Darlie Routier /// Part 2 /// 490 | Forensic Files

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talk some true [Music] crime on June 6th 1996 Devon ag6 Damon age5 were murdered
their mother darly roer is taken directly to the hospital less than 2 Days Later on June 8th darly gives a
written statement to police on June 14th darly family and friends celebrate Devon's birthday and that is certainly
an event that we will get into when we get into the trial portion of Today's Show 4 days later captain on June 18th
darly is arrested and charged with capital murder with the murder of her two sons we have discussed a good deal
of the crime scene and evidence found at the crime scene but we need to go through that a bit more in some strong
details here right so let's get into some things regarding items found at the crime scene that point toward darly
being guilty and in some opinions maybe even innocent first is the knife the knife that was used in the course of the
murders was determined to have come from the home it was a knife that came from a
set from a butcher block that was kept on the kitchen counter in the rer home officer David main testified that the
butcher knife that match the set with blood on the blade and handle was found on the kitchen counter one knife was
missing from the knife block and this knife fit into that slot perfectly Bob P an analyst with the southwestern
Institute of forensic Sciences in Dallas testified about this knife that quote I
was not able to to determine conclusively that this knife made the wound on Devon's chest but my opinion is
that a knife with similar characteristics made the wound Judith Floyd a DNA analyst with genan screen
labs in Dallas testified that traces of both Damon and dar's blood were found on
this knife she did not receive the entire knife just some samples taken from it Dr Joanie mlan testified that
the stab wounds to Devon were in fact consistent with that blade and the knife was still sitting there bloody when the
officers arrived on the scene there's really no question in my opinion captain that this was the knife that was used to
kill Devon and Damon and it came from within the roer's own home whether or not the knife came from inside the house
or from outside the house doesn't point in my opinion towards her being more guilty or more innocent that's correct
it does not tell us who was using the knife during the course of the attacks what we do know is it was used on Darley
as well if we are to believe the blood evidence now darly claimed that the killer or the Intruder threw the bloody
knife down on the floor of her utility room but multiple experts this is law enforcement and crime scene analysis
testified that this story was not consistent with the evidence they stated that there basically would have been
blood splatter or other marks left on the floor by the knife cluttered clattering to the tiles instead in the
utility room there were some blood drips and I'm going to break this down because
there are multiple experts that come in and testify as to the blood evidence but
to rather than go through each one of them I can collectively report what they are generally saying here they're saying
about the blood evidence a couple of things one they're not seeing blood evidence that suggests that whoever was
carrying the bloody knife that they were running and fleeing from the home okay again this could have been an intruder
this could be darly running around with a bloody knife what they're saying that it's
consistent with is somebody walking slowly throughout the home that the way that the blood is dripping from the
knife and onto the floor would be that of someone walking at a slower Pace not speeding not jogging not sprinting
through the house yeah but if you just stabbed all three people and for all you know those are the only people in the
house why are you going to run away why not just walk away well I I'm not trying
to get into the mind of the potential Intruder here I'm just using this and cross referencing it against dar's
account of what went down that night Tom Beville a retired Oklahoma City Police Captain who was the owner and teacher at
a forensic School testified about an experiment that he conducted he dropped and threw a bloody butcher knife six or
seven times onto the floor and said that he could not duplicate the blood spatters found on the utility room floor
it was his opinion his conclusion that no knife had ever been thrown down at that
location James KW testified that there was no evidence that the knife had been thrown down anywhere the blood in the
utility room was from someone slowly dripping the places where the knife had been according to the experts like the
kitchen counter showed patterns left on the surface by the bloody blade there were some indication that the knife had
been laid down in a few places on a table on the carpet in the family room marks on the floor and rug
where it had been Tom Beville testified these findings are inconsistent with dar's story and then you have to wonder
why the Intruder would have taken the time to put the knife down pick it back up again in various spots around the
home I find some things troubling with this quote unquote blood evidence and I'm not meaning to question these
experts or really even put together anything that's just kind of convenient to go along with my own personal Theory
but I question one the placement of this knife you know we do have evidence I don't doubt this evidence that the knife
was set down on different locations throughout the downstairs of that home what I'm questioning is is there a
possibility that darly did this and also did not kill her sons we know she readily admits that she picked up the
knife anybody that's listened to the 911 call I hope they would agree with me and
hear the amount of chaos going on within a short 5 to six minute window mhm I think that there is a potential maybe
small chance but a chance that maybe she picked it up and then it was moved more
than one time by her herself and again doesn't have to mean that she is in fact guilty correct the other thing that I
question too here Captain is look I'm sure this Tom bevel's a great guy uh Oklahoma City Police Captain he's a
owner and teacher at a forensic School his opinion that the knife was never on the floor in the utility room
because he ran these experiments conducted these tests threw it down six or seven times this is his testimony
when we are charging a person with capital murder and we intend as the state to execute her if we find her to
be guilty yeah I would hope that somebody would conduct that test more than six or seven times it seems a
little yeah we're convicting somebody on a sixth grade science experiment right right even my science fair experiments
had I would run the test more than six or seven times and so I I question that that what
doesn't seem to be something that I'm able to question is the fact that she says that the Intruder seems to be
fleeing he would have been by her own admission carrying the knife at that time there's no indication that the man
was running from the scene I don't have any reason to think that otherwise that he wouldn't be
running it seems like a good idea to get the hell out of there to me if you were
