(solemn music)
- [Narrator] The
Routiers had it all,
a big Texas house
(static hissing)
and even bigger dreams.
Then someone took it all away.
(woman screams)
(glass shatters)
In a savage instant, two
young boys are murdered.
- As we walked into the den,
you could see the blood
stains on the carpet.
- [Narrator] Their
mother's throat slashed.
(screaming)
- Whoever killed these
boys meant to kill Darlie.
- Who did this?
- [Narrator] The hunt
for a killer is on.
Drops of blood, tiny
fibers left behind
mark the killer's trail.
- We performed over 100
DNA analysis in this case.
- [Narrator] As
evidence is found,
different theories emerge.
Tangled plots are
uncovered that tell a tale
of greed and betrayal.
- Beneath the surface,
you have real problems.
(yelling)
- I did not murder my kids.
- He is a sociopathic
and pathological liar.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Will forensic
science catch a killer
or frame an innocent victim?
(dramatic music)
June 6th, 1996.
A quiet night in Rowlett,
Texas is torn by sirens.
- [Darlie] Oh my god.
- [Operator] Need units going
towards 5801 Eagle Drive.
Hysterical female on the phone.
Ma'am, I need you to talk to me.
- [Darlie] What, what, what?
- [Operator] Ma'am, I
can't understand you,
you're going to
have to slow down,
calm down, and talk to me.
- [Darlie] They're
talking to my babies.
- [Operator] What is going on?
- [Narrator] A 911
call brings police
to a big house on Eagle Drive.
(siren wails)
(tense music)
- [Policeman] Stop right there!
- They stabbed my
children and my wife.
- Don't take another
step, stop right there.
- Somebody stabbed my children!
- All right, all right, show me.
- Are they gonna get here soon?
My boys are dying, oh my god.
Oh my god.
(somber music)
- Who did this?
Where are they?
- They're still
out in the garage,
I mean God, look at
what they did to me.
If they don't get here
soon, they're gonna be dead.
(cries)
- Devon Routier
is six years old.
His brother Damon just five.
They've both be and savagely
stabbed in their sleep.
Darlie Routier, their
mother, is bleeding
from a jagged wound on her neck.
Detective Jim Patterson
headed the investigation.
- I received a call from
dispatch telling me that
there had been a a
couple of boys stabbed
along with their mother.
They also explained to me that
they had one on the ground.
Well, when you tell
an officer that
they have one on the ground,
that to us is they're
chasing somebody on foot.
(somber music)
- [Narrator]
Lieutenant Dave Nabors
was in charge of
the crime scene.
- You know, you can't
help but think about
walking into that scene
for the first time
and seeing Devon laying
there on the floor
looking up at the ceiling.
You know, that's something
that you'll never forget.
- [Narrator] Devon
is already dead,
stabbed twice in the chest,
puncturing his heart.
His brother Damon, stabbed
six times through his back,
his lung and liver pierced,
is still breathing
when paramedics arrive.
He's rushed to hospital,
but is dead on arrival.
(siren wails)
(static hisses)
Initially, Darlie's story
is very straightforward.
She tells police that
it was a hot night
and that she and her
two sons were sleeping
in the living room to
try and escape the heat.
Her husband Darin
and eight-month-old
son were upstairs.
(tense music)
(gasping)
Darlie tells officers
at the scene that
startled from her sleep, she
struggled with an intruder
then chased him
through the house.
(glass shatters)
A glass shatters to the floor.
(tense music)
He drops a bloody
knife on the way,
and then the man
disappears into the garage.
Darlie's throat has been cut,
her boys have been stabbed.
- Oh my god.
(screaming)
- [Narrator] She
yells for her husband.
- Oh my god, Darin!
- [Narrator] Then calls 911.
- [Darlie] Somebody came
here, they broke in.
- [Operator] Ma'am.
- [Darlie] They just
stabbed me and my children.
- [Narrator] By the
time Darin Routier
gets to the living
room, it's too late.
- [Operator] Hang
on, hang on, hang on.
- [Darlie] Hurry.
- [Narrator] Bleeding
from a savage neck wound,
Darlie Routier is rushed to
the closest major hospital,
the Baylor University Medical
Center in nearby Dallas.
- At three o'clock
in the morning,
I got a phone call
and it was the nurse
across the street and
she blurted out that
Devon and Damon were dead
and that Darlie was dying.
- [Narrator] With Darlie
fighting for her life,
investigators start combing
the house for clues.
The best chance
they have to catch
the killer is to move fast.
Greg Davis was the
assistant district attorney
for the Rowlett area.
