Hello!
Welcome back to another episode of Diagnosing a Killer.
I'm Koelle.
And I'm Kena.
Hello.
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back into the flow of things.
Alrighty.
Today we are going to be talking about Charlie Wilkinson and Aaron Caffee.
Charlie Wilkinson and Aaron Caffee.
I don't think I know this one.
All right, all right, all right.
That's a Texas case, y'all.
Oh, God.
Oh, one more thing before we begin.
If you're new here or we've only said this once or twice now, but we are going to be
recording the content warning at the end of the episode so as not to spoil the content
for each other, it won't sound any different to you guys, but it's a more genuine approach
to it instead of hearing something in the content warning and then you're not expecting
anything else.
You didn't say anything about Jake the dog.
Yeah, exactly.
That morning this episode contains family troubles, control and relationships, brutal
murder and threats of suicide.
If this episode is not for you, we encourage you to check out another one of our episodes.
Remember that your mental health comes first and we love you.
Love you.
Bye.
Aaron Caffee was born July 27th, 1991 in Raines County, Texas in the small town of
Celeste, which is about an hour's long drive away of East Dallas, just to kind of orient
everyone.
Aaron's parents, Terry and Penny Caffee, were elated to welcome their firstborn and
soon Aaron would have a baby brother.
In fact, she would be the eldest of three children.
Her brother Matthew was nicknamed Bubba and was born when Aaron was just three and her
youngest brother Tyler was born when Aaron was six.
Bubba's cute.
The family was raised in a religious household and the family as a whole attended Miracle
Faith Baptist Church in nearby Emory, Texas.
Aaron was known for being very active in the youth activities in the family's church
and for her beautiful singing voice in the children's choir.
It was said by other participants of the church that Aaron actually was able to encourage
other young people to join the youth ministry as Aaron was such a passionate member of the
church and it seemed to kind of like rub off on others.
Bro what?
So sorry.
I thought you were done.
That was kind of me not like oh I was so perfect and great but I was really into the youth group
at church when I was in middle school and I would always bring my friends from school
after school because it was on Wednesday nights and I would always say oh can I bring a friend,
can I bring a friend and I always wanted them to come because I thought it was the coolest
thing in the world.
Yeah.
And then I grew up.
I was like ehh they grew up.
It wasn't really cool activity at the end of the day.
I had a lot of fun doing it.
Yeah.
I mean I think all three of us whenever we would do like church things we used to do
church retreats and stuff and we went all the way up to Colorado once.
Really?
Yeah.
I don't remember if I brought any friends.
I had a friend that went with me at a few of those but yeah.
The whole family would attend weekly Bible studies on Wednesday nights.
Not just attending church on Sundays.
Often the family would use a gospel room in order to play music as a family.
Many would play piano, Bubba would play guitar or harmonica and Erin would sing.
Sometimes Terry would act as a stand in pastor and in most of the congregation's eyes the
cafes were perfect.
I was going to say where's the poop?
Where's the poop?
The children were enrolled in public school.
Bum bum bum.
There's the room.
Don't get a public school y'all.
Don't do it.
The children were enrolled in public school most of their lives but Erin at an early
age would struggle with some tasks at school and would eventually be diagnosed with ADD
or attention deficit disorder.
By the time Erin was in middle school she had already begun to fall behind in her grades.
Penny and Terry would begin to discuss homeschooling the kids as they felt that the more immediate
attention at home would benefit Erin in her schooling given her disorder.
That makes sense and also not that this is correlating in this story specifically but
a lot of the people that I was in the youth group with at church were homeschooled as
well.
I guess it's, I don't know where that comes from but.
Yeah.
Well, I think for some it's about what you're able to teach your child, right?
Yeah.
Erin would begin to tell her parents about a girl at school who had seemingly had a crush
on her.
This was over some time but nothing at this moment seemed to be specifically affecting
Erin that is until the final straw came.
Erin told her parents that the girl that had had a crush on her in fact kissed her against
her will.
No.
It's scandalous.
Immediately Penny and Terry pulled Erin out of school and would also pull her younger
brothers out of school as well.
Was it noted how the parents felt about it or were they like absolutely not?
They don't want Erin to become a lesbian or they were just like we don't want her to
be assaulted because that's exactly what happened.
Well, I think it's a little bit of both but I really do believe that it was just, this
is just too much for like our innocent Erin to go through.
We don't do that.
That's a terrible way to speak but that's, I mean you do hear that.
It's true.
Yeah.
And I think that they very much felt that she would have been corrupted or something
by this experience.
Aren't we all in public school?
Not kissing girls.
Corrupted.
I mean.
Yeah.
Corrupted.
Yeah.
Corrupted.
I mean.
