Many women experience mood disorders after giving birth. In what is termed postpartum depression, the new moms often endure bouts of low energy, anxiety, and irritability. Such incidents are often accompanied by feelings of great sadness and frequent crying. Most moms ultimately come out of their funk and return to normal within a few months. For some the trauma lasts longer and the effects are devastating and occasionally even deadly. Perhaps the most documented and debated example of the latter is that of Darlie Routier.

The state of Texas convinced a jury that the depressed twenty-six-year-old, overburdened by the responsibilities of motherhood, stabbed two of her children to death in the early morning hours of June 6, 1996. The case made national news and is still a hot subject of debate.

Darlie Routier has many supporters who believe she is innocent; plenty of others, however, contend she is guilty beyond any doubt and the only injustice is that, over a quarter-of-a-century later, she has not been executed.

Darlie Routier

Darin Routier and Darlie Peck married in 1988. They resided in Rowlett, Texas, an upscale section of eastern Dallas.

Darin owned a successful company repairing mainframe computers. His lucrative contracts with several government agencies enabled him and Darlie, a housewife, to live in the affluent suburb.

Darin and Darlie

The couple had three sons, six-year-old Devon, five-year-old Damon, and eight-month-old Drake. Darlie did not have any significant degree of postpartum depression following the births of Devon and Damon. Following Drake’s birth, however, she showed symptoms, the severity of which are debated.

Her family says Darlie’s depression was mild and over by June 1996. Prosecutors, however, say the anger was then at its apex and propelled Darlie to dastardly actions.

Though Drake was declared the source of Darlie’s depression, the state proved her ire was directed toward Devon and Damon.

Damon, Drake, And Devon

On the evening of June 5, 1996, the Routier family were all at home. Darin and baby Drake fell asleep together upstairs.

Darlie says she, Devon, and Damon fell asleep watching television downstairs, she on the sofa, her sons on the floor.

Prelude To A Nightmare

At 2:30 a.m. on June 6, Darin was awakened by his wife’s hysterical screams. He rushed downstairs and encountered a parent’s worst nightmare, finding his sons’ blood-soaked bodies on the floor. Darlie, also covered in blood, was on the phone with 911 frantically screaming that a man had broken into her home and stabbed them.

Police and paramedics arrived at the home within five minutes of the call.

 

Devon, three days shy of his seventh birthday, had been stabbed four times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Damon had also been stabbed several times and died as paramedics attempted to save him.

Devon And Damon Both Die

The murder weapon, a ten-inch white-handled knife taken from the holder in the kitchen, was found on the kitchen counter top.

The Murder Weapon

Darlie was transported to a local hospital for emergency surgery, having suffered a deep knife wound to her neck and several wounds to her arms. She survived and, shortly after awakening form her surgery and while still sedated, was questioned by Rowlett police.

Darlie’s Wounds

Darlie said that she, Devon, and Damon had fallen asleep while watching television. She awoke to find a man hovering over her with a blood-soaked knife. When the man saw that she had awakened, Darlie says he ran out of the house, dropping the knife in the home’s utility room. Chasing after him, Darlie picked up the knife and ran through the kitchen. In the process, she says she knocked a wine glass from the display rack on the floor. It was only then that she realized she and her children were bleeding. She says she then placed the knife on the counter to call 911.

Darlie described the assailant as approximately six feet tall, wearing a baseball cap, black shirt, and jeans. She could not recall any facial features.

Darlie Is Questioned

Police ruled out robbery as a motive as nothing was taken from the residence despite multiple expensive jewelry items lying in open view throughout the home.

Robbery Ruled Out

Upon arriving at the Routier home, police were struck by seeing Darlie wearing a wet bloody towel around her neck. They soon wondered if the towel had been used to clean up blood before they arrived.

As they examined the crime scene, investigators were troubled by several aspects of Darlie’s story. They found it strange that she had slept through her attack and her children’s murders and that she could not give a description of her assailant even though she said he was kneeling over her.

