The macabre story of the angelic young woman who killed her family

They discovered her under a duvet. I was in my pajamas. She looked disoriented, as if she were lost. I was sobbing. Where am I?, he asked in a childish voice that baffled the police officers. She told them that she was 14 years old. He also said that he woke up when his house was on fire and so on They had kidnapped her.

It was all a lie. Erin Caffeywho was actually a 16-year-old teenager, had been architect of a plan as perverse as it is macabre. He had organized the cold-blooded murder of his entire family. Motivated by a whim, she wanted to get rid of them all. And, in part, she had succeeded.

The perfect family

When Penny and Terry Caffey They soon met at a Garland Baptist Church meeting. they fell in love. They felt they were perfect for each other and immediately decided to face life together. Erin was born first, then Mathew and Tyler. They were building the family they had always dreamed of. To the world they were the perfect family.

As a child, the girl was diagnosed attention disorder. This made them cuddle her excessively, controlling her at every step. She was daddy’s girlthe light in Terry’s eyes and his care became almost extreme.

Seeking peace, when their children were young, they decided to move to a quiet rural area of ​​Texas, United States, between the cities of Alba and Emory. Always close to their faith, everyone had a very active participation in Miracle Faith, the church they attended.

There, in the choir, Erin stood out with her soft yet powerful voice. Every time she sang, the faithful seemed transported to paradise itself.

However, that aura that surrounded her in the temple did not protect her in life. For sexual accident that she fathered at her school, Penny and Terry decided to take her out and change the family’s lifestyle. From that moment on, the three children were educated at home.

His mother was a teacher. All the content that was passed to them was linked to religion and the Bible. Erin received special attention. Her parents believed this was the best way to help the teenager and her siblings.

A conflicting love

The tragic fate of the Caffey family was set in motion five months before the cruel murder, when the teenager met Charlie Wilkinsona troubled young man who lived in the area.

In 2007, Erin turned 16. To make her feel responsible, they let her Start to work. So, halfway through the year, he got a position Drive-in sound, a fast food restaurant. Their job was to get the food to the cars of those who purchased it.

One of those customers was Charlie, he was two years older than her and had a gift that wasn’t the most convenient. But yours messy appearance and its casual attitude He seduced her instantly. That rebellion was what she admired. What she aspired to.

The young man lived with his father, stepmother and two stepbrothers near the teenager’s home. He did not carry out regular activities. He simply liked fishing. AND hunting.

Even though they didn’t have the approval of Erin’s family, they married. They shared many hours a day. And when they didn’t see each other, they called each other. Otherwise they maintained a symbiotic bond.

They felt like soul mates. Since her parents wouldn’t let them go out, the relationship grew through their meetings during Erin’s work breaks and the afternoons they shared at the Caffey house. The young man also attended church meetings.

Gradually they obtained some permissions, including that of going out to eat together. During one of those outings, and soon after they met, Charlie organized a commitment ceremony. On a country road he stopped the car, knelt down and gave her an old ring from his grandmother. He wanted to share her whole life with her.

As soon as Erin returned home, her mother immediately saw the ring on her daughter’s hand. He ordered him to return it.. For her part, Terry told Charlie that it was madness to propose an engagement to a girl who was only 16 years old.

From then on they returned to limit the time Erin could have spent with Charlie. They could only be together once a week at her house and under the watchful eye of her parents.

This decision only angered the teenager. The discussions were endless. Every day was real nightmare Inside the house.

As if all this wasn’t enough, while investigating Charlie’s virtual activities, the Caffeys uncovered sinister details. Your page my space It was full of sexual content and talked about alcohol consumption.

February 2008 arrived. For five months family life had become an endless struggle. Erin and Charlie’s relationship had destroyed the peace in which they lived.

He no longer attended church. She stopped singing in the choir. This distressed her parents beyond measure. Controlling his movements had become part of her daily life.

Finally, tired, They asked him to end the relationship. Incredibly for them, Erin not only did not oppose the request but also assured that she herself would put an end to it.

It was all a stage show anyway. That was the beginning of the horror. Things were about to explode.

“Do what you have to do”

Erin wanted to be free and experience her love fully, without conditions. But there was only one problem that stood between her desire and her reality: her family. Here because decided to kill them.