Texas, an even smaller Texas town.
The family told friends and family that the move was purposeful and that it was to move
closer to the family church, shaving the family's driving time by about 40 minutes.
Oh wow.
So they were traveling to go to this church.
Okay.
But now it's like, okay, it's like more of like a 15 minute drive, not a 40 minute drive.
So they're probably there more often.
Yeah.
Sure.
So this was seen as understandable.
And just to give everyone an idea of just how small of a town this is, the population
difference between Celeste and Alba is about two thirds.
Celeste is sitting at about 840 for the population and Alba is sitting at about 490.
So it's even smaller.
490 people.
Geez.
Very small.
Yeah.
Penny would now be the one to provide the schooling for the three children.
And this was to be a faith-based curriculum, which is what they call it.
I couldn't remember like two seconds ago what they called it, but call it faith-based curriculum.
Got it.
No evolution.
Considering that Erin was a social person and she was of age about 15 or 16, Erin was
allowed and also encouraged to get a part-time job.
Seeing as the family only had one income at this time, her parents were pretty supportive
of this.
Guess where my part-time job was when I was 15 and 16?
Where?
The church.
I swear.
I was working at the very story of the church.
I worked for a pizza place, which was great because at the time I was really into smoking
a lot of weed and I got free pizza all the time.
Oh yeah, no, we got pizza all the time.
Yeah.
Erin decided then to work at the local Sonic as many other young people in the area did
as well.
Hell yeah.
And also that, yeah, it's just part of their demographic.
It was like hang out at the local Sonic.
One of her coworkers said that meeting Erin, it almost seemed like she was exploring the
world for the first time.
Despite this, Erin was eventually the most well-known car hop at work.
For those who do not know what a Sonic Drive-In is, here in the States, Sonic Drive-In is
a fast food establishment known for its Drive-In accessibility.
You essentially drive into a parking spot and there are menus by every car door.
You press the menus big red button and you order your food, a massive Route 44 drink,
which are all customizable like peach doctor peppers or crazy banana mango shakes or something.
I read somewhere that there's like thousands of combinations you can pick.
That's their whole thing is like thousands of combinations.
My favorite was always just a classic ocean water.
Same, I was gonna say that.
Ocean water with like-
It's a coconut sprite.
Yeah, it's a kind of like-
It's a cherry-lidder that's blue.
Yeah, a blue coconut sprite.
It's so good.
Oh and the cherry limeade slush.
Oh, the cherry-
No, strawberry limeade slush.
They're known for their cherry limeades.
They're called the Rollers-Royce.
Back in the day, all the tenants working as a car hop would be required to use roller
skates and deliver your food directly to your car.
I didn't know they were required at first.
They were, that was part of the job.
But as it became a safety hazard over the years, most locations did away with this requirement.
However, in some locations, if you sign a waiver, it is completely legal for you to
roller skate if you so choose.
I heard that you got paid more if you were on roller skates, is that true?
I think you just get tipped more.
That's true.
I mean, right?
Yeah, but I thought it was like a different hour.
Like if they were like, if you were willing to be on roller skates, we'll pay you like
ten cents more an hour.
I'm pretty sure they only get minimum wage working on Sonic, but that was kind of the
crux of it because they weren't getting server pay and then again, for tip culture, you know,
countries like us.
I thought they were.
I thought they would get server pay and then rely on tips similar to like a waitress in
a restaurant.
No, but that's the thing is that it came out that they were actually getting minimum wage
and then people stopped tipping them.
I was like, fuck you then.
Karen quickly became the most popular worker at this location and it was essentially unheard
of for car hops to still use skates, but she did.
She would make quite a few regulars out of some of her patrons, patrons.
She loved coming to work because she had an opportunity just to be a teenager.
It was here at the Sonic where she would meet the young man who would change your life the
course of forever, ever never.
Charlie Wilkinson was the only child between his biological mother and biological father,
although Charlie would come to have a stepbrother, a step sister, and a half sister eventually.
His mother and father divorced when Charlie was very young and his mother would eventually
move across Texas to Del Rio.
After this, she rarely saw Charlie, sometimes only seeing him two times a year.
Charlie lived with his dad who worked at a paper mill closer to the major city of Dallas,
Texas.
Charlie did find in school, but not great.
He did however love participating in the school's Texas National Guard or something
like JRTC, or for those who don't know, Joint Readiness Training, which is kind of like military
training for high school kids.
Heading into his senior year, Charlie attended boot camp in Fort Sill in Oklahoma, just a
few hours north of Dallas, and he had aspirations of heading into the military after graduation.
Having just returned to town after boot camp training, he would meet Aaron while driving
through the local Sonic.
Charlie was 17, soon to be 18 at this time.