in fact the attacker uh question for you is there blood evidence on the window screen or the window ledge yeah so this
is a little tricky for the window where the Intruder came in or came out of or was staged to have come in or out of I
found a few places that state that there was like a bloodied fingerprint a smudged blooded fingerprint and there's
a couple of them that were unidentified in the home not a lot I think it's only three and we'll get into that more as we
carry on here but if in fact there was blood on the window sill it would have been in the form of a smudged
fingerprint let's go back and talk about the screen once again my friend because
the screen is an interesting part of this case to me because darly tells us that an intruder must
have cut into this screen opened up the window came through the garage then the utility room walked into the kitchen and
then came into the family room attacked and killed both boys and attempted to kill her before she fights him off wakes
up whatever screams and then he turns and fleas drops the knife and then goes back out that same window in the garage
that he came in the police and the prosecution will tell you that no that darly attacked and killed her sons and
attempt to Stage the scene that she cut the screen one issue I believe against the prosecution in the police's
theories here Captain is that it seems readily agreed upon by everyone that the screen they have evidence to believe
that the screen was cut from the outside and I think that if someone In the Heat of the Moment trying to Stage a
scene might not be clever enough to think that through but her husband went to bed roughly an hour before the
murders took place so is it possible that she went outside and and started staging the scene before she would
attack her children I guess that would be that's certainly a possibility yeah that's a good point you make there
because he says that both of them say that between 12:30 and 1 is when they parted ways they don't know the exact
time but between 12:31 they parted ways he went upstairs to go to bed she starts
to fall asleep the call comes in to 911 at 2:31 a.m. and if it's 1:00 then yeah you're right if she was really
planning this stuff in advance then she could start to Stage some things beforehand now the screen covering an
open window in the roer's garage was found to have been cut vertically and horizontally as we said yesterday in a
t-shape from the outside the screen was cut with a sharp implement this is all per the evidence
and forensics that we can see that it was cut using a sharp instrument one thing that's tricky and goes against
dar's Case is that law enforcement state that they believe that another knife a large bread knife with a sharp point
that was found in the same Butcher Block that the murder weapon came from right they believed that this was the knife
that was used to cut the tea into this screen and they say that because on its blade they found microscopic traces of
fiberglass rods and rubber polymer dust indistinguishable in color size and composition from the screen's components
so they can't say 100% that this this microscopic debris if you will yeah came from that screen but they're saying that
there's nothing when you compare the two together there's nothing that disting ises it from being from anywhere else
than that screen yeah my problem with that though is there's a bunch of different knives in a butcher
box and how many times do you use that knife for something else other than cutting like meat or something you might
use it to open up mail or you might use it as a sometimes I'll use a knife as a screwdriver so I I I don't know I get
what you're saying but I think it's a little more intricate than that I mean when you're
comparing the the debris that would be created from cutting the screen to this microscopic debris that's found on this
one particular knife right not found on any of the other knives in the Block it's definitely damning yeah I to me
it's actually more damning than the murder weapon knife because as you pointed out correct just because it came
from that that butcher block inside the house does not mean we know whose hand was using it to stab people so the
defense does argue a point here on this knife and saying why okay one you cannot
there's no expert saying 100% that this debris came from that screen we just have nothing in its
makeup to declare that it didn't come from the screen and we didn't find it anywhere
else when when looking the argument that the defense raises and this is a good one I think they're saying look the same
brush that you were using to dust for fingerprints and such on the the window that could have been accessed by an
intruder MH is the same brush that you were using when you were checking all these knives so it stands somewhat of a
reasonable EXP explanation that there was carryover yeah you'd think you'd find a little bit of debris on all the
knives well and that's the the prosecution's argument back that's a rebuttal well we only found it on this
one knife wouldn't if if that stands to be true what you're arguing wouldn't we find it on all of
them look I don't know I mean does it matter that if you what order you're checking these knives in with this brush
so yeah you should have been more careful because this it it B basically makes your point invalid you're exactly
right and if you're going to bring it up at the trial as evidence against and there's an argument against your
argument then expect that argument to be you know you're bringing this into question yeah if I'm on the jury right
and people were going look this is a damning piece of evidence I'm going you have to throw this evidence
out because it makes sense either way but I think technically by the way the way you're instructed in court to be on
the jury if something weighs equally for innocence or guilt you have to have it go towards innocence well and one thing
that you know a lot of people will bring up in this case is that okay the the wounds the injuries the attack on the
boys was enough to kill them to end their lives that's how severe it was and the injuries to darly who is being
accused of their murder well they're not as severe she survived she didn't have as many wounds they weren't as deep and
it goes on and on but this is another situation where we could spend a whole hour on her injuries I won't waste
anyone's time because my general thought about her injuries is this they marched a lot of quote unquote
experts in and out of that courtroom that said that her injuries were superficial that she did them to to
herself and they were superficial for every expert that they marched in that said her injuries were minor and
superficial the defense marched in an expert that said she almost died they were severe she could have died she was
within 2 millimet of dying well let me ask you a question what do your eyeballs tell you what my eyeballs tell me
is reviewing some photographs that belong to this case and her injuries that are seen in a lot of
these photographs one thing that I think the the defense I think the defense screwed
up a little bit in this case and one thing that they screwed up on is I've seen a picture that was taken of her in
her hospital bed where she does not appear to be awake this must be shortly after surgery mhm she looks freaking
