View Full Version : Mother murders children, then partys at sons grave - Darlie Routier


darkangel
05-20-2003, 09:24 PM
I'm trying to find out the name of a mother that murder her children and then on her sons birthday was having a party at his graveside which was video taped.Does anyone know the case I'm referring to?

Darkangel

sizzlestar
05-20-2003, 09:48 PM
I've never heard of this. Which sitcom was it in? Or is it something that actually happened in real life?

Cashodeen
05-21-2003, 04:14 AM
I think you posted this in the wrong place, darkangel. You're new, so I understand. Next time, if you have a question not related to a sitcom," post it under "Chit chat." This thread will probably be moved there anyway.

I think I know the case you're talking about. I looked it up, and her name is Darlie Routier.

darkangel
05-21-2003, 09:31 PM
Half an hour after I posted this the case came on the channel I was watching .That was so strange.

Sorry about posting on the wrong message board.

Darkangel

Janice
05-21-2003, 10:11 PM
Originally posted by darkangel
Sorry about posting on the wrong message board.

You didn't really post it on the wrong board. You posted it on the General Board. Either Pavanbadal or TJ moved it to this board because they feel it belongs here. You had no way of knowing it belonged on the Unsolved Mysteries board.
I do recall the case you're referring to. Sad case.

Cashodeen
05-24-2003, 03:33 AM
Well, it was in the "gereral sitcom board" so that's the wrong board, but like Janice said, there was no way of knowing it belonged here. I wouldn't even think it should be here. Isn't this board for the "unsolved mysteries" tv show? Well, maybe this case was on that show once. Anyhow, that is so strange that the story was talked about on tv a half hour after you posted here, darkangel! Amazing coincidence. I wish they would rerun 48 Hours Investigates somewhere (maybe they do and I don't have the channel). I like the way the do murder cases. That's where I learned a lot about this particular case.

Jack1000
05-24-2003, 11:53 PM
Originally posted by darkangel
I'm trying to find out the name of a mother that murder her children and then on her sons birthday was having a party at his graveside which was video taped.Does anyone know the case I'm referring to?

Darkangel

I can help with this!!! It's a real-life murder case of Texas death row inmate Darlie Rotier, who was convicted of the murders of her two sons in 1996. She claimed from the start that the murders were committed by an interder who entered her home, ransacked her living room and attacked her and her sons while her husband Darrin had gone to bed upstaris. She had a large knife gash on her throat and in her call to 911 histerically screamed that "Someone murdered my babies!!!!, they stabbed me too!"

There were inconsistancies in her story however, investigators at the crime scene did not find any disturbances in the areas of the house where Mrs. Routier said she had been attacked other than an over-turned vacum clearner and some broken glass. She insisted that the intruder never entered her kitchen, yet the kitchen sink and a key weapon, a knife was covered in blood. Furthermore, she was unable to give the DA's office or the crime scene investigators consistent information about what happened. In short, she kept changing her story about the discription of the intruder, and even where he had entered the house. Additionally, her call to 9-1-1 was suspect, because she seemed overly concerned about the knife and said something really bizzare...."Oh did they get the knife?, I hope they didn't get any fingerprints on it"

The defense believed that Mrs. Routier was not capable of such a crime and pointed that others committed the murders. A mysterious black car had been spotted in the neighborhood close to the house at the time of the murders. A bloody sock was found about 100 yards from the house. The prosecution argued that Dedre had planted the evidence to try to cover up that she had committed the murders. Evidence was also presented at the trial that Mrs. Roteir was not happy in her marriage and would write things in her diary about how "she couldn't take this anymore" Her husband Darren had been quite wealthy and the Routeirs had an extensive life insurance policy. Mrs. Roteir was also obsessed with extravegent clothes, jewlery, cars...(ect) friends called her "Shop till you drop Darlee"

The jury had a lot of reasonable doubt at first, but at the trial a tape of Darlee Routier having a birthday party at her murdered son's grave site....laughing, chewing gum, and spraying silly-string on her little boys graves shocked them. It was Darlee's behavior on the video tape that convinced the jury behond a reasonable doubt that Darlee Routier had murdered her two sons. (A third son had been attacked, but lived and was placed in foster care.) This is the case that you are thinking of.

Jack

fleafly
06-29-2003, 06:17 PM
What the media failed to show on the video tape of Darlee at her sons' graves was the approximately hour and a half she spent crying before the silly string came out. The family had gathered at the graves because it was the birthday of one of the boys. They spent a considerable amount of time, approximately an hour and a half, crying and having a mournful rememberance of the boys. One of the family members then suggested they should try to remember the boys in a more lighthearted manner, and produced silly string. I think it was Darlee's sister who brought the silly string. They were trying to be more lighthearted for the children who were friends and relatives of the boys. This incident was taken entirely out of context.