The alleged entry and exit point of the killer, an open garage window with a slashed screen, had an undisturbed layer of dust on the sill, suggesting that no one had come through it. Police also found a strand of long, bleached blonde hair on the screen. Darlie, a natural brunette, had her long hair dyed blonde at the time of the murders.

In addition, mulch in the flower beds between the garage and backyard gates, where the killer would likely have made his getaway, was also undisturbed.

In the police’s view, as well as that of prosecutors, Darlie’s account of events did not add up.

Inconsistencies In Darlie’s Account

Even more telling, investigators determined the blood evidence did not support the intruder theory, as no blood trail was found leading from the home. They believe it improbable that an intruder would be able flee the crime scene without leaving footprints.

In addition, the bulk of the blood was within one area. Police believe Darlie inflicted her own wounds in an effort to make it appear she had been stabbed by an intruder.

Crime Scene Photo

In an alley three houses and seventy-five yards from the Routier home, police discovered a large men’s athletic tube sock with small amounts of blood splattered on it. The blood was determined to have come from both Devon and Damon.

Authorities believe the sock was placed there by Darlie shortly after she murdered her sons in an amateurish attempt to thwart them. Police bloodhounds could not track any supposed intruder from the location.

Investigators were certain the sock was a red herring and became determined to sock it to Darlie Routier.

Tube Sock Found

When further interviewing Darlie one-and-a-half-weeks later, police say she told them that if she did commit the murders, she did not remember doing so. Darlie is adamant that she never made the statement.  The detective who conducted the interview, known for extracting confessions, said the interview was not recorded. I found nothing stating his reasoning for not recording the interview.

Darlie’s supporters believe the interview was recorded and that the detective will not produce the tape because it will confirm that she never made the statement.

Interview Statements Disputed

On June 14, eight days after the murders, Darin and Darlie gathered with several family members and friends for a birthday party at Devon’s grave. He would have turned seven-years-old that day. Darlie had just been released from the hospital and was on pain pills, antibiotics, and antidepressants.

A news station recorded the event. All attendees, Darlie included, were seen smiling, laughing, and appearing to be celebrating Devon’s birthday as if he were there. Darlie was taped spraying silly string on her slain son’s grave. To many, the birthday celebration of the deceased child barely a week after his murder was a macabre proceeding and not something a grieving mother would do.

Darlie’s supporters again come to her defense, emphasizing she had earlier cried at a memorial service for her children before the birthday party. That display of grief was not shown by the news crew.

Posthumous Birthday Party

Four days later, on June 18, Darlie Routier was arrested and charged with murder. She was denied bail. Her trial was transferred to Kirk County, in southeast Texas, a jurisdiction with a high death penalty conviction rate.

The eyes of Texas, and much of America, were upon the trial of Darlie Routier, which began on January 6, 1997.

Charged With Murder

The prosecution painted Darlie as a vain, selfish, greedy woman who, in in the midst of postpartum depression, stabbed Devon and Damon to death, then inflicted her own wounds in an attempt to make it appear an imaginary intruder had committed the crime.

The state contended that Darlie was a diva who wanted to return to a carefree lifestyle, unhindered by motherly obligations. The Routiers’ financial records showed they were behind on several payments. It was insinuated that Darlie felt if Devon and Damon were dead, she could collect on their life insurance and her lavish lifestyle would not be threatened.

Darlie The Diva?

Devon and Damon’s life insurance policies totaled only $10,000; the cost to bury them was $13,000. Darlie’s defense team countered that if money had been the motive, Darlie would have killed Darin because of the $800,000 policy on his life. The defense also claimed that if Darlie’s postpartum depression caused her to kill, she would have killed Drake because he was the source of her angst.

From here, the prosecution changed tactics, focusing on the physical evidence found at the crime scene.

Money Was Not Likely the Motive

Several medical examiners and the physicians who treated Darlie on the morning of the attack asserted that her wounds could have been self-inflicted.