terrible man like she looks to me like she's knocked out and lucky to be alive from what I've reviewed and
everything I've been told about this case and could find that photograph was not shown to the jurors not presented in
court that day I think it's a powerful photograph what was shown to the jury and shown in court during
the proceedings was what the prosecution presented and these would have been pictures and photographs of her injuries
and they would have been days afterward this would be you know when when she came into the police station and when
she was eventually arrested so those ones don't look bad at all but I think the one that shows to me what I think is
the real severity of her injuries is the one where she appears to be knocked out
in that hospital bed yeah I mean I think when I look at her stitches I mean number one word I think is oh that's
nasty yeah that's a real nasty uh but it reminds me a little bit and and do you want to guess what I'm
thinking of a case that we covered I believe it was Chicago uh Lulu Lemon mhm reminds me of
that case where you have a victim supposed victim which is actually the murderer going to create self-inflicted
wounds those wounds were minor these to me not so much two millimeters away from
basically killing yourself very quickly and all the other wounds pretty deep again enough to have stitches on
multiple parts of her body not just on her neck but the neck is probably the worst one of the
bunch yeah but anywhere she has staples it's nasty well and the neck would be if you believe the Intruder
theory if you believe darly that would be the wound that would be the injury the attack portion that the
Intruder is trying to use that would be the the Fatal blow right there the attempt at taking her life yeah and
again her injuries you have experts arguing it both sides well the injuries to her arm are not indicative of
defensive wounds and then another expert tells you they are exactly defensive wounds every case that that we've
reviewed here captain and we're coming up on 500 episodes so we've reviewed uh what two three couple four million yeah
we've we've reviewed quite a bit her the the wounds to her arms they're in the exact spot that I
would think that that's how you defend yourself you put your arms up you put your arms between you and your attacker
MH so I don't know how anybody could say oh we can prove that these are not defensive
wounds I'm not saying that they are I'm just saying I don't know how anybody could stand up there and look 12 people
in the eye and say these were not defensive wounds so I don't think the injuries to
her tell us a lot not when you have experts arguing both sides of the coin right again it's like I said if
something leans towards well it it doesn't make her look innocent or guilty then you have to view on the side of
innocent and then they point to the kitchen sink where there's proof that someone had cleaned up around the
kitchen sink cleaned up some blood around the kitchen sink okay that's great it doesn't look
good for darly in my opinion but we have Darren Darley and people arriving at the
crime scene that are saying we saw her holding towels well she put a towel on herself and she put a towel on her her
son correct and so it's so nobody's disputing that there there wasn't tals being used right right and I'm I'm just
saying it could be another part that's just kind of gotten lost in there did she clean up I don't think it points to
guilt 100% or innocence it certainly doesn't Point towards innocence either well again I want to go back to what her
husband said is when he woke up before she called 911 both boys were alive so if she is guilty of this she was giving
the opportunity for both of those kids to say we know who did it and it was it was Mom yeah that's interesting because
the information I have actually it's unclear if both boys were alive but one was most certainly alive when Darren
found the boy and was still clinging to life when First Responders showed up on the scene and there were doctors that
testified to that boy's injury saying one he couldn't have survived very long after after sustaining those injuries
okay so a matter of minutes is as long as he would be alive that to me actually backs up
dar's timeline of the events right she wakes up after the boys are attack chases the guy or runs for whatever
reason into the kitchen and then very quickly immediately calls 911 and the police we know are on the scene before
the end of the call which is only 5 minutes and 44 seconds long so that actually goes along with dar's timeline
and it doesn't have to be something that she had to make it fit it just is and Darren comes down the steps he's still
alive the doctors also testified that the the boy would have been able to make a noise that's their exact statement I
don't know that that means that they could talk but it seems to me if he could make noises again there's a chance
that he could have survived the paramedics believed that there was a chance they could revive this kid that's
their words as you pointed out this kid could have told us what happened at this
attack who attacked him and again I don't think she has any type of expertise to know like well I stabbed
him enough that he's only going to live for a couple more minutes and he's not going to be able to say my name or he's
not going to be able to tell his dad that his mom killed him yeah she has no expertise on that I don't know I think
very few people would and then then there's the sock okay I'm sure there's somebody out there in their car
screaming at the at the radio going when are you guys going to talk about the sock well let's get to the sock right
after this quick beer break [Music] [Music] welcome back cheers to everybody in the
front and everybody in the back especially the people in the back here we go Captain let's talk about the
sock all right the sock evidence and this is evidence that's found at the crime scene the problem is this sock is
not found inside the rer home it's not even found on the rer property it's found two houses away near a trash can
in someone's yard so how do we know that this sock actually belongs to this case
that it's important to this case well it had blood on it and it had a some of both of the boys blood was found on the
sock now there was no blood found anywhere else around this sock you know there wasn't a puddle of blood blood
drippings nothing of that just this bloodied sock that has it's not even a whole lot of blood on the sock itself
but think about the location of where it was found it's found two homes away near
the trash can on someone else's property the thing with this sock and with the blood evidence on this sock to me this
is the one one thing that strongly points toward darly being innocent in this case the murder weapon the knife
bread knife that may or may not have been used on the screen mhm the cut screen itself some of the blood evidence found
inside the home dar's injuries compared to the boy's injuries I think anyone could make a strong argument for or
against using I any of that evidence for or against darly and I say that with a lot of confidence because that's what
happened at the trial right the cleaning of the sink is a little more damning against Darley again I don't think so
because she brought up the fact that she had these towels that she used to try to
