04x01 - Invisible Intruder

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: on june , , in a suburb of dallas, texas, there

Was a crime of unprecedented horror.

An intruder entered this home and att*cked two young children,

Along with their mother.

Police hoped that science would lead them to the assailant.

My babies are dying!

They're dead!

Oh, my god!

Narrator: darin and darlie routier were a young

Couple in their mid-s, with three children -- -year-old

Devon, -year-old damon, and -month-old drake.

Darin routier was a successful entrepreneur.

Darlie stayed at home to care for the children.

This was a young couple who had made good.

Darin owned his own business.

In , he had made close to $,.

In his business he repaired mainframe computers, had some

Extensive contracts with government agencies.

Narrator: on the night of the attack, darin routier was

Asleep upstairs with -month-old drake.

Downstairs in the family room, the two older boys fell asleep

Watching television.

Their mother, darlie, was asleep on the sofa.

Around : in the morning, an intruder stabbed the children,

Then woke darlie, who felt a knife at her throat.

After a brief struggle, the intruder fled and darlie called

Police.

. What is your emergency?

Somebody came in while I was sleeping -- me and my little

Boys were sleeping downstairs!

Some man came in and stabbed my babies!

He stabbed me!

I woke up!

I was fighting!

He ran out through the garage -- threw the knife down!

My babies are dying!

They're dead!

Oh, my god!

[ Sirens ] narrator: when paramedics

Arrived, -year-old devon was dead.

-Year-old damon was barely alive...

But he died en route to the hospital.

Darlie was taken into surgery to repair her neck wound, which

Missed her carotid artery by only two centimeters.

She also suffered a s*ab wound to her arm.

Paramedics noticed that darlie's panties were missing.

When I asked her if she thought she'd been r*ped, her

Answer to me was, well, when I woke up I felt some pressure

Down there.

That was her answer.

Narrator: but a r*pe test was negative.

Darlie described the assailant as a white male, about -feet

Tall, wearing a black shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap.

A screen in the routiers' garage had been cut.

Darlie said the intruder dropped the m*rder w*apon onto the floor

As he fled.

In the alley two houses away, police discovered a bloody sock.

The motive did not appear to be robbery.

Between the kitchen and the room where the murders occurred,

There was rings and a gold ladies' watch laying out there.

It indicated to us, if it was in fact a burglary or a robbery

That had gone bad, there was valuables out there to be taken,

And nothing was disturbed.

Now we don't know why.

Now we know that this is a sick individual that took absolutely

Nothing from our house but took the two most important things

That were important to us away from us.

Narrator: the most prominent evidence at the crime scene was

Blood.

Forensic scientists hoped the blood-spatter pattern would tell

Them more about these horrific murders.

Narrator: when police examined the m*rder scene, it

Appeared the assailant entered the routier home through a

Screened window in the garage.

Darlie routier said she was asleep when the intruder

m*rder*d her two boys.

Darlie woke when she felt a knife to her throat.

There was a struggle, and the assailant fled through the

Garage.

Darlie said he dropped the m*rder w*apon onto the floor on

His way out.

Darin routier said he was asleep upstairs with -month-old drake

And woke when he heard glass breaking.

When he walked into the family room where the detectives

Were waiting for him, the first thing out of his mouth was not,

How is damon? How is darlie?

It is, have you seen darlie?

Isn't she beautiful, and doesn't she have gorgeous

Breasts? Darin said, you know, I can

See why somebody came in -- good-looking blonde, you know,

-Double-ds.

I thought that was a little strange too, considering he had

Just lost both of his sons.

I don't believe, at that time, he knew for a fact if darlie

Was gonna live or not.

Narrator: in the kitchen, police noticed a set of

White-handled knives.

One space was empty.

It appeared the m*rder w*apon, a -inch white-handled knife,

Came from the routiers' own kitchen.

The blood drops on the floor were photographed and collected

For dna testing.

The size and shape of the blood droplets would be analyzed to

See if they were consistent with darlie's version of events.

Darlie's nightshirt was another important piece of blood

Evidence.

Forensic scientists hoped that it too would provide information

About the murders.

Dna testing of the bloody sock found in the alley revealed the

Blood was that of the two boys, devon and damon.

However, police bloodhounds were not able to track the intruder's

Scent beyond the location of the sock.

Why would an intruder leave a m*rder w*apon behind in a house

And yet take a sock down the alley?

Why would an intruder leave the sock in open view for the police

To find, instead of disposing it in a garbage can or down a

Storm sewer drain?

Narrator: police found some other inconsistencies.

Darlie said she chased the intruder through the kitchen,

And he knocked a wine glass on the floor.

But pieces of glass were on top of the blood drops on the floor,

And there were no cuts on darlie's feet.

Underneath the overturned vacuum cleaner was more blood spatter

And a wheel impression in the blood.

