On the night of March first, two thousand and eight, two men forced their way into a quiet home in Alba, Texas, and by the time their rampage ended, three members of the Kaffe family, a devoted mother and her two young sons, were dead. The only survivors were sixteen year old Aaron Caffey and her father, Terry Caffey. This is the terrifying story of the Kaffe family massacre.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcasting. The following podcast material intended for a mature audience listener discretion.
Shout out to Michelle. Michelle Freeman, you suggested this case over on Patreon so caught my attention. Here we are, we're doing it today.
I recognize that name you do.
I do. Michelle has been around for a little while and been quite awesome, especially now that we're getting cases here. You're definitely doing your due diligence and helping us out. So thank you so much. Okay, we have coffee in hand. We hope you have a drink in your hand too, because this is going to be an interesting case and I'm curious what your guys' thoughts are going to be on this one because there is an open end kind of at the end of this story. Oh, okay, it's a solved case.
Okay, that was gonna be a question I had.
It's a solved case. But some people think something else and some people think something else. And someone claimed something and someone claimed something else. It's there's two sides to this coin on which you think it could or could not be.
Well, I mean, I'm sure there's many cases that they say is solved, but it is wrong, right.
Yes, potentially, And that's that's what's happening here is the individual who was one of the individuals who was convicted claims they were not really responsible for it.
Well, ding dang. Wasn't there the one recently where the person, Oh I can't even remember, they claimed like it was a documentary that you would watch where they claimed they didn't do it.
Oh, was it the dad or yeah? There was a father was yeah name and.
He said that he was set up or something.
Yeah, I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but yeah he was. He was he was over from Egypt and he immigrated into North America, had a family, had daughters and then yeah, it was like kind of really running their life and stuff, and he ended up killing his his two daughters in the backseat of the car.
Yeah, and wasn't me.
Yeah, it wasn't me.
It wasn't me.
It wasn't me. His name was not Shaggy though. But yeah, do you have anything we need to cover today? We've got a lot of snow. I know that's covering us.
Yeah, holy shit, is it ever?
And hopefully you guys, if you're living in the US, hopefully I had a great Thanksgiving. Hopefully you're going to survive your Black Friday and get all those deals and get the good stuff.
Well we get to like we piggyback on those deals.
We do.
Yeah, So, like I've already done a little bit, which there's more I want to do, but I'm like, hold the phone.
Well, the thing is, you need to have some self control, which I am not very good for. So do not say I'm practice what I preach, not do as I say, not as I do. How's that before I say anything? You need to have self control and try and just like you know, purchase what you need to get rather than what you want. Of course, throwing once some once once in a while.
It is a good time though, to do like Christmas shop ready to get like some good deals and for gifts and stuff.
So definitely it's just really easy to, you know, buy unnecessary things this time of year, which I definitely have a habit of doing. I'm not gonna lie.
I did buy a Canucks jersey. You did, so that's pretty exciting.
Well, I mean, it wasn't a Black Friday deal, but I bought a mini hockey stick and then to go with it, I had to have a mini hockey goalie stick.
That was not a Black Friday sale in the last.
No, but it was an impulse by that I did not need to do.
And Ben like make sure you don't go overboard in here.
Yeah. So I'm well, that's what I'm saying. I'm not the best at it myself.
I don't even know where those are going to go in our home, but figure that out.
They're gonna go in my hand playing mini hockey with the dogs in the hallway of our tiny home.
Oh boy, yep.
Anyways, we digress. Let's get into this case, shall we h. So this is a story of the Kaffe family masker. As I mentioned, at the beginning now the Kaffee family. They were well known and beloved reve residents of Alba, Texas. And now this is a rural town with a population of just over five hundreds. It's a little tiny town and it's nestled in the woods of East Texas, about forty five minutes northwest of Tyler. The Caffes lived on a serene stretch of land surrounded by tall trees in
thick brush. At the heart of their property stood a modest log cabin accessible by a single gravel driveway. Penny Caffe was the mother of the family. She was dedicating herself to homeschooling her three children, Aaron, the oldest, Matthew effectually known as Bubba, and the youngest Tyler. Penny was an active member of the Miracle Faith Baptist Church, where
she played piano during Sunday services. Her husband, Terry, worked as a home health aid and served as a lay preacher, which is a preacher who's not officially ordained, so it's basically playing that role, but he's not officially ordained as one. So the family's oldest child, Aaron, was known for her striking blonde hair, an exceptional singing voice, which often brought
church congregations to tears. At sixteen years old, Aaron performed gospel solos on Sundays, captivating the audience with her raw emotion as she sang. In fact, it wasn't uncommon for her to actually pause mid performance that went from singing to collect herself because she's like overcome with like the lyrics and the emotion of the song and everything, so she'd like pause during her performance, collect herself and then keep going, oh wow, like super passionate, very much so.
