Detective Patterson consulted the coroner Janice Townsend-Parchman, who had examined the wounds Darlie had allegedly received by the hand of the phantom intruder. While the boys had been attacked forcefully and maliciously, her wounds were superficial. The gash in her neck showed the signs of what doctors call a “hesitation wound”. That is, the blade had been introduced slowly, anticipating pain. Then when the pain is encountered, the perpetrator pulls back by reflex action. In other words, the wound appeared self-inflicted.
For a second opinion, Rowlett police turned to the FBI’s Center for Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Virginia. After studying the doctors’ and coroner’s reports, Al Brantley of the FBI’s Investigative Support Unit concurred. The children’s and mother’s wounds were hugely different – Damon’s and Devon’s massive and mortal; Darlie’s superficial. Brantley also said that the attack on the children was personal.
“The killer focused on their chests, almost as if going for their heart,” he said. “That indicates extreme anger toward them.”
Brantley also made other observations about the crime scene.
“For a violent struggle to take place as the mother claimed, no real breakage occurred,” he noted. “After looking at the crime scene photographs, it appeared to me that the intruder who committed this crime had a strong connection to the material items in the home. The living room was fairly small and compressed. Two adults fighting would have resulted in a lot more broken things. A lot of fragile items in the living room that should have taken the brunt of a struggle were not broken.”
His conclusion was that Devon and Damon’s killer was someone who knew them and knew the house. The entire scenario had been planned in advance – and it had been staged.
Devon’s birthday fell just eight days after his murder. Bizarrely, the Routiers decided to celebrate with a party at his graveside. Darlie and Darin Routier, baby Drake, Darlie’s sixteen-year-old sister Dana, her mother and a few invited personal friends attended, along with a news crew from local television station KXAS-TV. It was, at the very least, in shockingly bad taste.
Patterson’s men were also filming the event with a hidden camcorder. A concealed microphone had also been planted nearby to catch any remark that could be interpreted as a confession. With the TV cameras there, this was hardly necessary.
The proceedings opened with a pastor delivering a eulogy. Darlie, who was laughing and chewing gum, sprayed a can of Silly String over the grave. She sang “Happy Birthday” and cried: “I love you, Devon and Damon!”
Afterwards, she told reporter Joe Munoz: “If you knew my sons, you’d know that they are up there in heaven having the biggest birthday party we could ever imagine. And though our hearts are breaking, they wouldn’t want us to be unhappy. But they’ll be a part of us always.”
She was then asked about the boy’s mysterious killing and said: “The only thing that keeps me going is the hope that they will find that person. I have faith in God. I believe He will direct the police to that man.”
Four days later, Darlie Routier was arrested for the murder of her two children. After the televised birthday party, this caused a nationwide sensation. News crews and network anchors descended on Rowlett.
Darlie insisted on being given a polygraph test, but withdrew the request when she was told that her husband could not be in the room while the test was being administered. Later, the defence team renewed the request, provided she was allowed to take a test in private first. The result was never released, but Darlie and her mother were seen crying afterwards.
Darlie remained in custody while a grand jury indicted her on two counts of capital murder. That same day, 28 June, Judge Mark Tolle, who would preside at her trial, issued a gag warrant, barring both the defence and prosecution from discussing the case with the media. Meanwhile, Darlie’s court-appointed lawyer Doug Parks requested the trial be moved out of Dallas County where bad publicity might prejudice the jury. Judge Tolle agreed and it was moved to Kerrville in neighbouring Bexar County.
State Prosecutor Greg Davis announced he would seek the death penalty – though the last woman to be executed in Texas had been hanged during the Civil War. Nevertheless, the Routiers dropped the court-appointed lawyers. Their in-laws mortgaged their homes to pay for top lawyer Doug Mulder, formerly of the district attorney’s office. He assembled a top-rank team that included a retired FBI investigator. Meanwhile, Darin abandoned the house in Eagle Drive, leaving the mortgage in arrears. It was repossessed.
Jury selection took nearly a month. Eventually, a panel of five men and seven women were selected. By this time, press speculation was at fever pitch. When the trial began on 6 January 1997, crowds descended on the tiny courthouse. Visitors had to pass through a metal-detector gate, while purses and briefcases were searched. No tape recorders, cameras or newspapers were allowed in.