- From the very first moment
that we walked in the home,
it was obvious that
the blood evidence
would be key in this case.
- [Narrator] The carpet
is soaked in blood.
There are signs of
a violent struggle.
The trail continues
in the kitchen.
(dramatic music)
The murder weapon left behind.
A boot print has been
preserved in blood.
A torn screen is
discovered in the garage.
A blood-stained sock is found
in the alley behind the house.
(tense music)
And there are reports
that a dark-colored sedan
was cruising the area
just before the attack.
It all paints a picture
of a killer on the run.
While Darlie is in surgery,
police begin their search
for a brutal killer.
Routine police
investigation finds that
Darlie and Darin Routier
were high school sweethearts.
- Get a better sleep down here.
- You don't want
to sleep with me?
- Oh, you go on upstairs.
- [Narrator] In 1996, Darin
was running a successful
business in computer parts.
- I love you, sweetie.
- [Narrator] Darlie
did the books.
They had three children,
a big Texas house,
and by all accounts,
a close relationship.
- Oh, did you remember
to lock the door?
- [Darin] I'll check
it, good night.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] But on that
hot June night in 1996,
things would change forever.
By six AM, her house
is a crime scene.
(tense music)
(camera clicks)
- Yeah, there does
appear to be an--
(camera clicks)
- [Narrator] Her two
oldest sons are dead
and she is badly wounded.
Dr. Vincent Di Maio is
the Chief Medical Examiner
for Bear County, Texas.
- What she had was
an incised wound,
a cut or a slashing wound of
the right side of the neck
that went downward
towards the left side,
and then there was
another cut on the front
of her left shoulder which
could very well have been
a continuation of this,
and she also had a very deep
stab wound of her right forearm
where the blade actually
went down to the bone.
- When a doctor came in
a couple hours later,
I remember him holding
my hand and telling me
that the throat wound
came within one millimeter
of her carotid artery.
That's like the thickness
of a cigarette paper.
And if that would
have penetrated that,
Darlie would be dead.
- [Narrator] In the days
to come, enormous bruises
stretching from her
wrist to her shoulders
would emerge on Darlie's arms.
They're the injuries of a woman
who was fighting for her life.
Detective Jim Patterson is a
lead investigator on the case.
Hours after the attack,
he talks to Darlie
as she recovers in hospital.
- I met with Darlie
about four hours
after the incident at the house.
I met with her at the hospital.
Darlie, can you tell me
what happened at the house?
Just start at the beginning.
(somber music)
She was alert,
she was conscious,
she knew exactly
what she was saying.
- I woke up and I saw there's
someone standing over me
with a knife in his hands.
We struggled.
Then he just walked
off through the kitchen
into the utility room.
I saw him drop the knife
and I picked it up.
I probably shouldn't
have done that,
and I put the knife on
the kitchen counter,
and then I saw Damon
standing in the hallway,
and Devon was just,
just lying there,
and I called 911.
- [Narrator] It's a
slightly different story
than she first gave police.
(tense music)
And Darlie can only provide
sketchy details of her attacker.
He wore black clothes, had
bushy hair and a baseball cap.
It's all police have to go on.
(tense music)
- We've got a mess in here.
- This vacuum cleaner's here.
- If he was in that position,
he's most likely
in that position.
- [Narrator] Armed with
Darlie's statement,
police search for
evidence that corroborates
Darlie's story of an intruder.
- What about this knife?
- [CSI] This knife, that's
exactly where I found that.
- Just the way you found it.
- When I came in.
- [Narrator] Rowlett
police call in James Cron,
a former member of the Dallas
County Sheriff's Department.
Cron is now a crime
scene consultant
who has investigated more
than 20,000 crime scenes.
- First thing we did,
and it's a standard step,
is to do a walk-through, and
that is a very careful walk
where you do nothing,
touch nothing
except observe the scene.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] They begin
their investigation
in the blood-soaked family room.
What they find is a puzzling
collection of clues.
If Darlie was attacked while
she slept on the couch,
why is there hardly any
blood on the pillow?
The couch below
isn't ripped or torn.
In the kitchen, shards of
broken glass litter the floor.
- She heard a glass break
as the intruder ran
through the kitchen.
She then followed
after the intruder,
and yet when we got there
and we looked at it,
her bloody footprints
are underneath
the glass that was
supposedly broken
before she ever ran
through the kitchen.
Now that didn't make any sense.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Even
more perplexing,
only one bloody
boot print is found,
but the blood trail ends there.
There's no blood at
all in the garage.
A small collection
of Darlie's jewelry
sits on a counter
in the kitchen.