He was known by locals to drive a beat up truck and often wore cut off t-shirts, stained jeans,
and boots.
I can just see him.
I know, right?
I can smell him.
He also went by the online handle Hillbilly on the latest social media accounts, aka Myspace.
He and a few of his friends were known to shoot guns in the woods, hunt, and also fish
in the area.
And although Charlie didn't have any issues at this time with authority, as in like he
wasn't necessarily a troublemaker, his classmates would sometimes push Charlie into anger, and
essentially he was known to get very angry when agitated or provoked.
And they thought it was funny.
Oh, hilarious.
It's hilarious, yeah.
It just pushes fucking buttons.
Pushes buttons, and sometimes Charlie would slam things into walls like chairs or books
or bang his fist on tables out if it's a frustration.
God, it sucks.
It's just always on the surface, right?
Other than that, no major huge outbursts or signs of violence.
After Aaron and Charlie met at Sonic, Aaron and Charlie started seeing each other almost
every day.
They would spend hours with each other while Aaron would be at work, as it was basically
the only time that they could hang out with each other.
Yeah, because it's not weird if a teenage kid hangs out at Sonic all day, you know, whatever.
Yeah, exactly.
Aaron knew that her parents would not approve of her seeing anyone let alone a boy that
was a few years older than her, and especially someone like Charlie.
I mean, the dude goes by Hillbilly.
Oh, he's a Hillbilly.
I was like, here, really, get down here, be the boy out of here.
I was telling the story to Cliff the other day about an old high school friend of mine
who was really, really drunk, and I just remember, I mean, Dad caught us walking through the
neighborhood and he pulls up in the truck and he goes, get in the truck.
That boy's drunk.
It was so funny.
And I was like, Dad has the farthest thing from like a southern accent.
I know.
It was just so, it was so forceful.
You know, like it was funny.
Aaron would eventually approach her parents about seeing Charlie, even if it was nothing
more than keeping Charlie from her parents.
Like, essentially, like Aaron's such a good kid, she just couldn't keep it from her parents.
She's like, oh, me and this boy have been spending time together.
She essentially just couldn't lie about her, like, to her parents about it.
Although Aaron's parents were immediately weary of their only daughter seeing an older
boy, they felt that if they were to completely block her off from seeing Charlie that she
would continue to do so anyways.
So in order to keep a watchful eye on Aaron, the couple agreed to allow Charlie in their
home on occasion, as long as Aaron's parents were also there in the home to watch the two.
I mean, that's the best you can do in that situation.
You can't, like, if they're right, if you say, I forbade you from seeing this boy, then
it's like, she's going to just do it in secret.
And then she's going to start lying about stuff and then that could escalate very quickly.
But also, you can't be like, oh yeah, we love this guy, bring him over all the time, you
know, because then that could escalate.
Maryam, yeah.
Often Charlie would come around the family home, sometimes to help Aaron's brothers
build bonfires in the backyard or just help around the house.
But most often, the family would have to sit down dinners.
Quickly, however, it was noticed by Aaron's parents that Charlie almost always walked
into the home, very nonchalantly.
He would regularly plop down on the family couch, making himself at home, putting his
feet onto the family furniture or draping his legs over the arm of the couch.
Uh-uh.
Yeah.
I'd be like, get this no good, you bliery.
Regardless of the uncomfortable nature of Charlie's behavior, Aaron's parents did not stop their
daughter from having Charlie over some nights of the week.
The one rule, however, was that that was to remain in place strictly was that Charlie
was not to be over after 9pm.
Okay.
Sure, Charlie would head home after 9pm, but Aaron and Charlie would talk on the phone
until all hours of the night.
This would be in opposition of Aaron's phone curfew.
And although it looks like this is kind of a slippery slope for Aaron and Charlie, Charlie
actually began attending church with Aaron.
After all, it wasn't uncommon for Aaron to share her faith with others and eventually
inspire others to join the church as well.
And this was also recognized by Aaron's parents that maybe they were finally warming up to
Charlie just a little bit.
At least he's willing to go to church with them.
Shortly after Charlie began attending the family's church, Aaron would approach her
parents about returning to public school.
It had been some time since her and her brothers had been homeschooled, and if she and her
brothers were able to attend public school, Penny, Aaron's mom, would finally be able
to work again.
She's like, I'm doing this for you, mom.
I'm doing this for you, mom.
The couple would agree, and halfway through the school year of 2007, leading into 2008,
Aaron would begin attending the local public high school.
And how old is she around this point?
16.
16, yeah.
Aaron, a freshman and Charlie, a senior, would often be seen in between classes, holding
hands and overall expressing PDA.
He was a senior?
He was a senior.
This is also public displays of affection for people that don't know what PDA stands
for.
