The Libertyville Murders

This sort of thing was extremely unusual for this small, affluent suburb. Most people knew or knew of the Rouse family in the area, they were, on the outside, the perfect American family. Bruce had built a successful business empire and the couple lived in a large ranch style house with an indoor swimming pool and stables, along with their three teenage children, Kurt 20, William (Billy) 15 and Robin 16.

Despite Bruce having reached a significant degree of business success, he was still always the first person to arrive at his gas station every morning. When one of his employees arrived to work on the morning of June 6th, Bruce was nowhere in sight and the station was locked.

The member of staff thought this was very strange, as Bruce was always there come rain or shine, and he had not said that he was not going to be in or was going to be late. To be able to start trading, the safe would need to be unlocked and so, the employee called Bruce at home to ask if the safe could be unlocked.

I have read two different accounts of which Rouse child answered the phone to the employee. Several sources claim that their Daughter, Robin, answered the telephone, but several other sources claim that it was Billy that answered the phone. Regardless, they said they would find their dad to ask. On entry to their parent’s bedroom, they found both their parents dead.

Billy called 911, when police arrived at the house, they found the bodies of Bruce and Darlene Rouse; both had been shot in the head. Bruce had also been stabbed in the heart and bludgeoned.

The three children said that they saw and heard nothing unusual. Billy told the police that his father had worked late the evening before, and his mother had some friends over for bridge. The eldest son, Kurt, lived in the coach house of the property. His parents had made him move out of the main house due to his constant partying and use of drugs. Daughter, Robin, had been at a dance at school and said she did not see anything out of the ordinary when she returned home at around midnight. Billy had been home in the house all night, but claimed that he also heard nothing, only the noise of constant thunder and lightning from the violent storm that occurred on the same night as the murders.

When police started to search the property for clues, they found no sign of false entry to the property, but the children told police that they often left the door to the property unlocked. They also discovered that the property had hidden hallways, covered by panels. There was even a crawlspace under the pool. With no signs of false entry, they thought that an intruder could have been in the house for hours or even days, hidden in one of the secret passages.

Police did find that Darlene’s purse and items of jewellery were missing, and all Bruce’s guns and ammunition had been taken from the house, perhaps it was a burglary gone wrong? The strange thing was that Bruce’s wallet was still in the house, containing $300 in cash.

Investigators looked into Bruce’s businesses to rule out any bad business deals, or enemies that he may have made at work. However, they came up with nothing. They began to shift their enquiries onto the Rouse’s three children, and they soon realized that things were not so rosy in the Rouse household.

Eldest son, Kurt, was wild and out of control. He partied, used drugs, and was only allowed limited access to the main house. The youngest child, Billy, also had adverse behaviour. His parents blamed the influence of Kurt and sent him to a school for troubled children. Daughter Robin on the other hand was the complete opposite to her two brothers. She was intelligent, an overachiever and her parents, especially her father, doted upon.

Unbeknown to the children, detectives were now watching them. They were set to inherit a lot of money from their parent’s estate. However, money could pay for top attorneys, who made it difficult for police to further question the three Rouse siblings.

Two months after the murders, Billy told investigators that he wanted to assist with their investigations. He asked to see the crime scene photographs, which police advised were very graphic and may be traumatic for him to see, Billy said he could handle it and wanted to see the photographs. When police showed Billy the photographs, they noticed that he showed no emotion, he just stared at the pictures. Billy told police that a purse and jewellery box, belonging to his mother, were missing from the house, and it looked like a burglary. Detectives knew that he was trying to outsmart them by shifting their focus of their enquiries onto someone else. However, this made the police more suspicious, but they still had no hard evidence.

Another few months’ past, and police still had no new leads or evidence in the Rouse murder case. That was, until someone noticed something sticking out of the water at a local river. After taking a closer look, he determined that it was a shotgun. The police were called, and a dive team searched the river, finding the Bruce’s guns, Darlene’s purse, driving licence and jewellery. Police now confirmed that this was not a burglary, as someone had tried to hide the evidence.

The focus was now on Kurt Rouse, the unruly eldest child. However, there was still nothing that linked Kurt to the murders or to the new evidence. Robin had previously told police that she thought Kurt was involved, but she did not say why she thought that way. Sadly, Robin died in a car crash in 1983, before she could further speak to police.

The case went unsolved for years, but investigators would not let it rest. They continued to watch the brothers from a distance. Billy became a carpenter, getting married and buying a home in Key West, Florida, before blowing all his money, getting a divorce, and living in a shack with other transient people. He would steal money to survive and was a regular drug user.

In 1995, fifteen years after the murders, a detective from Key West called Illinois police regarding a bank robbery that Billy was involved in. Illinois police saw a new opportunity to question Billy and anyone whom he was acquainted with. They hoped that over the years, he may have confided in someone regarding his parents’ murders. Police travelled to Florida in the hope that they could finally solve the Rouse murders.

When Billy was questioned by police, he first claimed to not remember what happened on the night of his parents’ murder. However, the next day he confessed to police that he did it, he killed his parents.

Billy told police that he did not want to kill his dad, but he hated his mother. She would constantly nag him about his behaviour and only every gave him attention when she shouted at him or told him that he would amount to nothing like his brother. Billy said he was sick of her and so, he shot her and then his dad. His dad did not die instantly, so he hit him with the gun as well as stabbing him with a kitchen knife. He then took his dad’s car and threw the guns and his mom’s jewellery and purse into the local river.

Billy was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to 80 years in prison.

The thirteen room Rouse home became known as the ‘Murder Mansion’ and was used as an illegal casino in the early 1980s. It is rumoured to be the place where local mobster Robert Plummer was murdered in 1982. The house was purchased in 1983, by Andrew Janas, a Construction contractor. However, it was damaged by fire in 2002 and later demolished.

Sources

https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-ent-bruce-rouse-darlene-rouse-murders-snapped-20200821-r267hhyo4nfktosa6v55e5sx4u-story.html

http://www.ccgtcc-ccn.com/Rouse%20House.pdf

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/libertyville/ct-lisa-black-rouse-murders-column-met-20141217-story.html

Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege, and Justice, Season 8, Episode 47, ‘House of Secrets’, 2008.