hoop up on pain pills and double
down on the fact that you were just I mean just minutes or maybe hours before writing out the statement you were in a
hospital bed right so here's what the the doctor testified to at the trial Dr Santos testified that darly was given
Xanax to treat anxiety and she was also given Demerol for the pain this is after
the surgery so she's on Xanax and Demerol and just been whisked away from a hospital bed to the police station to
give a written statement to police that oh by the way whatever you write here today we're going to hold this over your
head for the rest of your life so it's an important document we're going to use this to either clear you or build a case
against you I want to think that darly or her husband was thinking that they're going to take these statements and and
go over with a fine tooth comb to press charges against her I I I bet that was even a thought at this moment right she
doesn't know that they're building a case against her that they already suspect her at this point so you say
this is 2 days after M the murder to me that's not enough time to collect all the evidence at the scene get it tested
for us to know whether or not there was an intruder or not so it seems like to me like similar same year case two John
Ben Ramsey you're you're coming up with with theories and then you're going to try to prove your theory before the
evidence can tell you what happened well and you can't really make darly give you a written
statement any earlier than this because she's at the hospital she's under doctor's care she's knocked out she's in
surgery but what's a little weird to me is wouldn't you want to get a written statement from Darren as quick as
possible why does he get wait the same amount of time he's not in surgery he's not been injured at all in the course of
this attack or whatever went down well unless they're afraid if they say hey we need a statement from you and he gives a
statement and then he tells his wife well yeah I I gave the police a statement and she goes well what did you
tell them so maybe that's why they waited I can agree with that that would be that would be an idea there but but
also if you don't believe her statements are you asking for a polygraph test well
and again back to the drugs and in her state of mind or what it could have been at the time of writing the statement who
knows but again they they are going to hold the statement against her in court and the the testimony by Dr Santos is
testified that darly was given Xanax to treat anxiety and Demerol for pain when asked under
questioning says what all can demoral make you groggy yes could general anesthetic in your experience lead to
confusion yes can it lead to disorientation yes can it lead to short-term memory loss yes would you
agree doctor that to be questioned sometime before 8 in the morning let's say 6:05 hypothetically to be questioned
about very serious events at 605 1 hour and 5 minutes after anesthesia being cut
off would you be somewhat suspect as to the response you may receive from a patient answer you may get an unreliable
response yes yeah again but coming up with the theory before you get all the evidence back is
irresponsible and then on top of that let's get statements from somebody that we
know see again here's my problem with it it's irresponsible to come with the theory you know it's irresponsible to
question her when she just got out of the hospital but I think I think that was part of their play hey she she might not
say things correctly and that's going to work in our favor because now we already
created the theory now we're just trying to put the puzzles puzzle pieces however
we want to to fit that narrative well I I don't necessarily agree with the idea that they are wa waiting to get her
statement and then building the case around her afterwards I know that it took some time to get that statement
again she's in surgery you can't do anything about that but they're working the crime scene during this whole time
before they're able to get her statement so they are aware of certain pieces of physical evidence before getting the
statement from her so right but what I'm saying is not all the evidence is collected not all the evidence is tested
evidence is supposed to lead you to a theory not to have a theory first so yes I I agree with you there's been some
work at the crime scene that would give you some information but you you didn't wait to get all the information to get
all the evidence to get everything tested back before you created your narrative before you created your story
of what happened which of course is certainly possible but I don't know that we want to say that that's exactly what
in fact went down because we don't know when police came up with the narrative that that darly killed her her children
or had a a 100% case built around her what you would know immediately going into the crime scene and what some of
the evidence you would know before even having to test it is you're going to see
that the murder weapon you have re evidence to believe before any testing goes down the murder weapon came from
inside the home so now that makes you a little more suspicious of people inside the home
rather than people outside of the home there was also some indication that with the way that the screen was cut and the
way that the screen appeared once police were on the scene that it only looked like somebody went in the screen but
never came back out through the screen so they were a little testy about the whole idea of well this Intruder came in
this way and then fled back out the same way he came in based off of what they were seeing at the crime
scene they also didn't find anything missing they didn't find again you brought up a good point one really
freaking troubling part of this whole case is motive right yeah what what would be the motive for darly to kill
her sons not kill her other son not kill her husband and turn the knife on herself what would be the motive for
darling to do it but also what would be the motive for an intruder to come in and kill these kids and attack her well
she had an infant so you know I don't have a lot of understanding of you know part postpartum
depression but some kind of mental illness could be the reason that's the only thing that I can
see here I can't see any other motive but then also like you said I mean we can't say that we can't say that
this Intruder came in there just to murder right MH that the Intruder could have came in for a
multitude of reasons agreed you know to oh well here's this uh young mother that
lives there and and I find her attractive so you know it's a sexual motivation there or that they're going
to break into the house and and now that uh I'm in here I don't maybe the the people would recognize me so I have to
kill anybody that that possibly could identify me cuz for all we know the kids woke up and saw this individual yeah so
it's very tough I mean it the motive on either end um just doesn't make a lot of
sense what do you think Captain about the whole thought of she saying the purpose of me sleeping downstairs is so
the baby doesn't wake me up but then you know the prosecution and detectives want
to know well then why didn't you wake up earlier during the attack if you're such
a light sleeper yeah I would I'd question when she was stabbed and is any of the wounds that she has would that
cause her to black out at any point because this neck wound which a lot of people have tried to state that the her
neck wound is a flesh wound I think it was like two millimeters away from the kateed artery two millimet away
from killing her correct and that doesn't mean that she did not self-inflict the wound is it
possible that she fought with this Intruder and because of whether it's being HD on the head whether it's being
stabbed that she actually blocked out and then came back to there are expert experts that have said and did say
during the course of her trial based off of her injuries that there there's likelihood
that she may not recall everything that actually went down one based off of the trauma of her injuries but also the idea
that she's waking up into the middle of a situation so you kind of it's a double
whammy effect there too and now I am a light sleeper I'm not going to consider myself to be any kind of sleep expert
but I will say this my light sleeping is can be an issue for me there are nights that I I
miss out on a lot of sleep because of that I'm not a light sleeper every night of my life right every day of my life if
I if I'm sleeping anywhere other than my home I'm an extremely light sleeper I'm
I just I'm height and awareness whatever I don't know what it is I it's hard for
