Is An Innocent Mother Sitting On Death Row? - The Case Of Darlie Routier

It was a little after two thirty in the morning when a mother called 911 to report that she had been attacked and her two sons had been killed. That same mother would be arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death for the murder of her children over what she claims was just a can of silly string. For the last thirty years, Darlie Routier has sat on death row. The story she tells of the night that her children were murdered is bizarre, but some people believe that it's so bizarre, it might just be true. We have so much to go over. My name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mavily! There's a lot of information to this case and because there's two very distinct sides that are both very passionate about what they believe, there's a lot of conflicting information and testimony in this case. For this episode, I did my best to remain unbiased, but also compile all of the information that I believe to be the most accurate while also explaining both sides of the argument for each piece of evidence. If you think I got anything wrong or maybe left something important out to the case, please just let me and your fellow detectives know down in the comments. Darlie Rootier was born Darlie Lynn Peck on January 4th, 1970. She grew up in Texas and was the All-American Popular High School cheerleader. When Darlie was 15 years old, she was working on a restaurant where she really fell for one of her co-workers who would actually become her future husband. Darlie and Darlie Rootier would get married in 1988. The following year they would welcome their first child, a boy, that they would name Devon. And in 1991, they would have their second son, Damon. The two brothers, whereas close as Covee, they were best friends, but they also couldn't have been more different. Devon was a little daredevil. He was super independent and would always just be trying to get into everything where his little brother Damon was more shy and reserved and just really liked to cuddle and watch all of the craziness his older brother got into. The family was definitely keeping busy. The year after Damon was born in 1992, the family would buy and move into their dream home. It was this huge beautiful house in the affluent suburbs of Dallas, Rallette, Texas. Darren started his own tech business and the business was extremely successful and lucrative. They were raking in money, which explains how the couple at only around 21 years old were able to afford a home so grand. They were definitely living a life of luxury. Both of them had very expensive cars. They had a boat. They took extravagant vacations. The home that they had was the home with the best landscaping in the entire neighborhood. They had this fancy expensive vintage fountain put in. The home was decorated with drapes that cost them $12,000 and they had just put in a new spa that cost them 9,000. How much money, Darley and Darren were spending was definitely no secret. They were really flashy with it. They definitely liked to show off. Darley's friends would even call her "shop till you drop" Darley. Darley was a stay-at-home mom, so just like her and her husband, her children of course only got the best. Every new toy that hit the market, Devon and Damon would get it. And because of this, their home quickly became the house that all the neighborhood kids would want to spend all of their time at. Darley would welcome everyone into her home with a bright smile and everyone that knew her saw her as this perfect mother with a perfect family and a perfect life. But things aren't always as they seem. Around the same time that Darley and Darren had their third son Drake on October 18, 1995, the couple was just about drowning in debt. The business wasn't doing as good as it had in the past and they were really behind on bills. They were spending money faster than they could make it. They were denied loans that they tried to take just to stay afloat. And Darley and Darren were fighting more than usual. Mostly because sacrifices had to be made and neither of them wanted to be the one that had to do it. Darley wanted Darren to sell his boat. Darren wanted Darley to just stop shopping all the time. On top of this, Darley was really struggling with her mental health. Although never formally diagnosed after her third son Drake was born, Darley started to experience symptoms of postpartum depression and anxiety. On the evening of June 5, 1996, Darley and Darren got into yet another argument. I wasn't there so I don't know what would say but according to both of them and sources I found online, Darley was expressing to her husband frustrations she had been having recently. At the time, Darren's car was in the shop and the couple were sharing Darley's car but of course Darren had to use this car throughout the week to get to and from work. And Darley was really upset and frustrated. She was really struggling with her mental health and now she's forced to just be stuck inside the house with the kids and she couldn't take them anywhere during the weekdays. Somehow this spiraled into a fight about money once again but by later in the evening the couple had reconciled and they sat down for a movie night with their two older boys. Recently, in the last handful of weeks, Darley had been choosing to sleep in the living room on the couch so she could get more sleep. Baby Drake's crib was in their master bedroom and Darley would say she was such a light sleeper that if Drake even tussled around at night, this would wake her up. But that night, Devon and Damon apparently also wanted to have a sleepover party in the living room. So they made themselves little beds on the floor of the living room. Darley was sleeping on the couch in the living room and then Darren was upstairs in the master bedroom with baby Drake. He went up to bed sometime between midnight and 1 a.m. and then the 9-1-1 call came in. At 2.31 in the morning, 9-1-1 received a hysterical and panicked phone call from Darley Routier claiming that someone had just broken into her home and stabbed her and her children. This 9-1-1 call is five minutes and 44 seconds long. The quality of the audio is also not the best. It's pretty hard to make out what is being said at certain times during