He told Charlie his plan. And together they organized everything to be able to make it happen.

It was almost midnight February 28th. Winter was ending but the cold was still intense. The young man arrived with a couple of friends, Charles Allen Waid (20) and his partner Bobbi Gale Johnson (18) in his car. They parked in the driveway of Erin’s house.

When they wanted to enter the house, the dogs wouldn’t let them. They spoke on the phone with Erin several times. She promised to calm the animals.

Finally, at almost two in the morning on March 1, he managed to get out and hide from the car. Before entering the house, Charlie told his girlfriend that he would have to kill her brothers too so as not to leave witnesses. Coldly, Erin replied, “I don’t care. Do what you have to do.”

The two young men entered the house. They had weapons and, most surprisingly, two samurai swords.

Charlie went to Terry and Penny’s room. They were both asleep. He shot them with a .22 caliber pistol. After receiving several bullets that failed to kill him, the man saw his wife die while he was at her side, injured, unable to speak or move.

Penny, after shooting her, was shot by Waid. beheaded.

The assassins went up. Upstairs Mathew and Tyler were hiding. The father of the family heard one of his sons shout: «No, Charlie. No. Why are you doing this?. At that moment she knew who was responsible for the massacre. The boys are dead too.

Charlie then took the suitcase Erin had packed and carried it to the car. According to him, when he saw her she seemed happy: “I’m happy… it’s all over!” she would have told him.

The young people have returned home. They stole the money that was in the wallets – about $375 – and set it on fire.

Horror after horror

The house was filling with smoke. The flames devoured everything in their path. Terry was seriously injured, he had been shot six times. I knew I had to get out. But I felt I couldn’t do it. With enormous effort he managed to cross the room. He got to the bathroom and managed to climb through the window leak.

For more than an hour he crawled as best he could along the almost 300 meters that separated him from the nearest house. Along the way there was evidence of the blood he was losing.

As soon as he reached the porch of the nearby house, his neighbors helped him and called emergency services. It was after 4 in the morning. “Everyone’s gone. “Charlie Wilkinson shot my family.”he managed to say before passing out.

The harsh reality

Just three hours later, Authorities arrested Charlie Wilkinson, Charles Waid and Bobbi Johnson. Erin was found hiding under a quilt in an old blue trailer that belonged to Waid’s older brother. She said she didn’t know where she was. She that she had been taken from her house during the fire and brought there.

They took her to the hospital. Until that moment she too was considered a victim. But it didn’t last long. Authorities noted that her pajamas did not smell of smoke. AND The other three inmates did not hesitate to incriminate her and indicate that it had all been his idea. They had exposed her.

She was transported to the Greenville Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of murder. Of the murder of his own family.

“I was shocked, angry and hurt, he was supposed to be the man for the rest of my life and he loved me,” the young woman told British journalist Piers Morgan for the Netflix series “Murderous Women” some time later. .

“We would have gotten married (…). When I look back, everything seems stupid. So that?! They didn’t beat me, they didn’t starve me (…)”, she said speaking of her parents.

A few days later, Terry was discharged. But I had nowhere to go. His wife and children were dead, his house was just a mountain of ash. AND His daughter, the apple of his eye, was responsible for everything.. From then on, and for years, she slept on the couch at her sister’s house.

The punishments

In October 2008, Wilkinson and Waid were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They could have been convicted death penalty. But Terry himself saved them, his own victim. “I wanted them to have a chance to find repentance,” she said, demonstrating her faith.

In January of the following year, Bobbi Johnson and Erin were convicted of murder. Johnson was given two concurrent 40-year sentences, he will be out in 24 years.

Erinfor her part, she was sentenced to two life sentences and will have to spend at least 40 years behind bars. He could be paroled at 59. Today she is 30 years old.

Unconditional love

Terry Caffey has remarried at Miracle Faith, that church where he had been so happy, with Sonja Webb, a divorced woman. Today he lives with his new wife’s two children.

He was ordained as a minister and told his tragic story in his book “Terror in the Night” and dedicates himself to giving speeches on forgiveness.

And he himself is the best example of this. Once a month he travels three hours to Gatesville, the prison where Erin is held, to see and chat with her. I forgive her. She was always the apple of his eye..