The Femme Fatal
True Crime - Femme Fatale Style
The Femme Fatal tells the stories of women who commit crimes, blending true crime, pop culture, and astrology to explore power, obsession, and the darker side of femininity.
The Femme Fatal
Wounded Mother: Darlie Routier
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In the quiet suburbs of Texas, a brutal midnight attack left two little boys dead and their mother fighting for her life. But as the media frenzy exploded around Darlie Routier, grief itself went on trial. Was she a cold-blooded killer hiding behind tears, or a shattered mother condemned by public opinion before the evidence could fully speak? In this episode of The Femme Fatal, we unravel one of America’s most divisive true crime cases, where bloodstains, a birthday video, and reasonable doubt still haunt the story decades later.
Movies, parenting and life's absurdities. Jason and his AI cohost Heather take sides.
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Welcome to the Femme Fatal, a true crime podcast with an astrology twist. I'm your host, Stacey Dotson. Each week I'll be joined by a guest host because this femme fatale prefers not to work alone. Hi, welcome back to the Femme Fatal. Today I'm joined by Amy, who's my sister's neighbor. How are you, Amy? Hey, good. How are you? Good. We're gonna focus this episode on Darley Root here. What made you want to talk about her, Amy?
SPEAKER_01Um, so I first heard about this case in around 2018. I watched a documentary on it and quickly came to realize there's a lot of controversy with different ideas and theories as to what happened, why this happened, and also with times changing opinions as to maybe what was really going on that caused this to happen.
SPEAKER_00I'm really interested to hear this. You're from the area, kind of, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's not far at all, actually. Okay. Well, go ahead and dive on in. Okay, so Darley Lynn Peck Routier was born on January 4th, 1970, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Larry and Darlie Peck. You're gonna notice a lot of D names in this, so prepare. It's not really known the number of siblings she had other than Danelle, who has publicly spoken out. Darlie moved to Lubbock, Texas at the age of 15 with her mother and stepfather, Robert Key. Darley was described as well developed for her age and the complete package: blonde hair, curves, and charm. Yes. She met Darren at a Western sizzling restaurant where her mother worked. Darren was only 17 at the time, but he was the regional manager. They went on a date that first night that they met and became inseparable. They ended up marrying in 1988, three years after meeting. Darren started a business called Test Neck that tested electronic equipment. It became very successful and they bought a new $130,000 home.
SPEAKER_00And then they got married. She was only 18 when they got married, right? Yes. So this was very young. Yeah, very young and very young to be making that much money.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Absolutely. This home was on 5801 Eagle Drive in Rowette. It is currently for sale for $408,000, if anyone's interested. So this was a two-story, three-bedroom, three-bathroom with a bonus game room, which in Texas, that's a big thing that's common. And the master bedroom had a balcony and fireplace. So this is a nice house. Yeah, I know. They had three sons: Devin Rush, Routier, born on June 14th, 1989. Damon Christian Routier on February 19th, 1991, and Drake Anthony Routier on October 18th, 1995. So Darren, Darley, Devin, Damon, and Drake. Oof. Business was booming. And in 1995, the company brought in half a million, which Darren paid himself $125,000 out of that. And then he also purchased a 30-foot boat to use on nearby Lake Ray Hubbard. Darley got breast implants, 36 Triple D, because everything is bigger in Texas.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01Darling was described by her neighbors as a fun, loving stay-at-home mom. She had that classic Texas look: the bleach blonde hair, long painted nails. The couple seemed to be happy. No one noticed them fighting. Nothing. Even when things went south, which they did. So what kind of changed here? In the summer of 1996, Darren's business took a hit and the bills started mounting and their mortgage fell behind. They owed the IRS $10,000 and had racked up $12,000 on credit cards. Wow. Although somewhere in here, they ended up paying a mortgage payment for a friend who had cancer. But even with all of this going on, the spending did not slow down. Darley had an upcoming trip to Cancun planned with her friends. So now we're all into May 3rd, 1996. Darley wrote an entry into her journal saying, I hope that one day you will forgive me for what I'm about to do. My life has been such a hard fight for a long time, and I just can't find the strength to keep fighting anymore. I love you three more than anything in this world. I don't want you to see a miserable person every time you look at me. Your dad loves you all very much, and I know in my heart he will take care of my babies. Please do not hate me or think in any way that this was your fault. It's just that I dot dot dot. That was the entry.
SPEAKER_00Wow. So she was gonna commit suicide.
