Darlie Routier: Doting Mother/Deadly Mother

Dawn had not yet arrived over the posh neighborhood of Dalrock Heights Addition, near Rowlett, Texas, and in a bird's eye view the usually safe-and-coddled environs of the upper-class community looked peaceful and tranquil before the new day. But, at 5801 Eagle Drive, discordance roared. Evil rampaged.

The first outsider to hear of the troubles raging within was Doris Trammell, night dispatcher for the Rowlett Police Department. She was surprised when the emergency phone rang at 2:31 a.m. troubles were few there, for it was the kind of community known as a safe haven from the rest of the world, a place to raise a family but her nonchalance was jolted. A hysterical female voice at the other end of the line was telling a terrible story.

The voice screamed, "Somebody broke in to our house...They just stabbed me and my children..." Trammell shocked upright in her chair, captured her senses, then tried to calm the woman, tried to get the details in as orderly manner as possible. But, the caller continued to scream panic-stricken into the mouthpiece from her home..."My little boys are dying! Oh my God, my babies are dying!"

Trammell's fingers scrambled for and punched the main police unit line; she side-mouthed into the microphone, "Stand by for medical emergency, woman and children stabbed!" then advised the woman at the other end to hold on while she summoned an ambulance. But the woman continued to sob and yelp, without hesitation, "My babies are dying! My babies are dying!"

Darlie Routier

"Ma'am, please calm down, tell me what's happened!" the dispatcher begged, but the woman was incoherent and Trammell grew more confounded. Drawing up her computer screen, she traced the call by its caller ID to a number belonging to a Darin and Darlie Routier (pronounced Roo-tear) at 5801 Eagle Drive. After several more pleas, Trammell convinced the party at the other end to subdue, to take a deep breath, to explain what was happening over there. The dispatcher still could not believe what she was hearing. Murder in peaceful Rowlett?