The prosecution decided only to proceed on one murder charge, that of Damon, holding the murder indictment on Devon in reserve in case Darlie was acquitted or, in the state prosecutor’s eyes, escaped with a life sentence. She pleaded not guilty.
In his opening remarks, State Prosecutor Davis said: “The evidence will show you, ladies and gentlemen, that Darlie Routier is a self-centred, materialistic woman cold enough to murder two precious children.” He would, he said, prove that the crime scene evidence found by experts did not match her story of what happened in her home on the night of the killings.
For the defence, Mulder said that Darlie was a caring mother, though, like any many another housewife, had her own personal problems and concerns.
“The State wants you to believe she became a psychotic killer in the blink of an eye,” he said. “Well, folks, that’s just absurd!”
The first witness for the State was Dr Joanie McLaine from the medical examiner’s office. She drew the jury’s attention to two defence wounds on Damon’s body. These indicated that he had struggled with his attacker before he died. Then Dr Townsend-Parchman described the differences between the children’s savage wounds and Darlie’s hesitation wounds and suggested that Darlie inflicted her wounds on herself.
Officer Waddell described the crime scene that confronted him on 6 June and the jury were shown the crime scene photographs. Paramedic Jack Kolbye told of the efforts made to save Damon’s life. Then fellow paramedic Larry Byford, who was with Darlie in the ambulance, testified that during the entire trip to the hospital she did not once ask about her children.
In the second week of the trial, Officer David Maynes introduced the material evidence uncovered from the crime scene, including a section of white carpet that bore Damon’s bloody handprint. Then fingerprint expert Charles Hamilton told the jury that the only prints uncovered at the scene were those of Darlie and the two boys.
Crime scene investigator James Cron described following the path of the supposed intruder’s flight through the Routier home and garage. During this detailed scientific trek, he failed to turn up any sign that there ever had been an intruder.
“After my initial walk-through, I thought someone in the family had committed the murders and staged the scene,” he said. “The further I got into my investigation, the more convinced I became.”
Charles Linch, an analyst for the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences, agreed that it was impossible for any intruder to have left the crime scene without leaving a trail of blood. Then blood-splatter expert Tom Bevel discussed patterns of blood found on Darlie’s nightshirt. Both boys’ blood was found, indicating, at the very least, that she was close to them while they were being stabbed. There was also blood on the shoulder and back of the nightshirt. This came from the knife, he maintained, while she was making the upswing. That is to say, she was doing the stabbing.
There was very little blood on the sofa, where Darlie said she had been stabbed, and the slash on Darlie’s throat was made by a knife coming down at a forty-five-degree angle, consistent with her inflicting the wound herself.
FBI special agent Al Brantley also dismissed the idea that there had been an intruder. Anyone breaking into the house would not have cut the screen, but removed it. And the position of the Routiers’ house, behind a high fence in a cul-de-sac, would have discouraged a burglar or rapist.
A thief would have taken Darlie’s purse and jewellery, while a rapist would not have killed the children but used them to force her to submit. The ferocity of the assault on the boys led him to believe that the attack was personal and had been done in extreme anger.
“Someone who knew those children very well murdered them,” Brantley concluded.
The prosecution case, which depended almost totally on crime scene evidence, was damning.
The defence countered with relatives, neighbours and friends who testified to Darlie’s good character. The Reverend David Rogers, who officiated at the funeral, said Darlie was “grieving appropriately”. Neighbour Karen Neal, who had stepped in to babysit Drake on the night of the murders, said Darlie’s grief was real, not artificial as the prosecution was suggesting. Darlie’s friend, Cara Byford, talked of her kindness. She said that Darlie came to her for consolation as Cara had lost a four-month-old boy previously.
Darin Routier testified that Darlie had been devastated by their boys’ deaths. He also recounted administrating CPR to Damon.
“Darlie was running back and forth getting wet towels, going, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God, he’s dead!’” he said. “I blew two or three times. She was over him trying to hold the gaps in his chest together. I knew he was dead in three minutes. I screamed at Officer Waddell, and Darlie tried to get him to go to the garage. All three of us were in shock.”