This may have been unacceptable in Aaron's family home, but this was nothing new to the
eyes of public school.
She was feeling more and more free to express her and Charlie's relationship as time went
on.
Aaron's parents also agreed to allow Charlie and Aaron to go out on a few dates alone,
with the understanding that Aaron would be home by a certain time.
Well, wouldn't you know?
What do you think kids do when they go out on dates?
They don't show up on time.
Well, they sleep together.
Sometime after Aaron and Charlie had sex for the first time, Charlie would give Aaron
a promised ring, saying that he intended to be with Aaron forever.
But it's hilarious.
Aaron was elated, but when she broke the news to her parents, they were less than enthused.
Aaron's parents promptly told Aaron that she was to return the ring as they believed
that the ring represented Charlie essentially claiming Aaron.
They did not like that.
They disagreed with it.
They did not like it.
Insisting that this meant that she was taken by Charlie and it was more of a statement
of ownership, they just didn't like him.
They just didn't like him.
They didn't think that it was okay for Aaron to just promise herself to this older boy
who doesn't have a shit together.
You know.
Yeah.
I mean, he's also a kid.
Again, Aaron was just 16 at the time and Aaron's parents told Aaron that her time with Charlie
was essentially to be limited again.
They were like, we don't want you to see him as much, even though they're barely seeing
each other.
Charlie would only now be allowed to come over once a week.
Aaron confided in friends and other members of her family that she was planning to run
away once she turned 17, which not a lot of people notice that you are a legal adult
at the age of 17 in the state of Texas.
I was able to sign a lease.
That's crazy.
I know.
That's 17.
I was able to sign a lease.
That was like my really bad, terrible ex too, so I was really grateful when we broke the
lease because I legally wasn't responsible for it.
He was.
LOL, peace.
Tensions in the house continued to rise and in one argument, Penny actually got so frustrated
with Aaron that she slapped her daughter.
Not very Christian of you, Penny.
Aaron continued to see Charlie at work and school and was sometimes, he was sometimes
allowed to come over.
However, she continued to break her phone curfew.
When she would be caught, Aaron would incur more restrictions.
First she lost the ability to use her own car, then her phone, and she was to ride with
her parents to and from school every day, which was probably like the worst thing ever.
Yeah, and work too.
And work, yeah, absolutely.
Like, they just want to make sure she wasn't going to run away.
I mean, she already told family members she was running away.
Yeah.
Eventually, Aaron's parents would revoke all of Charlie's visits to the house.
Aaron and Charlie would begin to confide in friends that they were incredibly unhappy
with the situation developing between them and Aaron's parents.
They considered themselves to be star-crossed lovers and began to plot to not just run away
together, but maybe even if Aaron got pregnant, her parents would have to agree to them eventually
getting married.
And if they don't, we'll just kill them.
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However, the conversations would quickly turn to plans of murder.
For the entire month of February, the couple told friends of their intention to kill Aaron's
parents.
They told people for a whole month and no one said a thing.
They were to take all of the valuables in the home and flee the area together.
Friends would agree that at this time it was likely all talk, but when Penny headed down
to the local library, she did something that we all take for granted nowadays since we
have such an ease of access for things.
She essentially Googled, and then I put in parentheses, Ask Jeeves.
Do you remember Ask Jeeves?
I do remember Ask Jeeves.
I finally got one of your references.
Pre-Google.
So, yes, Penny, the mom, Aaron's mom, she went down to the local library and she essentially
Googled or asked Jeeves, Charlie Wilkinson.
She was like, I'm gonna look this dude up.
He's about, see what his family is about, all this shit.
And he's just wicked famous and he's gonna be all over the internet, right?
Yeah, by the handle, hillbilly though.
So she asked Jeeves, Charlie Wilkinson and came across his social media page or his
Myspace.
The page contained shared content and posts that made Penny uncomfortable.
Charlie would share pictures or memes, I guess, they weren't memes at the time, but pictures,
that were related to sex and drugs.
And some post that seemed to describe him having sex with Aaron.
Like he was like, yeah, I got that tonight.
She clutches her pearls.
She clutches her pearls, she gasped.
That was it.
Penny and Terry had had enough.
They forbid Aaron from seeing Charlie any longer.
But the reaction that they received, they didn't expect.
In a shocking turn of the conversation about the breakup, Aaron began to break down and
cry.
She stated that she had in fact wanted to break up with Charlie and that things were
just getting too intense for her.
She felt like he was being, that she was being controlled by Charlie at this point of their
relationship and that his behavior had become concerning and erratic.
She knew that he wasn't good for her.
Aaron and her parents had never had a troubled relationship before between the three of them.
And with Charlie, it was kind of like he was the common thread.
