Update 1/19: The Darlene Routier home has been temporarily taken off the market.
Update 12/18: The home has dropped again in price to $390,000.
The home at 5801 Eagle Drive in Rowlett is a member of an exclusive club that no Realtor wants their listing to be a part of.
This seemingly idyllic Colonial-style home may have majestic rooftop dormers and picture-perfect porch pillars, but it is the family home where convicted murderer Darlie Routier killed her two sons, 5, and 6. And now that home, which has been on the market for 114 days, can be yours for $396,000 (plus Darlie’s original drapes, too.)
The infamous address joins homes like 410 Dogwood Drive in Wylie, where Candy Montgomery was accused and acquitted of violently slaying her best friend Betty Gore in 1980, and 942 Beachcomber Lane in Clear Lake, where Andrea Yates drowned her five children—pejoratively known as murder houses. And as you can imagine, many real estate agents can attest that it’s infinitely harder to sell a home where a violent death has taken place.
Dateline—Rowlett June 6, 1996
In June 1996, newspaper headlines nationwide read, “Mother Accused of Stabbing Sons to Death, Faking Intruder Story.” The Dallas media, with their cameras and bright spotlights, were lined up in front of the stately brick home of Darlie, 26, and Darin Routier, 28, a Rowlett couple married for eight years with three young children.
Police and paramedics had responded to Darlie’s frantic 9-1-1 call at 2:30 a.m. that a man wearing dark clothes and a baseball cap broke in their home and stabbed her and her two sons as they slept in the family room. Brothers Devon and Damon both suffered fatal stab wounds from a large kitchen knife found in the home, and Darlie sustained stab wounds to her arm and throat, just a few millimeters from her carotid artery.
During the four-week-long trial, Darlie was found guilty of the murder of Damon only. Prosecutors wanted the option to pursue a second indictment for Devon should the first fail in court. A third child, Drake, who was a baby at the time, and Darin slept through the attack upstairs.
$145 a Square Foot
The 1993-built Routier home has 2,740 square feet with three bedrooms and three baths. It’s situated on a large 0.214-acre curving corner lot in the established Dalrock neighborhood. Dalrock is especially desirable for its proximity to Lake Ray Hubbard and location on a peninsula-like shore of the lake.
From the listing:
“Price to sell! Just reduced. A beautiful home on a northeast corner lot with high vaulted ceilings and lots of natural light. This two-story home has formal living and dining areas at the entrance, perfect for entertaining. Open-concept living, breakfast, and kitchen areas. All bedrooms are upstairs as well as a large bonus room that can be used as a game room. The primary suite features a fireplace and a balcony. Large lot with lots of parking in the back. This is a must-see!”
The Dallas County Appraisal District estimated a 2022 tax value of $375,790. County tax appraisals are based on the home’s age, square footage, property size, location, and sales of comparable properties.
How 5801 Eagle Dr. Has Changed Hands Over the Years
The home is owned by Opendoor Property Trust and listed by Redfin agent Carolina Dusenbery. Once competitors, Opendoor announced in late November a partnership with Redfin in select U.S. markets.
When reached for comment on Friday, Dusenbery said she could not comment on the listing without authorization from Opendoor.
Opendoor put the home up for sale in August 2022 for $410,000 and made subsequent price reductions in September and November to $396,000. In December, the home’s price was dropped to $390,000. Finally, on Jan. 19, the home was put on hold, meaning it’s temporarily off the market, North Texas Real Estate Information Services (NTREIS) records show. It was last on the market in 2006, when it was listed for $180,000 and closed for $183,000, according to NTREIS records.
Records show the Routier home has changed hands three times since it was foreclosed on in November 1996, several months after the murders took place. Court records show that the Routiers owed more than the home was worth at the time.
After its June 1997 sale to a private couple, it sold to a single woman in an off-market transaction in 2001 and to a private couple on MLS in 2006.