this call even with captions on the screen. I can see what I can do. Sometimes I'm able to clean up audio a little bit. But for these reasons, I'm probably not going to put in the entire 9-1-1 call. But if you haven't heard it yet in its entirety, it's probably one of the most scrutinized 9-1-1 call in all of True Crime. I will add in bits and pieces along with my commentary, but I do highly recommend listening to the entire 9-1-1 call. That is something that you are interested in doing. Throughout this 9-1-1 call, you can hear Darley screaming, "My babies are dead, my babies are dying. Who would do something like this?" "I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to let you go." "Oh my God. I'm not going to let you go." "Is there anybody in the house that I do in your children?" "Oh my God. How many more boys do you want?" something that people who believe Darlie is guilty really point to on this 9-1-1 call is that throughout this call multiple times Darlie tells the 9-1-1 operator that she has already touched the murder weapon. The people that believe Darlie is guilty believe that this is Darlie trying to already make an excuse right away why her fingerprints might be on the weapon that murdered her children. But I do think it is important to note that it's actually the 9-1-1 operator that first tells Darlie about touching the knife says "hey don't touch the knife" and that's when Darlie says "oh my god" and she's panicking and she says "I've already touched it." But then Darlie just says a lot of things that just really sound off and unnatural for the position that she's currently in. Over a minute after telling the 9-1 operator that she's already touched the knife she's still bringing up how she touched the knife and that she's worried that they might not be able to get fingerprints off of the knife now because she touched it. It's just a really weird thing to even be thinking about just minutes after you're claiming you and your children have both been stabbed by an intruder that broke into your home. Imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs! Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all-day comfy grip. Just clump to a hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Maybe it's Mavilyne. She also repeatedly throughout the phone call says "Who did this? Someone did this? Who would ever do something like this?" But the strangest thing to me is Darlie says to her husband with a little bit of like kind of attitude. Someone came in and intentionally did this Darren. People that believe that Darlie is guilty see this as a mask. People that believe that Darlie is guilty see this as her trying to create a narrative very early on that someone came into the house and did this. Obviously no one in the house is the one that murdered her children. Within three minutes of Darlie making this 911 call the first officer arrives at the scene. Darlie, six-year-old Devin and five-year-old Damon all have injuries. Darren and Baby Drake who were sleeping upstairs were both unharmed. Immediately when you walk into this home the first thing you see is the blood. There is blood absolutely covering almost every single inch of the downstairs of this home. Tragically upon arrival it was very clear that six-year-old Devin was already gone. Five-year-old Damon though was still clinging on to life. He was looking at his mom crawling around and making noises like gurgling noises. Within just a few more minutes more officers arrived at the home. They cleared the house making sure that the intruder wasn't still there before EMTs were allowed inside. Darlie and Damon were rushed to the hospital. Darlie was rushed into an emergency surgery but tragically Damon would die in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Darlie has been questioned over and over but what happened that night. And even though details from her story have changed here and there, her recollection of what happened has almost always stayed the same and it has been that she was sleeping on the couch when she felt someone nudging her shoulder. It was her son Damon trying to wake her up and he was calling out mommy. As she starts waking up she sees a man. He's standing at the edge of the couch and when she actually wakes up he's walking away from her. He's fleeing the home and as he flees, Darlie can hear the sound of glass breaking. He leaves the living room through the kitchen and out the garage through the utility room. Darlie gets up to follow the intruder. When he made it out to the garage she turns around the turn on the light that was on in the kitchen. When she turns the light on she sees a bloody knife on the ground and she realizes for the first time that she is covered in blood. Scared that the intruder might still be in the garage and might come back, Darlie picks up the knife as on the ground for protection. This is how her fingerprints end up on the knife. She starts heading back towards the living room where she puts the knife down on the counter in the kitchen and then for the first time she sees that the living room is absolutely covered in blood. She screams out for her husband as she grabs the phone to call 911. Six-year-old Darren had been stabbed two times in the chest. Five-year-old Damon had been stabbed at least six times in the back. This was an absolutely brutal attack. Some of the stab wounds even went through their entire bodies hitting the floor underneath them where they were sleeping. Who could do this to children? Who could kill children in their sleep in such a brutal way? It's shocking and it's evil and it's extremely disturbing. How any person could actually do something like this. Darlie had injuries to her right arm and her neck. Injuries that the surgeon at the hospital would call superficial. But just how severe these injuries were is something that has been debated to this very day. Compared to her children, these injuries do seem a lot more superficial. They are less like stab wounds and more like slashes. But the injury to her neck was decently serious and deep. In fact, it was only two millimeters away from hitting her carotid artery, which would have killed her in a matter of minutes. It was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery for her neck injury and she stayed in the hospital for several