Darlie Routier: Doting Mother/Deadly Mother

Aside, Waddell briefed his sergeant. Together, they followed a path of blood through the house, from the entertainment room to the attached garage, accessible through the kitchen and a small utility room out back. Throwing their beam into the darkness of the garage until they found the light switch, they moved forward, revolvers drawn. They encountered no stranger along the route. However, they noticed that the screen on a side window of the garage had been visibly slashed down its center.

Realizing the attacker might still be in the house, the policemen checked out every room upstairs and down, every nook, closet and cranny in the house. Pausing now to take in the state of the kitchen, through which the killer was said to flee, noted its disarray its tiled floor spattered by blood; a vacuum cleaner knocked over as if in tumult, and, most ominous, a bloodied butcher knife resting silent now atop the island countertop. Beside the blade curiously lay a woman's latched purse and a set of women's expensive-looking jewelry, strangely untouched.

Upstairs they came across a third child, an infant, whimpering in its crib. Gently lifting the baby boy, Sgt. Walling examined him for bruises, but found none. Darin Routier, who met them below the steps, explained the child was their youngest, Drake, six months old.

The pair of paramedics had, in the meantime, been joined by three others Larry Byford, Eric Zimmerman and Rick Coleman. It had already become terribly clear that Damon was still alive, albeit barely, but that his brother Devon had died; the latter's eyes stared lifeless to the ceiling. Coleman had hastily assembled an IV tube to hopefully sustain the dying until they reached the hospital.

Assessing both boys' wounds, the medics noted two particularly large gashes, identifiably knife thrusts, in each of their chests. The thrusts had penetrated the children's lungs. Devon had died gasping, a horrible death. Damon's lungs, too, strained for oxygen, undeniably suffering the same fate that had claimed his sibling. Kolbye scooped Damon in his arms and maneuvered to the stretcher. He thought he heard the boy's death rattle, sounding as though his lungs expelled what little air they contained.

Damon and Devon Routier

With the assistance of Coleman, Kolbye performed chest compressions to keep the boy alive. Wheeling him to the curb side ambulance, he simultaneously sluiced air to the trachea that the boy might receive precious air. The medics continued offering life-saving maneuvers the entire way to Baylor Medical Center across town, but the child died before they reached it.