And outside of church and schoolwork, Erin worked at a local sonic drive in. She was actually known for like going out in like roller skating, orders up to like cars and stuff which nice didn't happen like all that often and everything, but she was one that did go do it now. Aaron's brothers, Matthew and Tyler, were quiet but polite boys. Matthew was in seventh grade and Tyler was in the fourth. They were inseparable and adored by
their parents. Among the three siblings, Erin was the most outgoing, though she remained very deeply influenced by her family's faith centered lifestyle. So she's quite outgoing, but you know still that that church girl. You know, faith was, if you haven't guessed by now, the cornerstone of the Caffe household. Wednesdays were reserved for Bible study and Sundays were dedicated
to church for Terry and Penny. Their shared beliefs had been a foundation for their relationship since meeting at their revival service in Garland, Texas, when Penny was just twenty one and Terry was twenty four. So that faith was really what kind of brought them together and is keeping them together right. But what appeared to be a family bound by faith and love was about to be, unfortunately torn apart in one of the most devastating ways imaginable.
On the early morning of March first, two thousand and eight, Charles Dickerson, the only police officer on duty in the small town of Alba, Texas, received an urgent call from the Rains County Sheriff's office. It was just after four thirty am when a call came through from a neighbor, Tommy. Now Tommy was reporting a shooting and a house fire at the Kaffe residence next door. Tommy reported that a man had been shot multiple times and managed to make his way over to his house for help, and that
man was forty one year old Terry Caffey. Oh shit, yeah, he crawled over to the neighbor's place.
Wow.
Yeah. The dispatcher confirmed that Terry was conscious and breathing, but bleeding heavily with multiple gunshot wounds. Officer Dickerson immediately responded and was approaching the property when they saw a glowing orange light coming into view, which got brighter as he neared it, which was, of course, the house fully engulfed in flames. He quickly radioed for Volunteer fire department
and they were dispatched to the property as well. Officer Dickerson found Terry Caffey lying on the living room floor of Tommy's home when he arrived, and he's gravely injured. His clothes were soaked in blood as he had been shot a total of five times, including once in the head, twice near the right shoulder, and two more times in his back.
And he still managed to make his way to the neighbors. Hey.
Correct. His clothes were a shirt, pajama pants, and one wet sock Terry had. I mean, of course he soaked. The one sock was like soaked in blood. Specifically, so Terry had crawled approximately five hundred yards from his burning home to safety at the neighbor's place, despite his critical injuries. Yosh, this is a very rural area. His neighbor isn't just next door, his neighbor is five hundred yards away.
Well. I was actually wondering that because, like you said, it was such a small town, and was assuming that the houses weren't super close together.
They definitely weren't. Whoa, So as he crawled this distance from house to house along the way, he had actually fallen into a creek and nearly drowned before he managed to pull himself out of the creek and continue heading to the neighbors as well.
Oh okay, that is some strength.
A no shit. So I do want to say this right now, Terry is one hundred percent our badass of the day, not only for that, but for other reasons that we will discuss later. So, Terry was rushed to the hospital and when he was able to, he told police everything he remembered. Now, as I said at the
very beginning, Terry did survive. In the intro, I said that Terry did survive this encounter, and in the early hours of March first, two thousand and eight, he and his wife were attacked, and he begins to tell the police exactly what happened. So he and Penny were laying in their bedroom when the sound of gunfire began. The lights were out. You know they are their sound asleep. It's four am, right, and Terry recalled the terrifying realization
that someone was standing over them shooting at them. When he heard the gunshots beginning, they screamed, and in the disorienting chaos, he heard the distinct sound of a gun being reloaded, and in that moment he thought he was going to die for sure. The noise and the flashes of gunfire engulfed the entire room and was soon also
filled with an overpowering, overpowering scent of gunpowder. Windows were shattering, and then there was later an intense heat that began to fill the house as it was set on fire. At this point, Terry had been shot from the attackers and was desperately trying to reach his children upstairs. He also had to understand that he needed to get out of a blazing house as well, which he soon knew he had to. He attempted to navigate the thick smoke in the flames, but was forced back into the bedroom.
When he tried to make his way across the bed, that's when he found his wife, Penny, lying lifeless on the other side.
Oh my gosh.
Terry had no other choice but to make an escape and save himself, so he made his way out of the house through the bathroom window and over to his neighbors. Terry was also able to give authorities a very important piece of information. He knew who one of the attackers was. Okay, it was Charlie Wilkinson. Now this is a This is the boyfriend of his sixteen year old daughter.
Oh gosh, Okay.
It was Charlie who had shot and killed the family. Terry explained that he and Penny had recently confronted Aaron about their relationship with Charlie, and they told her the relationship needs to end, which for reasons we'll get into. One of the responding officers, Kurt Fisher, recognized Charlie's name. I mean, after all, this is a very small town, right.
So Officer Fisher's sons were friends with him, and he knew this, and he noted that on his way to the crime scene, he'd actually seen Charlie's vehicle outside a trailer belonging to another young individual by the name of Matthew Wade, which was one of Charlie's accomplice accomplices, sorry, acquaintances, not accomplices, one of Charlie's acquaintances. So it's a friend and he's parked over there. Officer noted that on the way.
By, right, Okay, that's yeah, that's observant.
So he knew right away where Charlie's vehicle was, and he knew Charlie's now involved in this, so they dispatch officers to go over there right away. He acted on that lead, and yeah, they headed over to that trailer.
Well, clearly Charlie wasn't expecting anyone to or the dad or anyone to survive this or else he would have like masked himself, you'd think, exactly.
Now, is there anything you've noticed from this story just yet?
Well, I do have like a small inclining of something.
Is that a word inclination?