help her kid out and help herself out right and it's one of those situations though I wish that the there were
someone to have seen her doing this or at the very least she says that she cleaned up around the sink for whatever
reason we don't have that and that's why I I call that more into question but the
whole weight of everything I really look at this sock as being completely against
darly being guilty and I say that because there is in fact blood from both of the the deceased victims found on
this sock and and then we cross reference that with the information that we receive from the doctors at trial
that state that the the boy that died in the presence of Darren and in the presence of First
Responders who if he would have been revived could have told us what exactly went down that mommy attacked me or a
strange man attacked me or whatever the amount of time that it would have taken for him to expire does not leave a lot
of room for someone to Stage a ton of things at this crime scene right the sock in particular because the sock is a
big problem for a lot of things one whoever placed it where it was found and it was found by crime scene TCH so
this is not something that just magically appeared later but whoever placed it where it was found or dropped
it where it was found no one was seen so darly wasn't seen running out outside of
the home and then coming back into the home there was no strange man unidentified man who was seen dropping
it or in the area of where it was dropped but again it has both of the children's blood on it so it was there
when the the the boy that we know only had a short window from Attack to death it was there after he was attacked it
was inside the rer home after the attack yeah and then found outside and the other thing too if if one were to Stage
a crime scene it seems like a really bizarre place to place this random bloody sock if you wanted to point and make
evidence and create evidence that there was an intruder that fled the scene you would drop this sock in the roer's
backyard in your own backyard or at the bottom of your driveway somewhere where you you would want the crime scene text
to find now they did find it but again it was several homes away it's not in a spot
that's going to be super obvious for the crime scene text to find this and what about DNA why didn't they test this sock
for DNA well they they did find some DNA and they found dar's D DNA inside the sock but they didn't find any other DNA
on the sock from my no they did not find any other DNA on the sock now there are
future test that are scheduled for some of the items at the home but all the tests that have been conducted on I love
this this I I love our justice system there's future test on a crime that happened in
1996 well but that's I mean that's not like something like oh we have this we're just waiting around to do it it's
it's at the appeals of dar's Defense oh that these tests were granted her DNA is
found I don't know that that proves again that doesn't prove anything to me it just proves to me that at some point
and probably recently she may have worn that sock and looking at this utility room is it also
is it a laundry room I'm just wondering how this killer got the sock okay so it does look to me like there's
a I only have a drawing of the ground level of the road to your home like a floor
plan and so there are two rectangle square shaped items in the utility room which
could be washer drver that would make the most sense and according to darly and Darren they kept a
basket of items that were used as Rags so like this sock it's it's mate you know they you buy them in pairs right
it's mate was never found not inside the home not outside the home I lost my meate years ago so that to me stands to
go along with this thought that it's a it's now become a rag at its you know at this point in its sock life YOLO and so
yes the they kept a basket of rags and items that were to be used as Rags inside this utility room so again if a
criminal entered the home through that window in the garage they would come in the only room that it's accessible to
the home is then the utility room they could have quickly just grabbed that sock and placed it over their hand or or
or used it in some manner to try to you know go in and then pick up a knife with
it the thing is if if you're criminal if you're Intruder is in fact a sophisticated criminal he's got gloves
on his hands there's a good strong chance he's not leaving his DNA inside that sock right again the issue becomes
how does that sock get to where it is and darly remains inside the home calling 911 all at the same time that that
doesn't leave a whole lot of time for darly to Stage all of these items yes there's some time for her to Stage some
of them I will admit that I don't see enough time to Stage all of these items especially the sock yeah I agree and
that was something that was presented at the trial and something that the prosecution they just didn't address
because they didn't have an answer for it mhm well again to it it's 1996 so DNA testing and hard our
knowledge of DNA was not the greatest so I'm certain even if there was even traces of touch
DNA that they wouldn't have been able to get that off the sock that seems correct
to me the again they do have dar's DNA from that and of course they have both boys because they have blood evidence
from both boys on that sock as well I do want to point out something too that I failed to mention when discussing the
screen so the windows in this garage you would only see these windows from the back of the home okay you
wouldn't see these out front and these windows only look to be about 8 maybe 9 in off of the ground off of concrete I'm
pointing that out because if I were an intruder if I were looking for a way into this
home I have to say captain that's the same window I would pick I would pick one of these two windows in that
location yeah makes the most sense and it would not be hard to climb in and out of this window you would slice the
screen open up the window put your foot your left foot or right foot put in and then you bend down and boom you're in
the garage well and if you're a neighbor you could sneak into their garage when their garage door was open and unlock
those windows well and that's you bring up a fine point there my friend something we mentioned time and time
again in previous episodes uh in particular the Aurora Hammer Slayer episodes make sure your windows are
locked people and then take it a step further like we said in the Aurora case lock the door from your garage to your
home mhm because if there was an intruder in this case Captain that's how they got to into and exited the home in
this case so what we're saying is lock your [ __ ] up lock that [ __ ] up tight there was a vacuum that was also called
into evidence and this is because they it was found tipped over and the prosecution in law enforcement stated
that this vacuum was tipped over and they could prove that this was further sign that
someone was staging the scene because underneath the tipped over vacuum they found debris and blood meaning that the
vacuum was tipped over not during the course of a scuffle or someone fleeing the home but it was tipped over
afterwards to make it look like there was a scuffle that the blood was in a location where it could not have been if