me to sleep in hotel rooms or be a guest at somebody's home without you know I basically just sleep for a couple hours
at Best if I'm at home and everything is perfect Everything Is Right sometimes I
sleep like a rock and there's not a whole lot of Rhyme or Reason to why I sleep better some nights and why I sleep
not great other nights a lot of it Bas is based off of how tired I am one thing we know is she's busy taking care of
three kids one of them is an infant she could have just been flat out exhausted at this point right and one thing that's
interesting to me too and and you had referenced narrative a couple of times there is certainly something going on
because we talked about motive well the law enforcement and the the prosecution they are easy and quick to
point out motive for darly to have committed these murders and then their argument is well there's no motive for
an intruder and I don't think that's correct I don't think that's right I can see just as many EX until you until you
catch the guy again pretending that she's in innocent until you catch the guy or
identify who it could be you may not know the motive of that individual for their actions and I think there's equal
amounts like you were saying equal amounts for both possibilities if darly did it or if in fact there was an
intruder an equal amount of motives well again I think it always drives me nuts when we're having conversations about a
possible Intruder and they go well nothing was taken it's like well maybe they didn't get a chance to and that's
why there was a murder and maybe the person is technically not a murderer they're they're a thief but because
somebody could identify them they became a murderer one troubling thing to me though Captain is it would have taken a
bladed weapon let's say it would have taken a blade to cut through that screen and police will quickly tell you that in
this scenario it makes zero sense to them because because most of the time burglars which I actually don't think
that there was a burglar all right if if if we're going to pretend there was an intruder I don't think I don't think
looking for valuables was the the motive here for going into the home uhuh so police will be quick to point out that
most of the time a burglar will not bother to cut a screen they will just simply remove the screen as it's
normally fairly easy to do in this case it would have been easy to do and then they just hop in the window and hop back
out or leave through a door on their way out but if it would have been a burglar
that see that's a whole different kind of criminal a burglar comes into a home sees people in there that they they want
to burglarize the home when no one is there they pick a home that they think that they could either get in and get
out real quick Smash and grab or Smash and grab and nobody's there they don't have to bother with anybody mhm a
burglar would have came into the home home seen her Andor the children and then just turned around and left that's
what a burglar would have done if in fact it was an intruder that attacked his family there was a different motive
for going into that house altogether but one thing I keep coming back to that's Troublesome for me and
goes against dar's case that she's innocent is it would have taken a blade to cut through that screen that's
everything that they've told us from the test that they conducted on that screen
mhm so why if I already have a blade on me to cut the screen to get into the house am I picking up a blade from
inside the house to murder these people no I I agree and I would like to know how they know for sure that this knife
came from inside the house was it a part of a set yeah it's part of a set it's one it would have been taken from a
butcher block that was inside the home and to take it a step further cuz I have like random knives and so that's why I
wondered is is it possible that it it's not from a set and they they thought it was from like just a random knife from a
a drawer or something yes exactly a lot of people just have a drawer full of knives that they've you know collected
somehow throughout the years you know gift or something they purchased themselves and it's a it's a hodgepodge
of what you have maybe the colors don't match up maybe you have a lot of the same kind of blade and you're missing
other specifics but um this was taken from a butcher block and it was to take it a step further though too I could
find nowhere that Darren or darly were disputing that the knife came from inside the home right they're not saying
no it wasn't our knife in fact it seems to be agreed upon by all parties that the knife did in fact come from inside
the home but if I'm breaking into a house hypothetically and I use a pocket knife
or I use a box cutter and then I go into the house and I put that back into my pocket and then I'm startled by maybe a
kid waking up or seeing people laying there you reach for the closest item right so and and based off that it makes
sense because from the garage you have to go through the kitchen and in that kitchen area you would see
them you see the people that were in the family room also I'd like to paint a picture of a sophisticated criminal for
you a sophisticated criminal would enter that home and again this would be for motives that are are well beyond the the
scope of burglarizing the home I do not know the exact you know the windows and stuff for this house uh
I've seen the outside of the house and portions of the inside but one question I keep coming back to is if there were
someone outside of the home looking to break into a home and then rape a female victim inside right think about the way
that they described everybody going to bed if if you're a rapist and you're outside looking in through the windows
peeking in to see if you could you know if there's a potential victim inside maybe you don't know the house maybe you
do not know the people inside or who the home belongs to but if you're looking inside the way that everybody describes
the sleeping arrangements to me it's very likely that a rapist looking in the window would see darly 26 years old
lying on the couch and from that vantage point I have to wonder would he be able
to see two small children lying on the floor right they're not laying all together next to each other the boys are
on the floor she's in the couch husband upstairs you don't see him at all if you're peeking in the window and
if you're a sophisticated criminal you're entering the home already with gloves on thy hands and you know what
you don't want to leave at the scene is a weapon that you brought with yourself so use your box cutter or your pocket
knife to cut the te into the screen outside go in through the garage through the utility room into the kitchen knife
block right there I'm going to use one of their knives to threaten my female victim whether my intention is to kill
her or not I'm using one of their knives because if I leave it here it doesn't lead back to me they can't trace this
knife back to me I have gloves on my hand yeah and have you ever tried to cut a screen the screen part of a window
dozens of times yes but there's also there's also so a possibility that there's not it wasn't there wasn't a cut
at all you the way those things are made once you start like a rip in that screen
it's going to stay in a straight line and then if I rip it to the other side or pull it back to the other side you
could you could um depend you know as long as there's some kind of hole or some kind of damage to that screen you
could easily rip a t into that that screen without using a knife exactly exactly and then you have to wonder
would the crime scene analysis would they be able to determine by looking at it if it were in fact cut or torn yeah
torn or or you use your your keys to to make those um the initial incision so you could
rip the screen their stance has always been in regards to the screen that it was cut in a in the shape of a t so
somebody would have made a uh horizontal cut and then in the center of that roughly in the center of that made a
vertical cut down there's so many reasons that this case is so frustrating but one if if she is guilty what the
heck is the motive cuz at least I can come up with a couple plausible motives that makes sense if
there's an intruder [Music] so much more to get to if you have thoughts and opinions on this case go to
True Crim garage.com and click on the blog and let us know what your thoughts are and today
is National missing child day so we want to thank everyone who contributed to this week's beer fund for a portion of
this week's beer fund will go to the National Center for missing and exploited children to thank you once
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Darlie Routier /// Part 1 /// 489