Testifying for the defense, San Antonio Chief Medical Examiner Vincent DiMaio disputed those claims, saying the wounds to Darlie’s neck came within two millimeters of her carotid artery and were not consistent with the self-inflicted wounds he had seen.

Darlie’s Neck Wounds Are Debated

The blood evidence found at the crime scene proved to be the prosecution’s strongest evidence. A tiny blood stain over the shoulder area on the back of Darlie’s shirt contained both Devon and Damon’s blood.

Tom Bevel, a renowned expert in blood pattern analysis, testified the blood would have had to come as the knife was being taken out of the children’s bodies and brought over the attacker’s shoulder to stab again.

Darlie’s Night Shirt

Blood was found on the edge of the kitchen countertop beneath the sink, from which luminol tests revealed more large amounts of blood had been cleaned. DNA showed the blood was Darlie’s, resulting from, prosecutors believe, her intentionally inflicting her wounds over the sink.

Police found no evidence an intruder had walked through the area.

The Kitchen Countertop

The luminol also showed footprints in front of the sink; they were confirmed as Darlie’s as well and were the only footprints found.

Footprints in Front Of The Sink

An unusual blood impression was also on the family room carpet. It was the outline of the murder weapon. The heavy line of blood near the tip of the blade told forensic experts the knife was held by a person who was bleeding.

Darlie said she picked up the knife from the kitchen floor and put it on the counter. She said nothing about taking it into the family room. DNA tests, however, showed the blood on Darlie’s right arm was hers and Damon’s.

Carpet Impression

Fiber glass rods with a rubbery compound were found embedded in the blade of a bread knife found in the kitchen.

The Breadknife

The cut window screen from the garage was made of polyvinyl chloride bundles. The interior core of that bundle was composed of fiberglass rods identical to the rods from the breadknife. No other similar source of fiberglass was found in the home.

Furthermore, the screen had been slashed diagonally when cutting it near the bottom by the latches would be a more effective manner. The state contended the screen could have easily been pulled off; an intruder would not have had to cut it.

Prosecutors argued Darlie used the breadknife to cut the garage window screen in an effort to make it appear an intruder had entered the home. She then returned the knife to the holder without rinsing it.

The Window Screen

Darlie testified the intruder dropped a knife in the utility room and she picked it up and chased after him through the kitchen where she realized she was wounded. During the pursuit, she says she knocked a wine glass from a rack standing on the floor.

Pieces of glass were found only on top of the blood drops on the floor and Darlie did not have cuts on her feet. Prosecutors believe she broke the glass after killing her children in an attempt to further give credence to her intruder story.

The Wine Rack

Beneath an overturned vacuum cleaner in the kitchen was more blood spatter. A wheel impression in the blood further made it appear that Darlie ran through the kitchen before the glass broke and the vacuum cleaner overturned.

Bloodstains were also found on the vacuum cleaner handle; DNA testing revealed it was Darlie’s. Tom Bevel, the blood spatter expert, said the pattern was inconsistent with her account of running past the vacuum. The blood dripped onto the handle at an eighty degree angle as if she were leaning over the vacuum cleaner. Bevel said the blood drops on the kitchen floor were circular shaped, meaning they were deposited by someone standing still or walking slowly.

The Vacuum Cleaner

Darlie contended she was stabbed on the sofa, and while bleeding, ran through the kitchen after the assailant.

Bevel, however, testified running would have produced more elliptical-shaped blood drops usually with a tail indicating the path and direction of the person running. He also found no evidence a supposed intruder dropped the knife on the kitchen floor as Darlie claimed.

Darlie’s Claims Are Disputed

Darlie’s defense team attempted to counter the findings by attacking the Rowlett police, saying responding officers who arrived at the crime scene were inexperienced and untrained in gathering and properly preserving blood evidence. They contended blood from different items could have been mingled. Rowlett police denied the claim, and so did the jury.

On February 1, 1997, Darlie Routier was convicted of the first degree murder of her son Damon; she was not specifically tried for Devon’s murder.