I don't know, yeah, that, but I don't know if i'll say it yet. I feel like we've covered stuff like this before, where it's like now I'm kind of wondering if maybe the daughter is potentially like involved with this as well.
Okay, so that's your question. Have you noticed anything specific about said daughter yet?
Noticed anything? Well, she's also survived, as from your intro, and I'm wondering if she's wasn't even in the house maybe well in the attack.
So far, I've described the father, the mother, and the two brothers, but I have not touched on her.
Oh you did talk about the two brothers in the.
Attack, well briefly because the dad, Terry, went upstairs to try and get to him. Oh okay, yeah, but he was unable to and had to backtrack scape the house.
Okay, So like one could assume that he was also trying to go to her room as well.
I kind of did.
But yeah, I'm kind of wondering if she wasn't even there or was or was a part of all this.
So well, we're about to get into all that because yeah, that is a very glaring thing question that's looming over this case. Was she involved? So we're going to talk about where she was, was she in the house and all that right here? Okay, So police arrived this trailer where Charlie's vehicles parked, armed with search warrants and they made their way into the home. They were dirty clothes, beer cans, and a mess everywhere. It was not the
most well kept place. Officers made their way to the bedroom, where they found the owner, Matthew Wade, and his girlfriend sleeping in the bedroom. In another room, they found Charlie laying awake on a mattress, dressed in jeans. Beside him on the floor was a semi automatic handgun, the type of weapon consistent with the attacks the Kaffee house, a twenty two caliber. Police, of course, immediately arrested Charlie, informing him that the kaffe family had been murdered and asking
if he had any involvement. Charlie initially denied everything, claiming he had been drinking heavily and he passed out that night. However, when officers searched for his clothing, they discovered a critical piece of evidence. His cowboy boots were splattered in blood.
Well, yeah, I would imagine that there would be some blood on his clothes.
Yeah. Now, In the living room, they also found a camouflage purse containing Aaron's driver's license. The bedroom where Charlie had been found was even more revealing. Now Initially, blankets blocked out the light in the room, and it was extremely dark and kind of claustrophobic, almost so, when one officer tore down a blanket covering the window, the room
lit up and revealed quite the scene. There were shell casings scattered across the carpet, a case of ammunition lay nearby, but most damning of all beneath a pile of blankets on the floor. The officer saw some blonde hair poking out when they pulled back the blankets. Sitting there, curled up in the fetal position with her back against the wall, was Aaron Caffey. She appeared confused and disoriented, saying that she didn't know where she was, and she was immediately
brought into police custody. Now as we already touched on to the outside world, Aaron Caffey was a sweet and charismatic girl. She had a magnetic charm that drew attention from many people, but particularly from the boys as well. She was petite, bubble, and to top it all off, she enjoyed the spotlight. While she thrived on this attention, those close to her often described her as shelter in naive. The Kaffe family had always been cautious about their children's
exposure to the world. When Aarin was thirteen, for example, a significant event changed the family's trajectory. When attending public school, Aaron had encountered an encounter with a student who expressed some romantic interest with her and kissed her in the hallway. This incident greatly upset the parents, and it prompted them to pull Erin and her brothers from public school entirely, which from there Penny took on the responsibility of homeschooling them,
utilizing the strict Bible based curriculum. So Erin was quite outgoing, quite bubbly, but she was also quite withdrawn and now she finds herself in this situation. So while Erin's parents worked hard to protect her, this sheltered environment also left
her inexperienced in navigating relationships in the outside world. When she turned sixteen in July two thousand and seven, she gained a sense of newfound freedom with their driver's license and used the Chevy pickup truck to get to and from her house or events in school, of course work as well. That summer, she met Charlie Wilkinson, an eighteen year old with who was a little rough around the edges. You know. Charlie was an outdoorsy country kind of kid.
He wore wrangler jeans and cowboy boots and head sandy blonde hair, light blue eyes. His online MySpace user name was even Hillbilly.
Okay, he really embraced the role.
He definitely did. Charlie exuded a confidence that attracted attention, but beneath his comic sterior, unfortunately, was a temper that could be provoked with little efforts. Now, Charlie had recently turned returned from boot camp at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he trained with the Texas National Guard, his future plans including joining the active duty after graduation. And at home,
he lived with his father, stepmother, and three siblings. His father worked at a paper mill outside of Dallas, where his mother, who had moved to Del Rio after their divorce, was largely absent from his life. Visits with her were rare, occurring only once or twice a year. Despite the family dynamics, though, Charlie had carved out a life filled with activities he loved,
concluding hunting and fishing. Although he had no record of criminal behavior or serious disciplinary issues, Charlie's quick temper was well known. He was impulsive, but he did generally avoid confrontation. You know, he's got a temper, but he's not going to be one to just like start swinging or be
physically abusive or anything. Okay, So now Aarin and Charlie the two cross paths at the local Sonic drive in where Aaron worked roller skating orders out to customers, and not long after Halloween of two thousand and seven, Charlie finally asked Aaron to be his girlfriend, which began, of course, a whirlwind of romance that quickly consumed both the teenagers. By all accounts, Charlie fell hard for Aarin, and the
intensity of the relationship was apparent from the start. While Aaron's parents initially tolerated their relationship, they soon grew easy about the speed at which things were progressing, which is understandable, you know for teenagers and stuff, especially for someone you know, in a little bit of a religious household, having that faith foundation, right, you tend to want to, you know, save yourself for marriage and you know that sort of thing, right,
and finding you know, your teenage kid is now kind of running them up. I guess not really, but you know, she's going out with this kind of rougher around the edge kind of kid.