days. As Darlie was in surgery, her beautiful home that her neighbors were once envious of had been turned into a crime scene. But before we go over what was found, let's talk about the days following the horrific double murders of death and Damon. The community was shocked, devastated, and terrified. This was supposed to be a safe neighborhood. You hear it all the time, the kind of place where something like this doesn't happen. Now families were petrified that every single bedtime might be the last time that they took their babies into bed. Two and a half days after her sons were killed and Darlie claimed that she was attacked, she was released from the hospital. The following day, June 9, was the funeral for her sons, Devin and Damon. They were buried together in the same coffin holding hands. Only a few days after the funeral, June 14, was what should have been Devin Routier's seventh birthday. And this brings us to easily the most controversial and infamous part of this entire case, the silly string video. News cameras filmed and broadcasted footage of a cheerful Darlie chewing gum, laughing and smiling as she sprayed silly string all over the grave of her children only eight days after they were brutally murdered. The second that the public saw this footage, they were absolutely disgusted. They just could not understand or believe how an innocent woman who had witnessed her children being killed in such a horrific way could act like this. Only a week later. Prior to this time in history of the United States, mothers killing their children was practically unheard of. It happened, but you didn't hear about it. But this case happened just a year after Susan Smith claimed her children were kidnapped in a car-jacking but later confessed to driving her car into a lake with her three-year-old and her 14-month-old sons strapped into their car seats with the intent of killing them. So following this now infamous silly string video, the public started to look at Darlie Routier a little differently. She was now guilty in the court of public opinion, people actually started calling her the Texas Susan Smith. And it wasn't just the public that was convinced of Darlie's guilt. law enforcement was as well. They were sure that Darlie Rutteer murdered her two children in cold blood from practically the moment that she called 911. The morning of the murders, they called in a very well-known and respected crime scene consultant to walk through the home. And reportedly, in less than 30 minutes, this consultant was positive that Darlie murdered her children. Her supporters will later argue that law enforcement just got tunnel vision that Darlie was guilty and that they charged and convicted her on a can of silly string. And only looked at evidence. I made her look guilty and completely ignored evidence. I made her not look guilty. And again, that they arrested her, charged her and convicted her on a single can of silly string. So let's see if that is true. Let's examine what was found at the crime scene. First thing that you notice other than the blood was that there are signs of a struggle in the home. Like the vacuum cleaner was knocked over. A wine glass was also found shattered on the ground. This wine glass hung on a wine rack in the kitchen and was shattered on the ground right in front of the wine rack. So it's possible to believe that this wine glass fell when the intruder bumped into it when they were trying to flee the home and that this was the sound of glass breaking that Darlie heard as she was waking up. But Darlie's blood was found under the broken glass not on top of it. And how does that make sense if the intruder broke it before Darlie was even up off the couch? Something else pretty weird about this wine glass that was found broken in the home was that the wine glasses were held on the wine rack by like a slope. So it would keep them from like coming off if someone bumped into the wine rack. And there are other things that you can see on the wine rack in photos that were left completely undisturbed that you would think would have also fallen if someone bumped into this wine rack. Investigators actually tried to mimic bumping into this wine rack to see if a wine glass would fall. And no matter how many times they tried, the wine glasses never fell. Which led investigators to believe that this scene was in fact staged. And whoever staged it was just sort of thinking what does it look like when someone breaks into a home and just took this wine glass off the wine rack and just shattered it because that's what should happen if an intruder breaks into your house. But of course that's not solid evidence. This wine glass could have just been sitting on the wine rack and not actually on the slopey lip thing that keeps it from falling off. This is not solid evidence. We can absolutely not rule out the intruder theory yet. If an intruder did break into this home, how did they get inside? Well, in the garage there was a large window that screen had been cut. So let's say this is how the intruder gained entrance into the home. The next thing we have to look at is the murder weapon. It was a large knife that came from the knife block from the kitchen of the rootier home. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Jelly mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all-day comfy grip. Try new grippy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Maybe it's Mabelie. This isn't necessarily a smoking gun that someone from the home is guilty. There have been plenty of killers throughout history that have chosen to use weapons found in the home. Richard Ramirez, the night stalker for one is probably the most infamous. But there is also Tommy Lin sells. Someone I find extremely interesting. He is known as the coast-to-coast killer because he killed up to 70 people in possibly 12 different states at least. The year after Devin and Damon were killed in Illinois, Tommy Lin sells broken to a home. He took a knife from the family's kitchen and stabbed a 13-year-old boy to death in his sleep. His mother woke up and thought Tommy off, Tommy fled, and then when this victim's mother called 911, the victim's mother was actually arrested and charged and convicted of her son's murder before it was discovered that she was innocent. Now in the