the vacuum was already tipped over yeah but you could bump a vacuum and it it tips over I don't know if it necessarily
proves that somebody was trying to Stage uh a scuffle you know I agree with you and we don't need to argue this
point I'm just pointing out that the their argument was that the blood was in a location that if the vacuum was
already tipped over the the the scuffle was already over at that point the the attack had already happened the
stabbings had already happened right we don't need to argue it any further because this actually was later proved
to have been moved by crime scene tax so great right so what you're saying is that now we have proof that crime
scene texts messed with the crime scene yeah and and not a positive way no they either bumped it over or or moved it
during the course of of their work there I mean they were they crime scene techs
were at this scene for nine straight hours after arriving on the scene and probably several visits after that as
well so this is a lot of work a lot of moving pieces and parts I'm pointing this out to go well if we can prove that
this is the case with the vacuum what does it say to us about the sink area and some of the other things
that we call into question inside the home what we can't what I think we cannot call into question is this sock I
think this sock it's to me it's not 100% definitive proof that that darly is Innocent but to me it it strongly
suggest given the timeline that we have to work within we we cannot change the timeline it is what it is those are the
hardcore facts of this case there does not seem to me to be enough time to kill both children
administer my own injuries stage all these things get the sock two doors down outside without
being seen cut the screen alarm and awake my husband call 911 and then the First Responders are on the scene before
the 911 call is over well again I think they came to a conclusion way too early and I think if if they would have
started questioning people in that neighborhood they would have found somebody that knew a little bit too much
about Darling right a little bit too much liked her a little bit too much knew a little bit too much about her
schedule knew a little bit too much about her family cuz it seems to it seems to me if you're finding this sock
yes you could park a car far away and you're going to I guess run to your car to get away
but with the sock being found if it's an intruder I would say that points more to
somebody that lives in the neighborhood could be I just think that if it were somebody that had good knowledge of the
victim and using victimology it seems like there would have been a more optimal time to to plan your attack
that's true that's true I mean you know that there that Darren lives there if you know a good deal about darly you
just and from everything we see they're operating with one vehicle at this time at this stage in their lives you yeah
that's an interesting fact too because it's like I wonder what you could see into the garage from those outside
windows well the car was parked out front in the driveway right but either way you'd be able to see if there's a
second car correct and if you didn't know much about them and you just saw one car you the perpetrator might
assumed oh well I see her laying down on the couch and there's only one car here
her husband must be at work or you know he must work third shift I'm just saying
if the perpetrator didn't know much about her yeah that's a good call and then I take it a step further if in fact
it were a stranger that that broke into the home stranger danger I keep going back to the idea captain that somebody
could have seen her the vantage point would not have been great but somebody could have seen her through one of the
windows in the family room sleeping on the couch and maybe not have seen the two boys sleeping on the floor and even
with the chance of a husband being upstairs some of these guys will take that risk right you go in your I your
goal would be to sneak in undetected to the point where maybe she doesn't wake up until you already have hands on her
till you're already threatening her because we've seen this with the uh Golden State killer with with serial
rapist and time and again the idea is they're they're not waking up until until the point where the threat is
already there so you can silence them so that they're silenced and then whomever's upstairs is not a key factor
in in the course of your attack what becomes really screwed up real quickly if you are an intruder is stumbling upon
these these kids sleeping on the floor and Damon was actually in a position which doesn't make a whole lot of sense
of why he would be sleeping there uh where he was found but if he was in fact sleeping in the position where he was
later found there's a chance that if that if those rooms were dark enough remember
dar's words in her written statement is that she flipped on a couple of lights after this attack and that the TV was
turned off at some point mhm there's a chance that the Intruder may not have known that that child was sleeping on
that floor until he stepped on them or stumbled over them yeah by this point gloved hands he's come in he's put the
put the sock over his gloved hand pulled a knife out of the Butcher Block that's
on the counter in the kitchen which he would have walked past that through the kitchen anyway on his way into the
living room now the short of it here Captain we won't continue along too much on this trial but the short of it is
that on January 6th 1997 this is just 2 days after dar's 20 7th birthday that's when the trial began on February 1st
darly was convicted of murdering Damon she was only charged with well only taken to trial for the one
murder the thought being a couple reasons why he was young enough that it was an automatic capital murder case
right they they were getting the death penalty if they got a conviction in that case and if they were to lose that case
there's a good chance that at a later date they would have charged her she was charged with both murders but actually
taken her to trial for the murder of Devon uh 3 days later she was sentenced to death by lethal injection by the
state of Texas now we talked a lot about motive what would be the possible motive
well if she were in fact the killer of these two children the state points to a few different things as being possible
motive one depression that she was depressed two that the family was having money problems again the money problems
are certainly in dispute for everybody that says they were having money problems there's also evidence that they
weren't having money problems we'll Circle back to that and then the other one was that she was unhappy in life and
did not want to be married anymore did not want to be a mother anymore the money problem thing is certainly a weird
one here because if you look at the life insurance policies on the members of the
roer family they did not have a whole lot of insurance on the two murdered boys mhm they didn't even have enough to
cover their funerals right so so they went if if money was a problem and she's killing to get out of that problem well
they they became more in debt because of the murders right from my from what I could find here Captain it was $5,000 on