SPEAKER_01That's definitely what it sounds like from that journal entry for sure. It does. And now we're going to jump to the murder, which was just a little over a month later. It was actually on June 6th, 1996. So 6'696, kind of creepy. So at 2:31 a.m., a frantic Darlie called into 911 saying an intruder had broken into her home and stabbed her and the children. She said that her sons were dead. This call would go on for close to six minutes, actually, where she over-explains the situation, even saying that, hey, I picked up this knife, so my fingerprints will be on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's pretty weird.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So she's just on and on and on. The police showed up within about three minutes. Paramedics can get in right away because the police were clearing the scene. They observed Darley to, you know, she was kind of standing around. She wasn't even doing anything with the voice. Strange. The police did observe a cut window screen, suggesting initially an intruder. So I wanted to go into the injuries before like the case. So we kind of know what we got.
SPEAKER_00Where was the husband?
SPEAKER_01Husband was there. So basically, Darley, she had fallen asleep on the couch that evening because the boys wanted to stay up and watch movies in the living room. Baby Drake, who was about seven months at the time, slept upstairs in his crib in the master bedroom with Darren. And Darley said that when the baby moved, it would wake her up. So she went to sleep downstairs. She awoke to the sound of Damon pushing on her shoulder, yelling, Mommy, mommy. She saw a man standing by her feet, and then he took off running and she went after him. She heard flask breaking as they went through the kitchen. And once she got halfway through, she turned on the light and saw the man running towards the garage. She spotted a large knife lying on the floor, and then she yelled for Darren as she ran back through the kitchen, noticing blood all over. What's weird as well is that apparently they had a dog and the dog did not hear anything. Neither did Darren bark nothing. So it's like, how do you not hear that kind of commotion? Even Darren, like, I don't care how heavy a sleeper you are, like, there's gotta be screaming and yelling. Like, that just doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00Plus, as we all learn from Sherlock Holmes, you know, it's like if the dog doesn't bark, it's an inside crime.
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly. For sure. Darren came running down and he saw Devin first and noticed two large gashes in his chest. He could see exposed muscle and blood coming out. Darren said he actually slapped Damon to try and arouse him, get him going, and nothing. So he started CPR for the injuries. So the autopsy reports revealed Devin was stabbed twice in the chest, once in the left forearm, and once in the left thigh. The chest wound had broken his chest cavity and exited through his back. I he even heard on some documentaries that the knife actually went into the ground, like into the carpet. Like in my guy. It was that serious. That's yeah. Damon had been stabbed four times in the back and incise wound in the left shoulder and one cut in the left upper back. Darley also sustained injuries, two wounds to the right shoulder, and her throat was slashed. She went in an ambulance to Baylor University Medical Center. Damon was also en route there, but passed away during the ride. At the hospital, her wounds were assessed, and the slash to her throat stopped just two millimeters from the carotid artery. Had that been hit, she would have blood to death in a minute. Her blood was tested while she was there and it came back positive for um that fenfen stuff that was back in the 90s. So basically amphenamines.
SPEAKER_00Oh, was it like diet medication or something? Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that was a big thing then. This is believed to be due to the diet pills because she was really upset that she had not lost the baby weight. Enough weight. Yeah, the baby weight from Drake. The surgeon said that the neck wound was superficial and also noted there were injuries to her arm that did not appear until several days later. So actually, she was released from the hospital. Nothing, no injuries, bruising or anything like that. And then several days later, she goes back and she has this huge bruise underneath all of her whole arm. It's all like purple and black. And the surgeon was like, these are approximately 24 to 48 hours old. They could not have happened the night of the murder. Definitely strange. Very strange. So then let's see, consultant Jim Cronz, this is an investigation, examined the crime scene and within 30 minutes came to the conclusion that there was no intruder. He questioned what the motive would have been. Like, why would the intruder have killed the children first and not Darley, a capable adult? Nothing was missing from the home. There were multiple diamond rings that Darley had left on the kitchen counter prior to going and laying on the couch. And those were still there. Yeah, still there, just chilling out. The murder weapon was an eight-inch white-handled butcher knife that had been taken from the wood block in the kitchen. Darlie stated she followed the intruder to the garage, but no blood was found in the garage or on the garage window or the fence in the backyard. The window screen that had been cut still had dust on it. The mulch that were around the flower beds nearby, not disturbed. No blood was found on a couch where Darley said she was attacked. Blood was found in the kitchen sink, and luminol revealed the attempt to wipe away blood from the countertops and the basin. Wow. Yeah. Doesn't look good. Also found was a sock near a trash can, 75 yards from the house. Darren stated this was his and that the family kept a rag pile in the utility room of old socks. DNA revealed that the sock had two blood spots from Damon and Devon. In the kitchen, a vacuum cleaner