If this was a robbery,
why wasn't it taken?
The clues are even more
confusing outside the house,
beginning with the bloody sock
that is discovered in the alley.
- We determined that
sock actually came from
inside the Routier home.
We were able to match some
of the fibers on that sock
to tennis shoes
belonging to Darin.
- [Narrator] The blood
on Darin Routier's sock
is eventually matched to that
of the two murdered boys,
but how did it get there?
(tense music)
- Did you notice any
bloody footprints?
- Nothing, it was
completely unmarked.
- And this gate was closed?
- Uh-huh, that's right,
but the hinges are out.
It's held together
by a wire here.
- [Narrator] Cron finds no
sign of a frantic getaway.
If the intruder left
through the garage
and the bloody sock
is in the alley,
Cron should be able
to find evidence
that the intruder came
through here, but he can't.
- I began about 30 minutes,
and the Rowlett police did too,
that we felt like
there was no intruder.
- So we had to focus on
who was in the house, okay.
Well it's obvious
that the infant
didn't kill his brothers
and stab his mother,
so then you have to
look at the husband.
(tense music)
- Darin, I know it's
been a horrible night.
- Yeah.
You know, I really love Darlie.
She is so beautiful,
don't you think?
- Darin comes up to me,
and this is the
first thing he says.
He talks about how
big his wife's breasts are.
He talks about how
pretty his wife is.
He talks about this
is the biggest thing
that's ever happened
in the city of Rowlett.
He doesn't ask me
about his children.
So I just found his actions
to be a little strange.
- So beautiful, you know?
- [Narrator] It leads Patterson
to another horrifying theory.
(tense music)
Perhaps Darin Routier himself
had murdered his own children.
(tense music)
Within days of the murder
of their two children,
both Darin and Darlie Routier
are brought to the
Rowlett police station.
(tense music)
It takes them more than an hour
to fill out voluntary statements
about what happened the
night of the murders.
Darin repeats the
version of events
he told police at the scene,
that he was asleep when he
heard Darlie screaming for help.
He rushed downstairs, but was
too late to save his children.
(Darlie yells on phone)
- [Operator] What?
- [Darlie] They just stabbed
me and my kids, my little boys.
- [Narrator] Darlie's story,
though, starts to change.
- Mommy, Mommy, Mommy.
- [Darlie] The next
thing, I wake up
and I feel pressure on me.
I felt Damon press
on my right shoulder
and I heard him cry.
This made me really
come awake and realize--
- There was a man
standing down at my feet
walking away from me.
Walked after him.
(glass shatters)
Heard glass breaking.
Ran, turned on the light.
I ran back towards
the utility room,
realized that there was a
big, white-handled knife
laying on the floor.
It was then I realized
I had blood all over me,
and I grabbed the knife.
- I went back
through the kitchen
and realized that the
entire living room
had blood all over
it, everything.
I put the knife
back on the counter
and I ran to the entrance,
turned on the light,
and I started
screaming for Darin.
Darin!
- [Narrator] It's the most
detailed description yet
of what happened, and
it's not the same story
she told Patterson
at the hospital.
- We understand that
people are gonna change
some of their stories.
You know, it might
have been a black car
instead of a blue car,
that kind of stuff,
but you don't change the
whole dynamics of it,
and that's what she did.
- [Narrator] In
Darlie's new version,
there is no struggle
with the intruder.
Darlie's youngest boy was awake
and standing by her shoulder.
- Mommy.
- [Narrator] They're
important differences,
which make investigators
take a very close
look at the crime scene.
(tense music)
Evidence from the Routier
house is starting to pour in.
(camera clicks)
- See that, that's
underneath there.
- We held the scene for 13 days.
We actively processed
it for 11 days.
So we were very thorough.
If there was a book, we've
flipped through every page.
If there was a picture,
it came off the wall.
- They analyzed everything
they could possibly analyze.
They fingerprinted
the entire house.
They took the carpet, they
took the kitchen sink.
We performed over 100 DNA
analysis in this case.
(Darlie struggling)
- [Narrator] If
there was a struggle
between Darlie and her intruder
as she first told officers,
there should be long,
thin lines of blood
along the ground and the walls.
These splatters would
have been thrown off
as a bleeding Darlie
fought with the intruder.
But investigators can't find
any such blood splatters.
If Darlie had chased her
attacker through the house
when she was wounded,
she would have left
long, thin streaks
of blood behind.
Blood falling from
a moving object
such as someone running
leaves an elongated mark,
not a round blood stain.
Investigators can't find
any of these marks either.