It appeared that darlie ran through the kitchen before the

Glass broke and the vacuum cleaner overturned.

On the handle of the vacuum cleaner was a bloodstain.

Dna tests revealed it was darlie's.

The blood dripped onto the handle at an -degree angle, as

If darlie were leaning over the vacuum cleaner.

The pattern was not consistent with darlie's running past the

Vacuum, as she told police.

Either darlie routier was mistaken about what happened in

The kitchen, or she knew more about the murders than she was

Telling police.

Narrator: blood-spatter expert tom bevel was asked to

Analyze the blood drops found in the routier home.

As co-author of a well-known textbook on blood-pattern

Analysis, it was bevel's job to interpret the story told by the

Blood trail.

Bevel noticed the blood drops on the kitchen floor were circular

In shape, meaning they were deposited by someone standing

Still or walking very slowly.

Darlie said she was stabbed on the sofa and, while bleeding,

Ran through the kitchen after her assailant.

But running would have produced blood drops more elliptical in

Shape, usually with a tail indicating the path and

Direction of the person running.

Darlie also told police that the intruder dropped the knife onto

The kitchen floor, but tom bevel could find no evidence of that.

Numerous people, to include myself, examined that floor to

Try and find evidence of a knife-drop, either even pointed

Straight down or falling on its handle or falling on its side or

Whatever, and we were unable to find anything that would be

Consistent with that.

If it had as much blood on it as it was found -- which it would

Have to -- then it should have produced an outline of a knife

Or evidence of a knife dropping onto the floor, and we simply

Didn't find that.

Narrator: barry dickey is a forensic audio expert, assigned

To analyze darlie's telephone call to police.

In order to conduct his analysis, dickey isolated

Darlie's voice by eliminating all of the background noise.

Somebody came in while I was sleeping -- me and my little

Boys were sleeping downstairs!

Some man came in and stabbed my babies!

He stabbed me!

I woke up...

In my opinion, darlie had moved from at least three

Different rooms in the house.

These rooms were moved in a very rapid fashion, and she did not

Stay in any one of the ambiences very long.

Narrator: but if darlie walked briskly in between rooms,

This contradicted her story to police.

When police interviewed darlie after the m*rder, she was

Holding a wet towel to her neck wound.

Police wondered if the towel had been used to clean up blood

Before they arrived.

To find out, investigators used luminol, a chemical that glows

When sprayed on an area where blood has been removed.

Once we darkened the kitchen down and applied the luminol, we

Were able to see footprints there in front of the sink,

Which kind of made the hair on the back of our necks stand up.

Narrator: the footprints in front of the kitchen sink

Were darlie's.

On the cabinet beneath the sink there was visible blood and

Luminol revealed that more had been cleaned up before police

Arrived.

The blood evidence in front of the sink indicated to us that

Someone had bled -- had stood there in front of the sink for a

Significant amount of time, bleeding and not moving around.

There was blood drops on top of blood drops on the floor in

Front of the sink.

Narrator: dna testing revealed the blood belonged to

Darlie.

Prosecutors suspected that it was here where darlie cut her

Neck and arm.

If there was an intruder, he came in without leaving any

Evidence of walking through there.

Narrator: also on the carpet was an unusual blood

Impression -- the distinct outline of the m*rder w*apon.

The heavy line of blood near the tip of the blade told forensic

Experts something important about the k*ller.

The only way, that I am aware, that you could get

Something coming off of the knife in that manner, as we

Found it, would be to have the knife in the hand of a person

That is bleeding.

In other words, they are contributing blood continuously.

So if you had a wound on this arm, with the knife in this

Hand, with the blood flowing down the arm, ultimately across

The hand, and then down the blade of the knife, that will

Produce that very heavy bleeding that we got in the front of the

Knife, in the impression.

Narrator: coincidentally, darlie had a knife wound on her

Right arm.

Dna tests revealed that the blood was that of both damon and

Darlie and not that of an unknown assailant.

Darlie said she picked up the knife from the kitchen floor and

Put it on the counter.

She said nothing about taking it into the family room.

No bloody trail, no fingerprints, no trace of a

Suspect -- I mean, peter pan came down the chimney, maybe,

And committed the m*rder or tinkerbell or somebody -- but we

Have no evidence of anyone coming through the window,

Committing the murders, and leaving.

Narrator: police were now convinced that there was no

Intruder in the routier home on the night of the murders.

Narrator: just eight days after the murders, the routiers

Celebrated what would have been devon's th birthday...at the

Cemetery.

Family members invited a local television news crew to attend.

* Happy birthday, dear devon if you knew devon and damon,

You would know that they're up in heaven, and they're up there

Having the biggest birthday party that we could ever

Imagine, and they wouldn't want us to be down here being sad.