case of the root tears, Darley's fingerprints were the only one found on the knife. Of course, she did say that her fingerprints would be on the knife, and of course the true killer could have been wearing gloves. Investigators and forensics went through this home with a fine toothed comma and they then find a single shred of evidence of an intruder. No fingerprints, no DNA, nothing. So maybe this is a very skilled killer, one that can come in, commit brutal homicides without leaving a shred of DNA or evidence. But if that's true, why would a skilled killer not kill Darley first, the only adult seemingly in the house? Why would they kill the children first? Why would the killer leave behind a witness? And why did the killer not bring their own murder weapon? I might have said that the killer using a knife that was from the home to commit these murders wasn't necessarily a smoking gun, but you know what kind of is that the knife that was used to cut the window screen from the garage, you know how the intruder got into the home? Well that knife was also from the home. In the knife block that was in the Routier's kitchen was a serrated bread knife and in the grooves of the serrated side were fiberglass rods that matched exactly to the fiberglass rods used to make the cut window screen. So an intruder broke into the home, went into the family's kitchen, took out a knife, then went into the garage, cut the window screen to make it look like they came in through the garage window, and then put the knife back in the knife block? It doesn't make any sense, does it? Also found in this cut window screen was a long blonde platinum hair that they believed matched Darley's hair. So this looks really, really bad. Although it has been reported that that blonde hair was actually the hair of a member of the law enforcement team that was collecting evidence. So Darley's supporters say that this was clearly a botched investigation and a rushed crime scene. If hair can get left behind by the law enforcement team, what other evidence are you guys messing up? In fact, they actually allege that the fiberglass rods that were found on that bread knife were actually put there when forensics was swabbing for fingerprints on the window screen and then use the exact same swab to swab the bread knife. It was like cross-contamination, but that's just a theory. There's absolutely no evidence that supports that. Another thing that the investigators and the prosecution would argue about this window that is, supposedly, the entrance and exit point for this intruder was that the bottom of the window had a layer of dust on it that was left completely undisturbed, and a grown man going through this window would have disturbed this layer of dust. Well, Darley's husband, Darren, would do a demonstration later on to prove that someone, a grown man just like him, could go through this window very easily without disturbing that layer of dust on the bottom. The only problem with this demo was that on the night of the murders, that window looked nothing like it did in this demo. Not only was the hole in the screen that was cut was very, very small, but over half of the window was blocked off by a large cat cage, and the other half was blocked off by a litter box. And then outside the window, there was a chair, and all of this was left undisturbed as well. And in the photos I'll have on the screen, you can see just how small of the hole of the window there would be for this intruder to try and get in and get out like a grown man could not fit through this area at all, but especially without disturbing a layer of dust at the bottom of the window. In and around the sink in the kitchen of the rootier's home was a lot of blood, blood that belonged to Darley rootier. And the investigators thought it was really strange that all of her blood, like a lot of her blood, was in and around the kitchen sink, because throughout all of Darley's retellings of what happened that night, she never mentions going to the sink even once, but how would all her blood get in and around the sink if Darley never went to the sink? And you can also see her footprints that are in the blood on the floor of the kitchen going back and forth to the sink in the kitchen. So clearly she went to the sink multiple times, but why in her retellings at the story that she never mentioned going to the sink? Was it maybe to clean up or maybe did she stand over the sink when she caused the injuries to herself? Like I've said multiple times, there was so much blood throughout this home, so much blood on the floor, and there were a lot of bloody footprints, but the only bloody footprints throughout this entire home belonged to Darlie. But the investigators looking at all of this blood in the kitchen and around the sink and the kitchen are thinking that maybe Darlie actually did tried to clean. So they sprayed lumenol all over the kitchen and in and around the kitchen sink and it lit up like a Christmas tree. Someone 100% attempted to clean up the scene. Now let's look at Darlie's injuries. Are these even injuries that she could have done to herself? Do these seem self-inflicted? Well the answer is I don't really know. The injuries on her arm are on her right forearm and she was right handed. Of course she could have used her left hand. That's possible but experts have tried to say that it's unlikely she would have thought to do that. I personally disagree. I feel like I feel like if you try to get away of murder and like stage a scene and you're doing all of these other things like I will tell you about very shortly. Using your left hand isn't that strange. But the injury to her neck, that was definitely the one that was the most serious of all of her injuries. Could that have been self-inflicted? We know that it was only two millimeters away from killing her. Could she have done that even mentally to herself? Well the official answer from the ME is maybe. She could have done it herself. She could have not done it herself. They can't rule out that it wasn't self-inflicted but they also can't rule 100% that it was self-inflicted. My biggest issue is why are these innocent defenseless children stabbed so many times and the only adult downstairs only had a few slashes? And why does Darlie not remember getting any of her injuries? She