She was sentenced to death.

Convicted

Much of Texas wanted Darlie Routier executed that day, but she had a fair number of supporters who believed an innocent woman had been wrongly convicted.

A private investigator hired by the defense says the DNA determined the bleached blond hair found on the window sill was matched, not to Darlie, but to a Rowlett police officer. The sill was ten inches from the home’s floor, and some believe the killer could have entered the home without disturbing the dust if he crouched down and put one leg at a time through the window.

In addition, and perhaps most telling, is that two sets of fingerprints confirmed not to be of any family members have never been identified; one was on the door leading to the garage and the second was on the credenza behind the couch where Darlie says she was sleeping when attacked.

The Killer’s Entry?

Darlie’s supporters also say the tube sock found near the home makes the prosecution’s account of the murders impossible. Her lawyers contend the sock contains both boys’ blood and probably epiphyseal (cartilage tissue) or Darlie’s skin DNA. Because none of Darlie’s blood stains were found on the sock, her supporters contend it had to be touched by someone after Devon and Damon had been stabbed who also had contact with Darlie.

Damon did not die until after paramedics arrived, and the coroner believes he could not have lived for more than nine minutes after being stabbed. During this time, Darlie was on the telephone with 911 for five minutes and forty seconds. The police secured the scene for an additional two minutes before paramedics were allowed entrance. That leaves Darlie approximately only one-and-a-half minutes to place the sock seventy-five yards down the street, stage the crime scene, and inflict her wounds.

Some of Darlie’s supporters believe the intruder had the sock on his hand and used it to cover Darlie’s mouth as he strangled her, only to drop it after she awoke, causing him to flee. DNA tests, so far, have not confirmed this theory.

Will The Sock Clear The Mom?

Darlie’s family, as well as Darin’s mother, believe she is innocent and that the attack may have been a sexual assault gone awry. When paramedics arrived, Darlie was not wearing pantyhose. A rape test, however, proved negative.

At the time of the murders, a series of violent rapes had recently occurred in Dallas and the surrounding communities. The crimes exhibited similarities to Darlie’s claim of her attack as the assailant entered unlocked homes and accosted women using kitchen knives. He also wore tube socks over his hands to avoid leaving fingerprints.

A suspect was arrested for the rapes shortly after Devon and Damon’s murders. I was unable to find his name. Following the arrest, Rowlett police said they found nothing linking him to the murders of Devon and Damon Routier and the alleged attack on Darlie Routier.

Enough Reasonable Doubt?

Twenty-eight years after the murders of her sons, fifty-four-year-old Darlie Routier remains on death row. No date has been set for her execution.

Requests for additional DNA testing were granted in 2008, 2014, and 2018, but the results did not produce any substantive new findings.  Another round of DNA testing was conducted in 2021, the results of which have not yet been made public.

Death Row Darlie

Darin and Darlie Routier divorced in 2011. Darin said the decision was difficult but necessary because of the “limbo” they have been in since Darlie’s imprisonment.

Darin still believes in Darlie’s innocence.

Darin Divorces Darlie

Following the murder of his brothers and his mother’s conviction, Drake, the surviving Routier child, was placed in foster care as the ordeal had drained Darin financially. After Darin was back on his feet, Drake returned to live with his father.

In this 2002 photo, Drake is visiting his imprisoned mother.

Drake And Darlie

In 2013, seventeen-year-old Drake was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. A 2018 article said he is cancer free.

Drake also believes in his mom’s innocence.

Drake Routier

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11049004/devon_rush-routier

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6370341/damon_christian-routier

SOURCES:

• Brownsville Herald
• The crime Library
• Dallas Morning News
• Darlie Routier Guilt Website
• Darlie Routier Innocence Website
• Find Law
• Forensic Files
• Houston Chronicle
• Murderpedia
• The New Detectives
• Paris (Texas) News
• Port Arthur News
• Rowlett Lakeshore Times
• Unsolved Mysteries