From left are Matthew, Terry, Tyler, Penny and Erin. Above their driveway hung a polished cedar plank with the inscription: The CaffeysJoshua 24:15. The verse, which Terry had committed to memory, was a reminder that they had chosen a righteous path: If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve . We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. And yet, after Terry had seen every last piece of evidence, he continued to visit Erin and never wavered in his support, standing beside his daughter at each court appearance holding her hand. It was a question that preoccupied him more than his doubts about her innocence. Life does go on., This article originally appeared in The Sun. . None of the four involved were drunk or had taken drugs on the night of the murders. She gushed innocence, remembered a co-worker (who, like many teenagers interviewed for this story, asked to remain anonymous). Charlie told several friends that he intended to kill her parents. 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. That is where I found Penny. 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. Erin's story fell apart while she was on her way to see her dad in a hospital in nearby Tyler, along with her grandparents and sheriff's deputies. Finally, they poured lighter fluid on the furniture and lit the house on fire. I wanted them to die. Charlie hung his head and was quiet. He always seemed to be broke, and he drove a beat-up 1991 Ford Explorer that had to be push-started. I want to get Erin. At church functions, Erin was aloof and distracted. Items related to Terror by Night: The True Story of the Brutal Texas. Im here. If you live in relative isolation with a disapproving family you might find it difficult to explore life and express yourself. Knowing everything he knew, I asked him, did he still love her? I still long for the day when I know what was hurting her bad enough to make such a decision., Erin declined my interview requests, but the three other defendants each agreed to sit down with me and revisit the early morning of March 1, 2008. She had always taken pride in how she looked, but then she began to slip and she became disrespectful towards Penny. 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. Their detailed accounts of the night were consistent with Charlies. He told sheriffs deputies that it was Charlie Wilkinson. An instant later the teen opened fire, killing Terry's wife, his two sons, and wounding him 12 times, before setting the house ablaze. as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Their children also shared their devotion. It's time to forgive. Charlie went upstairs and told the boys to come out of Erins room and go to their beds. They werent beating me, they werent starving me to death. Her belief was that it was the only way she could be with Wilkinson. It was her idea, he said. She was, he recounted, still pretty pissed off about her parents telling us we could not see each other. Once again, she told him that she wanted them dead. He made an hour-long crawl to his nearest neighbors home to call for help and soon authorities were on their way. Wilkinson would later tell investigators that he warned Erin that he would have to kill her younger brothers in order to leave no witnesses. As Wilkinson and Waid did the killing the girls waited in a car. "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. The father wasn't home, and he still visits the daughter. Her brothers had already reenrolled that fall after Bubba, who was thirteen, told them that he missed his friends, and the Caffeyswho were eager to free up time for Penny to earn some extra incomeagreed to let Erin go back before Christmas. And she said, Why are you asking me this? At 3:00 a.m. on March 1, 2008, Terry Caffey awoke to find his daughter's boyfriend standing in his bedroom with a gun. . I threw my arm across Penny, and took shots in my arm and face which blew me out of bed and knocked me out. But Erinwhose jubilant singing often brought parishioners to their feetturned in a listless, halfhearted performance. Before the family left for Bible study, Erin promised that she would end things with Charlie. 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. They fired a bullet in his 13-year-old son Matthew's face and stabbed 8-year-old Tyler to death in . I watched the "Final Witness" on ABC on Sept 14, 2010. He says he wanted to die until he found out that his daughter was alive. At daybreak, the fire was still smoldering. After the burial, Terry said that they saw disturbing sexual and alcohol abuse content on Erin's boyfriend's Myspace page. MurderpediaThe Caffey family, with Erin on the far right. If he cant show me any respect, how does he treat our daughter?. I would get on my hands and knees and just dig. She was taken to the juvenile detention center in Greenville, where she was held on charges of capital murder. The ambulance was about to pull away from Tommy Gastons house when sheriffs investigator Richard Almon, who had hurried to the scene, climbed inside. I dont know whats wrong with her head, he said. Article continues below advertisement Watch Killer Women with Piers Morgan tonight at 8 p.m. on Investigation Discovery (ID). He and his new wife also adopted three children. Almon clambered out of the ambulance and shared what he had learned with chief deputy Kurt Fischer. She seemed happy, he remembered. From then on, the Caffeys limited Erins time with Charlie to once a week, in their home, under their watch. They entered through the front door, which Erin had left open. I wanted them to pay, especially those two boys. 