each child and they spent approximately $14,000 total on the funeral services now now if money is what darly
was seeking there was a huge life insurance policy on Darren why not just kill him yeah the
husband is big money I mean we're talking $5,000 a kid compared to it was like $250,000 life insurance on Darren it is
my belief captain that en large part darly roer was convicted not so much on the evidence
because I think we've done a good job of pointing out that a lot of the evidence
could be argued either way for innocence or guilty however one thing that really
stood out was this silly string incident okay so darly and her whole family participated in a birthday party for
Devon this was days after he was killed they were doing their best to mark this special occasion with joy instead of
sadness and but hold on a second th this doesn't make sense to me maybe it's cuz
I don't have my own biological kids but if my kid died or my kid was murdered I don't think I would go to his
grave site and celebrate his birthday I think I would you could maybe do something at home you know to think
about him and maybe even have a cake there or something but but to go to the grave site I don't know I guess that's a
little strange but that's that's just my thoughts I agree with you and I bet you if darly were here with us
today she would agree with you as well because I think I found her having a statement somewhere at a much later date
that says you know looking back it might have been a bad idea but she says look my my son was turning seven we would
already planned some of his birthday before he was killed and he was very much looking forward to being seven and
we wanted to have some kind of celebration for him some kind of birthday party for him now in dar's
defense it was her sister's idea uh for portions of this event it wasn't just her idea but the reason why we're
discussing this is because the police department took video of this event okay and they showed it over and over again
to the jury well what was the jury seeing they were seeing darly smiling laughing having a good time shooting
Silly String all around Devon's and Damon's grave yeah she looks like she's not even out a grave she
looks happy in the video we' you know anybody familiar with this case has seen this video she looks as if her kids have
not just recently been murdered so they showed this video at the trial and I know of at least one juror that says
that this video is what sealed the deal for him that she was guilty of killing these boys I for the life of me cannot
figure out what the hell the defense was thinking Captain duh but what happened here is the prosecution actually had a
video that was hours long it was hours long the second half of the video shows a whole bunch of happy people roer
family and friends happy celebrating this birthday party the first half of the video shows a very sad
gravide service and Gathering of these friends and family where darly is crying I mean crying out loud it's not
just weeping silently to herself and we're talking almost 2 hours of crying and praying and crying
and praying together with all these other people that portion of course the prosecution's not going to show and I've
seen some people that say that's unfair that the prosecution didn't show that portion they want to win the case yeah
their job they didn't show up to lose yeah their job is to get a conviction yeah you think you think Michael Jordan
shows up and goes you know what let's spot the other team 30 points let just tie my hand behind I'm the best yeah I'm
the best spot him 30 points give him a shot well I mean OJ's prosecutors did this you know well the only thing that
the prosecution has to do legally is say to the court look this this videotape that we have this we consider this to be
evidence can will you allow us to submit it as evidence yes we will okay well then that means everything from start to
finish on that that cassette is evidence and their only job at that point is to turn it over to the defense and say
we've seen it all you should see it all as well and then you can decide defense what portions of the video you want to
use in your defense of your client but this stuff I hate and I hate arguing about this stuff when people will say to
you well look uh she shouldn't have been smiling at their grave sight that's proof that she's guilty we don't know
how you don't know how you'd react to these things just like the 911 call I don't know how I'd react uh to seeing my
kids and puddles of blood would I be even able to talk would I even be able to call
911 I I I don't know so I think these times where people want to point this as some kind of evidence look I think it
makes her look bad and that's probably one of the reasons she got convicted but it's not evidence it's not evidence but
again the defense had access to this and I will read you what happened and what went down at the trial the defense
decided that they did not need to insist that the remainder of the Silly String video be shown that means after the
Silly String portion was shown where everybody's laughing and having a good time and darly looks like a horrible mom
who's not remorseful or regretful or in mouring at all after that's shown the defense made a conscious decision to not
show the other portion not showing the long terribly sad prayer service and memorial for the two boys this in my
opinion was an enormous mistake after the trial juror Charles Sanford said in an affidavit that quote had we been
shown this other tape so that we had been able to see the whole picture of what happened that day I believe I would
not have voted to convict Mrs rotier wow take this a step further this was a big reason to find
her guilty from these jur this was something that when they were back behind the scenes when they're
deliberating when they're when they're when they're trying to come to their conclusion guilty or
innocent they played that Silly String video I have seen that they played it five six seven maybe a dozen times yeah
behind closed doors not inside the courtroom just where the 12 of them could view it and watched it over and
over and over again and I'm sure every single time they hit play they became a little more convinced At This Woman's
guilt so I think this was a huge mistake on the part of the defense well yeah but
it's also as far as public opinion goes because we know that sometimes the the hands of Justice move very slowly but if
she gets convicted because of this I think one of the reasons by having this shown also to the public like on news
channels and stuff like that they go look at this Monster look at this woman she she must be responsible we got a
conviction and she must be responsible and that's why I think a I think this clip itself is the reason why there
hasn't been this crazy movement to I mean there has been a movement but a crazy overwhelming amount of people that
say this doesn't make any sense why she is convicted we also referenced earlier Captain some unidentified fingerprints
there were some unidentified prints in the house they have never to this day been identified there were prints found
on the garage window which housed the slashed screen the exact location the base of the window this would be where
you would think that the Intruder or maybe even darly herself trying to Stage the scene would have touched right it's