was overturned and on top, bloody footprints, and there was blood on the handle. DNA on the vacuum came back to Darley. Next was the glass breaking that she talked about. The only glass that was broke was a wine glass on the kitchen floor near and on top of bloody footprints. So this would suggest the footprints were there before the glass broke. Impressions of Darley's feet were taken and examined and were consistent with the prints that they found. Trace evidence also found a fiber consistent with the same material as the window screen on one of the knives in the block. Whoever cut the screen put the knife back into the kitchen block. Darley's white night shirt analysis showed cast-off blood droplets, meaning blood was cast off an object in motion, kind of like a knife and a stab in motion. There were cast-off stains of Devin's blood on the front and right shoulder of Darlie's shirt. Damon's blood was also found on the back, suggesting the knife was swung from the top of her head and back down over and over. So things are really not looking good for her right now. But what kind of really did her in was a video of her just eight days after the murders, throwing a celebration for what would have been Devin's seventh birthday. In the video, Darley is shown smiling, laughing, singing, and spraying silly string on the graves. And he thought this was pretty unusual behavior for a mother who had just lost her sons the week before.
SPEAKER_00It does look very, I would have that same judgment.
SPEAKER_01So the prosecutor at the time was Greg Davis. And once he saw this, he argued, you know, this was proof Darley had no grief for their deaths. Now, family argued that the reporters did not see Darlie crying during a prayer service that was held just prior to the birthday party. Four days later, on June 18th, 1996, Darley was arrested and charged with murder.
SPEAKER_00When you're reading all of that stuff, I only know a little bit briefly, but it's like that is pretty damning evidence, you know?
SPEAKER_01I would agree. I would agree. And I think when I first heard about the case, I actually initially kind of thought she was innocent because I was going based off of like the cut on her neck initially. Like I didn't fully pay attention to everything. I thought, oh, who would cut themselves in the neck?
SPEAKER_00Like that's insane. But see, it makes more sense now that you told me she might have been suicidal. So she didn't care. She might have tried to kill herself. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I just was like, oh, okay, who would do that? Well. Yeah, you're right. The prosecution depicted Darley as a materialistic, self-centered, and cold enough to murder her own children. She had court-appointed attorney Doug Parks, and he requested change of venue due to how she was being portrayed in the media. The judge granted the move to Kerrville, Texas, 303 miles from Rowlett, which is one of the most conservative counties in Texas. So very conservative, yes. Yeah, this ended up being in favor of the prosecution, not the defense. In October 96, her attorney was replaced with a well-known defense attorney, Douglas Mulder. He filed to get the case back to Dallas, but was denied. The trial began on January 6, 1997, and included seven women and five men. Immediately, she was judged for the rest of plans, the Bleach Chair. Prosecution decided to indict Darley for Damon's murder, since at age five, the killing was considered a capital murder. In the event of an acquittal or successful appeal, then they could try her for Devin's death without having to worry about double jeopardy. The prosecution's theory for the why of the murder was purely financial. Both boys had a $10,000 insurance policy. So the police believe that she just literally staged the whole crime. The defense argued that wouldn't have even been enough to cover the funeral expenses. And if that was the case, why not kill Darren, who had an $800,000 life insurance policy?
SPEAKER_00Oh, right. Her husband?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Also, if it was about maintaining a luxurious lifestyle, why did she let baby Drake live? True. Defense said there was no motive, no confession, no witnesses to the event. Although Darley was advised against taking a stand, she chose to, and of course, you know what happens with that. She got pummeled under cross-examination.
SPEAKER_00Of course.
SPEAKER_01The trial lasted five weeks and had around 52 people testifying, ranging from police officers to forensic experts, even a local business that was familiar with Darley.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Yeah, I know. I was like, oh, okay. That's a long trial. 52 witnesses.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that was a lot of people to go through. Uh so the jury watched this silly string video seven times and they deliberated for nine hours before reaching a verdict. On February 1st, 1997, Darley Routier was found guilty of the murder of Damon. On February 4th, 1997, she was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Currently, she is one of seven women on death row in Texas. Okay. She's been held in the Mountain View unit in Gatesville since 1997, and she has maintained her innocence throughout. Now, over time, she did get a new defense team who included attorney Stephen Cooper, whose first task was to go through the transcript. He found 18,000 errors within the 6,000-page document. So seemed like a good opportunity for a retrial. After reconstructing the transcript, a judge approved the revisions in November 1999. Darley's team then filed an appeal in 2001. That one was rejected, but then in 2008, another appeal was sent in to conduct further DNA evidence, and that was granted. And it's on crime scene evidence. So those items they're testing are blue jeans worn by Darren, hair taken from the tube socks in the alley, the nightshirt worn by Darley, the butcher knife, an unidentified fingerprint on the glass coffee table, pubic hairs found in the living room. What?
unknownI know.
