When the 16-year-old Erin Caffey was asked by her parents to stop seeing her 18-year-old boyfriend, Charlie Wilkinson, she decided that the only way out was to get her entire family killed. The horrific mass murder shocked the entire nation in 2008.
Erin lived in Alba, Texas, with her parents, Penny and Terry, and two brothers, 8-year-old Tyler and 13-year-old Matthew. The family was devout Christians and part of the Miracle Faith Baptist Church, where all five of them contributed to the choir as musicians and singers. However, when Erin met Wilkinson at a Sonic fast-food restaurant while working as a part-time waitress, things quickly changed.
Wilkinson was a rebellious teen, and his social media was full of sexual references, talk of drinking alcohol, and similar stuff. Erin had also begun falling behind in school since meeting him, and her parents had reservations about her relationship from the beginning. But when the 16-year-old began rebelling and broke her “phone curfew” in Feb. 2008, she was strictly asked to end the relationship.
Erin did not take it well, and she began plotting the murder of her entire family to be with Wilkinson. While the latter claims that he suggested that Erin simply run away with him, she insisted on carrying out the horrible crime.
The horrific mass murders
So, on March 1, 2008, Wilkinson and his friend Charles Waid entered the Caffey household while Erin and Waid’s girlfriend waited in the car. The two first entered Erin’s parents’ room and shot multiple times at the sleeping couple with a .22 pistol. Waid also used a samurai-style sword on Penny, which left her almost decapitated.
Wilkinson and Waid then headed to Erin’s brothers’ room upstairs and shot the 8-year-old Tyler in the face. The two then brutally killed Matthew using the sword before proceeding to loot the house as Wilkinson had promised to pay his friend $2000 for helping him with the murders.
Finally, they lit the house on fire using lighter fluid on the furniture and escaped the place along with their girlfriends waiting in the car. However, the fire caused Terry to gain consciousness, and he escaped the burning house by crawling out of the window. He soon reached a neighbor’s house, and authorities were immediately called.
Terry’s miraculous survival and the culprits’ conviction
As Terry was miraculously saved after an emergency surgery, he testified to the whole ordeal. Less than 24 hours after authorities were alerted to the murders, all four suspects were in police custody. Desperate to save her own, Erin shifted all the blame to Wilkinson and said she was kidnapped. But her story soon fell apart, and she was tried as an adult despite being a minor at the time.
While prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for Wilkinson and Waid, Terry was the one who requested otherwise, since he wanted to follow the Christian teachings of forgiveness despite all they did to him and his family. All four of the culprits were then charged with three counts of capital murder each. Terry also continues to speak to his daughter, but has since remarried and has four children.
