‘Hell House’: Darlene And Bruce Rouse Mansion Murders Makes The Cut In Investigation Discovery’s Bloody Crime TV Series

The Darlene and Bruce Rouse mansion murders will be profiled tonight on a Hell House, Investigation Discovery’s newest TV series. Hell House will bring you the most twisted stories of homes that have been the scene of the most horrific crimes. Do you know the history of your house? Most people don’t, but Hell House will make you think twice about purchasing that home of your dreams. Investigation Discovery (ID) viewers can expect to go behind the scenes of the bloodiest addresses in America. Each week, Hell House will introduce a shocking new true-crime case. The TV show is produced by Sirens Media.

The case of Darlene and Bruce Rouse gained attention in June, 1980, after the couple was found dead in their mansion in Libertyville, Illinois. Moving to the picturesque town with their three children, located just outside Chicago, meant that the Rouses had “made it.” Bruce Rouse was the owner of a chain of gas stations. By all accounts, the socialite couple was worth millions.

Their bodies were found by their daughter, 16-year old Robin Rouse, who alerted her brothers. Once police arrived at the location, they found the bodies of a white male and a white female dead in their bed. The scene was particularly bloody — like nothing they had ever seen, according to the police detectives. As they moved closer, they saw that Darlene Rouse had received a gunshot wound to the face, and the powder marks left under her eye suggested that whoever shot her did so at a very close range. Bruce Rouse was the next victim. He had a gunshot wound to the jaw, as well as several stab wounds to the chest area. An autopsy report would later confirm that Bruce Rouse had also been struck in the head with an object.

As detectives checked further, they also found teeth and bloody tissues strewn about the entire bedroom. The children were of no help to police, since they stated that they didn’t see or hear anything due to the ferocious thunderstorm that night. Police were able to rule out Kurt Rouse, since he lived on a property near, but outside, the home. The murders shocked everyone in Libertyville. No one could imagine that a crime so heinous could have happened in their neck of the woods. After all, that’s why most of the residents moved to Libertyville — to escape the crimes of the inner city. The general feeling was that this type of crime didn’t happen in this neighborhood.

But the truth was that it did happen there, and police tried desperately to come up with clues that would nail the killer. Unfortunately, the case went cold. Police felt that those kids had something to do with it but were unable to connect them directly to the killings.

They later learned that the Rouses were having a terrible time with their “out of control” children, who were said to be drinking and doing drugs quite frequently. The situation had escalated to the point that they locked their son Kurt out of the home. The gossip around town was that the children had all agreed to kill their parents, in order to split the insurance money — giving each one the opportunity to continue living an opulent life, without the interference of their parents. It turned out that this wasn’t the case.

After the murder, Kurt Rouse got married and moved to California. Robin Rouse died in a car wreck in 1983, just three years after her parents death. Billy Rouse, also known as William Rouse, moved to Key West, Florida, when he became of age. But, his life spiraled after he spent all of the money and began dabbling in petty crimes. Billy Rouse finally confessed in 1995 that he was the one who had savagely killed his own parents that fateful day.

As for the house that they called “murder mansion,” it was the site of another brutal murder in 1982. According to the Chicago Tribune, mob gangster Robert Plummer died on the staircase after another mobster killed him. The address to the home was 2057 N. Milwaukee Avenue.

To find out more, check out Investigation Discovery’s #HellHouse on Saturday, October 10 at 9 p.m. Below is the tease. Recently, Inquisitr covered two other crime stories on #IDAddict’s Investigation Discovery, such as the Claudette Ficik murder case and the murder of Susan Reinhart.

“HELL HOUSE focuses on homes that have witnessed harrowing crimes. Bouts of unexplained insanity that ended in bloody rampages, mysterious disappearances, strange ‘accidents,’ and murder after horrific murder…all within one houses’ four walls. There may be fifteen other houses on the block, but THIS is the house where horror keeps repeating itself.”

[Photo Credit: Sirens Media/Facebook]