In the utility room
where Darlie says
the killer threw the knife
down, there is blood,
but that too doesn't
look like it should.
- What we did after the
knife had been processed
for latent prints
and DNA evidence
was we got the original knife,
brought it back to the house
and got two units of blood.
We put blood on the knife.
We used the same floor
and we dropped the knife
from different heights to see
what type of blood patterns
that that would leave on it.
(tense music)
- We found, we saw a very
distinct V-shaped pattern
each and every time that
we dropped the knife
in the utility room and
there was no pattern
like that when we
first got there.
And again, that was
very disheartening,
it was discouraging
because again,
it pointed toward Mr. Routier.
- [Narrator] Investigators
also recreate
her movements
throughout the house.
- She indicated to us that she
ran through the crime scene,
so we laid out
some butcher paper
and inked up her feet
and had her walk.
We also re-inked
her and had her run
20 feet on the butcher paper
to see what her stride
was and measured that,
and we were able to
look at those footprints
in the kitchen and
that was telling us
that she walked
through the kitchen,
she wasn't running
through the kitchen.
- [Narrator] Investigators
are also interested
that Darlie's feet had
no scratches or cuts.
If the intruder had knocked
the wine glass on the floor,
why hadn't Darlie stepped
on any of the broken glass?
An innocent explanation
is also found
for the only other
footprint in the house.
- The only bloody shoe
print in the kitchen
leading to the utility room
belonged to one of
the first responders.
- What we do is
we make sure that
we have prints of
everyone's shoes
to match up to the prints
or the physical evidence
on the floor or any
place else that we can.
- [Narrator] Most damning
of all is the evidence
of blood found on the
countertop and the sink.
Even when blood is cleaned up,
an invisible residue
often remains behind,
but when treated with a
chemical called Luminol,
the blood trail begin to
glow under ultraviolet light.
- So we blacked out the
house, covered the windows,
and sprayed the sink area and
took a photograph of that.
That reacted positive for blood.
It indicated to us
that there had been
a clean-up there by the sink.
- [Narrator] Patterson is
growing more and more convinced
that after stabbing
her own children,
Darlie Routier stabbed herself
to make it look like
she was attacked.
(Darlie yells)
Patterson gets a second
opinion of Darlie's injuries
from one of the doctors
who worked at the hospital.
- What do you think?
- Yes, she could
have done it herself.
- So you're saying that
Darlie stabbed herself?
- I'm saying that these wounds
could have been
self-inflicted, yes.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] One last
tiny piece of evidence
helps the Rowlett police
make up their mind.
What becomes known
as knife number four
is found in the Routier kitchen.
It has a tiny fiber
clinging to it,
a fiber which matches the screen
that was cut in the garage.
The only way it could get there
was if someone inside
the house took it,
cut the screen, then put
it back in the block.
Based on the evidence,
the police can come to
only one conclusion.
(somber music)
Darlie Routier murdered
her own children.
It's a chilling thought,
but the big question now is why.
Sunday June 9th, 1996.
Three days after their murder,
a funeral is held for
Devon and Damon Routier.
More than 400 people turn out.
But the suspicions of
the police are growing.
They can't find any
traces of an intruder
in or around the house.
- I instinctively wanted
someone else to be there,
I wanted an intruder to
have broken into that house
because the last thing
that I wanted to believe
was that a mother would
actually kill her two children.
- [Narrator] But the
evidence was piling up.
The question now was why.
What could have
driven Darlie Routier
to commit such a shocking crime?
As police learn more,
they discover that
the Routiers were
having problems.
- The Routiers wanted
to paint themselves
as the typical
all-American family,
and yet beneath the surface,
you saw difficulties.
So you had a very thin
veneer of normalcy out there,
but beneath the surface
you had real problems.
- [Narrator] The
evening of the murders,
the talk wasn't just
sweet goodnights.
- Sure you're gonna be
comfortable down here?
- Yeah, I'll be fine.
Darin, we have to talk.
- About what?
- Just about everything.
When are you gonna
get your car fixed
so that I can have mine?
I mean, we can't go anywhere,
I just feel like I'm
trapped in this house.
- Keep your voice down.
Don't want to wake the boys.
It's gonna cost us 800
bucks to get that car fixed.
- $800?
- And I'm gonna sell the boat
actually it's not working
out the way I thought.
- Just get my car.
Did you remember
to lock the door?
- Already checked
it, good night.
- [Narrator] The couple
was financially strapped
and they owed more than $10,000
in back taxes to the IRS.
During her pregnancy
with her third child,
Darlie had been depressed,
staying in her room for
days, even weeks at a time.