Even though our hearts are breaking, I know that devon and

Damon would want us to be happy.

Narrator: district attorney greg davis watched the

Celebration on television.

I was just sickened by what I saw, because it had only been a

Week since these boys' deaths, and yet we've got a full-blown

Birthday party out there at the gravesite.

And it really struck me as more than curious.

Narrator: at the dallas county institute of forensic

Sciences, charles linch discovered the most damaging

Piece of evidence contradicting darlie's intruder story.

On one of the bread knives from the routiers' kitchen, linch

Found a single fiberglass rod and some rubber dust.

The cut window screen in the routier garage was made of

Polyvinyl chloride bundles.

The interior core of that bundle was composed of fiberglass rods.

The fiberglass rod found on the kitchen knife was identical to

The fiberglass rods from the routiers' screen.

Linch could not find any other source of fiberglass inside the

Routier home that was similar.

I was able to eliminate all other sources of fiberglass,

That I could find, as being a source.

So the conclusion is that the fiberglass rod found on the

Bread knife may have come from the window screen but not to the

Exclusion of all other sources.

Narrator: fbi profiler alan brantley was convinced

There was no intruder.

We have never seen a case where an offender comes from outside

The residence, breaks into the home, takes a knife, and then

Goes back outside the home and cuts the screen to come back in.

Those steps, that kind of behavior, is just unnecessary to

The commission of any kind of an offense, unless you are

Attempting to make the scene look like something you think it

Should look like or that you want other people to believe

Occurred, and again, that's an element of staging.

Narrator: and on darlie's nightshirt, scientists found

Castoff blood spatter on the back-right shoulder area.

Dna testing revealed that the blood belonged to the two boys.

Some of those bloodstains are coming in a direction consistent

With the movement of the item that was bloodstained.

In my opinion, in this case,

The knife.

As you're drawing the knife backward, the blood is coming

Off of the end of the knife as it's being drawn backward, and

If it's close enough, and it's still on an upward flight, it

Will point in an upward direction with the bloodstains.

Narrator: the blood spatter was pointed upwards, consistent

With the movement of a bloody knife in darlie's right hand.

The forensic evidence all told a story -- a story quite different

From the one darlie told police.

Prosecutors believe that the murders were premeditated and

That darlie encouraged the boys to sleep with her that night in

The family room.

Sometime after : a.m., Darlie took a bread knife from the

Kitchen and cut the screen in

The garage.

She returned the knife to the holder without rinsing the

Fiberglass residue found later by forensic scientists.

Darlie used the largest knife she had to m*rder her two

Children.

Blood spatter on the back-right shoulder of her nightshirt

Placed the m*rder w*apon in darlie's hand.

Speculation is that darlie may have removed her panties to

Suggest the possibility of a sexual as*ault.

Standing at the kitchen sink,

Darlie turned the knife on herself, slicing both her neck

And right arm.

Then something unexpected happened -- -year-old damon was

Still alive, crawling through the family room.

He was stabbed two more times.

The knife impression on the carpet was caused by blood from

Her arm wound as it dripped over the tip of the knife.

[ Breaking glass ] the audio analysis of the

Call reveals that darlie was moving in between rooms quickly,

As she staged the crime scene and removed some of the blood

Evidence.

Stabbed my babies!

He stabbed me!

I woke up!

I was fighting!

He ran out through the garage, threw the knife down!

My babies are dying!

They're dead!

Oh, my god!

Oh, my god!

Narrator: but darlie's attempt to mislead investigators

Failed.

Oh, my god...oh, my god...

It's hard to explain it, but these kids were in her way.

They were in the way of her lifestyle and her ambitions and

What she wanted to do.

And she simply made a decision that those children would no

Longer be in her way.

Narrator: darlie routier was arrested and charged with the

m*rder of her two sons.

Darin routier denied he was involved, and no charges were

Filed against him.

Patricia springer described the possible motive in her book,

Flesh and blood.

There is no one reason why darlie routier did this.

It is a combination of things.

It had nothing to do with money.

It had to do with the multiple births, with the total

Responsibility.

We've learned since then that darin really didn't help a lot

With the children.

They painted this picture of the perfect family, and how great

They were, and everything they did was as a family.

But the family life was an illusion that they perpetrated

On anyone that would listen to it.

Narrator: darlie routier was found guilty of first-degree

m*rder and was sentenced to death.

She currently sits on death row, awaiting execution.

Texas is a pretty conservative state, and I want

Everybody to know that you can't go out and k*ll our children and

Expect to live.

I think that darlie...got

Exactly what she deserved in this case.

We probably gave her more justice than she deserved in

This case.

If you look at the barbaric acts that brought her to that

Courtroom, we did all that the system allowed us to do to her.

But she richly deserves to be on death row, and she richly

Deserves to be ex*cuted one day.