Darlie Routier - Motives

Motives

Prosecutors contend that Darlie Routier murdered her sons because of the family's financial difficulties. She was a full-time homemaker but her husband Darin, a small business owner, earned a relatively high income. However, most of the money he earned was quickly spent. This was later referred to as "living large" by her husband Darin Routier in an interview a few days after the deaths with Joe Munoz of KXAS Channel 5 in Dallas-Fort Worth. The family, from a lower-to-middle-class background, lived in a typical two-story tract-style home in a middle-class neighborhood, drove a mid-sized SUV, owned a Jaguar automobile and a used boat. Prosecutors described Routier as a pampered and materialistic woman with substantial debt, plummeting credit ratings, and little money in the bank who feared that her middle class lifestyle was about to end. They contend that she was motivated to kill her two children to rid herself of her financial burdens. This claim has been disputed by her supporters, who argue that the children were not the cause of the financial difficulties. By the time of the murders, the Routiers were essentially insolvent, the Jaguar and the boat weren't running, and their income had fallen by $90,000 from the year before. In addition, they allegedly owed up to $10,000 in back taxes and $12,000 in credit card debt, were two months behind on their mortgage payments, and had just been denied a $5,000 loan by their bank. Darin vigorously denies these claims. The two boys were insured for $5,000 each, which her advocates argued was not enough of a financial gain to murder the children for.