A diary found in their
house confirms that Darlie
had struggled with depression
after the baby was born.
A month before the murders,
Darlie had written.
- [Darlie] Devon, Damon, Drake,
I hope one day you will forgive
me for what I'm about to do.
I just can't find the strength
to keep fighting anymore.
- [Narrator] Is this
a damaging portrait
of a suicidal woman
under severe stress,
or a mother about
to commit murder?
And then comes one of the
strangest moments of all.
June 14th, eight days
after the murders,
Devon Routier would
have turned seven.
The family decides to hold a
long-planned birthday party
for the young boy at his grave.
For two hours, it's
a somber service,
but the most telling
moment comes near the end.
Prompted by her sister,
Darlie sprays a
can of silly string
over the grave of her two boys.
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday dear Devon ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- I think we saw the
real Darlie Routier
at that graveside party.
You know, and I kept
thinking as I saw that,
I'm a parent, if my child
had died a week earlier,
would I be any condition
to even talk about it,
and yet here's a mother
sitting out there
singing, spraying silly
string, giving interviews
without any sort of emotion.
It was bizarre,
it was despicable,
it really made my stomach turn
as I watched her there
at that grave site.
- [Narrator] Darlie's
mother has a very different
view of the incident.
- That just is a pure
example of how you are
when you're in grief
because you're crazy
when you're in that
kind of trauma.
You don't believe
they're dead one minute,
and the next minute, you know,
you might be laughing and
the next you might be,
you know, just
crying your eyes out.
But it's just something simple,
but it made Darlie look bad
by the way they slowed down
her chewing the gum and smiling
and spraying silly string
as if she didn't care, where
the whole purpose of that
was, it was to do
it in their honor
and it was something that
they would have loved.
- [Narrator] After the
graveside ceremony,
Patterson decides to
question Darlie again.
He brings her to the Rowlett
police station one last time.
- How are you Darlie?
- [Darlie] Good, nice
to meet you, sir.
- Have a seat.
- [Narrator] Bill
Parker has been doing
interrogations for 20 years.
Patterson hopes
he'll finally be able
to get Darlie to confess.
- I have a copy of your
voluntary statement here.
Is there anything
you'd like to add?
- No, that is exactly
what happened.
- Darlie, I have a couple of
questions about this statement.
When you were saying--
- [Narrator] For three
hours, Parker grills Darlie
about the facts of the case.
Six times he accuses
her directly of
killing her children.
- I think you killed
Damon and Devon.
- [Narrator] Five
times she responds.
- Well if I did it,
I don't remember.
- [Narrator] But
there's no confession.
- In all my years, I have never
heard anything that unusual.
Here's a woman, a
stranger accusing you
of killing your children
and your response is
"if I did it, I don't remember?"
- [Narrator] Even
without a confession,
Patterson is convinced
his case is solid.
He arrests Darlie Routier for
the murder of her two sons.
- You're under arrest for
the murder of your two boys.
- I think when we
look at her mug shot,
we see that pained expression.
I don't think it's any pain
for those two children.
I think it's the pain
of, you know what,
they're actually gonna
charge me with this offense
and I'm not gonna
get away with it.
- At approximately
10:20 PM this evening,
investigators from the
Rowlett Police Department
arrested Darlie Routier,
white female age 26.
I cannot comment on the
details of this investigation
other than to say we believe
that the white male suspect
described by Darlie Routier
as the man that attacked her
and murdered her
children never existed.
- [Narrator] Darlie's
family is bewildered.
- I saw her arrested on
TV, the 10 o'clock news.
After she went up there for
I don't know how many visits
with the police, her
and Darin went up,
and you know, they
gave them everything.
I mean, anything they asked for.
- [Narrator] The journey
from innocent victim
to accused murderer
takes just 12 days.
Darlie Routier is now
Texas prisoner 010470.
(tense music)
January 6th, 1997, seven
months after the death
of Devon and Damon Routier,
their mother Darlie goes
on trial for their murder.
Greg Davis is the
lead prosecutor for
the state of Texas.
- In Texas, if you kill a child
younger than six years of age,
you've committed
a capital murder.
That's what we
alleged in this case,
that's why Darlie was
charged with capital murder.
- [Narrator] For that reason,
Darlie is only on trial
for the murder of Damon Routier,
who was five when he was killed.
If convicted, the state
wants Darlie put to death.
Her family is
outraged and confused.
- What did you say
for them to think
that you had anything
to do with this?
She goes "I don't know, Mom."
- The Darlie Routier case
was a very challenging case.