It's and I'm assuming like he isn't religious.
Yeah, yeah, he was, Oh he was. Okay, No, we were talking like in the Texas area here, so it's you know, there's there's a lot of well I think Texas is technically considered in that Bible belt, if I'm not mistaken, there's a lot of people who are of faith in the area.
Okay, and he was as.
Well, though maybe it's a differing amount of faith, who knows. But he certainly attended church too, because they had some some church stuff going on and things as well.
Okay. I thought maybe that was the problem, but okay.
No, it was more like they just had certain expectations for their daughter and they didn't see Charlie as a good influence towards those expectations, I guess.
Okay, yeah, Well, I mean I feel a lot of times with parents like you just would the expectations you may have of your kid or whatever, and the spouse will never meet those, right because you think that your kid is like the most amazing thing in the whole world, which rightfully so, but like no one will meet those.
Exactly, that's for sure. Now the Kafes, they play strict rules on Aaron and her relationship, only allowing them to actually spend time together under supervision and ensuring Charlie left the house by nine pm sharp, which I mean is good to have boundaries and have rules. However, Aarin and
Charlie would of course break those rules whenever possible. For example, they would talk in the phone for hours the moment Charlie would leave the house at nine pm, like he would he would leave, and then they had immediately call each other and talk on the phone like way laid up into the night, and then Aaron's parents would have to like hang up the fucking phone, go to bad sort of situation.
Yeah, that's so cute though it is.
It's definitely cute. No, I have nothing against their the relationship right now at least. Yeah, it's just it's puppy love, you know, that's what it is.
Now.
In December of two thousand and seven, Aaron begged her parents to allow her to return to public school. At this point, her brothers had already re enrolled earlier in that fall, and Aaron argued that she was missing social interactions and normalcy, normalacy of school life. Penny and Terry couldn't really argue that fact. Their daughter was right. She is missing out on, you know, things in public having friends, whatever, that that sort of stuff comes along with public school.
You can't compete with homeschooled life and public school to all degrees. Yeah, maybe curriculum wise you can. Maybe relationship with your children, you can, but at a certain point to realize you're cutting off that social interaction with your child in the world around you. And that's something that
Penny and Terry couldn't couldn't argue. So they reluctantly, reluctantly agreed and they re enrolled her, seeing it as an opportunity for Penny to devote more time as well to you know, earn the house a little bit more of an income, as if she's not teaching the kids, she can kind of go back to work. Okay, So it's kind of a win win overall if they do that.
But honestly, too, when kids homeschooling just like blows my mind in a sense, when kids get you know, in like higher grades, I don't even know how you would go aboute teaching them because you may not know that stuff on your yourself. I feel like that'd be so hard.
Well, I'm going to play Devil's advocate here and I'm I'm no teacher, but I don't think every teacher knows every single thing that they're teaching. There's there's curriculum for them to follow, right, Like for example, a friend of ours who's who's teaching photography in high school right now, brought me up to help teach photography right for the day. I was like a guest and talked about photography and business and stuff, and she's like, yeah, I don't know
fuck all about photography. You know, helped me out a little bit here, and she's following the curriculum. She's doing a great job, but she doesn't know she's learning it too.
Right.
The teacher can't know everything, just like a parent can't know.
Well, I do feel like, especially in the higher grades. So like a math teacher teaches math, right, so they specialize in that. Yes, so I don't know, but yeah, no, I get it.
You're not about to have your math teacher, though, go out and teach science or physical education usually right, it's usually yeah, that's specialization. Yeah, But now this decision though to actually send Aaron two back to public school, however, gave the new young couple significant more time together as well.
At school, the couple were inseparable. They walked the halls hand in hand, shared lunch together, and occasionally slipped away into Aaron's truck for you know, a couple makeout sessions, right ye. By Christmas, their relationship progressed, and one night, Charlie presented Arin with his grandmother's engagement ring.
Holy shit, that was a bad time to take a drink. I was not expecting that.
Now. When he presented her this ring, he didn't present it as an engagement ring, but he did present it as a promise ring.
Okay, yes, that's still like kind of young though, but yeah.
Definitely definitely now. Aaron's mother, Penny, noticed the ring on her finger, and she demanded that Aaron return it for her father, Terry. This was a turning point. Concerned about Charlie's increasing influence over Aaron, he and Penny both imposed even stricter rules on the relationship between the two. Visits between them were both cut back. They could only see each other once a week, and they were closely monitored
during these visits as well. Aaron's frustration was growing, and she began confiding in others about her anger over the situation and her parents' control. She even told her aunt at one point that she wanted to leave home with Charlie as soon as she turns seventeen.
Oh yeah, I mean, just from an outsider, I'm like, oh, that backfires so often. But that also, like, that's tough.
It's tough to be in that well, you're at that age where it's a fine line between controlling and parenting. Sometimes you have to let your child make the decisions and you have to like let your child make the mistake and fail and learn from it. Other times, you know, you do need to help guide them, and there's times where you're helpless. So it's a very fickle and fine line. And I to their credit, I think Aaron's parents are just doing their best. I don't think you're doing anything wrong.
