The father wasn't home, and he still visits the daughter. She cried one time when we were in my truck and I ran over a squirrel; shes tenderhearted. Erin Caffey has two brothers that are Mathew 13 years old and Tyler 8 years old. An instant later the teen opened fire, killing Terry's wife, his two sons, and wounding him 12 times, before setting the house ablaze. Terrance Michael Caffery (April 1, 1949 - August 3, 2022) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. WARNING: Graphic. . I'm still here. The days and weeks that followed, the grief, I cannot put it into words. He and his new wife also adopted three children. Charles Dickerson was the only officer on duty on March 1, 2008, when the call came into the Rains County sheriffs office just after four-thirty in the morning that there had been a shooting at the Caffey residence. If I could just get to my neighbours, Tommy and Helen, they would make everything alright. As Fischer continued down the hall, he saw that a blanket covered the empty door frame of one bedroom. Terry Caffey, who survived the murder attempt, visits the graves of his wife and two young sons. Terry and Penny Caffey were protectivesome said overly protectiveof their daughter. ", "When you hold on to that un-forgiveness or that bitterness, it's like that person still has a part of you," he continued. Nov. 5, 2021. Knowing everything he knew, I asked him, did he still love her? He did not care for Charlie, and he was not happy about how much time the high school senior was spending with his daughter. That same month, Erin Caffey started talking about killing her parents in front of friends. If he cant show me any respect, how does he treat our daughter?. When authorities tracked down Wilkinson and brought him in for questioning, they also found Erin in the trailer where he was staying. 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. When we pulled away from the house, she was happier than a kid on Christmas morning., One afternoon this spring, I visited Charlie at the Polunsky Unit, in Livingston, the imposing, maximum-security prison that is best known for housing death row. But nothing happened. Erin stood wide-eyed in her pajamas, bewildered, as she surveyed the room. It made me question a lot of things, Charlie said, his voice trailing off. Blood was coming out of my mouth, nose, eyes and ears. Terror by Night: The True Story of the Brutal Texas Murder That Destroyed a Family, Restored One Mans Faith, and Shocked a Nation. Charlie, who turned eighteen that month, wanted to be with Erin, and he promised to do whatever it took to make her happy. Terry Caffey was married to Julie C. (Lemoine) Caffey on September 7, 1976 in Lubbock County, Texas and they separated on August 17, 1983 in Gaines County. For an instant, he thought he had found a doll. I was so stubborn, I thought, Ill be darned if somebody is going to run me off of our property. Caffey and his wife believed Charlie, Erin's first boyfriend, was bad for her. Shortly after that he worked up the nerve to ask her out. I made my way through the window and just fell to the ground. Everyone knew everyone in Emory, so Waid and Johnson were also rounded up almost immediately. I spent days out there picking through the ashes. Killing her parents, Erin told Charlie, was their best option. Then they used their pocket lighters to set fire to furniture and clothes and bedsheets. 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. "And even though she didn't actually come in and commit the crime, she knows her responsibility that she could have stopped it and she didn't.". Why are you doing this?. Caffey has remarried and lives in Wills Point, Texas with his wife and two stepsons. Charlie might strike his desk or storm out of the classroom when he was provoked, but he usually walked away from a fight. Though it was not a formal proposal, he was declaring his intentions. 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. He needed somebody to lay down beside him at night who he could tell his troubles to. They said their vows in October at Miracle Faith, just a few feet from where Terrys wifes and sons caskets had rested seven months earlier. Terry and Penny had wanted to be closer to Miracle Faith, where they were then serving as the churchs youth ministers. Meanwhile, Wilkinson claimed that he had offered for him and Caffey to simply run away together, but Caffey insisted on the murders instead. As he was bleeding from his gunshot wounds, Caffey said he tried to get through the bedroom door and all he could see were flames and black smoke. Picture: Supplied When the police arrested them all, she claimed to have been drugged and kidnapped. Near the closet, he lifted up a blanket that was piled on the floor and noticed a shock of blond hair. When Caffey broke her phone curfew in February 2008, the Caffeys insisted that she end the relationship. No kids an angel, but I know what she is capable of, and I know shes not capable of murder., Erin told another version of her story to Israel Lewis, the mental health counselor who was hired to evaluate her for the defense. Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies. Charlie crept into Terry and Pennys first-floor bedroom and fired at them until his gun jammed. Erin Caffey, 16, and her father Terry Caffey . The two then went upstairs and murdered young Tyler and Matthew. I wanted them to die. Finally, they turned back toward the Caffey home and parked down the road. Sometime late in the night of Feb. 28, 2008, or early on March 1, Wilkinson and his friend, 22-year-old Charles Waid, stormed into the Caffey home while Erin and Waid's girlfriend, Bobbi Johnson, waited outside in the car. Terry found the visits agonizing, but he felt compelled to be in the presence of his only living child. I didnt want to grow into a bitter angry old man. Two guys broke into the Caffey house in Alba, Texas, on March 1, 2008, and went on a brutal killing spree, killing the mother, the two young children, and themselves. She needed to explain to him why prosecutors were asking the court to certify Erin as an adult. She couldnt have asked for a better mom or dad. He has since released a book called Terror by Night and is now happily remarried. 