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. The website cannot function properly without these cookies. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. Caffey was the sole survivor of the March 1, 2008, attack, ostensibly planned by. 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. Due to the town's small size, the family was well-known in the community, specifically for their faith. The only survivors were 16-year-old Erin Caffey and her father, Terry Caffey, who was shot multiple times before the two intruders set the house on fire. It was Fischer, calling to inform Sanders that Erin had been implicated in the Caffey murders and she needed to be placed under arrest. For the many people who puzzled over his loyalty, there were many others, in the pews of Miracle Faith and elsewhere, who understood it as the scriptural imperative of unconditional love. Theyre all gone, Caffey told the sheriffs deputy, his voice breaking. Read More. terry caffey today remarried. Charlie Wilkinson and Erin Caffey's Dangerous Relationship Massacre of the Caffey Family The Trial And Sentencing Of Erin Caffey. She needs to have it looked at., But Charlie was more bewildered by Erins behavior than bitter. Terry maintained a relationship with his daughter for years after the massacre. The pair then headed upstairs to where Tyler and Matthew were hiding. The Slaughter Of The Caffey Family Unearthed A Dark Love Affair, Serena Booth: Erin Caffey, Charlie Wilkinson Had Time To Change Their Minds, Terry Caffey's Shock At Learning The Murders Were Erin's Fault. Murderpedia Juan Ignacio Blanco MALE murderers index by country index by name ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ FEMALE murderers index by country index by name Twice a week, Terry made the trip to Greenville to see his daughter. But that morning, the two officers felt only pity for the soft-spoken girl who had just lost her mother and two brothers. She had wanted to break things off with Charlie for a while, she tearfully confessed, but had not been sure how. My only thought was, god make it quick. His dad worked at a paper mill outside Dallas. Nov. 5, 2021. I consent to the use of following cookies: Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. I wanted them to have the chance to find remorse, he explained. ABC's new TV series, "Final Witness," recreates the 2008 tragedy Wednesday at 10 p.m. Google Universal Analytics long-time unique user tracking identifier. He fell to the floor and did not move again. I dont care, she reportedly said, just do what you gotta do.. The pair met while Caffey was working part-time as a waitress at a Sonic fast-food joint, and the relationship got serious pretty quickly. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Terry cried a lot and kept asking, Why? He said, I dont understand. They drove down back roads for a while to blow off steam. More and more she and her mother were at odds, and Erin once called Charlie in tears to report that Penny had slapped her in the heat of an argument. You want us to do what now? Booth asked, incredulous. At the suggestion of Detective Almon, she was interviewed in the hospitals trauma room by Shanna Sanders, the young, personable chief of police for the Rains Independent School District who was on a first-name basis with most of the high schools students. He was totally in love with her and considered her his soul mate, Dion Kipp Jr., a friend of Charlies, later told investigators. Erin Caffey being interviewed by Piers Morgan for his show. Pulling the blanket back, he shone his flashlight inside. Terry found the visits agonizing, but he felt compelled to be in the presence of his only living child. On March 1, 2008, two men broke into the Caffey home in Alba, Texas, and set out on a horrific killing spree that left two young children and their mother dead. "When nothing in life makes sense, God is good all the time. He had met Erin at the Sonic a few weeks before the start of his senior year, having just returned home from boot camp at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, with his Texas National Guard unit. However, he still visits Erin in prison in Greenville, according to ABC News. You could not have paid her to say anything negative about her parents, he said. In rural communities as small as Alba and Emory, there are no strangers, and Fischer shook his head when he heard Charlies name. She had him around her finger, pretty much, said a girl who was a senior at the time. May 13, 2016 11:27am. This is an excerpt from Texas Monthly:Flesh & Blood http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/flesh-and-blood They met at a sonic fast food joint where Erin was working as a waitress. She was too young to have a baby, she said, and as long as her parents were alive, she and Charlie would have to be apart. But nothing happened. Dickerson realized that he was looking at the Caffey home. Along the way, he had fallen into a creek, where he had almost drowned, but he had kept moving, staggering toward Gastons house as the fire behind him grew more intense. She had woken up in a house full of smoke, she said. When the gun jammed, Waid broke out a samurai-style sword and finished Penny off with it, nearly severing her head, according to Texas Monthly. 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. 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