The tragic fate of the Caffey family was set in motion five months before they were killed, when Erin Caffey began dating 18-year-old Charlie Wilkinson. But Caffey said God showed him another way to deal with his grief. His gut was right. The father wasn't home, and he still visits the daughter. Tommy Gaston, the neighbor, said Monday that Terry Caffey was improving and should recover. Terry fell . I dont think Im going to make it, Caffey sputtered, straining to catch his breath. They fired a bullet in his 13-year-old son Matthew's face and stabbed 8-year-old Tyler to death in . She seemed totally sincere and genuine, and I would have put my license on the line to say that she was telling me the truth. Charlie told several friends that he intended to kill her parents. 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. Erin Caffey with her boyfriend, Charlie Wilkinson. He now travels the country preaching what he has become good at, forgiveness. I was angry at these two young men, the other young lady that drove the getaway car. If you live in relative isolation with a disapproving family you might find it difficult to explore life and express yourself. Here was someone who had dreamed up a scheme to murder her family and manipulated people into carrying out her plan. They stayed with her for five hours until she was released from the hospital, then offered to accompany her and her grandparents to the intensive care unit at the East Texas Medical Center in Tyler to see Erins father. Although it was a cold night, the 41-year-old was wearing a T-shirt, pajama bottoms, no shoes, and a single wet sock. Shining a Light on Abuse and Neglect in Homeschooling Environments Erin Caffey Erin Caffey (far right) was 16 years old when she made plans for her boyfriend and two of his friends to kill her family. And she said, Why are you asking me this? Finally I collapsed on their porch. On it were the words, Youre sovereign; Youre in control.. I want to go. 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. But to say shes not what she seems is the understatement of the century. Terry Caffey was shot five times, escaped a house fire, but his family didn't. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. Then, that fall, an incident at the junior high had upset Terry and Penny: A girl who had been showing interest in Erin had kissed her in the hallway. He made an hour-long crawl to his nearest neighbors home to call for help and soon authorities were on their way. Charlie had broken into the house and shot Caffey and his family as they slept. If I was sitting on my jury, I would have stuck the needle in my arm, he told me. 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. But that hope would be short-lived because just within half an hour of finding out she was alive, my sister came to me and told me [Erin] had been arrested and had been charged with murder.. And it wasn't until I was able to forgive that I began to experience peace and happiness again.". "The house is exploding, it's totally engulfed, and I'm forced back in the bedroom," Caffey said. Life does go on. I was just angry. Johnson, who is serving a forty-year sentence, recalled how Charlie had repeatedly asked Erin to consider running away as the group had driven around before the murders. Her parents decided to take to the internet to learn more about this bad-news boyfriend. Theyre all gone, Caffey told the sheriffs deputy, his voice breaking. And I was blown out of bed," he said. "Then I had something to live for, I had some hope, so I began to fight," he said. 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. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. But once she began to date Charlie she changed considerably. Erin Caffey was convicted of three counts of capital murder and will not be eligible for parole until she is 59 years old. Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. She asked him to lunch last June, and they never ran out of things to talk about. Webbs boysBlake, who is seventeen, and Tanner, who is ninebear a passing resemblance to Bubba and Tyler. After the killing spree, Charlie told the detective, he had carried a suitcase of Erins belongings, which she had previously packed, out to the car. It wasnt easy at first in fact, he contemplated suicide briefly, according to Texas Monthly. If you love me, youll do it. (Explaining her own inability to put the brakes on the plan, Johnson said, I just wanted to go home, but Charlie said it was too late, that I was already involved. Terry Caffey lives in Wills Point, Texas, with his wife, Sonja, and their two sons, Blake and Tanner. The family lived in a cabin in rural Alba, TX, with a population of just under 500 people. As a juvenile, Erin could not be taken directly to the sheriffs office for questioning, and so she appeared that afternoon before a justice of the peace. He knows Im innocent. I cried every time I left her jail cell., Only after learning the details of the criminal investigation did Lewis realize that Erin had been manipulating him. terry caffey today remarried. Erin Caffey, a 16-year-old from Alba, Texas, met 18-year-old Charlie Wilkinson at her part-time job at Sonic, a fast food joint. 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. After emergency surgery, Terry was stable enough to talk, and he told sheriff's deputies that he was certain one of the attackers was Wilkinson. Worst of all, as far as Erin was concerned, Charlies weekly visits to the house were suspended. He and his new wife also adopted three children. In November they each pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder. There were just things about him that didnt sit right with me, he later said. Erin Caffey being interviewed by Piers Morgan for his show. "About 3:00 in the morning, Penny and I would be awoken to the sound of our door knob hitting our dryer in the laundry room, which was next to our bedroom," Terry tells The 700 Club. Caffey, you can go home now, Terry told me when I visited him this spring. The Caffey childrenwho had been homeschooled for three yearswere shy and well mannered, though sixteen-year-old Erin was the least reserved. Erin Caffey consequently hatched a murderous plot with Charlie Wilkinson and his friend Charles Waid. Why did a small-town girl have her family brutally murdered? I was so stubborn, I thought, Ill be darned if somebody is going to run me off of our property. I put my RV right on the spot where my house once stood, and I stayed out there about four months. Terry Caffey. Terry Caffey, his wife Penny, and their children, Tyler, Matthew 'Bubba' and Erin (Family Handout/ABC ) A Texas man who is the only survivor of a cold-blooded home invasion that left his wife. It's time to enjoy life again. But why? Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. The phone calls, she told her father, were to dissuade Charlie from coming at all. Wilkinson told investigators that he had initially encouraged Erin to run away from home, but she told him, No I want my mom and dad killed, according to police interview audio featured on Killer Couples., All four were charged with three counts of capital murder, and prosecutors initially sought the death penalty against Wilkinson and Waid. I mean, for what? Almon clambered out of the ambulance and shared what he had learned with chief deputy Kurt Fischer. "When nothing in life makes sense, God is good all the time. 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. A mountain biker is mauled by a mountain lion, and a hotel receptionist goes into fight mode to survive a brutal attack by a man posing as a guest. In her flower-print pajamas, with her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, she seemed sweet and guileless. Password recovery. The Caffey family, with Erin on the far right. One night not long afterward, Charlie pulled his car over on a country road, knelt on the pavement, and presented Erin with his grandmothers engagement ring. Pulling the blanket back, he shone his flashlight inside. I wanted them to have the chance to find remorse, he explained. Google Universal Analytics short-time unique user tracking identifier. Charlie also began attending church at Miracle Faith. A former special-ed student with a heavy-lidded gaze, Waid showed no remorse, and he casually recounted how he had killed the two boys. Caffey is serving a minimum of 42 years and wont be eligible for parole until shes 59. (On the weekends, they had until eleven.) I didn't want to grow into a bitter, angry old man. To the astonishment of many of his closest friends, he remarried last year. Caffey and three co-defendants are all accused of killing her mother Penny Caffey and her brothers Matthew and Tyler Caffey, before setting the family's house on fire in Emory. I dont care, she reportedly said, just do what you gotta do.. Penny noticed the ring on Erins finger a few days later at a church function and ordered her to give it back. Rebecca sensed that something was spiritually wrong with the girl. They also had two sons: Matthew, known as Bubba, who was in the seventh grade, and Tyler, a fourth-grader. Spent shell casings lay scattered across the carpet, and next to the mattress sat a box of ammunition. Terry, who shares a warm relationship with his stepsons, says that, like Job, he has been doubly blessed for never faltering in his faith in God. According to Charlie, Johnson did not know what the boys plans were but had insisted on coming with them. I couldnt have got up if Id wanted to. When I look back on it now, this was all just stupid. He has, thus far, chosen to accept the story line she has provided him: She was planning on running away that night, but then she changed her mind. Johnson, who had recently played a minor role in the Rains High School production of Oklahoma!, seemed to be in high spirits. . 28 - Apr. Perhaps the most surreal moment of our interview came when she sang Amazing Grace, pitch-perfect. The threesome picked Erin up at the end of her parents driveway and rode around for an hour, talking about what to do. They received a call en route that Erin was now a suspect and cuffed her. But the teenage Christian ended up masterminding the evil murder of her own family after she was barred by her parents from dating a boy they thought unsuitable. And that's when I decided to -- it's time to move on. "I just couldn't imagine him doing something like that," said Waid's wife. Terrys father had died of a heart attack on February 21, and though none of the Caffeys had been close to him, they performed Amazing Grace in his honor. Terry has forgiven his daughter. For a moment, Fischer heard only dead silence on the other end of the line. He was totally in love with her and considered her his soul mate, Dion Kipp Jr., a friend of Charlies, later told investigators. I made it about halfway and just wanted to die. The days and weeks that followed, the grief, I cannot put it into words. I showed him photos of the suitcase that Erin had packed and the burned-out lockbox that was open to the combination that she had given Charlie. Throughout the fall, Charlie visited the Sonic to see Erin. Terry fell into deep depression and planned to kill himself, but God intervened. The hardest thing [was] to hear that. He pushed the hair aside to get a better look and watched, dumbfounded, as two eyes opened. 16 year old Erin Caffey made her first appearance before a Rains County Judge Monday. She couldnt have asked for a better mom or dad. She needed to explain to him why prosecutors were asking the court to certify Erin as an adult. I want us to walk away, arm in arm, and never look back," Caffey said. Her accomplices were her boyfriend Charlie Wilkinson,. 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. He always seemed to be broke, and he drove a beat-up 1991 Ford Explorer that had to be push-started. 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. Terry Caffey previously told Nightline what happened that night. The kids were homeschooled, Terry was training to be a minister, and a Bible verse was etched into a wooden sign hanging above their driveway. A similar case happened in Italy a few years back. Then I heard Bubba cry out, Charlie why are you doing this? So thats who I had just seen Charlie, Erins boyfriend. Boys often came to Miracle Faith just to see her, and several of them credited her with bringing them closer to Jesus. Charlie told the detective that when he and Waid were satisfied that Erins parents were dead, Waid instructed him to go get the kids because little ones talk. Charlie had balked, and Waid, in return, threatened to leave. She spoke with tears in her eyesGod will save me. When I was at their house, that was what the family was like. I remember trying to raise myself up but I couldnt feel the right side of my body. Today, he is remarried and visits with his daughter, Erin Caffey, in prison. His dad worked at a paper mill outside Dallas. Wilkinson even gave her a promise ring that had belonged to his grandmother and was open about his desire to marry her. Can you tell me what happened? Fischer asked. He has since released a book called Terror by Night and is now happily remarried. I want them to wake up every day and think about what they took and hopefully one day they will find remorse in their hearts. Erin Caffey today, seven years after the event that left her mother and brothers dead and her father gravely wounded on March 1, 2018, at the family's home in Alba. Four suspects have been arrested and charged with the murders of the Caffey family. Fischer walked from room to room, stepping over piles of dirty clothes and empty beer cans as he went, startling Waid and his girlfriend from their sleep. Sergeant Vance had interviewed the boy whom Erin was caught kissing at Miracle Faith, and he had told the Texas Ranger that Erin had spoken to him about her desire to have them killedseveral months before she had started dating Charlie. Wilkinson, however, was openly heartbroken and angry, according to Killer Couples. And friends of Erin told Texas Monthly that the same month, Erin started talking about killing her parents. 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