claims that she woke up to her son Damon nudging her awake and she saw the intruder at the end of the couch walking away from her and then fleeing the home. Seems that the intruder attacked her in her sleep but that she just didn't wake up and it's already really hard to believe that because Darlie herself claims that she's a very light sleeper. That's the entire reason that Darlie was sleeping in the living room on the couch in the first place because even her baby tossing around in its crib at night was enough to wake her up and she couldn't get any sleep. And if Darlie was attacked on the couch you would think you would find a lot more blood on the couch but there really wasn't. And why would her injuries just so much less severe than the injuries of her children? Well, her supporters, mainly her family, her mom and her sister are publicly huge advocates of Darlie's innocence while they theorize that maybe someone had been watching Darlie and the home for some time. Like we mentioned previously, Darren, her husband's car was in the shop at the time of the murders so maybe an intruder assumed because his car wasn't there that he wasn't home, that he was away for business or something like that and this intruder broke into the home to sexually assault Darlie. This would explain why the children were killed and Darlie was not because that was not the motive. It's also completely possible that Darlie did wake up and she struggled with her attacker and that's how she got all of her injuries but maybe the experience was so traumatic that she blocked out the memories of the entire attack. It makes sense but the thing is that's not how repressed memories work. You don't remember everything leading up and then have a gap in the middle and then remember everything after. It's sort of a all or nothing kind of thing and I know during this part of the episode it seems like I'm just throwing so much information at you and I'm really sorry if it's at all confusing. I just thought it would make the most sense to tell you all of the evidence at the prosecution and the defense would bring up during the trial or at least most of the evidence or the stuff that I thought was the most important and then sharing the opposite opinion on that same evidence. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just clump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Mavilyne. On the shirt that Darlie was wearing was a lot of blood and overwhelmingly it was her own blood but there was some blood on the front and the back of the shirt that belonged to both of her children. But like I said it was a very very small amount of blood. Long enforcement and the prosecution would argue that the blood on Darlie's shirt that belonged to both of her children looked like cast off spatter and that it would seem that this is evidence that Darlie was the one that murdered her children and that the blood splatter on her shirt belonging to her children lines up if she was leaning over them and stabbing them specifically the blood on the back of her shirt. It lines up if she is lifting the knife up and bringing it back down and then coming back up that's how the blood would like drip down her shirt. My argument is if Darlie was the one that stabbed Devin and Damon to death and this was clearly an extremely brutal brutal brutal scene. Wouldn't you see more blood on the killer not just a few drops here and there? Going back to the prosecution's side of things I really struggled to figure out what the motive for the intruder would be. Of course there was the sexual assault theory that her supporters have but there's also the theory that this was possibly a robbery gone wrong but if that was the case you would expect that things would have been stolen and nothing was stolen from the home in fact there was a pile of valuable jewelry just left lying out that was completely untouched. Going back to the blood whoever killed these boys I would expect it would have a lot of blood on them that's just my opinion I of course could be wrong I didn't go to school for forensics and in Darlie's story she says that the killer ran out the living room through the kitchen through the utility room and out through the garage and I'm guessing out the window that was cut in her story but there's no blood outside the home there's not even any blood in the garage in fact there's a blood trail all the way throughout this entire house leading up to that utility room and then it just stops immediately not one more drop of blood can be found outside the utility room or outside this home at all this does line up with the fact that the killer never left the house at all well actually I'm lying blood was found outside of the home blood belonging to both Devon and Damon was found on a sock in an alley 75 yards away from the home this sock belonged to Darren Darlie's husband it's believed if you at least are listening to one of Darlie's supporters that the intruder broken through the garage passed the laundry that was in the utility room and grabbed this sock to use as a glove not to get fingerprints anywhere but now we are meant to believe that this is an intruder that broke in without a weapon and without gloves but was so skilled not to leave behind a shred of evidence the reason that this sock is so important to Darlie's defense is that it has been said that Damon would have only lived eight to nine minutes after he was stabbed we know Darlie called 911 and she was on the phone for five minutes and 44 seconds and that the first officer was on the scene within three minutes and Damon was still alive he was still alive until he was loaded into the ambulance which means Darlie would have had to stab her children stage the entire scene run 75 yards there and back to leave this sock in an alleyway the length of one and a half football fields and then go home cause her own injuries wake up Darren and call 911 without anyone seeing her in about less than two minutes people that believe that Darlie is guilty claim that she left that sock in that alleyway to sort of stage the scene and also support her theory that an intruder was the one that broke into her home and killed her children but the reason why that doesn't make sense is because Darlie doesn't tell anyone about this sock if Darlie was the one that did