been stated that these fingerprints do not do not belong to darly Darren or law enforcement officials investigating the
case also a fingerprint found in blood on the coffee table was too smudged to identify we have one expert that says
that it is his opinion that the this fingerprint appeared to belong to a child the defense put forth a witness
that said that it could be that of an adult another bloody fingerprint found on the door out to the garage from the
utility room to the garage was too smeared to be useful at all so someone with bloody hands touched the coffee
table near the boys and the door handle to the garage and someone touched the garage window whose fingerprints are
these we don't we can't match them to anybody known to be inside that home that night yeah I do want to point out
something too A lot of times when you have smudged fingerprints and look I don't know the size of this
and I'm I'm guessing that's what this expert's saying well it probably belonged to one of the boys that was may
have been a smaller fingerprint again an expert saying well it could have belonged to an adult but smudged
fingerprints that are found in blood they're usually smudged and have no actual fingerprint because the person that left
that smudge was wearing gloves that it comes from a gloved hand yeah or if he's wearing one glove and it's glittered
then we know who it is and I do want to point out here captain and I'm not saying that these persons make better
suspects than darly I'm not saying that uh I'm just saying that I'm pointing out
that there are other avenues that could have been taken with this investigation there are other things to have been
considered here she wasn't the Standalone suspect in my mind one we have a black car that was seen casing
the roers neighborhood street and even some witnesses say home home this would have been weeks before the attack so we
have multiple eyewitnesses multiple people living in the neighborhood that they say they spotted at one time during
the nighttime weeks before the attack a suspicious black vehicle next we have this one I think is really alarming we
have two men that try to enter a home in the same neighborhood in the 1:00 a.m. hour that same night oh my God yeah so
some woman she saying that she fell asleep on her couch she was either reading or watching TV she falls asleep
on her couch she hears someone attempting to open her front door you know just using the handle and so she
got up and looked through the peephole and said that she saw two men standing on her front porch who then fled once
they couldn't get in the door that's the same night and we talked about what time
Darren and darly say that they went to sleep that's in the same time frame how can you lose this case well
and here's one that I can Name by name and I don't think that they would have there would have been and hold on a
second cuz we also don't know the person that was casing their house weeks earlier we we possibly casing the home
possibly casing their house weeks earlier the neighborhood the street it's not that hard to go okay but we also
have these two guys that were trying to break into another house it's not too far to I'm just saying like they always
say to win a defense or to win a case you just have to have a better story or a more logical story or present enough
doubt yeah I mean you could say well maybe the guys that broke into that house were the same people casing their
house earlier or maybe they weren't but maybe they weren't they just tried another house right and that means
there's multiple people trying to break into houses in this area what I find highly alarming about that
witness's uh statements is think about it she's saying I was asleep on my couch there's I'm not saying this happened but
is there a chance that one or both of those guys looked through a window saw this woman by herself sleeping on a
couch and said H let's try the door and see if it opens yeah this is this is our
house this is our victim it's not too damn hard to believe that they went throughout you know went to different
parts of the neighborhood and continued to look in Windows and maybe spotted another young attractive woman sleeping
on her couch and decided you know what yeah the door doesn't work and we may have woke the person up at the last one
let's see if we can find a window that's open or a window that's unlocked and also they wouldn't be that afraid of if
there is a maleo home because there's two of us right and again the chance that you could silence your potential
victim before they could alarm anybody that you are even even in the home here's one and again police and
investigators would have had no way of knowing this individual's name at the time we know this guy and actually when
I was reviewing this case here Captain this is bizarre to me because I thought well when I first looked into it I
thought This Woman's guilty as hell and as I started looking more and more into it I started thinking uh maybe she
didn't do it well if she didn't do it then somebody else did is there an alternative yeah and the first person
that jumped to my mind was Michael Jackson Tommy ly cells he is a serial killer he was active at the time he was
active as far as we know from 1980 to the year 2000 he was active in the states of Missouri New York Illinois
Texas and Kentucky probably others as well he earned the nickname Coast to Coast or the cross country killer yeah
yeah I know this guy um but the reason why jumped to mind to me was he actually committed crimes that were very similar
to this case and as we already pointed out he committed murders in the state of Texas so one one to just give you a
little taste of it because I don't want to go too far into Tommy lindel's because there would be a lot to talk
about but just to prove that he did similar types of crimes in 2004 Tommy lenells confessed that on October 13th
1997 he broke into a home took a knife from a butcher block in the kitchen stabbed a little boy to death and
scuffled with a woman that he found inside the residence this was Julie Ray Harper and her son Joel Harper Joel was
killed Julie survived the attack and she was later charged with Joel's murder and
convicted of killing her son then years later Tommy lyells confesses to this attack on this boy but
he only has one conviction and they say what 22 suspected murders yeah the words
that we have are retired Texas Ranger John Allen said quote we did confirm 22 murders I know there's more I know
there's a lot more obviously we won't ever know he's been executed he was executed by the state of Texas well got
him well real quick to if this photo is correct of one of his victims that I think got
away this younger victim it looks like her one of her wounds is in the exact same spot on the body as the neck wound
on Darlene yeah so that's why I mean his attacks were very similar he was known to break into a home and then he would
often kill as many people as he could but in most cases he only ended up killing the children and would attack
somebody else or scuffle with them fight with them attempt to kill them and flee
the scene and he did this in multiple States what a [ __ ] princess a couple of other possibilities and here's one that
