HOwdy! My thoughts.

[TressaRing28]

Hey Arille I live 85 miles west of the crime... Thanks for your input.

Edited by DP to remove huge quote.

 

[TressaRing28]

1) There was a deer hair on the sock ! Whats that all about?

 

[cami]

1) There was a deer hair on the sock ! Whats that all about?

The sock was found outside, on the ground. It could have been contaminated by anything that was on the ground at that time. At least that's what I think anyway. Strictly my opinion only and not a fact.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

The sock was found outside, on the ground. It could have been contaminated by anything that was on the ground at that time. At least that's what I think anyway. Strictly my opinion only and not a fact.

Yup!! If you drive east for about five minutes, you're in BFE. So, its not surprising that a deer hair would be in Rowlett.

 

[Peake]

I think she attacked the boys, then tried to kill herself then when she failed, chickened out and tried to salvage what she could of the situation. Mainly because of the throat-cutting. There is no way I'd trust anyone to cut my throat but don't kill me. Or cut my own to fake an attack - I'm no medical expert, but it doesn't seem like there is a lot of room for error in a throat cut, and I was under the impression that Darlie's throat wound, while it missed anything vital, was not just a little scratch either.

Cheers,
Pea

 

[cami]

I think she attacked the boys, then tried to kill herself then when she failed, chickened out and tried to salvage what she could of the situation. Mainly because of the throat-cutting. There is no way I'd trust anyone to cut my throat but don't kill me. Or cut my own to fake an attack - I'm no medical expert, but it doesn't seem like there is a lot of room for error in a throat cut, and I was under the impression that Darlie's throat wound, while it missed anything vital, was not just a little scratch either.

Cheers,
Pea

It was serious but non life threatening.

 

[Ghostwheel]

This might seem dumb, but when we wash our kids socks, then fold them, we put our hand inside the sock, and turn it right side out (because they are always inside out). In addition, we still have to adjust the toes of our 8 year old's socks, because she can't stand the seams, so my DNA would be all over the toes of her socks.

 

[txsvicki]

I live here in Texas, too and occasionally see Sarilda around town. I wasn't convinced of Darlie's guilt but after coming here and reading I am pretty much now convinced. I have a few thoughts about Darlie's behavior that night which also made me question her innocence. I find it very hard to believe that she would wake up, knowing her children were in the room with her, and try to follow after the intruder into the kitchen and utility area. I'd think that she would he getting to a phone first thing, going the opposite direction, gathering the boys up, and or getting Daring down there to help. As for picking up the knife, I can't imagine her picking it up and not taking it back to the other room with her for protection or in case the intruder came back. Finally, Darlie kept saying to the 911 operator that her babies were dying. How did she even know how many, how deep or serious their wounds were. Hers weren't that deep. It looks as if she knew that the knife was plunged into the lungs and how many times.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

This might seem dumb, but when we wash our kids socks, then fold them, we put our hand inside the sock, and turn it right side out (because they are always inside out). In addition, we still have to adjust the toes of our 8 year old's socks, because she can't stand the seams, so my DNA would be all over the toes of her socks.

Ghostwheel, in this case, the sock belonged to Darin (Darlie's husband). It was not a clean sock, but one presumably taken from the laundry room. It also contained blood from both of the murdered boys as well as Darlie's DNA.

 

[Ghostwheel]

Ghostwheel, in this case, the sock belonged to Darin (Darlie's husband). It was not a clean sock, but one presumably taken from the laundry room. It also contained blood from both of the murdered boys as well as Darlie's DNA.

I'm reading as fast as I can, BTW, but I'm still not getting the sock thing. If Darlie had used the sock to try to keep her fingerprints off the knife (which might make sense), then it would have been stupid to put her hands all over the knife, so that's probably out. Why leave the sock in the alley unless you were trying to prove that the assailant had tried to use it to cover up his own fingerprints (because why else would anyone pick up a SOCK), and if you were doing that, you'd leave more blood on the sock, not just spot it a bit.

I'll read some more. I haven't gotten to the original articles about when it first happened yet. Seem to be going backwards, and I wished I'd started at the beginning.

 

[Dani_T]

I'm reading as fast as I can, BTW, but I'm still not getting the sock thing. If Darlie had used the sock to try to keep her fingerprints off the knife (which might make sense), then it would have been stupid to put her hands all over the knife, so that's probably out. Why leave the sock in the alley unless you were trying to prove that the assailant had tried to use it to cover up his own fingerprints (because why else would anyone pick up a SOCK), and if you were doing that, you'd leave more blood on the sock, not just spot it a bit.

I'll read some more. I haven't gotten to the original articles about when it first happened yet. Seem to be going backwards, and I wished I'd started at the beginning.

The sock is an bit of an anomaly- well it is unless we know exactly what happened that night.

If she did use the sock as a glove to not put her prints on the knife (and I am not sure I think she did as I think I would expect more blood on the sock) and disposed of it outside and came back inside only to either
a) find Damon still alive
b) realise she needed to injure herself to make it look more believable

then she would have had to pick the knife up again to either attack Damon again or use it on herself. If that was the case then ultimately the sock was for nothing in the end (and so she invents the 'he dropped the knife and I picked it up). She could even have used the sock as a glove, put the knife AND the sock down (maybe not even thinking to get rid of it at that time), gone out the back to cut through the screen, come back in and either
a) seen Damon still alive
b) decided to cut herself
c) picked the knife up without thinking

and realised she had blown it by not putting the sock back on again so got rid of it.

However, as I said I am not convinced it was used as a glove. Which leaves
a) the possibility that she may have used it to stage the intruder's escape route.
b) it was part of a staged or accidental drop which included other incriminating items never recovered

b) seems unlikely because the police should have found any other items (and brought it up at trial). But we haven't heard of anything else from either the prosecution of defense on that.

