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A Killer in My House The Darlie Routier Story
In the early morning hours of June 6th, 1996 residents slept peacefully in their beds as the moon hung over the quiet neighborhood of Dalrock Heights Addition, in the small town of Rowlett Texas. At 2:30 a.m., a 9-1-1 operator received a frantic call for help. Darlie Routier, a 26-year-old wife and mother of three young boys, reported that a knife-wielding intruder had broken into her house, attacking her and her two of her young sons. From a loving wife and mother of three young boys, to inmate #999220 on Texas death row, we will look at the evidence, the witnesses and the testimony to find the truth in the Darlie Routier murder trial. Moreover, for the last time answer the Was a killer sentenced to die or was she railroaded?…
- GenresTrue Crime
568 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 23, 2016
27 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
David Kennedy
388 books16 followersDave is a guidebook writer/publisher turned novelist. He began rock climbing around 1984, which was a “logical” extension of hiking, camping and backpacking since boyhood. After his first article on climbing in San Diego’s back-country was published in Rock & Ice magazine, he created the San Diego County Climbing Guide, which proved extremely popular. Next came San Diego Adventures: Classic hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. In 2007 he completed and published a second edition of the climbing guide, which vividly detailed over 2,000 routes.
Subsequently, he embarked on a fiction-writing odyssey, producing sci-fi novels and short stories “rather unsuccessfully” in terms of publication. He finally found his proper voice in 2017 when he wrote Ricochet, an intense modern-day thriller about a young female vigilante. Upon its completion, he learned about Acorn Publishing while attending the 2018 Southern California Writers’ Conference and was signed by them shortly thereafter.
David is also an accomplished horticulturist. He became interested in tropical plants called Bromeliads in 2010, which quickly turned into a passion. He is an active member of the San Diego Bromeliad Society, and has won “Best of Show” awards in their annual show multiple times. His Tillandsia collection is considered one of the best in the region. For many years he and his wife Debbie have been chief volunteer caretakers of the San Diego Zoo’s Kent Bromeliad Garden.
Becoming a novelist is the realization of a lifelong dream. David loves the process of storytelling, of waking up each day well before dawn and diving into the art of making words come together in a way that appeals.
Subsequently, he embarked on a fiction-writing odyssey, producing sci-fi novels and short stories “rather unsuccessfully” in terms of publication. He finally found his proper voice in 2017 when he wrote Ricochet, an intense modern-day thriller about a young female vigilante. Upon its completion, he learned about Acorn Publishing while attending the 2018 Southern California Writers’ Conference and was signed by them shortly thereafter.
David is also an accomplished horticulturist. He became interested in tropical plants called Bromeliads in 2010, which quickly turned into a passion. He is an active member of the San Diego Bromeliad Society, and has won “Best of Show” awards in their annual show multiple times. His Tillandsia collection is considered one of the best in the region. For many years he and his wife Debbie have been chief volunteer caretakers of the San Diego Zoo’s Kent Bromeliad Garden.
Becoming a novelist is the realization of a lifelong dream. David loves the process of storytelling, of waking up each day well before dawn and diving into the art of making words come together in a way that appeals.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 26, 2019
His version of the Darlie Routier story. He obviously believes she is guilty and doesn’t consider other options. He relies on trial transcript that has documented thousands of errors that he doesn’t reference.
I don’t think the author wrote an unbiased account of the Darlie Routier story. He gives a lot of interesting information. Most of it leans toward the prosecution point of view, and he appears to judge Darlie and Darin for their lifestyle.
I don’t think the author wrote an unbiased account of the Darlie Routier story. He gives a lot of interesting information. Most of it leans toward the prosecution point of view, and he appears to judge Darlie and Darin for their lifestyle.
July 1, 2019
Dislike story
I did not like this book. It was repetitive and almost one sided. This is such a sad story that it broke my heart so much I could not finish it.
I did not like this book. It was repetitive and almost one sided. This is such a sad story that it broke my heart so much I could not finish it.