this she would have no reason to believe that anyone was going to find this sock it could have gone completely unnoticed no one could have found it one of her neighbors could have walked out, thought it was trash and just thrown it away and then no one would have ever found her evidence that supports an intruder broken to her home if Darlie killed her children and then left this sock in an alleyway 75 yards away from her home she would have included it in her statement somewhere that's. the intruder was wearing a sock as a glove on his hand and ran out of her house with a bloody sock or something but she doesn't. She doesn't mention that at all. Something else that Darlie's supporters believe helps her theory that an intruder broke into her home was that on June 10th. Four days after the murders and two days after Darlie was released from the hospital one day after her son's funerals, police officers took photos of her injuries and you can see bruises on her hands and her arms and these bruises on her arms have to be the largest and the darkest bruises I've ever seen in my entire life. And just like with Darlie's other injuries, Darlie has no memories on how she got these bruises, these terrible bruises on her arms and her hands but it could possibly prove that she actually did struggle with this intruder and just doesn't remember it. But then there's the medical staff at the hospital that treated Darlie for two and a half days. None of them remember her having any of these bruises. It's not included in any of her hospital reports at all. So people argue that maybe after being released from the hospital, Darlie injured herself more to make it look like she was more injured because she realized how little injuries she had and how bad her children's injuries were. On June 18th, four days after the infamous silly string video, Darlie was arrested for the murder of her two children but she would only ever go on trial for the murder of her five-year-old son, Damon. This is possibly because in Texas, murdering anyone under the age of six years old automatically makes that person eligible for the death penalty. Darlie's capital murder trial began on January 6th, 1997, only seven months after the murders, which is an extremely short amount of time for any trial, but especially capital murder. Even worse, Darlie's defense attorney only had a few weeks of repair for this trial. She let her first attorney go because he was adamant on creating plausible deniability and doubt by presenting another possible perpetrator to the jury, Darlie's own husband, Darren. But Darlie refused to even consider throwing her husband under the bus, even if it helped her out and possibly got her not guilty verdict, which is why she got a new attorney. This lawyer tried to appeal for additional time to postpone the trial so we could have more time to get ready, but he was denied so we only had a few weeks of repair for Darlie's trial. The jury was shown all of the evidence I've told you so far, and plus a lot more, and then after a month-long trial, they came back with their verdict. They found Darlie guilty, and she was sentenced to death at the age of 27 years old. The trial certainly had a lot of flaws, but arguably the worst was what the trial transcript was. There were so many errors in the transcript that they ended up finding over 18,000 mistakes, and these weren't just minor mistakes. The court reporter Sandra Holly messed up major details like who was testifying to what and what was even said, and this possibly had dire consequences when it came to the jury actually getting to a verdict in this case. At one point, the jury asked for clarification whether or not it was testified on the stand that the door in the garage was locked or unlocked the night of the murder. When they asked for clarification on this pretty important detail, they were given the wrong answer, then was said on the stand, then was written in the trial transcript. To this day, just how bad this trial transcript was, is still being discussed in legal circles and apparently completely changed the way that court reporting is done in this country forever, and people are shocked that are in this industry that the flaws in the trial transcript didn't automatically result in a new trial for Darlie. During the trial and even to this day for both sides, no one can deliver a motive that seems to satisfy anyone. Why would an intruder break into this home kill two children, leave a witness, and then leave the house? What is the motive? We know it wasn't robbery because the jewelry was left behind, but also what would be Darlie's motive for killing her children? The comment, at least the most common belief, is that Darlie killed her children for financial gain. We know that the family was having serious money troubles, leaning up to Devin and Damon being murdered. The Darlie think getting rid of her children would help alleviate the financial strain on her and Darren. It also came out that Darlie and Darren had life insurance policies on their children, which absolutely did not look good. I don't know a single child that has a life insurance policy on them, but turns out the policies were only for like $6,000 and it didn't even cover the costs of their funerals. If Darlie wanted to kill her family for life insurance money, why wouldn't she have murdered her husband Darren? Who had a policy on his life for $800,000? There's also been a lot of talk about Darlie's mental health. It was no secret that Darlie was really struggling with her mental health at the time that her children were killed. There were neighbors that said that Darlie was no longer this loving mother that she once was, that she was often seen yelling and cursing at her children at a frustration. And in the weeks leading up to her children being killed, Darlie Routier was even considering taking her own life. She kept a diary and just a few weeks before the tragic events of today's case, Darlie wrote a letter to her three children, where she told them that she was sorry and she hopes that they grow up knowing how much she loved them and that her taking her own life wasn't their fault. Nowhere in this diary does Darlie Routier get any intention that she plans to harm her children or that she even blames them for her feeling so