Episode Details

In the early morning hours of June 6, 1996, police rushed to the Routier family home in Rowlett, Texas, after receiving a frantic 911 call from Darlie Routier.

Inside, investigators found a horrifying scene.

Darlie’s two young sons, six-year-old Devon and five-year-old Damon, had been brutally stabbed. Devon was already dead, and Damon died shortly afterward. Darlie herself had suffered knife wounds, including an injury to her neck.

She told police that an unknown intruder had entered the house, attacked her and her children, and fled through the garage.

Investigators didn’t believe her.

Attention quickly turned toward Darlie herself as police examined the blood evidence, a broken window screen, a bloody sock discovered away from the house, and what prosecutors claimed were inconsistencies in her account. Then came a piece of videotape that would become infamous: Darlie smiling, laughing, and spraying Silly String at her sons’ graves during a birthday remembrance for Devon.

Prosecutors portrayed the footage as evidence of a mother behaving strangely after the brutal deaths of her children. Darlie’s supporters argued that the clip was taken out of context and ignored the solemn prayer service that had occurred earlier that day.

In 1997, Darlie Routier was convicted of capital murder in the death of Damon and sentenced to death. She was also charged in Devon’s killing but has never been tried separately for his murder.

Nearly three decades later, the debate has never disappeared.

Was Darlie a mother who murdered her own children and staged an elaborate home invasion? Or did investigators decide she was guilty too quickly while overlooking evidence that might support her story of an unknown attacker?

Darlie continues to proclaim her innocence while remaining on Texas death row.

This is the true crime case of Darlie Routier—two murdered little boys, a mother sentenced to die, disputed forensic evidence, an infamous Silly String video, and one haunting question that remains more than thirty years later:

Did Texas convict the right person?

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