July 25, 2021
A purely bad read
Bad grammar, poor punctuation, repetitive paragraphs and sentences, trailing sentences, no logical flow, dropped and incomplete thoughts, no consistent formatting, wrong word choices, spelling errors - all of these make this so-called “book” almost impossible to follow. It seems much more likely to me that it was simply copy-pasted from the author’s own internet ramblings and plagiarized (the author even stated this in his afterword) from other peoples’ internet-posted analyses and court documents and hastily thrown together with no editing or proofreading whatsoever and then self-published. I seriously regret spending any money on this. Do not waste your money or time on this “book.” Everything in it has already been said or is freely available with a simple Google search.
Bad grammar, poor punctuation, repetitive paragraphs and sentences, trailing sentences, no logical flow, dropped and incomplete thoughts, no consistent formatting, wrong word choices, spelling errors - all of these make this so-called “book” almost impossible to follow. It seems much more likely to me that it was simply copy-pasted from the author’s own internet ramblings and plagiarized (the author even stated this in his afterword) from other peoples’ internet-posted analyses and court documents and hastily thrown together with no editing or proofreading whatsoever and then self-published. I seriously regret spending any money on this. Do not waste your money or time on this “book.” Everything in it has already been said or is freely available with a simple Google search.
July 2, 2025
Good overall depiction
The author tries to present a very clear depiction of all that happened from all sides of the story. He tries to stay mostly unbiased through most of the book, but sometimes you can really tell he is dead set against Darlie Routier. After reading this book and looking at all the evidence included in this book, along with the closing and parts of the opening remarks and all that has been included, I would say it is a complete book with more information than most people would expect.
The author tries to present a very clear depiction of all that happened from all sides of the story. He tries to stay mostly unbiased through most of the book, but sometimes you can really tell he is dead set against Darlie Routier. After reading this book and looking at all the evidence included in this book, along with the closing and parts of the opening remarks and all that has been included, I would say it is a complete book with more information than most people would expect.
February 3, 2020
This book is worth reading because it’s comprehensive, but file under “GUILTER”. Those books are boring by now. They rely on the old and tired (and poorly aged) 1997 conventional wisdom. 23 years later, some people have taken the time to truly dissect this travesty of justice. This case is exceedingly complex...there are many aspects of it where people wrongly suppose they can see motive and cause for Darlie psychopathic-ly murdering her 2 young boys. It's lazy and uninspired. Reminder...Darlie was on trial only 7 months after the heinous murders. Her jury deliberated ONLY 7 hours...a farce when all the evidence is circumstantial and lame. This is waaaay too short a time to try this trial...and we can see how punch-drunk her defense was. I have never seen a case with so many men deep in the prosecution yet they all seem such femininely vapid thinkers, like a coffee klatsch of Yentas who enjoy maudlin and cheesy Soap Operas. It's annoying and frustrating.
All the State had was circumstantial evidence. That kinda evidence surely can produce a just verdict, but not in this case. Not with the awful LE work, awful forensic work and so many dumb people composing what actually happened like they're novice writers of junky fan fiction. It's not funny when an innocent woman has been on Death Row for almost 25 years. It's an abomination.
The Rowlett law enforcement was a joke. We see this in many true crime cases and collectively they show that US LE leaves much to be desired (this is a huge problem!). I used to think LE were uber-intelligent heroes. I don't anymore. Sgt. Jimmy Patterson was a joke, The officer at the scene Waddell froze on the job (kinda understandably!) and yet blamed it on Darlie (projection). James Cron was laughable at forensics. All these men thought Darlie was guilty and that's all she wrote. Patterson pled the fifth at Darlie's trial (he illegally surveillance taped the family mourning at the grave site) and when that explosive footage became public, they failed to also release other scenes mitigating what happened at the funeral gathering in contrast to the silly string fiasco. This tape sunk Darlie. Even I thought she was guilty back in the day. I don't anymore.
This book does a great job presenting FACTS of the case but falls into the GUILTY trap. Acting like the prima facie evidence and clues are all cut and dried. They are NOT, and that is where everyone made a mistake. Darlie WAS getting crank calls around the time and over three people saw a mysterious black car in the neighbourhood, lurking at Darlie's home. The very same evo Darlie was attacked some creepy stuff was going on around this normally safe neighbourhood. It was all dismissed but shouldn't have been.