In terms of a)... it just doesn't sit right with me. I would have expected her to leave a far more obvious clue if she was staging it. There should have been more blood, or it should have been her panties or something directly linked to what happened in that living room rather than some random piece of laundry. Furthermore I would have expected her to have put her blood on it... which leads me to something I have been considering recently - that wounding herself was not part of the original plan but a fall-back plan that she came up with as she surveyed the carnage she had inflicted. Certainly she wouldn't have wanted to wound herself badly and then run down the alley (for a couple of reasons) but if she had been planning on playing the attacked victim and wanted to stage the sock it would have been more convincing with her blood on it and all she would have needed to do is make a small cut on her finger or something to put a blood drop on it, run outside, leave the sock, come back inside and really go at herself with the knife. But she didn't do that. It's clear that she only wounded herself after she had come back in from inside. And I'm beginning to think she had to do that because Damon was still alive when she came back in and she needed to cover her tracks because she couldn't have explained how Damon could have been up around and moving, probably crying etc and her sleeping soundly on the couch whilst the child killer escaped without her notice.

Sorry that was a bit of a ramble!

 

[cami]

I'm reading as fast as I can, BTW, but I'm still not getting the sock thing. If Darlie had used the sock to try to keep her fingerprints off the knife (which might make sense), then it would have been stupid to put her hands all over the knife, so that's probably out. Why leave the sock in the alley unless you were trying to prove that the assailant had tried to use it to cover up his own fingerprints (because why else would anyone pick up a SOCK), and if you were doing that, you'd leave more blood on the sock, not just spot it a bit.

I'll read some more. I haven't gotten to the original articles about when it first happened yet. Seem to be going backwards, and I wished I'd started at the beginning.

I don't think any of us gets the sock thing, Ghostwheel. Unless Darlie tells us why it was in the alley, we will never know. I don't think anyway.

 

[cami]

Goody had an interesting theory of the sock maybe being planted where it was. I can't remember too much of it so if she sees this hopefully she will respond.

 

[smellsarat]

Like Cami mentioned of others who wounded themselves to hide their complicity....especially Chuck Stuart who very nearly killed himself by shooting himself in the gut.....he ended up with a colostomy...(something I think he never bet on!!! ) and probably contributed to his suicide when he was found out!!!

So the seriousness of Darlies' wounds do not affect me so much....she probably figured the worse the better.......unfortunately the state didn't buy it!!!

 

[smalltowngal]

Has it ever been thought of by anyone that Darlie killed her boy's then tried to kill herself and failed at it so Darlie had to make up a cover story. JMO

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Has it ever been thought of by anyone that Darlie killed her boy's then tried to kill herself and failed at it so Darlie had to make up a cover story. JMO

Yes. Quite a few people believe that.

 

[JimPence]

Actually, I think that's one of the most plausible explanations. Of course, since Darlie maintains her innocence and we can't get inside her head to see the truth, we may never know.

I think it's the novelist in me that likes this explanation. Fiction writers prefer that loose ends be tied up and everything has an explanation that makes sense. Unfortunately, life isn't like that. Sometimes (often?) people do things irrationally.

In any case, this explanation seems to make sense of everything else.

JMHO.

Jim

 

[Mary456]

There is a good reason why Darin failed two lie detector tests

I don't put much faith in Darin's polygraph, personally. It was administered by a guy hired by Brian Pardo, and Brian Pardo was hell-bent on blaming the murders on Darin...even though he had no evidence to implicate him. Pardo is an eccentric who probably never read a word of the transcript. It's not the first time he's tried to save a guilty person...he jumps on bandwagons for the attention. (When you're a multi-millionnaire, ya gotta find something to do with your time, lol!)

It was a bogus polygraph, imo. If you've seen the video of it, I think you'll agree that it was a set-up. At one point, the polygrapher got right in Darin's face & screamed that he was a liar. Credible, professional polygraphers don't pull that kind of shenanigans. Watching it, you get the impression that they were going to make sure Darin failed it. And remember, the test wasn't administered by an uninterested party like the FBI or LE...it was administered by Pardo's hand-picked polyperson.

I don't believe that he cut Darlie's neck or took the sock outside, but I do think he knows that Darlie murdered the boys.

Agree, agee, agree.

 

[Mary456]

i've seen or heard no evidence that the father was suspected in this. if i'm wrong, please source this for me.

You're correct, london. The police initially did suspect Darin, which is only natural. However, after hearing Darlie's conflicting stories and especially the blood evidence that contradicted those stories, they focused more on her.

Darin's story - at least at first - was consistent. He heard Darlie screaming, ran down the stairs & saw Devon surrounded by blood. His first thought was that the coffee table had fallen on the boy. That sounds like the thought most of us would have under the same circumstances.

It wasn't until after Darin realized that Darlie was the killer that he started changing his story. And changing it and changing it. I think he knew fairly quickly that she had done it, but chose to stand by her...perhaps at the insistence of Mama Darlie and Sarilda. A united front, so to speak.

 

[Mary456]

Has it ever been thought of by anyone that Darlie killed her boy's then tried to kill herself and failed at it so Darlie had to make up a cover story. JMO

I considered that for a long time, smalltowngal, but something kept niggling at me: the slit screen. If Darlie stabbed the boys, then herself (lots of blood), and then walked to the garage window to cut the screen for staging purposes, where's the blood? There wasn't any in the garage, or on the screen or around the window frame. Not even a smudge from bloody hands.

I finally concluded that she premeditated the murders. The prosecution also believed this.