bad. Jeldermist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Maybe it's Mabelie! There was this perception of Darlie that was created in the media that she was this flashy god-y rude mother that she treated her children more like accessories and that she was obsessed with her looks. They tore her apart for everything, her clothes, hair, her breast augmentation. But people that knew Darlie like actually truly knew Darlie say that this couldn't be farther from reality. That Darlie and Darren might have been a little showy with their money but that they were great parents and they truly loved their children very, very deeply. And they did a lot with their money that wasn't for selfish reasons. They gave a lot of money to charity. They even had a neighbor that was struggling to make ends meet while they were fighting cancer. And Darlie and Darren paid for this neighbor's mortgage during that time. It has been reported that while the jury in this case were deliberating they asked to rewatch that silly string video at least eight or nine times. Darlie and her supporters will claim to this very day that she was found guilty and sentenced to death over a can of silly string. When in fact it wasn't even Darlie that brought the silly string to her son's birthday party in the first place. Her sister and her sister's boyfriend were the ones that bought and brought that silly string because it was Devin's birthday and Devin and Damon loved silly string and everyone knew about it and they thought it would be a nice thing to do. Even though we're sad because Devin and Damon aren't here, we tried to hang on to what we can to keep to get us through these times. And if you knew Devin and Damon you would know that they're up in heaven and they're up there having the biggest birthday party that we could ever imagine. And they wouldn't want us to be down here being sad even though our hearts are breaking. I know that Devin and Damon would want us to be happy. They wouldn't want us to be crying and they wouldn't want us to, you know, not to not to be happy. They would want us to celebrate as if we were with them and in a way they are with us because they'll always be with us. No matter what we're doing, no matter what we're thinking, they'll always be a part of all of us and not just daring enough but they've touched a lot of people. They also argue that earlier that exact same day, just a few hours before that silly string video was taken, something that the jury never saw was that right before the birthday party, before the silly string and all, the family had a private memorial and prayer service at the gravesite for Devin's birthday where Darlie was seen visibly upset, tearful and solemn. And while all of that might be true, I just really can't buy the fact that Darlie was sentenced to death just over a can of silly string because there's a lot of evidence against her. Do I think there was enough evidence to prove her guilty beyond a reasonable down the court of law that I don't know? "Do I think Darlie is guilty?" Yeah, I'm pretty sure she is. While I hate using how people act after a tragedy while they're trying to grieve to try and point to them being innocent or guilty, there's just certain things that Darlie did. Only days after her children were brutally, horrifically killed right in front of her that are just very unusual and unnatural. Not the infamous, silly string birthday party, Darlie and Darren speak with newscrawl. She talks about how she did everything she could do to try and save her son's lives. But that's just a lie. You know, even when I was, what had happened to me, I couldn't feel anything because I was in shock, but I wasn't thinking about me, all I was thinking about was trying to save the babies. I mean, Darren and I tried to save the babies, but it was too late, the babies were gone. But we tried, we tried and we have to live with that forever. We have to live with what we saw, what we saw in their eyes. Nobody, nobody can ever imagine. And it happened so fast that not anybody could have done anything about trying to save them, any faster than what I could, I mean, you just, you know, you keep going over it and you what if it and what if I done this and you what if you done this, but if you've never lived in fear, then you'll never think of those things. When the first police officer arrived at the scene, only three minutes after Darlie called 911, Darlie had the phone in one hand. And her other hand was holding a towel up to her own neck to try and put pressure on her injury to stop the bleeding. Devon was tragically already gone. We know this, but Damon was still very much alive. And it wasn't like he was alive, clinging and you could barely get a pole, so I need to think. Damon was looking around, looking at his mother, crawling around and making gurgling noises, he was very much clearly still alive. And this first officer, this first officer that arrived at the scene claims that he told Darlie at least three times to grab a towel and apply pressure to her son Damon to try and stop his bleeding and he claims she never did. She only ever held a towel up to her own wounds. Darlie would later say that this was a lie and that this officer never told her to do that. But why is she claiming that she did everything she could do to save her son's lives when that is just blatantly not true? And then when she's asked if she wants to discuss the accusations of her involvement in her son's deaths, this is what Darlie has to say. That's what Darlie has to say is that this is what Darlie has to say is that this is what Darlie has to say that this is what Darlie has to say is that this is what Darlie has to say It's a matter, you don't get to do anything else, do anything else, do anything else, do something else, do something else, do something else, do something else, do out there and he's doing whatever he wants to do and and we're just like in a time warps it's like it's like we're walking in limba we don't know whether we're coming or going you know and he's free he's free to do whatever he wants but I know that he's not going to be free for long and I feel it I feel the you know the support and the the hard work that these detectives and policemen are putting into this is incredible it's just it's it's beyond the call I mean they're doing some