Like this whole thing is the reason that they're not getting along.
Now being handed the excuse to break up with Charlie by blaming her parents, Aaron agreed
that she would break up with Charlie.
March 1st, 2008.
In the early morning hours, Tommy Gaston, an elderly neighbor of the Cafes, would be
shocked to find a bloodied man crawling through his property towards his house.
I'm sorry.
Tommy rushed over to the man, quickly realizing that it was Terry Café.
He had been shot five times in his shoulder, his back, and once in his head.
Tommy immediately called 911 as he attempted to render aid to 41 year old Terry Café.
I just pictured like, we live in a cul-de-sac, I just pictured like any one of our neighbors
in like that same state.
I'm like, oh my god, how fucking scary.
That's terrifying.
Police would soon arrive and when they approached Terry asking what happened to him, Terry said,
quote, they're all gone.
Charlie Wilkinson shot my family and quote.
What?
The phone.
Terry had crawled 500 yards from the Café home, so naturally the police went to the
Café's home to secure the scene.
When the police arrived at the Cafés, they immediately noticed smoke and flames coming
from the home.
Firefighters fought the blaze through the day and eventually night fell, but unfortunately
so would the home.
It was completely reduced to the foundation.
Then the home was the remains of Penny, 13 year old Bubba, and 8 year old Tyler.
Meanwhile, mere hours after Terry told police that Charlie Wilkinson was the perpetrator
of this crime, police were able to ask around and locate Charlie.
He was reportedly staying at a friend's house.
Police busted in and found Charlie passed out on a mattress lying next to a firearm.
Sorry, just passes out with the murder weapon.
It wasn't me.
You have no proof.
Yes, he was laying next to this firearm.
Thankfully he was taken into custody without incident.
He's lucky he didn't get shot.
When police asked where he was all night, Charlie claimed that he had no recollection
of the night before.
I got drunk, bro.
Convenient.
I conveniently got drunk, bro.
Yeah.
He insisted that he stayed with his friends all night long partying.
After Charlie was removed from the friend's house, a search warrant was issued in order
to continue to search the property.
There at his friend's house, cowering in a closet, was a crying, dishevelled Aaron
Caffey.
Aaron also claimed that she had no recollection of what transpired over the last few hours,
even claiming that she had no idea where she even was.
A likely story.
Police were convinced that Aaron was the victim of a kidnapping, after Charlie had just killed
her entire family.
Now in a hospital room, Aaron told police what she did remember.
She remembered waking up to smoke and gulfing her room.
She remembered seeing two men standing in front of her holding swords dressed in all
black.
It's always two men.
And they're made up stories.
She remembers attempting to call her friend, Charlie.
She remembers being ordered on the ground by these men and being forced to then drink
something.
Her next memory is being at Charlie's friend's house, although she was like, I was just at
that house.
I'm saying Charlie's friend's house.
She didn't say that.
She further stated that she believed that these individuals were still after her.
Others recalled that Aaron didn't even smell like smoke, which kind of didn't support
her their belief that she was an actual victim.
Yeah, if anyone's ever been God forbid near a house fire or even a bonfire, that
shit sticks in your hair for days.
Yeah.
And especially when she was like, I woke up and I was engulfed in smoke.
Yeah, that wouldn't check.
Police were not present when it was revealed to Aaron that her father had in fact survived
the attack, which is a regret the police would eventually have.
Charlie was in custody when he was told that Terry Caffee had survived the attack.
And although he didn't immediately admit that he was the attacker, he did admit that
Aaron was in fact involved with the attack and the one who orchestrated the murders.
So why would the father say that he?
Okay, go ahead.
What?
Why is the dad saying it's Charlie?
Is he trying to cover for his daughter or is she just the mastermind?
You know what I mean?
Go ahead.
Yeah, you know, you know.
The listeners know what I'm talking about.
Charlie had employed a friend's brother, Charles Wade, to help kill the Caffees.
He promised Charles Wade $2,000 to help him.
He's like, Aaron says there's a lot of money in this house, so we're going to kill the
parents.
Yeah.
We're going to take the money and I'm going to pay you $2,000 to help me do it.
Like I was like, worth it?
He's like, oh yeah, you bet.
Of course they couldn't use Charlie's truck since it was well known by the family and
the neighbors, so they then asked another senior named Bobby Johnson to give the three
a ride around that night.
Bobbie Johnson.
She is, she's a Bobbie Johnson.
Bobbie Johnson.
Bobbie would eventually be questioned and she claimed she had no knowledge prior to
this that this was the intention of Charles and Charlie.
Bobbie, Charlie, and Charles went to the Caffees' home around 1.30 a.m., picked up
Aaron, and drove around a while while they came up with a plan.