Maybe they're not. They're not succeeding in their parenting, but they're not doing it wrong. They're trying their best, you know.
Yeah, no, it makes sense that they are. But also just like when you're controlling too much, I feel like I don't know the kids are going to do what they're going to do, right, They're going to make it happen.
Oh, definitely. Well, And like, I don't think her parents are dumb. I think they're aware that they're seeing each other more at school, that they're sneaking off into the truck and stuff. Like, I don't think they're morons. Like most parents know when their child is doing that sort of stuff. The kids think they're getting away with it, and no, the parents are letting you get away with it.
It's like the kids forget that their parents were also that age at one point exactly.
So now things continue to escalate with Aaron and her parents and evolved into quite a few serious confrontations. For example, on February two thousand and eight, Penny caught Erin speaking to Charlie on the phone after the curfew. As a result, Aarin was grounded, her parents confiscated her phone and her car keys, and another argument, Erin claimed that Penny actually struck her. There is no evidence against it. It's just
Aaron's word. But Aarin was as a result in tears and was seeking comfort from Charlie over.
The phone, okay, saying her mom hit her.
Yes, okay. For Charlie though. This situation, this incidant, This her mother striking her. This was proof that Erin's parents were a threat to them and their happiness for Aarin solidified her belief that her parents would of course never allow her to be with Charlie. So you have mounting resentment growing now. These restrictions and escalating arguments reached a boiling point. Anger consumed Erin, and she began to contemplate a way to remove the obstacles that kept her from Charlie.
And those obstacles were, of course, her parents. She began to obsessively discuss killing her parents with Charlie. Oh shit, yeah, Aaron believed this was the only way that they could truly be together. This wasn't just a fleeting thought either. Aaron mentioned the idea to Charlie repeatedly, both at school and outside of it. In fact, it was later reported that a classmate had even overheard her discussing the plan during a lunch time one day. Oh that is not good,
no now. Charlie, infatuated with Arin, always seemed desperate to keep her happy. To him, Erin was someone who also needed saving. She's in a tough situation. You know, her parents are overbearing. He's got to protect her. He's got to save her. Right. So, now, after the attack occurred, police were trying to piece together exactly what happened. Aarin was found and was immediately treated as a victim and potentially a kidnapping survivor. They transported her to Hopkins County
Memorial Hospital in Sulfur Springs for evaluation. Here, she was questioned by police Chief Shanna Sanders. Aaron presented a soft, spoking and hesitant kind of demeanor and was very offering very little information when pressed about the attack. Erin described waking up in a smoke filled room where she saw two men in black wielding samurai swords. They told her to lie on the floor, but she was unable to recall how she ended up in the trailer where she
was found. Erin also claimed to have consumed a drink given to her at the trailer, after which her memory became blank. As Erin was being just charge from the hospital, she learned that her father, Terry, had survived the attack, and while she was being escorted to the ICU in East Texas Medical Center to visit her father, Aaron's boyfriend Charlie was now being interrogated, and he quickly became unraveled.
Charlie spilled it all. He admitted to investigators that Aaron had called him the day before the murders, furious with her parents for forbidding her from seeing him, and during this conversation, Aaron expressed her desire for her parents to be killed, stating that she saw no other way that
the couple could be together. At first, Charlie framed himself as a reluctant participant, but as the interrogation continued, he revealed that Erin had been speaking openly about wanting her parents dead to both him and others for a whileness for some time.
Yeah.
Charlie also revealed an accomplice, Charles Wade. We'll call him Wade for not getting confused, because we have Charles and Charlie. So it's going to be Charlie and his friend Wade from here and O confusion.
Where it was like he was at the trailer or whatever, I mean he was found.
Actually, it's a good question. Now I'm gonna go back a double check. Okay, So I had to pause and do a little fact check moment there. The trailer was belonging to the Wade family. I said it was Matthew Wade earlier. Matthew Wade is Charles Wade's younger brother. So I don't know if I don't know who owns it, but it belongs to one of the Wade family members. Okay, so yes, it was his trailer. I don't know.
Well he lived there probably, yeah, yeah, he lived there.
But who actually owned it, I'm uncertain. So Charlie revealed Wade as an accomplice along with his girlfriend Bobby Johnson. So Wade's girlfriend Bobby reportedly they all drove to the Caffe residence with their intent to carry out a carefully planned attack. Charlie even offered Wade two thousand dollars as payment for assisting murders, and he planned on getting this two thousand dollars from the safe within the Kaffee house
after they committed the crime as well. So he's like, we're going to get in there, kill them all, open the safe you can have the money, which is two grand from it.
Yeah, yeah, which for like a younger person is like, holy shit, that's probably like a lot of money.
Right yeah, And this is two thousand and eight as well, right, so it carries a little bit more weight to it now. According to Charlie, Bobby drove the silver Dodge Neon, which was the vehicle they used, and insisted on coming along, although he claimed she was unaware of the violent nature of the plans that were actually gonna unfold now. The group's first attempt to approach the Kafee home failed when
the family dog began barking. Aaron then called Charlie on his phone, reassuring that she would quiet the dog for when they returned, so the group drove back with the dog quiet. This time. They picked up Aaron at the end of the driveway and spent the next hour driving around discussing their plan in detail.