She was convicted because of this tape which had no place in the courtroom in the first place. They way that people react to tragedy and grieve is so subjective that you can not draw inferences from it. Some people are condemmed for not being sad enough, while others are condemmed for being to sad so they must be putting on an act. The facts relevant to the case should have been what convicted or vindicated her, not that tape.

Never mind the fact that there was a fingerprint near the bodies that was never identified, a bloody sock found in the alley leading away from the home, and Darlee was cut herself and had severe bruising and wounds on her body. Much of this information was not given to the jury. She was gulity of poor judgement in behavior, perhaps, but the fact remains that there is a lot of unexplained possibly exculpatory evidence.

Allierain
06-30-2003, 10:30 PM
I think this is a story for the FBI files, if they haven't covered it already....

Blackout
07-09-2003, 01:44 PM
after she was placed on death row, i remember seeing a case of this on one of those Dateline shows and it presented good evidence that she indeed was innocent

it said that the tape of her was taken out of context, i forget the explanation however

this is a wierd case

one of the bloody socks of the kids was found a few houses down the street from them, it was believed that the mom placed it there to make it appear somebody made an escape from the house

canadianmysterygrl
11-22-2003, 05:30 AM
I do think Darlie was involved.
Has anyone noticed how Darlie Routiers husband Darren acts when interviewed? Plus he seems very unmoved about his boys deaths and soooo quick to defend Darlie. The surviving child lives with Darrens MOTHER not with him.....wouldn't you want your own living childwith you after losing 2 boys to murder and a wife to jail?????

:soapbox:I would think IF....IF he knew nothing about the murders, there might still be some anger in him towards her but there is not. SOME EMOTION???? I don't see LOVE either in his words but rather FEAR.....perhaps Darlie will someday tell who wielded the knife as I do not think she was in it alone and I think the guilty party is very close to home.....in fact I think the person behind the whole thing feels he must remain loyal and get her out or she might talk and then he will end up in prison too.
Fill in the blanks.

"I___:censored:__________ take you to be my AWFUL selfish greedy wife, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish............ until the bills get so out of control and the children are so expensive to raise that the only way I can keep things together is reduce the size of the family and to collect on a few life insurance policies....."

mikeholly
03-21-2006, 11:39 PM
I think Darlie routier was an evil cold blooded woman who murdered her little angels for their life insurance money. Her giggling and spraying their graves with her Silly String convinced me she was 100% guilty. I am glad that evil woman is on death row!

synthisislab
03-22-2006, 01:14 AM
I thought that this case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries. I believe that she didn't do it. I think the facts of the case showed that she was awoken by the intruder (she fell asleep on her couch) and had defensive bruises and a huge gash across her throat. Also, she remembered more details later on because she was half awake and in shock after she knew someone was in her house trying to kill her. The tape at her son's grave was played on Inside Edition and A Current Affair but did not show her and her family being somber and crying before they celebrated her son's birthday. I think that she was railroaded and that tape should have been shown in it's entirety at the 'trial'.

LooksLikeCRicci
03-22-2006, 12:03 PM
Yeah, I've always believed that Darlie Routier was involved, but not directly responsible for the deaths of her children. I think she's covering for someone.

As for the "silly-string" video clips, I totally agree with synthisislab. ANYTHING can be taken the wrong way, when presented to us out of context.

Mr. Fuji
03-22-2006, 03:22 PM
I think Darlie routier was an evil cold blooded woman who murdered her little angels for their life insurance money. Her giggling and spraying their graves with her Silly String convinced me she was 100% guilty. I am glad that evil woman is on death row!
I usually don't nitpick a lot of people's statements, but good heavens this statement is ridiculous. Just because she sprayed silly string at her children's graves you are 100% convinced she is guilty? I pray you never get called to do jury duty because the defendant in that case won't stand a chance.

Some people mourn the death of their loved ones differently than others. If a person is dead, that person is gone and not coming back. What's the point of crying your life away when it won't change the fact that the person is dead? I once went to a funeral where, after the service, there was a group of girls who sat in the back of the chapel and told funny stories about the person who had died. I decided to sit down and listen in and offer some stories of my own. You should have seen the looks on some people's faces. They thought we were the evilest people in the world for not crying our eyes out and instead choosing to remember some of the positive things about this person.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to say that you're 100% positive she murdered her sons because of the video clip is ignorant and just plain foolish.

synthisislab
03-22-2006, 05:47 PM
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=167713

I like the link provided on Bleeding Heart's original post on that thread about Darlie Routier. It shows that the judge and DA won't even enter into evidence crucial pieces of evidence that would show that the lady was innocent and that someone else came in and attacked the family. Just because the lady and her family spray silly string at her son's gravesite, it is automatically assumed that she killed them. Wouldn't it be absolutely stupid for her to do that if she did kill them? Usually a murderer tries to cover their tracks and doesn't want to be noticed. You can take anything out of context and use it for whatever purpose that you are trying to serve. But, when you look at the whole big picture, you can start to see the truth.