It's with this point, Bobbie knows.
When asked why he agreed to kill Aaron's parents in the first place, Charlie said,
quote, I ain't got no conscience.
I joined the army to do whatever needed to be done without thinking, end quote, and
quote, I intended to kill them because I thought I was in love, end quote.
You're so deep, bro.
Yeah, you're so deep.
I ain't got no conscience, but I'm in love.
It's essentially what he said.
I ain't got no conscience.
You love put me in the unconscious.
I don't know.
I don't rap.
Just drunk on love.
Aaron and Bobbie stayed in the car while the boys walked inside.
Charlie was to kill her parents, but Charles was to kill her brothers, as Charlie claimed
that it would be too hard for him to kill Bubba and Tyler.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, this is way too hard for me to do.
I don't have a conscience.
I ain't got no conscience.
I'm Peter Pankey.
Charlie snuck into the house and made his way upstairs.
He first attempted to shoot Terry and Penny, however, the gun jammed.
Charles was then able to take the gun and fix it and then handed it back to Charlie.
Okay.
Right?
Charlie then shot Terry and Penny several times, and although he believed Terry had died
immediately, Penny was still noticeably alive.
Charlie then retrieved a kitchen knife and slit Penny's throat, killing her.
Bubba and Tyler, Aaron's brothers, aged 13 and eight, were awoken by the gunshots.
When they entered the hallway to see what had transpired, they were in shock that Charlie
and another unknown boy were the cause of the noise.
They both rushed into Aaron's room, which had a lock on the inside of the door, and
the boys were able to lock themselves inside.
Charles and Charlie agreed that they could not leave without the boys, without them killing
the boys, since they had already seen them.
Charlie stood on the other side of the door, pleading with the boys to come out of Aaron's
room, ensuring them that he and Charles would not hurt them.
Oh my god, that's so sad.
However, this was a lie.
The boys would eventually open the door, trusting Charlie, and they, when Charlie and Charles
attempted to grab them, they were essentially fighting, trying to flee.
Charles would fire a single shot, killing Bubba instantly, before stabbing eight-year-old
Tyler to death with the same knife used to kill his own mother.
Charlie had grabbed a bag that was previously packed by Aaron, and the two had head back
to the car.
Charles and Charlie then returned to the home, opened the lockbox that Aaron claimed was
full of money.
However, with this and whatever was in Terry and Penny's wallet and purse, the total cash
taken was a measly $375.
Fucking worth it, huh?
They're idiots.
They're children.
Charles is like, half that's mine, you know.
Yeah.
You owe me $2,000.
How much more do you owe me?
Yeah.
Ugh.
When getting back into the car, Charlie recalls Aaron saying, quote, I'm glad that's over,
and quote.
Oh, what a monster.
She's...
I'm genuine.
I'm not sure.
I know.
Oh my God.
After driving around for some time, the four reached a friend's house where Charlie
and Aaron would have sex before falling asleep.
I...
Which is so gross.
That's so fucking gross.
Like, I think of Gypsy Rose.
I was just gonna say calm down Gypsy Rose.
Gypsy Rose and Nic Gaudezhan, for sure.
Meanwhile, while Charlie is in the interrogation room, Aaron's toxicology reports come back
from the hospital.
She was negative for any sedatives or any potentially harmful substances that would
cause memory loss.
Aaron.
Aaron, Charlie, Bobby, and Charles would all be arrested within 24 hours of the murders
of Penny, Bubba, and Tyler Caffey, and the attempted murder of Terry.
Terry would stay in the hospital for just days before being released, sustaining only
a broken nose, fractured cheekbones, and minor nerve damage.
Wow.
That's incredible.
Incredible.
I was gonna say crazy.
Terry told Pamela Kalliff of Texas Monthly, quote, I remember the nurse coming in and
saying, Mr. Caffey, you can go home now.
And all I heard was the word home.
I thought, I don't have a home.
I don't have a family to go to.
And I remember weeping, just weeping uncontrollably.
I laid on my sister's couch for a few days, and that's when the despair hit me.
I decided that I was gonna go back to my property and end my life.
I was gonna lay down and shoot myself right there on the spot where I lost my family.
I wanted to die where they died.
And then I decided, no, there's been enough bloodshed.
I'm gonna take all the pain pills they gave me, all the depression medication, the Xanax,
everything.
Drink me a bottle of Jim Beam, put a hose in the tailpipe of my daughter's pickup,
rent through a window, and just fall asleep and not wake up again.
So two or three days I pondered this, and somebody brought me a Bible and told me to
read the book of Job.
Well, I read this story countless times before, but when I read it again, it was almost like
I was there with Job.
He had lost everything, his whole family, all his worldly possessions, but he did not
lose his faith, and God blessed him doubly.