It depended on a number
of pieces of evidence,
and it was challenging
from the standpoint
that we're gonna try to
convince a jury that a mother
would actually kill her
two children in cold blood.
- [Narrator] The case turns
on the forensic evidence
gathered at the crime scene.
The lack of an impact blood
stain in the utility room
where the knife was dropped.
The lack of evidence of any
intruder outside the house.
Another damaging forensic
test is entered into evidence.
Blood from one of
the boys is found
on the back of
Darlie's night shirt.
A Texas expert on blood
stains recreates the movements
Darlie would have made if
she had stabbed her children.
Blood from the knife
falls on the shirt
as the knife is
raised for each blow.
The trail of blood he recreates
matches the trail
on Darlie's shirt.
- That evidence
on her night shirt
was very convincing,
it was very conclusive.
There was no other
reasonable explanation
as to how the blood
of Damon and Devon
could possibly be up
on her night shirt.
- [Narrator] Finally the
jury is shown footage
of the graveside
party for Devon.
While the ceremony
was two hours long,
the jury is only shown the
infamous silly string section.
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday dear Devon ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- We love you Devon and Damon.
(somber music)
- [Narrator] Davis tells
the jury that Darlie
staged the entire scene.
While her children sleep,
Darlie takes a knife
from the kitchen and
slices the screen open.
She then takes another
knife from the kitchen
and kills her two sons.
She takes one of
her husband's socks
and makes sure it
has blood on it.
The sock is then
dropped in the alley.
She cuts her own neck,
and in a frenzy, beats
her arms and wrists.
She makes it look like
a killer has fled,
then calls for help.
Darlie's defense focuses on
the wound to Darlie's neck.
Vincent Di Maio, a
seasoned medical examiner,
takes the stand.
- One of the things I asked was
is she right handed
or left handed,
and she's right handed.
If she inflicted this wound,
she would have had to
have used the left hand.
(tense music)
And then she would have
had to have stabbed herself
deeply in the right forearm.
When you consider the
injuries by themselves,
the injuries have
more of the appearance
of somebody who
has been attacked
than someone who has
self-inflicted the wounds.
- [Narrator] As for the blood
on Darlie's night shirt,
the defense has another theory.
- It could be cast-off from
gloves that the EMS had,
or it could be from the knife
that she was attacked with.
Because that knife was
used to kill the children,
their blood would be on it.
(Darlie struggles)
- [Narrator] Like others,
Di Maio believes that Darlie
was awake when she was attacked,
but the violence of the
attack and the shock
of seeing her boys dead
has scarred her memory.
(Darlie cries)
And a very different
picture is painted
of Darlie as a mother.
- Leave some for your brother.
Oh yeah, you want to drink that?
- She loved those boys,
and you know, the
prosecutor, Mr. Davis,
said that Darlie just got tired
and they interfered
with her lifestyle,
so she killed them.
Why would she kill
the two older boys
and not the baby who would
be the most burdensome?
I absolutely know that
Darlie's innocent.
- [Narrator] In just five
weeks, the trial is over.
The fate of Darlie Routier is
in the hands of the jurors.
It takes them less than a
day to decide Darlie's fate.
- I'll never forget the jury,
the jury wanting the picture
of those two children
placed out there as they came
back to return the verdict,
and they wanted those
two pictures there
so that Darlie Routier
would have to see
those two pictures, because
throughout this trial,
Darlie attempted to
make herself the victim,
and always felt it was
important to remind that jury
and to remind the
public that there were
two real victims
here, two young boys,
and I was really
heartened by the fact that
that jury got it.
They understood who
the victims were
and they wanted Darlie
Routier to remember that
and to recognize that too,
and that was really a
defining moment for me.
- When the jury
was deliberating,
I really thought that
she would be found
either innocent or a hung jury.
When they came in and said
that they found her guilty,
I absolutely just went crazy.
That was the worst part.
- [Narrator] Darlie
Routier is found guilty
of murdering her
youngest son Damon.
She is sentenced to die
by lethal injection.
But almost as soon as the
verdict is handed down,
serious questions
begin to surface
about the trial and the
science behind her conviction.
(tense music)
In 1997, the state of Texas
put 37 people to death.
After her conviction in January,
Darlie Routier took her place
on the state's death row.
In Texas, every case that
ends in a death penalty
is automatically appealed.
Stephen Cooper becomes
Darlie's lawyer.
- The police did little to no
investigation of any intruder.
Their sworn testimony was
that within minutes virtually
of arriving on the scene,
that despite all of
Darlie's massive injuries,
they concluded she had,
was the perpetrator.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Cooper hires
a private investigator
to reexamine the evidence.