“Any Death on the Property…”
Texas law requires that sellers disclose when they are aware that an unnatural death has taken place on the property. As such, the current 2022 disclosure is marked with a yes. The wording is “Any death on the property except for those deaths caused by: natural causes, suicide, or accident unrelated to the condition of the property.”
Interestingly, further down the page, the disclosure says, “There’s indication of a death on the property during prior ownership. Details unknown.” [Emphasis added.] Below the explanation, there’s another note, “Seller has never occupied this property. [sic] seller encourages Buyer to have their own inspections performed and verify all information relating to this property.” While statements like “verify all information” are pretty standard language in a listing, it’s jarring to see “details unknown” for such a public crime scene.
When it was last listed on MLS for sale in 2006, the previous seller’s agent highlighted this fact by stating in the private MLS remarks on NTREIS, “Contact listing agent for disclosures prior to offers.“
However, and this may be an important point of contention for some, though the seller does abide by the Texas law that requires disclosure, it does not explicitly draw attention to the home’s history.
A 1996 Time Capsule
The home has had few updates through the years. After the murders, the family room carpet was torn out, the kitchen sink removed, and parts of the kitchen floor taken out. But recognizable features like the bathroom fixtures, green marble floors, green marble fireplace, and even the Routiers’ burgundy custom draperies, reportedly costing $12,000, still remain.
Jurors saw a lot of the Routier home during the four-week-long murder trial, wherein prosecutors painted an unflattering picture of Darlie and the Routiers’ newfound wealth. Following the success of Darin’s circuit board testing company, the Routiers purchased a Jaguar, a boat, lavish vacations, and a newly constructed home replete with a fountain in the front yard and an enclosed spa gazebo in the back. State exhibit photos presented in court show the gazebo with a bookshelf stereo on the bar and a handle of an unknown clear alcohol half-empty with the top left open, fine china place settings on display on the dining room table, and gold jewelry left on countertops. Police said nothing appeared to have been stolen during the alleged robbery.
The prosecution argued that the Routiers were overextended and owed $10,000 in back federal taxes, $12,000 in credit card debt, and payments for two mortgages on Eagle Drive, all totaling approximately $200,000. Prosecutors theorized the motive for Darlie to kill her two sons was financial, though it was widely reported at the time that the boys’ life insurance policies were $10,000, not enough to cover funeral expenses.
Where Is Darlie Routier Now?
As the public’s taste for true crime stories continues, Darlie Routier’s case has garnered interest anew from people who have watched Episode 2 of the Peacock series “On Death Row,” featuring a jailhouse interview with Routier, much like interest resurged in Candy Montgomery when Hulu released the miniseries “Candy” earlier this year.
Darlie Routier’s case is fascinating for many reasons. Few women are sentenced to death by lethal injection. In fact, only seven women currently sit on death row. And few women appear to literally dance on their child’s grave and have a Silly String birthday party at the cemetery, as jurors saw in a video shown by prosecutors during the trial. The entire video showed somber moments at the graveside service before having this symbolic birthday party.
Routier later commented on the video, saying, “He wanted to be 7. I did the only thing I knew to do to honor him and give him all his wishes because he wasn’t here anymore. But how do you know what you’re going to do when you lose two children? How do you know how you’re going to act?”
Many questions remain. What about fingerprints or the unexplained bloody sock that was found 75 feet down the alley after the Routier murders? New DNA tests on that sock and several other items from the home were ordered last year, but no results have come to light.
For 26 years, Routier has maintained her innocence and has received support from the Innocence Project of Texas, an organization founded by two criminal defense attorneys to help bring wrongly-convicted felons to justice. Routier’s attorneys have continued to appeal her capital murder sentence, so no execution date has been scheduled. Texas inmates spend an average of 11 years on death row before being executed by lethal injection. The shortest time on Texas death row was 252 days, and the longest time was 31 years.
As for the home, price drops should make this a good bargain for a potential buyer who doesn’t care about the home’s history. Those buyers do exist.
Carolina Disenbery of Redfin has listed 5801 Eagle Drive for $390,000.