That turned me around, and it got me thinking that God might have a plan for me.
He didn't bring me through all of that for nothing.
I went back to our property as soon as I was better.
There was nothing left but the subfloor and the metal roof.
I spent days out there picking through the ashes.
I would get on my hands and knees and just dig.
I didn't find much.
A hot wheels car, a broken ceramic cup, a horseshoe shaped belt buckle that the kids
had given me for Christmas.
I ended up buying a used RV and I moved it back on my land.
Everyone said I was crazy for going back, but it brought me healing.
I put my RV right on the spot where my house once stood, and I stayed there for about four
months.
I was so stubborn I thought, I'll be darned if someone's going to run me off our property.
When I leave, it'll be when I'm ready and when God's ready for me to leave.
Some nights it was pitch black by the time I got home, and I had to work up the courage
to get out of my car.
I brought a 9mm pistol with me when I slept.
End quote.
Damn.
Terry would visit his daughter in jail twice a week leading up to her trial.
Terry would often keep the topics light, but once he started to process what had happened,
he began to ask Aaron several times if he was too harsh on her, if he and Penny were
good parents, overall looking for a reason for the crime, but Terry never seemed to get
a direct answer.
Aaron would be tried as an adult given the severity of the crime.
Her phone records showed that Aaron called Charlie several times on the night of the
crime, proving that she had every intention of not allowing Charlie to back out of the
plan that she concocted.
Of course, capital punishment in the state of Texas for first degree murder is the penalty
of death.
When discussing this topic in a letter to the Reigns County DA, Terry Caffee said, quote,
My heart tells me that there has been enough deaths.
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.
Killing them will not bring my family back.
End quote.
What a fucking guy.
Straight up.
Bobby Johnson would plead guilty to being an accomplice to the crime and would ultimately
be sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Whoa.
Yeah.
Straight up.
Damn, I'd be fucking pissed.
This is piss.
Texas girl.
You motherfuckers took me to this fucking crime scene and now I'm in jail for the rest
of my life.
The thing is though is that they drove around for almost an hour while they were discussing
what they're doing.
That's true.
I just did it.
She could have been like, get the fuck out of my car.
What are you talking about?
But maybe they were like, we're gonna fucking kill you then.
Take your fucking car.
I guess so.
I don't know that point.
Charles Wade and Charlie Wilkinson would be sentenced to life in prison without parole
after pleading guilty to three counts of murder.
So they were like, we'll plead so you don't kill us essentially.
Pussies.
Erin pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree murder for the minimum of 42 years
to be served and will be eligible for parole when she's 60.
Wow.
Terry continues to be in his daughter's corner.
He was even seen holding hands with her throughout her trial.
Terry says about his daughter, quote, I think that she thought that Charlie was just blowing
smoke.
I don't think that she actually thought he would go through with it.
I know my daughter.
She cried one time when we were in my truck and I ran over a squirrel.
She's tender hearted.
No kids an angel, but I know what she's capable of and I know she's not capable of murder.
End quote.
I mean, yeah, he's a better man than I am, right, because I couldn't fucking do that.
But you also have to look at the facts.
She was involved.
You know what I mean?
She could do that because she did do it.
A lot of Bobby Johnson's testimony was about how Erin acted, what she said and did before
the crimes and after the crimes.
And even Bobby Johnson was like, she's a cold-blooded bitch.
She was straight up like in like had this indifference about what was occurring.
And then when it happened, she was like, oh my God, I just like can't wait to get out of
here.
Like I just I can't wait to be with Charlie.
Yeah.
Like she was just so like she didn't fully get what was going on.
It could have been a folly to do situation though.
Her spending so much time with Charlie and him putting it into her head.
Yeah.
That like that's the only way they can be together.
It might have been, you know.
Another bit of Bobby Johnson's testimony was that Charlie had asked several times,
are you sure?
Are you sure?
And she's like, yep.
Yep.
Oh my God, that's terrible.
Terry still visits his daughter and is now remarried.
He has adopted his wife's three children and even had another child of his own.
Oh, that makes me happy.
He became a pastor and tells his story in hopes of inspiring others to seek forgiveness within
their own lives.
Oh my God, what a fucking guy.
I love this guy.
Aaron Caffey is now 33 years old and is currently residing in an undisclosed Texas prison.
Hornsville.
Yeah, down there.
Dilly.
Little bit of Dilly.
Besides Aaron's ADD, we haven't clearly spoken of a mental diagnosis surrounding this case.
But according to an article by popsugar.com, Dr. Leela R. Maga V. MD, who is a Hopkins
trained psychiatrist and is the regional medical director for- damn it.
Whoa.
Does she say that every time she introduces herself?