He pores over everything,
police reports,
eyewitness accounts,
expert testimony.
The PI quickly
uncovers suspicions
pointing towards the man police
suspected at the beginning,
Darin Routier, Darlie's husband.
- We do have evidence
now that Darin Routier
was actively seeking someone
to come into the home
to do a inside job burglary
for insurance purposes.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] In a sworn
affidavit to Cooper,
Darin admits to
looking for someone
to break into his house.
- And so at three o'clock
in the morning or 2:30,
they sneak into this
nice-looking house
thinking they're
gonna, you know,
make a successful burglary.
And they creep in and
there in the living room,
they stumble across human beings
who are not upstairs in
bed where they should be
at 2:30 in the morning.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] A get rich
quick scheme ends in murder.
(tense music)
Members of Darin
Routier's family
as Texas millionaire Brian
Pardo to get involved.
A self-proclaimed advocate
for the wrongly convicted,
Pardo launches an
independent investigation
that costs as much as $120,000.
- I agree that nobody
came into the house.
I agree that there was an
appearance to make it look like
somebody came into the
house through the screen
and used the bread
knife for that purpose.
So the police were
right in taking
a hard look at the family,
we agree with that.
We just didn't feel they took
a very hard look at Darin.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] As part of
Pardo's investigation,
Darin Routier agrees to
take a lie detector test
about the night of the murders.
The results are a bombshell.
- Are you Darin Routier?
- [Darin] Yes.
- Were you involved in
a plot to commit a crime
in your home on
June the 6th, 1996?
- No.
(pen scrapes)
- Did you yourself stab Darlie
Routier on June 6th, 1996?
- No.
(pen scratches)
- Do you know exactly who
left the sock in the alley?
- No.
(pen scratches)
- Can you name the person
who stabbed your sons?
- No.
- [Narrator] It's a short
test, just four questions,
but the examiner says the
results show that Darin
was lying when he answered
each one of the questions.
- Darin failed the
test three times,
and he failed it so utterly
that the examiner who was
connected with the Waco PD
actually went around,
sat in front of him,
and tried to extract
a confession from him.
- You know, I really would
have liked to see you pass,
but I don't believe
for a minute.
- I came here to pass.
- No, you came here because you
lied to people all your life
and gotten away with it.
- I did not lie.
- And in the short run,
you've got to live
with the knowledge
you got away with murder,
but in the long run,
it'll catch up with you.
- I did not murder my kids.
- [Narrator] Darin maintains
his innocence in the crime,
but Pardo is deeply suspicious.
- Darin, our assessment
of him was that
he is a sociopathic,
pathological liar.
- [Narrator] Darin Routier
calls the lie detector test
a set-up, and lie
detector results
are not admissible in court.
But in an affidavit, Darin
admits for the very first time
that on the night
of the murders,
Darlie had asked
for a separation.
(tense music)
- Two times prior to
this, Darin became violent
when she said that she was
considering leaving him.
The first time, he
pointed a loaded pistol
at his head,
according to Darlie,
and got her hysterical and
threatened to hill himself.
- Do what, what don't you
want me to do, don't push you?
- [Brian] The second time,
she said he pointed a gun
at her and threatened
to kill her.
- Are you gonna
leave me, Darlie,
is that what you're gonna do?
Is that what you're gonna do?
- [Narrator] The new evidence
creates yet another theory
about what happened
in the Routiers' home
the night that Devon
and Damon were killed.
- Sure you're gonna be
comfortable down here?
- Yeah, I'll be fine.
Darin, we need to talk.
- About what?
- I want a separation.
(sighs)
- Let's talk about
this in the morning,
I'm too tired for this.
- I'm serious.
- I know.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Brian
Pardo is convinced
that it wasn't an
intruder at all
who killed the two
Routier children,
and it wasn't their
mother either.
- Did you remember
to lock the door?
- [Darin] I already
checked, good night.
- [Narrator] Each
of the children had
just $5,000 in life insurance.
Darlie's life was
insured for $200,000.
For Pardo, that is the
motive for the attack.
- [Brian] It was Darin that
was applying the stress,
it was Darin who had
the financial problems,
and Darin was the one
who needed the money,
and so Darin had a huge
motive for doing this,
not the least of which was
he was not gonna let
his wife leave him.
(door creaks)
- [Narrator] Pardo
believes that with the help
of an accomplice, Darin
attacked Darlie first.
(tense music)
The bruises on Darlie's arms
were caused by the struggle.