However, Darin’s presence in the witness box allowed the family’s financial problems to be aired.
To counter the prosecution’s testimony about Darlie’s “hesitation wounds”, the defence called Bexar County’s medical examiner Dr Vincent DiMaio, a professor of forensic pathology. The gash to her throat, he said, came within 2 mm of the carotid artery. And bruises on her arms were caused by a blunt instrument and could not be self-inflicted.
Forensic psychologist Dr Lisa Clayton was called to explain that people who had gone through some traumatic event were often unable to give a clear account of it afterwards. And Darlie exhibited the typical blackout and distorted-memory symptoms of those who had lived through trauma.
Finally, against the advice of her counsel, Darlie took the stand. Mulder took her through her life story and painted her as the dedicated stay-at-home mother of three. He got her to read from her diary to show that she was not the shallow, thoughtless person she had been portrayed as. The Silly String used at the graveside during Devon’s posthumous birthday party was brought by her younger sister, Dana, not her, she explained. It was a symbol of the fun the little boys would have had, had they been alive. As for the inconsistencies in her account of the murder: deep in shock, she simply could not remember things clearly.
The prosecution would not accept this. They took her through the various contradictions she had made in her interviews with the police. Why had she told one policeman one thing, another something else? Why didn’t her dog bark when the intruder entered the house? Why had she washed the blood out of the kitchen sink? The prosecution suggested she had gashed her throat over the sink and washed the blood down. Why had she lied and lied and lied? They left her a broken, sobbing woman.
On 1 February 1997, the jury found Darlie Routier guilty of the murder of her son Damon. Three days later, Judge Tolle handed down his sentence. It was death. However, there remained some doubts about her guilt.
A special episode of ABC’s investigative TV show
20/20
, entitled “Her Flesh and Blood”, aired on 3 February 2000. It reviewed the Routier case and found that the jury may not have been shown photographs of bruises on Darlie’s arms, which may have revealed that she had fought off an attacker. Nor had they seen the police surveillance videotape of Devon’s graveside birthday party that showed Darlie and her family sincerely grieving over the children. Audio tapes presented at the trial were incomplete and there were errors and omissions in the court transcript. One juror claimed he was pressured into giving a guilty vote.
Barbara Davis, who wrote the book
Precious Angels
about the case, discovered that there was a latent, bloody fingerprint found on the Routier living-room table. According to two New York City police fingerprint experts, the print did not match Darlie nor Darin, nor any of the officers at the scene. Another fingerprint expert, Dr Richard Jantz, said that the unidentified bloody fingerprint left at the crime scene is “consistent with an adult” rather than a child, so lends new credence to the intruder story. Another unidentified print was found on the door of the garage. An unidentified pubic hair was found at the scene of the crime and a bloodstained sock was found in an alley a few houses away.
On 25 July 2001, the Dallas
Morning News
reported that Darlie’s lawyers had filed an appeal, citing thirteen trial errors and a possible conflict of interest. The defence counsel was also representing Darin Routier, another potential suspect in the crime. Indeed, the Routiers had dropped the public defender Douglas Parks after they heard that he intended to portray Darin as the guilty party. They had then taken on Doug Mulder on the understanding that he would not “go after” Darin.
In June 2002, the
Morning News
reported that, months before the murder, Darin Routier had asked his father-in-law, Robbie Gene Kee, whether he knew anyone who would burgle his home as part of an insurance scam. He may have mentioned this to others, making the house a target. Neighbours said they saw men in a black car watching the house before the Routier boys were killed. Darin Routier later admitted that he had looked for someone to burgle the house, but that he planned to have it done when the family was not at home.
As the prosecution case had depended almost totally on crime scene evidence, in July 2002, Darlie’s lawyers asked prosecutors to hand it over for new forensic tests. They were particularly keen to have Darlie’s nightgown, believing that they could use it to demonstrate that her wounds were not self-inflicted. They also wanted to test the butcher’s knife, the samples of bloodstained carpet and the window screen. But on 10 September 2008, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected her attorney’s motion for a second chance to make their case for more DNA testing. They fight on in the federal courts. Meanwhile, Darlie Routier sits on Texas’s death row. She continues to protest her innocence.