Darlie Routier: Doting Mother/Deadly Mother
Indifference
On Thursday, the day after the murders, Darlie was again interviewed by the police, this time by detectives Jimmy Patterson and Chris Frosch. She reiterated her story of the attack. Her description was slightly more detailed than before:
"I woke up hearing my son Damon saying 'Mommy Mommy,' as he tugged on my nightshirt. I opened my eyes and felt a man get off me. I got up to chase after him. As I flipped the light in the kitchen on, I saw him open his hand and let the knife drop to the floor. Then he ran out through the garage. I went over and picked up the knife. I shouldn't have picked it up. I probably covered up the fingerprints. I shouldn't have picked it up.
"I looked over and saw my two babies with blood all over them. I didn't realize my own throat had been cut until I saw myself in a mirror. I screamed out to my husband."
Male nurse Christopher Wielgosz was on hand during the interview. He noted how she continuously seemed to admonish herself even to other hospital personnel before and after the interview for picking up the murder weapon and erasing the intruder's fingerprints. It seemed as if she wanted the point driven home why her finger prints were on that knife.
Various other staff members who attended to Darlie throughout her short stay at Baylor complained that she seemed far removed from despair, even cold to the situation. Nurse Jody Cotner describes the scene she saw while Darlie's family visited after she was admitted to the ICU: "Her mother, Darlie Kee, and her little sister, God bless their hearts ...they were hysterical. I probably held her sister I don't know how long. They were all sobbing. All except Darlie."
Cotner, who has worked with trauma patients for more than a decade, adds, "The reaction of people who lose their children is a wide range of emotions, bur mothers are always inconsolable (but) in my entire nursing experience I have never seen a reaction like Darlie's."
Paige Campbell's remarks echo Cotner's. Says Nurse Campbell, "People react differently, but there is a commonality when someone...sees someone they love die. But I had never seen a reaction like Darlie's before. There were tissues by the bed, but she never took one."
Denise Faulk, a nurse who attended to Darlie during her first night in the ICU was so bothered by Darlie's nonchalance that she went home after her tour of duty and recorded her observations of the woman's behavior. Responsible for washing the blood off Darlie's feet, she had expected the woman to break down. But, she noted, the mother had displayed complete indifference.
Dr. Santos released his patient on Saturday morning so she could attend her sons' wake that evening at Rest Haven Funeral Home. Detectives Patterson and Frosch, however, first escorted Darlie and her husband Darin to the station house for statements. Procedurally given the Miranda Rights, Darlie wrote her official statement, which recalled the events of the preceding Wednesday morning. In this version she penned that she was awakened by Damon who was still standing on his feet when he uttered 'Mommy Mommy'.
In the anteroom, Patterson explained to Lt. Jack something he had caught in his last conversation with Mrs. Routier while she was still bedridden. When he had mentioned to her that her dog Domain had tried to bite a patrolman, she fleetingly remarked, "Oh, he always goes off like that when someone he doesn't know walks in the door." Jack gave him a I hope you made a note of that expression, in return.