The other clue given short shrift was the sock with her kid's blood on it PLANTED 3 houses down. It was ditched near a wheely bin and right next to a sewer. Everyone knows the timeline didn't allow her to throw it there. No other forensic evidence was around it either.
Another issue was the dopey belief that Darlie would cut her window screen with another knife in her home and put it back in it's butcher block. If this was a planned attack and the sock had been planted, then it's feasible the real killer would use that knife to frame Darlie. No one thought of that. We know the killer got out of the house...there is an un-ID bloody fingerprint STILL not explained. People make much of the backyard fence being shut (and hard to open) and no blood on that as proving the killer didn't exit in the back but perhaps he did and was patient in his execution of the crime. Perhaps the real killed DID exit that sizable and slashed garage window. It would be an ideal window to utilize. This was not a last minute set-up. This was a crime planned out way in advance. The Satanic date of 6/6/1996 tells us that, too.
This book also mentions the supposed insurance scam of Darin Routier. Thing is, he could have been planning this to happen (but with whom??) but where are the players? No one has ever dobbed them out. It never happened, even if planned. What happened in the Routier home on 6/6/1996 was a planned kill...not a insurance rort gone wrong.
I didn't hate this book. Clues are important so for that fact alone this book is worth reading but the author is way too quick to fall in line with the very flawed conventional wisdom of this case. The clues are there but one needs to know what to look for to find and/or see them. What happened that horrific evo is something no one has thought about because real life is less unbelievable than fiction. If mapped out, people wouldn't believe it anyway. Everyone s overly comfortable with the flawed narrative. You can't take it away from them with a kung-fu grip. Lazy and incurious is the new order of the arrogant and ignorant. Yay, us. (*slow clap*)
This is an iconic case that snowed us ALL. Off the fumes and bones of the misdeeds and malicious crimes of Susan Smith in October 1994. We all thought we were so smart...just knowing it was Darlie...like natural born Sherlock Holmeses. Darlie really wanted to rid herself of her kids. The State's motives are laughable and not fit for crime novel 101 beginners classes. Now, the joke is on us.
All the State had was circumstantial evidence. That kinda evidence surely can produce a just verdict, but not in this case. Not with the awful LE work, awful forensic work and so many dumb people composing what actually happened like they're novice writers of junky fan fiction. It's not funny when an innocent woman has been on Death Row for almost 25 years. It's an abomination.
The Rowlett law enforcement was a joke. We see this in many true crime cases and collectively they show that US LE leaves much to be desired (this is a huge problem!). I used to think LE were uber-intelligent heroes. I don't anymore. Sgt. Jimmy Patterson was a joke, The officer at the scene Waddell froze on the job (kinda understandably!) and yet blamed it on Darlie (projection). James Cron was laughable at forensics. All these men thought Darlie was guilty and that's all she wrote. Patterson pled the fifth at Darlie's trial (he illegally surveillance taped the family mourning at the grave site) and when that explosive footage became public, they failed to also release other scenes mitigating what happened at the funeral gathering in contrast to the silly string fiasco. This tape sunk Darlie. Even I thought she was guilty back in the day. I don't anymore.
This book does a great job presenting FACTS of the case but falls into the GUILTY trap. Acting like the prima facie evidence and clues are all cut and dried. They are NOT, and that is where everyone made a mistake. Darlie WAS getting crank calls around the time and over three people saw a mysterious black car in the neighbourhood, lurking at Darlie's home. The very same evo Darlie was attacked some creepy stuff was going on around this normally safe neighbourhood. It was all dismissed but shouldn't have been.
The other clue given short shrift was the sock with her kid's blood on it PLANTED 3 houses down. It was ditched near a wheely bin and right next to a sewer. Everyone knows the timeline didn't allow her to throw it there. No other forensic evidence was around it either.