- Of course, there was a lot of
screaming going
on, a lot of noise.
The boys woke up, the
boys saw the attack.
I think that instinctively,
the attackers realized
that the boys had to
be killed as well.
Darlie I think was pounded
into submission, unconscious.
I think the attackers
thought that she was dead.
- [Narrator] Pardo is
convinced that a closer study
will prove that Darlie
Routier is innocent
of the murder of her two boys.
June 2005.
Darlie Routier's
lawyer, Stephen Cooper,
still believes forensics
will clear his client.
One of the best chances
she has for the appeal
is a tiny, smudged fingerprint.
Cooper has a possible motive
pointing to someone else
committing the murders of
Devon and Damon Routier.
What he doesn't
have is any proof
that someone else
was in the house.
That's about to change.
When investigators examined
the Routiers' house,
all fingerprints they found
were conclusively identified.
However, one print found
on the glass tabletop
was considered too incomplete
to match to anyone.
- There was a smudged
print that was located
on this glass tabletop.
There was not anything
that we could find
that made us believe that
that one smudged print
belonged to someone different.
You know, it could
still belong to Darlie,
it could still belong to Darin.
I believe that it
was small enough,
it could have even belonged
to one of the children.
But that's something the
defense is looking at
because we don't have
an answer for it.
- [Narrator] While it couldn't
be used for identification,
during Darlie's trial,
experts for the state
testified that it was
consistent with that made
by a five-or-six-year-old child.
Even though Patterson
thinks the print
isn't clear enough to be useful,
Stephen Cooper finds an
expert who disagrees.
- Robert Lonis is retired New
York City Police Department
identification expert,
he's identified
seven or eight points
for comparison purposes,
which is enough in his opinion
to be run through
the AFIS federal,
national fingerprint database,
and the state won't
allow us access.
- [Narrator] Cooper wants
to rule out the possibility
that one of the
two murdered boys
could have left the print.
There is only one problem.
- Unbelievably, again
against standard protocol,
neither one of the
boys was fingerprinted
at the medical
examiner's office.
That again is just unheard of.
- [Narrator] To rule
out that the fingerprint
was made by either boy,
Cooper takes an extreme step.
The bodies of both Devon
and Damon are exhumed.
It's a dramatic move that
is ultimately a dead end.
- Unfortunately, they were
buried in the same casket
with their hands
clasped together,
and again, although they
were not supposed to,
the caskets had leaked
and the moisture had and the
contact between the fingers
had destroyed some of the skin,
and we weren't able to
recover all the fingerprints.
- [Narrator] While the
fingerprints are gone,
Cooper wants to
reexamine the small fiber
that was found on the
knife in the kitchen.
He has serious doubts
that it was actually used
to cut the screen in the garage.
- This is a segment
of fiber that is
one tenth the width of
a Caucasian human hair.
It is microscopic,
to say the least.
(fabric tearing)
They did not do any
scientific testing
analysis of its chemical
makeup, which was possible.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] There are
other pieces of evidence
Cooper would love to retest,
including the actual fingerprint
on the glass table which
may contain skin cells,
but he has yet to get the
courts to give him access.
A new witness has come forward.
She claims to have seen two
men near the Routier house
about two AM the
night of the murders,
one who matched the description
Darlie gave to the police.
(car engine starts)
Cooper also believes
the crime scene
was badly contaminated
by the police.
- The vacuum cleaner was
not knocked over by Darlie
as part of staging
a crime scene,
it was moved by the
police, and in a new trial,
I have an expert who
will testify about that.
- You get an
overzealous prosecutor,
you get a bunch of
rookie police officers
that had no idea how to
even take fingerprints,
you get people that are in
shock running in and out,
through glass and
blood and you know,
touching things
and moving things.
- [Narrator] But to date,
all of Darlie's appeals
have been turned down.
(bars clank)
The court has not
granted her request
to retest the forensic evidence
and no new trial
has been announced.
- To say that it was a
conspiracy or that anything
was mishandled and she was
wrongfully accused is not true.
She wasn't be where she is today
if she hadn't have
killed those children.
- If we were to
do it again today,
I'd ask for the same punishment
because those two boys
deserved that type of justice.
She's a dangerous,
manipulative individual
who's shown absolutely no
remorse for her actions,
and she deserves the death
penalty in this particular case.
- [Narrator] Forensics may
yet clear Darlie Routier.
Smeared fingerprints
may confirm that
someone else was in the house
the night her sons
were murdered.
For now, a story that began
with a terrified 911 call
has ended on death row.
(static hisses)
(tense music)
(dramatic music)