seems a little obvious and and we just didn't get to it but would be Darren roer yeah now I do want to point out and
I'm not going to go too far down this road because we have darly who is said from day one and still to this day even
after they have scheduled her her her date of execution has not been scheduled but she's been that's her
punishment she said all along all this time Darren was not the guy that I saw that night Darren could never have done
this on the reverse Darren has always said that he never believed darly killed the kids yeah he stood by her he still
stands by her to this day well and I know there's a camp of people that believe it's possible that they're both
responsible and they're both covering for each other I just don't see the evidence to say that he was involved at
all I find it hard to believe that darly would stand by him all these years after
she's been sentenced to be executed right at some point you walk away from that and you say all right this guy was
involved as well there are several other things here too captain at some point darly said that she suspected one or
possibly even two men that lived in her neighborhood I don't know the details of
that but that's something she has said over the years I don't know who these men are why she would suspect them skip
hollandsworth one of my favorite True Crime writers that writes for Texas monthly he referenced something that he
had seen elsewhere that at one time there was some suspicion surrounding a local police officer's son um I'm
guessing this would be a grown man son and then also one thing that is brought up in this case and it's kind of an
aside I couldn't find any real information on it but it was super bizarre to to find out was that there
was an active serial rapist that was active in the Greater Dallas area at the time of these murders again like we said
the the most logical motive for us if it's an intruder would be sexual sexual would be
a stranger attack would be my my opinion for for the most part but one thing that
I found interesting about this serial rapist that's referenced in this story again couldn't find information if this
rapist ever escalated to murder or committed murders in the course of his other crimes I couldn't find if the the
person was ever caught but one thing that they did state is that this serial rapist at the time was known to use
items found inside the victim's home during his attack the sock the knife that's what we have here in dar's
case well no and also like you said this um seral rapist that's in the area could
have been these two men that the eyewitness saw those that night it could have been the black car that people saw
uh in the neighborhood they all could be connected and personally if you if you wanted to sit down and asked the colonel
what do you think happened here look this might piss off a lot of people I don't know but I actually lean
toward her being better to be pissed off than pissed on I lean toward her being innocent I'm not 100% convinced either
way I'm putting a lot of weight into other people's thoughts and theories one being the juror that we already
referenced and talked about saying that I think this could have gone the other way had we had more information and seen
this other video I also take a lot of stock and put a lot of stock into Darren roer himself yes standing by and saying
that she's innocent all these years again it's the behavior of this woman there were some people that questioned
her behavior and there were other people that said she was like the the greatest
Mom you know she would she loved these kids she would do anything for her children yeah and I don't see a history
there I don't see a History of Violence there's nobody that's come forward that said hey there was bruises on these kids
all the time or that she was a violent person or an angry person again there there seemed to be no mention of a fight
that night between even her and her husband and also I think if she had any of those traits or if she had anything
that would trigger her husband to not believe her I don't think he would believe her
and I don't think he would stand by her because you you just murdered two of my kids I could see why they came up with
the theory but I think this is a situation where law enforcement came up with the theory and then they triy to
put the pieces we'll make them work we'll we'll make the pieces fit again that's the prosecution's job to get the
conviction it's the defense to obviously get her acquitted I don't think she should have been maybe you
charge her maybe there's enough to charge her I don't think there's enough to convict her so whether you think that
she's innocent or guilty I don't think there's enough to convict her and I think the defense should have had an
easy day in court of Defending any piece of evidence thrown at her and I'm also putting a lot of stock into this next
bit here captain in 1999 there was a book that came out on this case and it was called Precious Angels a true story
of two slain children and a mother convicted of murder By Barbara Davis this book accounts for roer's
Guilt for darly roer's Guilt the author was convinced at the time of writing the
book researching the book and releasing it that darly was 100% guilty Barbara Davis has since changed her mind and now
supports darly rotier by donating all of the income from her book to dar's [Music]
family very interesting case one that you could go back and forth on depending on what side you're hearing the evidence
from would like to hear your opinion on this case go to True Crime garage.com and click on the blog and let us know
what you think and if you need more trr garage for your earballs check out our bonus show called off the Record we do a
lot of case updates so if you're going hey I know you guys covered this but this was in the news you should do an
update we probably already have on off the Record that's right join us back here in the garage next week for a new
episode of off the Record and and a new case on True Crime garage until then be good be kind and don't litter
[Music] [Applause] [Music]

Darlie Routier /// Part 2 /// 490

Part 2 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

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

The episode examines Darlie Routier's trial for the murder of her sons, focusing on evidence, expert testimonies, and public perception.

Key points

The Murders of Devon and Damon. On June 6, 1996, two young boys were tragically murdered, leading to a complex investigation.
Darlie's Arrest. Darlie Routier was arrested on June 18, 1996, charged with the capital murder of her sons.
The Knife Evidence. A knife from Darlie's home was identified as the murder weapon, raising questions about guilt.
Blood Evidence Analysis. Experts debated the blood evidence found at the crime scene, questioning Darlie's account.
Injuries Comparison. The severity of Darlie's injuries was contested, with experts divided on their implications.
The Sock Evidence. A bloody sock found two houses away raises questions about the crime scene.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think there is a potential maybe small chance...

Discussion about the possibility of innocence.

9:42WatchNov 7, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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