Another issue was the dopey belief that Darlie would cut her window screen with another knife in her home and put it back in it's butcher block. If this was a planned attack and the sock had been planted, then it's feasible the real killer would use that knife to frame Darlie. No one thought of that. We know the killer got out of the house...there is an un-ID bloody fingerprint STILL not explained. People make much of the backyard fence being shut (and hard to open) and no blood on that as proving the killer didn't exit in the back but perhaps he did and was patient in his execution of the crime. Perhaps the real killed DID exit that sizable and slashed garage window. It would be an ideal window to utilize. This was not a last minute set-up. This was a crime planned out way in advance. The Satanic date of 6/6/1996 tells us that, too.
This book also mentions the supposed insurance scam of Darin Routier. Thing is, he could have been planning this to happen (but with whom??) but where are the players? No one has ever dobbed them out. It never happened, even if planned. What happened in the Routier home on 6/6/1996 was a planned kill...not a insurance rort gone wrong.
I didn't hate this book. Clues are important so for that fact alone this book is worth reading but the author is way too quick to fall in line with the very flawed conventional wisdom of this case. The clues are there but one needs to know what to look for to find and/or see them. What happened that horrific evo is something no one has thought about because real life is less unbelievable than fiction. If mapped out, people wouldn't believe it anyway. Everyone s overly comfortable with the flawed narrative. You can't take it away from them with a kung-fu grip. Lazy and incurious is the new order of the arrogant and ignorant. Yay, us. (*slow clap*)
This is an iconic case that snowed us ALL. Off the fumes and bones of the misdeeds and malicious crimes of Susan Smith in October 1994. We all thought we were so smart...just knowing it was Darlie...like natural born Sherlock Holmeses. Darlie really wanted to rid herself of her kids. The State's motives are laughable and not fit for crime novel 101 beginners classes. Now, the joke is on us.
July 2, 2025
Boring
Too much court documents not enough Was expecting more of a story. Hard to follow. Didn't even finish the book
Too much court documents not enough Was expecting more of a story. Hard to follow. Didn't even finish the book
August 11, 2021
This was a True Crime book club pick and well, it was … interesting. The story itself was insane! The book? Terrible!! If you don’t know this story, get your seatbelt ready. In a quiet suburb of Dallas on the morning of June 6, 1996, a frantic call was made to 911. The caller, Darlie Routier, went on about an intruder getting into their house and her two older boys had been stabbed. She herself had stab wounds and other attack marks. Before the first police officer showed, one of the boys has already succumbed to his injuries. The other was lost on the way to the hospital.
Darlie was adamant that a stranger broke in and did this. However, a lot of the evidence was potentially starting to show otherwise. The one issue though is that the detectives that walked that house already made up their minds on who the killer was before lunch on the same day the boys died. The author of this book was the same way. While there was a lot of evidence presented in the book, it was clearly put out there to show that Darlie was guilty. The book was also very boring in that the majority of it was a copy/paste of court documents. I personally think she was guilty, but most, if not all, of the evidence was so circumstantial. I really wish the author would have gone more into theories and evidence detail a bit more (from both side), but you really had to interpret a lot yourself. So, crime wise — holy cow. Book .. don’t bother.
Darlie was adamant that a stranger broke in and did this. However, a lot of the evidence was potentially starting to show otherwise. The one issue though is that the detectives that walked that house already made up their minds on who the killer was before lunch on the same day the boys died. The author of this book was the same way. While there was a lot of evidence presented in the book, it was clearly put out there to show that Darlie was guilty. The book was also very boring in that the majority of it was a copy/paste of court documents. I personally think she was guilty, but most, if not all, of the evidence was so circumstantial. I really wish the author would have gone more into theories and evidence detail a bit more (from both side), but you really had to interpret a lot yourself. So, crime wise — holy cow. Book .. don’t bother.
March 6, 2017
This book bored me as it was very repetitive.
July 3, 2021
Interesting!
I really enjoyed the book! I believe she did it. I couldn’t put it down. It was easy to put myself in the house.
I really enjoyed the book! I believe she did it. I couldn’t put it down. It was easy to put myself in the house.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews