At 16 years of age, Erin Caffey organised the killing of her family.
She was angry because her parents had banned her from seeing her boyfriend, an older boy named Charlie Wilkinson.
“I was shocked, angry and hurt, this was the guy I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with and he loved me,” she told The Sun. “We were going to get married.”
At Caffey’s behest, Wilkinson and one of their friends brutally murdered her mother and two brothers in their home.
Her father survived, but only by sheer luck.
Erin Caffey and her boyfriend Charlie Wilkson.
Caffey's mother was shot, before being semi-decapitated with a samurai sword.
Her 13-year-old brother was shot in the head and her eight-year-old brother was stabbed repeatedly with the sword.
Her father was shot five times and left to die as the house was torched.
Now 24, Caffey is currently serving two consecutive life sentences in a Texan prison.
One of the most unsettling aspects of her crime was the lack of warning signs; by all accounts she was an ordinary American teenager.
"You know, I was voted when we went to youth camp ‘Most Fun Loving Person’," she told Piers Morgan in his soon-to-premiere documentary Killer Women with Piers Morgan.
"What the hell happened?" he asked.
"I guess what it all boils down to is choices," she replied.
"When I look back on it now, this was all just stupid. I mean, for what? They weren’t beating me, they weren’t starving me to death. I had it made."
The trailer for Killer Women with Piers Morgan:
A criminal therapist who worked with her soon after the murders said she was the most dangerous criminal he'd ever met.
"I’ve never come across anyone as dangerous as Erin," he says on the program.
As the murders were carried out, Caffey waited in the car with another friend just a few hundred metres away.
She claimed she had been kidnapped, but this was later revealed to be a lie.
Her father Terry is the only person who still visits her.
"I honestly believe she was not the mastermind," he told Morgan. "This was a vulnerable 16-year-old girl with a controlling, psychopathic guy."
Asked if he could forgive her, he said he could.
"I do forgive her," he said. "I have to forgive her."
Feature image: ITV
Top Comments
They had sex after it all happened too which I see it as they found it pleasurable. When I watched the show last night it seemed like she had an excuse for everything but some questions she would just say yes. Which kinda makes me think she's slowing trying to admit to herself and everyone that she is the mastermind. She finds it hard to blame herself at all. And I personally think she has got around her dad putting in to his mind that she was controlled by her boyfriend. Believe me I've always been close with my dad I think there's always that daddy daughter bond and at the age of 16 all she had to do was say ''Daddy he wanted to do it, he made me.'' I mean if your daughter said that who would you believe your 16 year old ''little girl'' or a 19 year old guy you don't want around your daughter. She was 16, no drugs, no alcohol, no sign of being forced. She knew what she was doing. At any time she could of stepped out of that car and saved her little brothers and mum and dad. I don't know how she could of done that to her family. I'm 18 now and thinking back to when I was 16 nothing like that ever and will never cross my mind.
She was a lucky girl to have a family that loved her. Some parents shouldn't even have children with some of the stories you hear. I just don't and I don't think anyone will ever understand why that girl killed her family. You can even see now how lucky she is to have her Dad on her side when she took everything away from him. What a horrible story.
She was the mastermind in my opinion but they all took part. They will all live with it for the rest of their lives. Erin will have to live with the fact she could of stopped it at any second. All four of them had a choice that night and they all made the wrong one. Something about the way their minds work is not right. No one will ever know what went through their heads that night.
I saw her story on 20/20 - she is scary.
She didn't once seem regretful or upset.
She is one girl who needs to be kept locked up forever in my opinion.