Oh gosh.
According to Charlie's later confession, he heatedly tried to persuade Erin to consider running away instead, but she.
Refused, that's a way better plan.
Yeah. Actually there was a point where he even I didn't include this in here, but it's a good time to actually talk about it. At one point he thought like, well, what if we get you pregnant and then you have, like, we have a kid together, then your parents will have to let us be together, right, But she was like, yeah, no.
That's honestly even a better plan.
And murdering an entire family, yes, it is, it is, it is. Yeah, but yeah, she didn't want that, She didn't want to run away. Her plan was no, kill them.
Well does she not realize what the fuck is going to happen after that? But okay?
Yeah, Now. Eventually the trio returned the Kaffee home and finalized their plan. Charlie and Wade were to carry out the murders while Aaron and Bobby waited in the car. So the two men armed with a twenty two caliber pistol and two samurai swords, they entered the home. Charlie headed directly to Terrrian Penny's penn room on the first floor. He went in and opened fire on the sleeping couple, but halfway through, his pistol jammed after a few shots,
and this is when Terry recalls hearing the gun reloading. Yep. Wade quickly fixed it and fired an additional two more shots to ensure Penny was dead. Charlie slid her throat before moving on, oh Man. Charlie then went upstairs to the young boys Matthew and Tyler, and Matthew bravely attempted to defend himself, kicking at Charlie as he approached, and in response, Wade shot him in the face.
Gosh, what the fuck did these two young boys do?
Nothing that's unreal. Yeah. Wade then turned his attention to Tyler and repeatedly stabbed Tyler until the younger boy, sorry, till the young boy no longer moved. The group then focused on covering their tracks. They retrieved a suitcase Aaron had already packed earlier, filled with her belongings, with Aaron saying after they escaped the house, I'm so glad it's over. Next, Charlie and Wade located a lock box and mentioned using
a combination that was provided by erin Okay. They opened the box, took three hundred and seventy five dollars in cash and some change, and some items, including Terry's wallet and Penny's purse. They took the money, helping that this might obscure the motive the what's the motivation motive? Motive? Yeah, yeah, obscuring the motive behind the assault.
That it was like a robbery.
Yeah. So to destroy any evidence, they set fire to the house using a lighter, igniting furniture clothes and bed sheets on their way out. In the hours following the brutal attack, the four murderers drove aimlessly along rural roads, attempting to gather their composure after the violence that they just unleashed. Wade eventually dropped Charlie and Aaron off the trailer, where the couple spent the night together. Law enforcement quickly
made significant process in unraveling the case. Aaron's toxology report, for example, came back negative, ruling out the possibility that she had been drugged or coerced in any sort of substances, because remember she claimed to have drunk something and then doesn't remember anything after that.
Yeah.
Additionally, there were no traces of smoke inhalation in her lungs, and she didn't smell like smoke, clothes, nothing, no smoke whatsoever if she was in a smoke filled home when she saw two sword wielding figures. Yeah, so those two both contradictally are drastically contradictory story. Bobby and Wade were both soon arrested as well, and corroborated Charlie's story entirely. Wade even told officers about how Aaron exclaimed quote holy crap,
that's awesome. As they drove away from the burning home.
Oh my gosh. And then when oh, okay, that doesn't make any sense. And then when she's found though, she's all of a sudden this like little innocent thing victim.
Yeah, she's playing victim.
Wow.
Now, as interrogations unfolded, Aaron was of course arrested and transported to the juvenile detention center, and it was in Greenville where she was being held where she was formally charged with capital murder. Meanwhile, her father, Terry Caffey, was recovering from his wounds five gunshot wounds, be specific, which included a broken nose, fractured cheekbones, and nerve damage. He was informed that his daughter Erin had survived the attack.
That happiness, though, was soon shattered when he learned that she was arrested for the involvement in the murders.
I just had to take like a deep breath there, because that poor father, Oh man, I cannot even begin to fathom like his life going forward, you know. Yeah, holy shit.
We'll talk about that in a bit, Okay. Now, the investigators who arrest Erin were quickly making progress on the evidence against her for example, Aaron's phone records, which became a cornerstone of the prosecution case, soon came in. The phone log revealed between nine or sorry eleven forty six pm and twelve forty eight pm, Aaron called Charlie six times from inside her home and this was the night
of the murder. Even more damning, there were seven calls she made between one twenty two am and one fifty eight am, during which she repeatedly asked Charlie where he was and promised to keep the family dog quiet so they could proceed. These records aligned perfectly with Charlie's confession and painted Erin as a driving force behind the crime. However, Aaron claimed she was planning on running away that night,
but changed her mind at the last minute. She insisted that her calls to Charlie were meant to prevent him from coming to the house. Whatsoever, both the timeline and her actions seemed to suggest otherwise.
Gosh, she's like just evil, Hey, I feel like whoa Erin also told a mental health counselor that Charlie had acted alone, motivated motivated by anger after she ended their life relationship, and she painted herself as a victim of Charlie's violence.
So when we discuss that, the family was like you need to end the relationship sort of thing, like, yeah, that's what she's saying, is like, we ended it and he's retaliating because I ended it.
Wow, that's shocking.