Part 1 of 2

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On June 6, 1996 at 2:31 am a call came in for 911 emergency services in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. The caller was 26 year old mother Darlie Routier. Darlie was frantic and could be heard screaming and crying on the call. She tells dispatchers that someone broke into her home and attacked her family. When police arrive just minutes later they discover Darlie bloodied from knife wounds and her two boys both stabbed to death. Within days Detectives will say that there was no intruder and that Darlie viciously killed her sons. Join us in the Garage and pack a couple of extra cold ones as we do our best to go through the details of one of Texas’ most debated cases.

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Brief Summary

Darley Routier is accused of murdering her two sons; the episode analyzes the 911 call, evidence, and theories surrounding the case.

Key points

USA Today on Filicide. An article reveals alarming statistics about parents who kill their children.
The Case of Darley Routier. A mother is accused of murdering her two sons in a shocking case.
Darley's 911 Call. A chaotic call reveals Darley's frantic state after the attack on her children.
Darly's 911 Call. Darly's frantic call reveals chaos and confusion as she discovers her children injured.
The Knife Discovery. Darly mentions the knife only after being prompted by the operator, raising questions.
Confusion at the Scene. Darly's conflicting statements about the intruder and the scene add to the tension.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's an unfathomable concept.

On society's fascination with parents who kill their children.

6:31WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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