He feels that God has restored what the enemy had stolen. When Erin came home that afternoon, her father and mother were waiting for her in the living room. The officers put Charlie in the back of the squad car, where he stared out the window in silence as they drove through the woods toward Emory in the predawn gloom. A lot of guys flirted with her, and she would just blush and smile and duck her head down and skate inside and tell me, That guy wanted my number! And Id say, Did you tell him that your mom would be answering the phone?. Admirably, Terry Caffey has forgiven his daughter and the others for their involvement in the murders of his family. Wilkinson and his two accomplices, Charles Wade and Bobbi Johnson, were convicted of the same charges. After consulting with the attorney generals office, Vititow honored his wishes and offered them a plea deal. Very caring. This is the true story of the brutal Texas murder that destroyed a family, restored one man's faith, and shocked a nation At 3:00 a.m. on March 1st, 2008, Terry Caffey awoke to find his daughter's boyfriend standing in his bedroom with a gun. While being treated at the hospital, Caffey said he had given up hope and wanted to die, until he received word that Erin was still alive. Whats the holdup? The funeral was private. An instant later the teen opened fire, killing Terry's wife, his two sons, and wounding him 12 times, before setting the house ablaze. Wilkinsons gun then jammed, so Waid pulled out a samurai-style sword and used it on Penny, almost decapitating her. Slowly, though, he began to parcel out information. Erin Caffey Parents Terry and Penny Caffey had three children: one daughter, 16-year-old Erin, and two sons, 13-year-old Matthew (or "Bubba") and 8-year-old Tyler. There was nothing he could do for his family at that point. I found out later they had come in with samurai swords and found Tyler in the closet. 16 year old Erin Caffey made her first appearance before a Rains County Judge Monday. I dont like that boy, Terry used to tell Penny. The grieving process is definitely a journey. I dont think she actually thought he would go through with it. All times AEDT (GMT +11). Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Blood was coming out of my mouth, nose, eyes and ears. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. Erin Caffeys brothers eight-year-old Tyler and 13-year-old Matthew played the guitar and the harmonica, respectively. Analytics cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously. She asked him to lunch last June, and they never ran out of things to talk about. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Terry and Penny had wanted to be closer to Miracle Faith, where they were then serving as the churchs youth ministers. ET from court documents and interviews with those involved, and Caffey detailed what happened that fatal Friday night for "Nightline. Johnson, who had recently played a minor role in the Rains High School production of Oklahoma!, seemed to be in high spirits. Charlie crept into Terry and Pennys first-floor bedroom and fired at them until his gun jammed. Terror by Night: The True Story of the Brutal Texas Murder That Destroyed a Family, Restored One Mans Faith, and Shocked a Nation. Erins anointing had lifted, she said. He thought for a moment before answering my question, and I studied his face behind the Plexiglas. Leave them blank to get signed up. The Caffeys lived in a modest cabin set deep in the woods along a one-lane gravel road outside Alba, a rural community of 492 people halfway between Sulphur Springs and Tyler. Erin Caffey was the vocalist of the family until she met Wilkinson. "She's always started that Charlie was the first one to initiate the conversation, 'We've got to take your family,' Caffey said. Now, one year later, Terry is remarried, the adoptive father of two young sons, and working to rebuild his relationship with his 17-year-old daughter, who is currently serving two life sentences in a Texas state penitentiary for her involvement in the crimes. She had always taken pride in how she looked, but then she began to slip and she became disrespectful towards Penny. Sanders passed the phone to Booth. During the many hours in which they made polite conversation, he ventured only once to ask her a question of substance. She and Terry hoped that the individual instruction might benefit Erin, who had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and lagged behind her classmates. For more information about Terry Caffey, visit his website: http://www.terrycaffey.com At school, where she enrolled as a freshman, she and Charlie were inseparable; they ate lunch together and walked down the hall hand in hand, and sometimes they slipped away to Erins pickup to fool around. Investigators were putting the case together quickly, however. Charlie Wilkinson shot my family.. Her father, the man who she tried to have killed, is the only person who still visits her. Charlie kept saying, Are you sure you want to do this? Johnson recounted. There was nothing left but the subfloor and the metal roof. A freelance writer from the UK, Danielle Tinning studied media & communications at the University of Cumbria before beginning her career at a small publishing house in 2013. When I saw the phone records, I realized that it didnt matter if a single one of the other defendants testified against her. I remember when I heard that, I just couldnt believe thats how they did [it], and it goes back to that guilt and I felt I should have been able to save them and I couldnt. I was angry at these two young men, the other young lady that drove the getaway car. Why did a small-town girl have her family brutally murdered? They all gave similar accounts, with Erin serving as the driving force behind the killings. Charlie told several friends that he intended to kill her parents. I wanted them to pay, especially those two boys. Penny was withdrawn for most of February, and she declined to go on a womens church retreat, saying that she needed to spend more time with her family. She is the most evil woman I have ever met, Morgan said. And thats when I decided to move on. Not only did Caffey forgive them all, including his daughter, but he asked them to be spared from the death penalty when the case went to trial. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. There had been two guys with swords dressed in black who had ordered her to get down on the floor. At that point, the church-going teen began to slip up in school. An instant later the teen opened fire, killing Terry's wife, his two sons, and wounding him 12 times, before setting the house ablaze. She seemed confused, repeatedly telling the officers that she was fourteen years old. Chrissy Lampkin Age, Height, Husband, Net Worth, C. Who is India Love? Facing the same charges and bond are . We were still going to be able to convict her of capital murder., The phone records corroborated a pivotal point in Charlies account of the murders. You know them family pictures that they print in movies and stuff? he said. The threesome picked Erin up at the end of her parents driveway and rode around for an hour, talking about what to do. I have worked with some good liars, but Erin was one of the best, said Lewis, who has nineteen years experience counseling juvenile offenders. She declined to meet with the Texas Ranger or Detective Almon, electing to make a written statement instead. Erin Caffey, 16, is an American teenage girl sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in Texas for her role in the deaths of her mother and two young brothers. At the sheriffs office that afternoon, she played dumb with the officers until they told her they had Waid and Wilkinson in custody, at which point she admitted what she knew. Then, all of a sudden, I started thinking, the children, the children.. Erin, she stammered. When the police arrested them all, she claimed to have been drugged and kidnapped. Nov. 5, 2021. Now nineteen, he looked impossibly young for someone who will never step beyond the guard towers and concertina wire again. When authorities tracked down Wilkinson and brought him in for questioning, they also found Erin in the trailer where he was staying. Life does go on. She couldnt have asked for a better mom or dad. Finally, they turned back toward the Caffey home and parked down the road. It wasnt easy at first in fact, he contemplated suicide briefly, according to Texas Monthly. Then I had something to live for, I had some hope, so I began to fight, he said. Caffey was born on July 27, 1991 to Terry Caffey and Penny Caffey. This is totally inappropriate, he told the boy, who shrugged. The investigation moved forward quickly on Saturday afternoon. In rural communities as small as Alba and Emory, there are no strangers, and Fischer shook his head when he heard Charlies name. And that's when I decided to -- it's time to move on. Were you involved in this? Fischer asked. Terry Caffey's daughter Erin made international headlines when she murdered her mother and two young brothers back in 2008. You want us to do what now? Booth asked, incredulous. The pastors wife, Rebecca McGahee, was deeply troubled by her demeanor later that month, when she sang at her grandfathers funeral. An avid hunter, he spent much of his time fishing and tracking wild hogs through the brush, and like most of his friends, he was proficient with a firearm. VISITING PRISON Once a month Terry travels to Gatesville, Texas and visits Erin in prison. After Erin Caffeys parents told her to break up with her boyfriend, Charlie Wilkinson, she suggested a dark plan: murdering them and her two younger brothers. If at any time she would have said, Well, were not going to do it after all, it never would have happened.. The days and weeks that followed, the grief, I cannot put it into words. I feel like for the most part I believe her, he replied. (On the weekends, they had until eleven.) He considered suicide several times. The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. But Erin was insistent. Accounts differ as to who, exactly, was the mastermind behind it, but Terry Caffey rebuffs the notion that it was his daughters idea. "The first few bullets hit her and then I raised up and I threw my body out and I took a few rounds in the upper body part and the chest and I got shot in the face. What I knew of Charlie, he seemed like a nice boy, said Pastor McGahee. Knowing everything he knew, I asked him, did he still love her? He had never been arrested, and at school, he had no serious disciplinary problemsbut he was hotheaded, and other students knew it was easy to get a rise out of him. The boys picked on her, Erin had said, and she didnt want them to be left in foster care. I want them, in this lifetime, to have a chance for remorse and to come to a place of repentance for what they have done. Further, Penny Caffey is the mother of Erin who plays the Piano in church. Some guys would really tease him and pick at him until he would get angry, remembered a classmate. Fischer drew his gun and commanded her to show him her hands, but she just stared at him. I wanted them to pay for what they did.". For a man who had been shot five times and climbed out the window of a burning house, he could consider himself lucky; he had a broken nose, two fractured cheekbones, and minor nerve damage in his right arm. According to Charlie, Johnson did not know what the boys plans were but had insisted on coming with them. Tom Ford. Im going to take all of the pain pills they gave meall the depression medication, the Xanax, everythingdrink me a bottle of Jim Beam, put a hose in the tailpipe of my daughters pickup, run it up to the window, and just fall asleep and not wake up again. ", "When you hold on to that un-forgiveness or that bitterness, it's like that person still has a part of you," he continued. He spoke first to Waid, who remained impassive, and then to Charlie. Erins desire to have her parents killed did not appear to be motivated by any mistreatment or trauma; her court-mandated psychological evaluation failed to point to any evidence of abuse in the Caffey home. Wilkinson even gave her a promise ring that had belonged to his grandmother and was open about his desire to marry her. They shoot and murder Terry and Penny Caffey, the parents, in their bed. I dont know why she wanted it done, why it had to be like that, but she was a very nice person. Weeks after the killings, when he was being held at the county jail on $1.5 million bond, he had been devastated to learn from his defense attorney that Erin had, in fact, asked a previous boyfriend to kill her parents too. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Charlie talked about Erin twenty-four-seven. Though the Caffeys would not allow Charlie to take Erin out alone, the two teenagers still managed to spend much of their time together. Caffeys mother Penny was shot, then stabbed with a samurai sword and almost decapitated. Wilkinson gave her a promise ring that belonged to his grandmother and told his friends they would marry, according to Killer Couples. Terry and Penny were fine with the relationship until Erin's grades started to slip and they took a closer look at Wilkinson, not liking what they found on his Myspace page. This was not the most brutal or cold-blooded case I had ever prosecuted, she told me. In an exclusive interview with KLTV 7, Waid's estranged wife talked about her disbelief in what her husband may have done. MurderpediaThe Caffey family, with Erin on the far right. . But the other three all immediately said she was the ringleader. 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