Yeah. Now, in November of two thousand and eight, all four of the defendants pleaded guilty two three counts of capital murder. So yes, Aaron is pleading guilty. During the January sentence hearing, Terry addressed each of them directly. Terry is Erin's dad, right for one. Turning to Charlie, who was in tears at the time, Terry said, quote, I forgive you, not so much for your sake, but for my own. Oh man, I refuse to grow into a bitter old man. If I want to heal and move on,
I must find some forgiveness in my heart. That has been the hardest thing I have ever had to do, because you took so much from.
Me that gave me instant goosebumps.
Right wow. Bobby, who pleaded guilty to being an accomplice, received forty years in jail. However, she is eligible for parole in March of twenty twenty eight, leaving open the possibility for an earlier release. Charlie and Wade both pled guilty to their sentences to life in prison without the
possibility of parole. Aaron Caffey, whose role in orchestrating the murders remained a point of contention, which again we'll kind of discuss at the end, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences with an additional twenty five years. She will be eligible for parole in twenty thirty eight, when she will be in her late fifties. Her father, Terry Caffey, has expressed a hope and prayer that he will live long enough to see her walk out of prison.
Really quote, I want to go get erin. I want us to walk away arm in arm and never look back.
Oh man.
So when I said Terry is the bad as of the day, this is another reason why he instantly forgave his daughter. He visits her in prison, he visits her, he writes her, he visits her.
Yes, holy shit, I'm flabbergasted. Yeah, because I don't know. Maybe she's like has some remorse. It doesn't seem like it yet, but maybe she has shown that. But like I also, I feel like Charlie like had remorse, you know, yeah, which it's be easier to forgive someone for that, but oh man, like she killed her own brothers. Basically yeah, so now kay on that.
Topic, this case has actually been featured on like several different platforms like Doctor Phil interviewed her, It's been on A and E. I Survive Pierce Morgan Killer Women has covered it as well. Doctor Phil interviews her and he actually asked her that question, what about your brothers? Didn't you think about them? And she says, no, I didn't. Because she maintains that she did not take part in this.
She maintains she was planning to run away, tried to stop Charlie from showing up to the house, and he did it on his own free will without her. She maintains all of that. All she says is like, yeah, you know, I kind of talked about it, like just like, ah should kill parents, but I never actually meant to really.
But then the other three their stories is completely the.
Same, exactly. Not only that anything she claims there's not evidence for it, right, she claims to have been in the house, there's no smoke inhalation, she claims to have been drug. There's no toxicology or sorry, nothing in your system with the report that came up with the toxicology report nothing.
Huh. Well, I think that she didn't. She didn't step back and think about like the outcome of all this though, and now she's just sticking to this story.
I guess, right, Yeah, ignorance is bliss, they say, right, yeah, So one of the central debates revolves around her level of involvement in this. So that's why I said, there's kind of like at the beginning, there's two sides to this, right, was she the mastermind behind the whole murder? Did she manipulate the others to carry out this plan? Or was she just naive, emotional and overwhelmed and was swept up
in this by Charlie orchestrating it and doing it. Aaron just claims she was planning to run away but and says it wasn't her.
Huh.
Now, there is a lot more to her claims than when I covered. I chose not to talk about it because I don't want to give her a bigger voice because most of what she's spewing is bullshit. Even if you watch like the interview, like I watched the interviews with her and doctor Phil. She's a fucking child, and there's it's like she's like fake crying at times, almost
like she does not look remorseful. He's at like your fucking parent, your mother died, and she's like answering questions straight flat out out about it.
I feel like I have watched bits of that or something like parts of this are semi familiar to me.
Yeah. Yeah, well it's a fucked up case, that's all I know. Because she's just like, well, can have a relationship with this guy, so parents got to die. And then when she carries it out and convinces him, she fucking abandons him. So that tells how much did she fucking care for him in the first place too? Have her parents killed and abandon him.
Because she was It kind of shows that she was just using.
Him, Yeah, but for what? Using him for what?
To get rid of her parents? But then she did also like him, so.
She wanted to get rid of her parents so she could have him. So she's using him to get rid of her parents now.
Wants nothing to do like, I don't know, it's very it is very confusing.
Yeah, it is. She has she's gained literally nothing. If she was doing it to gain something, you'd think she'd stick to her guns and gain that thing.
Yeah.
Maybe, like maybe she could be like, you know, I still love Charlie. You know, maybe we can like fix this and me get out. You know, I talk to him, I write to him something, because you're supposed to fucking love this guy. You killed your parents and brothers for him.
Yeah, well made him, you made him do it, do it.
Yeah, and now you're pinning it all on him, Like what the fuck, you cold bitch.
That's on it real nicely.
Yeah, it is putting it real fucking nice, you cold bitch. Yeah. Sorry, oh man.
Yeah, this is it's a lot to just take in because it's just so mind blowing.
That someone would go to that length and do that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And also I just cannot stop thinking about the dad. I know, Like what a complete like just living angel I feel right, gosh, he.
Wants to walk out arm in arm with his daughter when she's released. She's responsible for the death of his wife, yeah, his two younger sons.
Like she destroyed his whole life.
Yeah, she fucking had him shot five times, and he's reaching out a hand to help her like, Wow.
Whoa, Yeah, that is just incredible.
Right, what kind of selfless human being is that? Like? Incredible? How can this bitch come from someone like that?
