Hush Little Babies: The True Story Of A Mother Who Murdered Her Own Children (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

A killing so brutal it shocked the police and left the nation grieving, __Hush Little Babies__ is the appalling true story of Darlie Routier, the neighborhood's most wonderful mom, who one night, coldly, calculatingly and brutally stabbed her two sons and watched them die in a pool of their own blood... Darlie claimed an intruder has come through the window, fatally stabbed her sons, six-year-old Devon and five-year-old Damon, slashed her throat with same knife, then fled, while her husband and infant son slept upstairs. At first Darlie's heartfelt testimony evoked fear and sympathy in her safe Dallas community. Then police became suspicious after these troubling questions were raised: Why, according to a police report, didn't Darlie make any attempt to help her dying sons? Why, when she called 911, did she tell the dispatcher that her own fingerprints would be on the murderer's knife because she had picked it up? Why did the trail of blood left behind contradict Darlie's testimony? From the dark forces that drove her to kill her own flesh and blood, to the evidence that snared her in her own twisted web, here is a chilling account of homemaker, loving wife, mother of three, and cold-blooded killer—Darlie Routier.

Not since the Susan Smith case have two murders so shocked the nation...Hush Little Babies is the appalling true story of Darlie Routier, the neighborhood's most wonderful mom, who, one night, coldly, calculatingly and brutally stabbed her two sons and watched them die in a pool of their own blood...

Darlie claimed an intruder had come through the window, fatally stabbed her sons, six-year-old Devon and five-year-old Damon, slashed her throat with the same knife, then fled, while her husband and infant son slep upstairs. At first Darlie's heartfelt testimony evoked fear and sympathy in her safe Dallas community. Then police became suspicious after troubling qquestions were raised.

From the dark forces that drove her to kill her own flesh and blood, to the evidence that snared her in her own twisted web, here is a chilling account of homemaker, loving wife, mother of three, and cold-blooded killer -- Darlie Routier.

VOYA

June 5, 1996. Rowlett, Texas, an affluent community twenty-five miles to the northeast of Dallas. The comfortable home of Darin and Darlie Routier and their three young sons: Devon, six; Damon, five; and Drake, eight months old. That fateful, steamy night, hot even by Lone Star standards, Darin and Drake went to bed upstairs while Darlie and the other two boys fell asleep in the downstairs living room. Early in the morning of the next day Darlie was awakened by a tap on her shoulder. Damon was crying out to her. She opened her eyes to find a stranger standing over her. Looking at her children, she was shocked to see them covered with blood. The stranger fled. Bedlam ensued as a frantic 911 call was placed and Darlie's screams brought her husband to the scene of a horrendous crime. Two innocent boys slaughtered by a vicious intruder. But had there in fact been a break-in? Police quickly ascertained that there had not, and the focus of their investigation almost immediately shifted to Darlie as the prime suspect. Unbelievable to those intimate with the family, Darlie was charged with the murders of Devon and Damon and brought to trial. If found guilty, the young mother faced the very real possibility of death by lethal injection. The author has successfully penned a number of true crime stories, and his experience is evident in this compelling account of a heinous double homicide. The denouement of the sordid saga is skillfully delayed until the last few pages, and even the author's objective reporting throughout the book leaves an objective reader questioning the validity of the jury's verdict. Recommended for true crime buffs. Includes eight pages of nongraphic photos. Photos. VOYA Codes: 5Q 2P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

A killing so brutal it shocked the police and left the nation grieving, Hush Little Babies is the appalling true story of Darlie Routier, the neighborhood's most wonderful mom, who one night, coldly, calculatingly and brutally stabbed her two sons and watched them die in a pool of their own blood...

Darlie claimed an intruder has come through the window, fatally stabbed her sons, six-year-old Devon and five-year-old Damon, slashed her throat with same knife, then fled, while her husband and infant son slept upstairs. At first Darlie's heartfelt testimony evoked fear and sympathy in her safe Dallas community. Then police became suspicious after these troubling questions were raised:

Why, according to a police report, didn't Darlie make any attempt to help her dying sons?

Why, when she called 911, did she tell the dispatcher that her own fingerprints would be on the murderer's knife because she had picked it up?

Why did the trail of blood left behind contradict Darlie's testimony?

From the dark forces that drove her to kill her own flesh and blood, to the evidence that snared her in her own twisted web, here is a chilling account of homemaker, loving wife, mother of three, and cold-blooded killer--Darlie Routier.