SPEAKER_01And an unidentified facial hair. And as of 2022, these are still undergoing testing. As for baby Drake, he was placed into foster care after the arrest. The paternal grandparents ended up getting custody as Darren wanted to get himself together financially and emotionally prior to attempting to regain custody. Today, Drake does believe in his mother's innocence. Oh, he does. I guess he visits her? I'm not sure if he visits her. I didn't see anything about that, but I did see where it said, like him being older, like both Darren and him believe in her innocence. Darren always believed in her innocence. Yeah. And he paid for all of her court fees and everything throughout the year. And then uh in 2011, Darren was allowed supervised visits. And he also filed for a divorce, saying it was mutually agreed upon, as both he and Darley needed to end the limbo they were in.
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SPEAKER_00Did they just stop because they did get the conviction? They were gonna try her for both separately, right? She's only convicted on Damon, and that was because he was five.
(Cont.) Wounded Mother: Darlie Routier
SPEAKER_01And since they got the death penalty, they didn't pursue for Devin. They did not pursue Devin, though.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I mean, you know, it's one of those things. It's like you want justice on paper, but uh she's already there, you know. So it's more of a like a thought thing, like, okay, they need justice, but you know, as long as she's in jail.
SPEAKER_01She's there. She's been there since 1997, so quite a long time. And she's done plenty of jailhouse interviews as well.
SPEAKER_00From what I understand, she has an innocence project, right?
SPEAKER_01She does. She definitely has, you know, the two sides. She has people who absolutely believe in her innocence and people who absolutely believe in her guilt. There's that controversy.
SPEAKER_00That was always one of the things hearing the story, like the how she came so close to dying. You know, it's like she just got lucky. But no, it makes more sense with what you said that she tried to kill herself before, or she had suicidal thoughts before.
SPEAKER_01She had suicidal thoughts, yes. And I read, you know, as far as the neck goes, you know, there's nothing really protecting it. So basically, when you cut it, you're gonna get bleeding, you're gonna, there's nothing to protect. So you basically are gonna get close to hitting the artery. Like, even if you're trying not to, it's easy to do it. And that's the thing. Like, why would the intruder kind of cut her, but I mean, literally overkill the voice?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was overkill. Oh, it's terrible. You know, it's like I have fun doing these podcasts, but it's really hard when it's a kid killer. I've only done one other one, which was Christine falling, that we did kid killers. And I there's just sad wanting to do this women only. I was like, who's out there? Let's look. And it's like, so many women kill children, and it's heartbreaking and it's awful. My husband wants to focus on, I don't know if you remember Andrea Yates. He wants to do an episode on her, and I'm like, uh, I'm gonna do two a year, maybe.
SPEAKER_01They did have a recent documentary out about her on the whole cold situation. Yeah, I think that one's also very just like, wait, what? Crazy, crazy case. Now, I know with Darley, one of the newer thoughts behind it is that she had postpartum depression, which was not really a thing in the 90s. So with time passing by, it's like, I mean, he was only seven months old.
SPEAKER_00So it makes sense. It really does. The suicidal thoughts, she couldn't lose the weight. Again, can't judge someone by like what they look like, but she was obviously very concerned about appearance. And so Yes, she was considered a beauty. Yeah, she was. She had her little Dolly Parton look happened. But Dolly's a saint, so we're gonna bring up her name in a good way. But do you think she did it?
SPEAKER_01I do now. It's like I really do struggle still, but when I look at all the evidence, I'm like, there's no evidence of an intruder. So I can't do it. It's just, I think it's more because I just don't want to believe or Think that a mother could actually kill her children. I think that's why I'm like, wait, really? Really? And then the next lash, but after reading about that, I'm like, people do that. People have definitely hurt themselves trying to make it look like somebody attacked two people.
