Altoona Mirror (Newspaper) - February 2, 1997, Altoona, Pennsylvania Red Cross sponsors free Valentines Bl COPYRIGHT 1997 SUNDAY FEBRUARY In the Mirror Local Firefighters work on fire in the Imler fire hall The building was severely damaged PAGE A2 The Huntingdon County Jail plans to charge inmates a day for room and board PAGE B1 Sports Altoona captures the Blair County mat crown PAGE C1 The Altoona boys and girls lost tough decisions Saturday PAGE C1 Neil Rudel charts the college football recruiting picture February means sweeps for networks as the television gears up for a month of specials PAGE 01 Updates For the latest on all the local news call Mirror Link at News headlines 1040 Inside Sections News News Opinion Lifestyle Travel Real Estate Classified F: Neighbors Features Business Couples Hospitals Obituaries Planner Puzzles Scoreboard C9 B2 D3 Television 05 C7 Weather Mostly cloudy cool Forecast on Page A4 1 did not kill my Darlie Routier said after the judge read the verdict Routier faces death penalty BY JAY B LEWIS AND JUSTIN BACHMAN Fort Worth Texas Darlie Lynn Routier once described by her neighbors as an all-American was convicted Saturday of stabbing her son to death with a kitchen knife in their Rowlett home face ready pale after seven months in jail drained of col- or completely as visiting Judge Mark Tolle read the word guilty to the capital der charge I did not kill my defense at- torney Richard sty quoted Routier of saying after the verdict was an- A moan of an- guish arose from the younger Routier was convicted of killing her middle son Damon Prosecutors did not know whether she would continue to face charges in the oldest boy's killing men among the 20 or so of relatives sitting in a tight cluster at the front of the courtroom The older women led throughout the four-week trial by the mother Darlie Kee maintained composure until Tolle polled the jury's seven women and five men individually As each juror raised a hand affirming the verdict tears welled up in Kee's gray eyes Tolle closed the proceedings and ordered the courtroom cleared and one teen-age family member called out to the lead Greg Davis you're a killer You're going to burn Many of the family members wore T- shirts emblazoned with pictures of two dead sons Routier 27 was whisked away in a car and looked out with an expression of de- spair as she rested her head against the Please see A9 Associated Press Darin Routier holds a photo of Drake for his wife Darlie Routier to see outside a holding cell window as they awaited a verdict from the jury Saturday Memories of slain boys haunt neighbors BY JANITTE RODRIGUES Fort Worth ROWLETT Texas The house at 5801 Eagle Drive is empty The furniture and trappings of an upwardly mobile middle-class family are gone There are no children ing in the back yard or running in and out of the den on an ably warm winter's day Tne fountain that looked so out of place on the front lawn has been re- moved AS that is left are a few plastic poppy flowers and a large circle of loamy soil that looks like a wound in the middle of the yard A couple of doors down two haired boys tossed a ball back and forth Saturday A year ago Devon Routier 6 and his brother Damon 5 might have played a lazy game of pick-up with their neighbors Instead memories of sweet-faced Devon and Damon and their blonde mother Darlie Routier Please see A8 THE EVIDENCE STACKS UP The prosecution built the case against Darlie Routier strictly on circumstantial evidence because the only eyewitness to Damon murder was the defendant herself Lead prosecutor Greg Da vis who trained as an engineer before taking up said he grouped his evidence to support the following elements and gain a conviction Saturday for the June 6 killing 1 Darlie Routier was self-centered and materialistic and motivated by anxiety over a pending loss of material comfort To support this contention the state Financial records suggesting that the Please see More AS Campaign respects elderly Blair Senior Services officials are working to make the community aware of elderly abuse BY GARETH MCGRATH Staff Writer Concerned that the community is often unaware of how to prevent elderly abuse Blair Senior Services is sponsoring a lic awareness campaign to get the sage out that help and counseling is able around the theme INFORMATION Elder Deserve For more Honor and Re- information on Protective Services or presentations and spect Not the hopes tO concerning the aware of the de- campaign call Blair nature Senior Services at both physically mentally and of elderly abuse The campaign will target promoting the organization's Protective Services gram as a safe and responsible in cases of elderly abuse These individuals are some of the most vulnerable in today's said Mike Seymour supervisor of Blair Services case management and services programs Please see A9 Phil's been half right BY CASEY COMBS The Associa ted Press PITTSBURGH For a rodent billed as the seer of Punxsutawney Phil's track record isn't The groundhog guru has properly prognosticated only three of the last six winters at least for ern Pennsylvania I don't want to hurt body's feelings in the land of said Bob son meteorologist for Inc a com- weather service based in State College Club members claim the rotund rodent is never wrong The weather is in the eye of the be- Punxsutawney Groundhog Club President Bud Dunkel said when con- fronted with data According to tradition if Phil sees his shadow it more weeks of winter If not spring is right around the corner Please see A9 shadow call at Code 1063 Phil's predictions in the past decade A9 A child dies in paradise and a proper teardrop falls BY DOUGLAS S LOONEY Cox News Service BOULDER Colo is a town with panache like Aspen and a place with tique like Martha's Vineyard and yes Palm Beach if has the verve of Sausalito and tie romance of Carmel You take the best of the best forget the rest and you end up wilh little slice of paradise at feet above sea level It's all spread at the foot of the Rocky tains which serve as the town's playground and background The snow on the towering Continental Divide back yonder stays there year round And it's true as the song says that around here the deer deer population inside the city 321 and possibly a few antelope play Boulder is endlessly fascinating to insiders and outsiders Critics however find it endlessly smug They chide Boulder for being 92.5 percent white in a nation where just 80.3 percent of The ultimate yuppie town of Boulder Colo has to deal with a brutally slain little beauty queen the populace is white The city cluck the is a burg of fantasy surrounded by a sea of reality This is a me says Ralph W broeer a real estate broker and a resident for 46 years It's lie ultimate yuppie town Critics be damned Americans have come to learn if you've got it flaunt it And der basically is real proud of the way it has turned out But now the city has Ramsey brutally slain little beauty queen whose ty face is familiar from coast to coast The died either Christinas night or early Dec 26 Some eight hours after police were called Little Miss Colorado and the reigning America's Little Royal Miss was found dead by her father and one of his friends in the basement of the family home This likely is the nation's most intensely watched crime involving a child since the Lindbergh baby kidnapping March There is rampant suspicion and tion that despite the presence of a ransom note the killer may be a family ber or someone close lo the family And there is specific speculation based on minor and analysis but no wealthy prominent and highly respected father John Ramsey 53 In his only interview on CNN Ramsey said he found the idea that he would be considered a suspect nauseating He could hardly be a more unlikely date in a case where police have yet to name anyone as a suspect Ramsey is president of Access Graphics Please see A10 Six-year-old Ramsey was found dead In the basement of her family's home in der Colo