She's like, it's me.
Hopkins trained psychiatrist and regional medical director for community psychiatry in California.
That's what she says.
Beautiful.
We're leaving that.
Go ahead.
There are not overprotected children that, quote, oversheltered children are restrained
from exploring and understanding the external world freely due to parents' anxiety and
apprehension.
I'm going to get there.
She goes on to say, quote, children tend to have difficulty making decisions or speaking
for themselves when they are too sheltered.
They may exhibit anxiety and self-esteem concerns.
They may struggle with remaining independent and may additionally have difficulty handling
rejection and failure.
They also may be less imaginative and creative.
Well, when you don't have a lot of those decisions to make on your own as a child, how
do you make any of those decisions as an adult?
And then that leads to someone like Erin who is very clearly a follower of someone that's
capable of murder.
Yes.
Even if it was her plan, she's willing to go along with it because she hasn't really
made decisions like that outside of ever.
I agree.
I think that it's very much that her parents made her decisions.
God too.
I mean, that's also the thing is that God has this plan for her.
She doesn't have to do any of it.
God also gave you free will, but that just must be the way that she saw it.
Plus, she was so young.
Yeah, and really, really influential at that age.
I listen to.
Charlie, I mean, he, I don't know what's going on with him, but he definitely has some sort
of maybe personality disorder or.
Probably oppositional defiance.
That too, yeah.
Just given the fact that he wanted to go into the military so young, that was something
that he felt like he could be successful at because he probably really required that structure.
And unlike Erin, he'd had no structure probably.
You know, he was able to run about town and do whatever he wanted to do and would have
essentially, no one looking over him.
So it's kind of opposites attract at that point.
It kind of seems like he also kind of has this underlying sense of need for control
almost.
Not exactly sure where that would come from, but.
Yeah.
Well, maybe it is that kind of the opposite is like maybe he lacked control.
So he created control by controlling someone else.
That's true.
Yeah.
And Erin was easily controlled because of the situation she was already in.
It's kind of interesting because the whole thing is that she didn't want to be controlled
by her parents, but she let Charlie control her.
And I'm not saying that she's not responsible for this.
I'm not saying that at all.
I'm just saying that, like you mentioned, Folly and Do type situation, they both want
what the other has and has provided that by each other.
And it just gets so crazy out of control that they don't understand the gravity or the severity
of what they're experiencing.
She probably didn't understand two true consequences of any of that because she probably wasn't
allowed to experience media that was like that or whatever in the household.
But you're right.
Like they're so young and like, this is teenage kids and they're in love or whatever.
We've seen it before.
Other people that are, they're so in love, they're willing to kill for it.
Yeah, like Ramon Fernandez.
Yeah.
Ramon Fernandez and Martha Beck.
Like Martha wanted that affection so badly that she was willing to turn the other cheek
when Raymond killed someone in front of her and she was willing to do it herself as well.
We've seen it a lot and it's unfortunate.
No one that loves you will make you kill people.
Just saying.
It's so true.
People that really truly love you care about your mental health.
Right.
They care about you and they want you to take care of yourself as much as they want to take
care of you.
So, yes.
Yes.
So that is Charlie Wilkinson and Aaron Caffee.
God, good case.
I've never heard that story at all, but it's very interesting always.
I mean, it's so tragic, but it's a very interesting case because it doesn't happen very often.
When it's a full, almost full family.
What is it called?
A familicide?
Almost a familicide.
Yeah.
Well, it's a familicide is usually when a family member is the perpetrator, like a Joel
Guy Jr.
I still think she is the perpetrator.
Well, I mean, yeah, I guess so, right?
Yeah.
Well, thank you guys for joining us for another case.
Yes.
Thank you to Vince for recommending that one.
Yeah, absolutely.
We will definitely get this out there for you guys to listen to.
Our Patreon members will have this one ad free.
And then, da, da, da.
Should I say it?
Should I say not who I'm doing, but what we're doing?
Yes.
Okay.
Here's our plan, y'all.
I'm going out of town for two weeks, but the case that I am doing is a fucking doozy.
It is not even small enough to be a two-parter.
So it's going to have to be a three-parter.
So be looking forward to a three-part case coming out over the next three weeks.
Yes, you heard me right.
We are going to make you wait anticipation a week for each part, but it's going to be
so worth it, y'all.
It's going to be really, really intense.
And of course, we'll have mental breakdowns each week as well.
Yes.
Oh, I'm so excited.
I'm excited to just listen to you.
Oh my God.
It's going to be great.
It's going to be 60 pages.
Oh my God.
Okay.
And with that, we will see you guys on Monday with another mental breakdown.
Yes.
All right.
Love you.
Bye.
Love you.
Bye.
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