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Murder part2

Murder

Shortly after the murders, Darlie was brought into court for her trial. Many believed that she was guilty because all of the evidence unfortunately pointed to her. She was sleeping right next to her children, while her husband was upstairs and asleep.

This case itself had equal amounts of evidence on both parties' sides. For example, evidence was found that there was a cut in the screen of a living room window. The cut was made with a blade from the kitchen, making it only possible to cut the screen from the inside. Also, doctors claimed her wounds self inflicted. But, on the other hand, a finger print was found in the house at the scene of the crime that didn't match anyone in the house the night of the murder, confirming Darlie's story of an assassin breaking into her house instead of Darlie killing her own kids. But the judge found it odd that she didn't want to help her children. She was found guilty because there were more evidence against her than for.

Darlie Routier testified that an intruder killed her children but police found inconsistencies between her report and the crime scene evidence.

On June 6th, 1996, Damon and Devon Routier were murdered in their home while sleeping. The crime was committed by taking a butcher knife from the kitchen and stabbing the children. Both children were stabbed several times, one child being stabbed so hard the knife almost went through the body. The boys were stabbed in the downstairs area (more specifically, the living room).

While the attack happened, Darlie's husband was sleeping upstairs with their, at the time, eight-month-old Drake while Darlie was with the two other kids. When police arrived, they found that there was a slash on Darlie's throat, which had missed a major artery by two millimeters. When she called the police they told her to tend to her children, but she didn't. This was a major part of the case and Darlie's conviction. They found that there was a cut screen downstairs and a bloody sock a few blocks down by a sewer, a place that could have easily been overlooked.

Blood Evidence Kitchen

There were tiny drops of blood found in the sink. There was also blood on top of the counter dripping down the cupboard below the sink which raised suspicion, hence the luminol test was conducted.

  • Luminol proved blood was rinced down the sink and wiped up from the counter, sides on the sink, the taps and spout.
  • Blood dripped on the inside of the cupboard door proved to be Darlie's.
  • Blood drops on top of blood drops on the carpet in front of the sink indicated someone was bleeding standing there with little to no movement.
  • Luminol used on the floor showed someone had cleaned up bloody footprints.
  • Direct bleeding round blood drops proved someone bleeding was walking from the kitchen to the utility room and not running as Darlie described. The blood drops would have had tails had she been running.
  • Mixed stains of Devon/Damon found on the sink backsplash.

Darlie's night shirt

The sock

  • Several cast-off stains in Devon’s blood were found on the front and the right shoulder of Darlie’s nightshirt.
  • Several cast-off stains of Damon’s blood were found on the back of Darlie’s nightshirt. Damon’s cast-off blood was found on top of Darlie’s blood, as well. The cast-off was from the murder weapon while it was in motion because the tails of the blood pointed upword towards the source of he blood.

The major evidence to support Router’s theory was a bloodstained sock belonging to one of the boys that was discovered in alleyway about 70m away.

She argued it was proof that someone else — the intruder — dropped the sock as they run away after the stabbings.

But prosecutors rejected the idea and insisted it was planted by Routier in case police were suspicious of her.

Conclusion

Back

Front

About

Living Room

  • No appreciable blood was found on the couch or pillows where Darlie said she was stabbed.
  • No cast-off blood which indicates that she wasn't fighting with an intruder.
  • Damon's blood trail indicated that he moved to the other side of the wall from where he was initially stabbed.
  • Blood on the wall where Damon was found indicated that he was stabbed again by someone bleeding. (DNA showed it was Darlies.

Routier’s currently on Death Row in Gatesville, still maintaining her innocence. Meanwhile, her husband Darin’s living in Lubbock, having divorced Darlie in 2011; their youngest son Drake, who was upstairs with Darin on the night of the attack, would be around 19 by now.

Routier’s case is very much alive: Court records show that just last April, State District Judge Gracie Lewis ordered additional forensic testing on several items, including the infamous bloody sock, a baseball cap, a nightshirt and the knife. Those items now reside at the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s Center for Human Identification. Routier’s been pinning her hopes on those items since 2008.

Is an American woman from Texas. She was convicted of murdering her son, Damon and is curently on a death row awaiting execution by lethal injection. Originally she was occused of killing two of her sons, Damon and Devon (who were stubbed to death in the family's home) however Routier was only prosecuted for killing Damon.

Motive

Darlie Routier

It was believed that Darlie Routier killed her sons because of financial difficulties. She was a full-time homemaker but her husband was a small business owner. The family lived in a two-story home in a middle-class neighborhood. They had a mid-sized SUV, used Jaguar and a boat. But prosecutors described Routier as a pampered and materialistic woman with substantial debt, plummeting credit ratings, and little money in the bank who feared that her middle class lifestyle was about to end.

Additional evidence

  • No blood was found on the utility room floor where Darlie says the intruder dropped the bloody knife.
  • None of Damon or Devon’s blood was found on the hem of her nightshirt.
  • No blood was found past the utility room.
  • No blood was found on the window, frame or screen.
  • No blood on the fence or gate
  • No blood was found anywhere outside the Routier home.
  • Darlie’s blood was found dripped on the appliances in the Utility room yet she swears she did not go in that room…only to the door.
  • Several bloody towels were found throughout the area. However no one believes these towels were used on the boys, but used to clean up blood.
  • Devon’s body was covered in blood. This does not indicate a towel was used on him as it would have removed the blood from his chest.
  • NO towel was found on Damon’s back and no indication that a towel was used on him.

Their house

Darlie Routier case

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