It was the horror moment that sentenced her to a lifetime of suffering.
Charity Lee screamed as she was told her beloved four-year-old daughter had been ferociously stabbed to death in her own bed.
And the killer was no stranger - it was her own 13-year-old son who wanted to punish her by taking away her only children.
Twelve years on, Piers Morgan comes face to face with twisted killer Paris Bennett and discovers this horror story has an extraordinary twist - Charity has forgiven her son and even visits him in prison.
With an IQ of 141, evil Bennett qualifies as a genius - less than a quarter of one per cent of the world's population has that level of intelligence.
On that fateful night when Charity was at work in bar, Paris, from Abilene, a town in rural Texas, persuaded their babysitter to go home and then calmly murdered his little sister.
He stabbed her 17 times with a kitchen knife after beating and choking her.
Now 25, Paris, a self confessed psychopath, who was handed a 40 year jail term, is eligible for parole in a few years spoke to Piers for for ITV - he then wrote about the chilling chat for the Mail On Sunday.
Mum Charity, who has a six-year-old son Pheonix, tells Piers: "If Paris had killed me as he originally intended, I'd have only suffered for a brief few moments. But by killing Ella instead, he knew he was sentencing me to a lifetime of suffering."
Describing why he killed his sister, Paris chillingly says: "For many years, there was just this hot, flaming ball of wrath in the pit of my stomach and it was directed at my mother."
Piers, who describes Paris as "smirking" is shocked when the killer can't answer a question about loving his mother but says he loves his sister who died at his own hands.
Explaining why she forgave her son - Charity says "as a parent, I've always believed you give your children unconditional love" and explains he has a "mental health issue".
Astonishingly Piers finds although Charity visits her son and has forgiven him, she lives in terror if he is ever released he will kill her or her young son.
She confesses: "I'm afraid of Paris still, but it's possible to love him and forgive him and still be afraid of him."
- Psychopath is on ITV1 on Thursday at 9pm.