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. This is totally inappropriate, he told the boy, who shrugged. How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire. Erin had always been a very good kid; she always had a smile on her face. Does your company belong on our site? 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. Well, Id read the story countless times before, but I read it again and it was almost like I was there with Job. A Right-wing Cabal Took Over Odessas Municipal Government. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages. I have to forgive her., I was very angry, Caffey told Nightline. 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. In the living room, he found a camouflage-colored purse with a drivers license inside it belonging to Erin Caffey. They received a call en route that Erin was now a suspect and cuffed her. Somebody brought me a Bible and told me to read the book of Job. Here, the Caffey family is shown in an undated photo. Then they shoot younger brother Matthew, only 13, in the head. When I was at their house, that was what the family was like. The father, Terry, was a pastor. A semiautomatic handgun lay on the floor beside him. When Erin came home that afternoon, her father and mother were waiting for her in the living room. Their detailed accounts of the night were consistent with Charlies. She seemed confused, repeatedly telling the officers that she was fourteen years old. They were scared, and I could not stand to look at their faces, he 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. Then, they discovered Erin Caffey in the trailer where he was living, and she appeared to be in a state of shock. Terry Caffey suffered a broken nose, two fractured cheekbones, and minor nerve damage in his right arm. Bubba tried to put up a fight by kicking Charlie, and when he did, Waid, who was still downstairs, raised the .22, aimed at the balcony where the brothers stood, and shot Bubba in the face. They all gave similar accounts, with Erin serving as the driving force behind the killings. Spent shell casings lay scattered across the carpet, and next to the mattress sat a box of ammunition. Charlie Wilkinson was his daughters boyfriend, Caffey told the detective, and he and his wife had recently demanded that Erin stop seeing him. After Charlie was brought to the county jail, Fischer obtained a search warrant from the justice of the peace and returned to the trailer to collect any evidence that might tie Charlie to the crime scene. He played for the New England Whalers and the Calgary Cowboys of the World Hockey Association, as well as for the Chicago Black Hawks and the Minnesota North Stars of the National Hockey League between 1969 and 1976. Terry Caffey and Penny Caffey were husband and wife. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Terry Caffey. Terry Caffey lives in Wills Point, Texas, with his wife, Sonja, and their two sons, Blake and Tanner. Finally, they poured lighter fluid on the furniture and lit the house on fire. In November they each pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder. "I knew that's not what I wanted to do. Although accounts still differ on who was the mastermind Terry refuses to believe it was his daughter's idea a hideous plot was soon hatched. I felt someone kick me in the foot and heard heavy breathing. 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. Later that night, he told the detective, Waid dropped him and Erin off at the trailer, where they had sex. February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? Her accomplices were her boyfriend Charlie Wilkinson,. 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. I would never be able to honour my family if I let this destroy me. Despite all hed been through, he still believed in the forgiveness that his faith had taught him. She asked him to lunch last June, and they never ran out of things to talk about. He . I didn't want to grow into a bitter, angry old man. Terry found a good listener in Sonja Webb, a pretty divorce he met in the course of his work as a home health aide. January 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? She couldnt sing a lick.. 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. The Story Of Erin Caffey, The 16-Year-Old Who Convinced Her Boyfriend To Murder Her Entire Family. Its not something you can turn a switch on and everythings okay. In a timid, childlike voice that Sanders had to strain to hear, Erin spoke haltingly, offering few details. They then took turns stabbing him like a rag doll; they stabbed him to death. She needs to have it looked at., But Charlie was more bewildered by Erins behavior than bitter. He visits his daughter in prison every few months. An instant later the teen opened fire, killing Terry's wife, his two sons, and wounding him 12 times, before setting the house ablaze. Charlie Wilkinson and Erin Caffey's Dangerous Relationship Massacre of the Caffey Family The Trial And Sentencing Of Erin Caffey. Photograph by O. Rufus Lovett I. Charles Dickerson was the only officer on duty on March 1,. After the burial, Terry said that they saw disturbing sexual and alcohol abuse content on Erin's boyfriend's Myspace page. "The house is exploding, it's totally engulfed, and I'm forced back in the bedroom," Caffey said. I wanted them to have the chance to find remorse, he explained. A few days earlier wed found out what kind of character Charlie really was, with the drinking and the sex, and told her to break it off. Do you realize she is sixteen years old? 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