SPEAKER_00And not only like, look at just in the world how like people go and they do mass shootings and then they turn the gun on themselves, you know? So it's a very if you're in your headspace is wrong, you know, it's like that doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. I agree. I mean, Andrea Yates, I mean, she was obviously definitely found like insane and to a mental hospital versus, you know, Darley was not. But I mean, it obviously, yes, your mental standing can play a big role in the choices you make.
SPEAKER_00The thing with Andrea Yates was how she did it, it took so long. So normally I like to do this part to bring a little levity into the situation. And anyway, not this time, you know, cases involving children kind of shift the tone. So and with Darley, she's also maintained her innocence this whole time, right? How long has she been in there?
SPEAKER_01Since 97. So what like almost 30 years? Yeah. Next year's 30 years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and she still to this day says she's innocent. So that's the character trait there. So instead of trying to decide anything, we'll do it a little differently. We're gonna how you can interpret it both ways. So we'll start with her son in Capricorn. Capricorn is about control, composure, image, and how the outside world perceives you, which, you know, it seems like she had a little bit of that going on. And it's a sign that's also very, they don't fall apart in public if they can help it, you know, they would present well even under pressure. But also, they could be someone who, in the middle of trauma, might still try to hold it together and then be judged for not falling apart the right way, which you can take into account the silly string video and stuff like that. People think I wouldn't have that type of reaction, right? Anyway, the Capricorn doesn't perform emotion, it manages it. So now her moon sign, which is eerily coincidental when I say this, but her moon sign, that's your emotion, your center, your thoughts that you don't always share, your private thinking is hers is void of course. And now I brought up that I don't like to talk about kids, but we did Christine Falling. Christine Falling's moon was void, of course. And what void, of course, moon means, it's not hitting any major aspects. It's kind of adrift, if you will, right? So it can show emotional disconnection, responses that, you know, don't quite land the way others expect. Again, back to the silly string. And you can be out of sync emotionally. So I find it eerily coincidental that the two that I'm gonna talk about this year with children both have moon void, of course. This is so creepy. It is so on point. It is it's not always absence. Sometimes it's misalignment. So Venus, the way you love, is in Aquarius, and Aquarians express emotions differently. Someone can be detached, a little unconventional, and they sometimes can come across as cold when warmth is expected. So that is a little bit of love detachment sign there. Her Mars is in Pisces, and Mars is action, reaction, and instinct. And in Pisces, Mars is indirect, emotional, and sometimes unclear. So what interpretation could be? Actions may not feel consistent, they might be hard to follow. And in moments of trauma, this placement can respond in confusion rather than clarity. And so you have this Capricorn control that she puts out, you know, in public, and then a moon sign that doesn't quite connect, and the Aquarius Venus detachment in love, and it could just kind of explain a little bit of the situation. You know, obviously it's astrology and you can tailor it to however you want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I mean it's also it is kind of interesting how these astrologies you do often really do kind of sound pretty much like, okay, yeah, this is this person.
SPEAKER_00Yep. So all of hers point to someone whose emotional responses don't match expectations, if you will. Right. And that's, you know, this video was pretty damning. Like to watch, to be on that jury. I mean, nine hours is not a long time for the conviction that she got. That is not long at all. Nope, not for that. And it sounds like from what you described, it was pretty damning evidence.
SPEAKER_01So yes, I would agree. And I've watched that video, and she's just like smacking, chewing gum, just all kind of uh happy, yay. And the other people are kind of just like, yeah, I'm here, but this is kind of strange.
SPEAKER_00So let me ask you this. I, when I was doing a little research, apparently there is something in the trial, and I don't know if you noticed this, and at the burial, not the silly string party, but prior, the police had mic'd near there to try to record their conversation, correct?
SPEAKER_01Yes. So it's actually a common thing police will do because people will go to gravesites and they will confess. They will say they're sorry, they will try and kind of, you know, rid themselves of that guilt.
SPEAKER_00Cleanse themselves, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly. So it's like a really common thing police do. And they didn't put it there, but there was nothing. She never said anything. Wow, this was interesting. Yes. I mean, I love doing this. I really appreciate you having me. One thing I was gonna say is if people are interested in a deeper dive for Dolly Router, the prosecutor's pod has an in-depth four episode on her. There's so much information.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I'll put a link to that in the description so people can check it out. And I'm gonna check it out. So yeah. Well, bye, Amy. Thank you. Bye. Thank you so much. The Femme Fatal, created and hosted by Stacey Dodson, produced by Mark Williams, music by Marcia Yingling, Chad Change, and Greg Loicano, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, I think that's a good question.