high-tech stuff on this investigation stuff that I wouldn't believe and had even seen in the movies that they're they're taking absolutely no it's at all you know all expense I mean they're they're doing the most in the best job that they possibly can and they are going to find it we're having prayer groups everywhere everybody is praying I said God's hotline must be you must be swamped because everybody everywhere is praying and we can fill it gossip is the most evil thing in the entire world she says that eight days after her children were killed right in front of her in such a horrific barbaric way there are also a lot of people that believe that Darren Darlie's husband is involved somehow in his son's deaths either that he knew Darlie was going to kill their children and he helped in the planning and in the covering it up or that he possibly was the one that did the entire thing like he hired someone to murder his wife and his children but the hitman botched the murder of Darlie apparently Darlie had her own life insurance policy worth $200,000 which is also reportedly how much debt Darren was in at the time even one of Darren's own family members have questioned his involvement in his children's deaths over the years but there is zero evidence to suggest that Darren has any involvement in his son's deaths and despite divorcing in 2011 Darren sticks by Darlie and maintains that she is innocent to this very day immediately after Darlie was sentenced to death her legal team began appealing her sentence and her conviction and began testing new evidence and they have been doing this now for 30 years trying to prove that Darlie was wrongfully convicted they truly believe that investigators just got tunnel vision that Darlie was guilty and just chose not to investigate any other possibilities turns out neighbors and the root tears own housekeeper claimed that in the days and even weeks leading up to the murders there was a suspicious dark-colored car parked in the neighborhood and right outside the root tears house that didn't belong to anyone that lived in the neighborhood and even on the very night that Devon and Damon were killed a neighbor told his detective as they were arriving on the scene that just before police arrived which we know was only like three minutes after Darlie called 911 so extremely shortly after these children were killed that a dark-colored car sped out of the neighborhood this was something that the neighbor took note of because one they had never seen this car in the neighborhood before and it was strange for someone to be leaving this neighborhood at such an odd hour in the middle of the night it has also been reported that the same night that Devon and Damon were killed shortly before that it was earlier on in the evening there was an attempted break in on someone else like another house nearby there was a woman that was home alone with her children the same night earlier in the night her husband was working the night shift and two men tried to break into her home was this ever investigated possibly these intruders being the one that broke in to Darlie's home I don't actually think so but the biggest piece of forensic evidence that Darlie and her supporters hold on to is that a smudged a fingerprint was found on her coffee table and three separate forensic experts have reportedly concluded that this fingerprint does not belong to Darlie anyone in her family or any member of like the investigating team that was at the crime scene that day so they say this has to be the fingerprint of the true killer but this has been heavily disputed and other experts say that the test is inconclusive because the smudge the fingerprint is so smudged and if the killer used that bloody sock as a glove why would there be a fingerprint on the coffee table in the first place I do always go back to that sock that sock with Devon and Damon's blood on it it was tested and they didn't find any unknown person's DNA on or in the sock Darlie's blood wasn't found anywhere on the sock but Darlie's DNA was found in the sock reportedly they found skin cells up along to Darlie Routier right in like the foot of the sock where the toes would be where you would expect to find skin cells if someone was using a sock like a glove to this very day over 30 years after her sons were killed Darlie maintains her innocence and she continues to sit on death row I know I threw so much information at you the more I was researching this case the more I kept finding and I wanted to make sure that I did the best research I could for this episode because I have been like rocking my brain for the entire day entire week. This case has kept me up at night thinking about certain aspects of the case because the second I think it makes sense and I am pretty certain. Like 99% certain that Darlie is guilty but there's like these nicely little details that make up that 1% that is really, really confusing. This is a case that has baffled people for 30 years and I think it will continue baffling people but I am so interested to hear all of your thoughts, theories and opinions on today's investigation because my audience is one of the smartest people I've ever seen because whenever we cover cases that are a bit controversial or unsolved, you guys are always coming up with theories and connections to certain things in the comments that I would never put together my own head so I'm so interested to read the comment section on Spotify and YouTube for this case. Do you believe that Darlie Routier is guilty or innocent? Do you think that there was enough evidence at the trial to prove that she was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? Do you think that there's enough evidence to prove that there should have been a mistrile and she should have gotten a new trial please let me know all of your thoughts in the comments but while you are there please always remember that there are two little boys that lost their lives in this case and that is a tragedy and just please always remember to be respectful. That is all I have for this wild and twisty and bizarre case. I don't think I've covered a case that this bizarre in months. This was a wild one. This is all I have for this week's investigation and I will see you guys all next Friday when we are hot in the case once again.