This cold bitch, this cold bitch.
My coffee's cold and it's still warmer than she is.
Oh, man, I know I shouldn't be laughing about that. It's just how you worded it.
It was just like she is a cold bitch.
Well, and it's hard to understand too. Why the fuck her brothers needed to be involved in this, right, Like she had her beef was with our parents, So why the fuck is she also killing her brothers?
Right?
It doesn't make sense.
It doesn't. I if I'm going to assume and play a devil's advocate role here and say what makes the most sense, not that it makes sense, it makes the most sense, is paint the picture of family got slaughtered, she got kidnapped, You never find me, They run away, fucking go live in Mexico and she's a missing person for the rest of her life and lives under a new identity. But I don't think she had it planned out that far. No, I don't think she had it
planned out past the next fucking two hours. No, oh, which I do have to say. And this is something that they that she admits. She admits this happens. So her and Charlie after murdering the family and they get dropped off of that trailer. Yeah, they fucked that night.
Oh god.
Okay, yeah, her family just got slaughtered and she fucks her boyfriend.
Okay, that is so disturbing. That's so disturbing.
But when doctor Phil asked her about it, she's like, well, I didn't enjoy it. Oh man, like almost like pinning it on him, like he kind of raped her.
All yeah, yeah, he's pinning more shit on him exactly.
She doesn't say he raped her. She says they have sex, but she's like, I didn't enjoy it.
That just seems like kind of just like a piece of garbage person.
I know. Huh Okay, So it just.
Do on that for a while. So there are people who think that she actually wasn't involved? Is that the thing?
There are some Yeah, I mean most people don't. It comes down to, like, fuck, what's that one chick who was We talked about her in that documentary like a year a couple of years ago.
Kate, do you think Casey? Yes, yes, she believes her.
No, like, there's people who believe she's fucking in Casey Anthony.
Okay, I was like, Casey fucking Anthony believes her? Like, no, go fuck yourself.
What I'm trying to say is, majority of people think Casey Anthony is guilty, right, Yeah, majority of people think Aaron Caffey is guilty. But there are some who think otherwise, just like some otherwise on Casey's case.
Okay, my brain just exploded there minute.
You know, if Casey Anthony's on your side, you know you've done for kidding.
Oh my gosh.
But yeah, that's the story of the Kaffe family massacre.
It's heart wrenching.
Yeah, you should watch the Doctor Phil interviews with her. It's honestly, in my opinion, she's disgusting.
It's disturbing, isn't it. Like do you actually think that we should watch that.
If you have a morbid curiosity for it? Sure, but I don't think she needs to have the voice at the same time, which is why I didn't dive too much into it. But right, it is also super interesting at the same time, so.
Huh interesting, I mean, but like, really, what else is she going to do? Like I feel like, if you did something that terrible, it makes sense just to be like, wasn't me for like the rest of your life?
Yeah, really, like every other criminal behind bars.
Yeah. So anyways, it takes a big person, I think, to admit when you're wrong, and she clearly is.
Not no that, she's clearly not that. But thank you guys for being here. We appreciate it. And of course we got the ramble at the end. Check out our links in the description of the podcast. We got Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all that good stuff. We even have Patreon we can get behind the scenes exclusive content. We have a Patreon episode that's going to be coming out here, I think tomorrow,
so you can get that. There's a huge library. I think there's over thirty episodes now on Patreon alone, probably more than yeah, probably more than at this point, probably upwards of forty or even fifty. I'm not sure. There's a bunch, and there's gonna be another one coming out tomorrow. So if you want to check that out links in the description. If you don't, that's cool. We appreciate you here. Nonetheless, we sure do.
Yeah, and a listener are rambling.
Yeah, we're just a little indie podcast. Doing a thing.
Just. We've been over this.
We are an indie podcast doing her own thing. It's hard to describe it, like without using the word just.
Don't use the word just.
But just isn't negative in my opinion.
Oh my goodness. Okay, Well, anyway, we are an indie podcast and until next time.
No, no, we're not done. I'm talking about just for a minute. Okay. When I say just, I don't mean like in a negative connotation. Yeah.
I know you've explained this before, my love.
Well I'm doing it again because you put me on the spot. Okay, Like, all I've had for to eat today was was just a wrap. It's just it's only that. It's not bad. It's just that's the only thing.
I'm like listening to that feels like you're saying you haven't eaten enough.
Okay, Well I can say I just had a pizza. If that's what I had, you know, maybe today I haven't eaten enough. But if I say, oh, I just had a large pizza to myself, it's just the large pizza. It's that thing on its own. It's an entity by itself. Doesn't mean being by yourself is bad. We are just an indie podcast. We are an entity by ourself. No one owns us.
It's us in some senses. If you're like, if someone's like, oh, do you want do you want a snack and you're like, no, I just ate a pizza, that doesn't necessarily sound negative. But then when you're like, all I've eaten today is just a wrap, I don't know.
That's okay? Well, right now, for our podcast, it's just us. That's not bad that it's just us, but it's just us. There's no one else, no one else researches or records or or just you. Okay, it's just me. No, you're here too, but yeah, we're it's us.
It's us.
It's us. It's just us.
There you go. I'm gonna just leave it at that.
So until next time, Until next time, thank you for being here. Stay wicked,