EMORY, Texas - A weekend ambush left a mother and her two sons dead and the father wounded, a grisly shooting and stabbing attack authorities say was carried out by the family's teenage daughter and the boyfriend her parents disliked.
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(Photo: AP Images / Tyler Morning Telegraph, Herb Nygren JR.)The sign on the church that the Terry Caffey and his family attended in Emory, Texas carries a message Sunday morning March 2, 2008. Terry Caffey was seriously wounded with multiple gunshots wounds. His wife Penny, 37, and sons Tyler, 8, and Mathew,13 were stabbed and shot to death. One adult and three teenagers, including his daughter are under arrest in Rains County Texas Jail charged with three counts each of felony capital murder.
"We feel confident that the motive was the fact that the juvenile daughter and one of the individuals in custody were dating and that the parents were attempting to break the relationship up, which led to the crime that was committed," Rains County Sheriff David Traylor said Sunday.
The 16-year-old girl joined her boyfriend and two others in killing members of the Caffey family in their bedrooms before setting the house on fire, authorities said, confirming what most in this rural farming town had known since the pre-dawn attack Saturday.
The lone survivor was Terry Caffey, the father. He was shot five times — including twice in the back — before he dragged himself through the woods in search of help. He awaited surgery Sunday to remove the bullets, Traylor said, and an update was not available Monday morning.
Killed were Penny Caffey, 37, and sons Tyler, 8, and Mathew, 13.
The girl, who was not identified because of her age, was arraigned Sunday on three counts of capital murder and being held on $1.5 million bond. Charlie James Wilkinson, the girl's 19-year-old boyfriend, and two others, Charles Allen Waid, 20, and Bobbi Gale Johnson, 18, were arraigned on the same charges.
Waid, Johnson and Wilkinson were being held in Rains County jail on $1.5 million bond. The Caffeys' daughter was being held in neighboring Hunt County's juvenile detention center. Traylor said he wasn't aware if they had attorneys yet.
The killings gripped everyone and everything in Emory, from the Sunday morning church services to lunch conversations at small cafes along the two-lane road running through this town of just 1,500.
Classmates of the Caffeys' daughter and Wilkinson described the couple as inseparable and with few other friends on campus. Stunning most here was the arrest of Johnson, who was widely described as a good student active in theater at Rains High School.
Jennifer McClanahan, a senior at Rains, said that Wilkinson had been scolded during her English class last week for being on the computer. Wilkinson, she said, in turn told the teacher that her girlfriend's father had hacked into his MySpace page.
McClanahan and others said Wilkinson was not really a troublemaker, other than constantly being told to remove the cowboy hat he always wore to school.
"That's Charlie," said McClanahan, 17. "He would start an argument over something like a hat."
Carl Johnson, a friend of the family, said the Caffeys moved about two years ago to just outside Emory. He called them good Christians and said he often told the daughter he wanted her soft singing voice to perform at his funeral.
"(The parents) didn't like the boy and were trying to break them up," Johnson said. "They told me at church they didn't have any use for him."
The attack occurred on about 20 acres of pine-canopied, remote land in Alba on a narrow gravel road with just two other homes. The area is so secluded that even the closest neighbors reported only faintly hearing what sound liked thunder early Saturday, and few saw the blaze.
Authorities said that Terry Caffey crawled 300 yards to his closest neighbor to get help, leaving a bloody trail. He was shot in the head, twice in the back and twice near his shoulder, Traylor said. Continue >>
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This is tragic. We must remember that What the enemy means for evil, God means for good. Our focus should be - How is God going to use this tragedy (in our eye's and hearts) too further His kingdom, to reveal his will and glory? God is sovereign - in control - Even Satan must ask God's permission before acting. Read Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6 What do you conclude about the relationship between God's sovereignty and Satan's freedom? God's sovereignty means Satan must obtain permission before he can act in the life of a believer. Satan's freedom does not mean he is free to do anything he wants. I pray the kingdom of God advances in some way through this tragedy.
holito,
which scripture is that family conflict quote from?
We live in ever-increasing evil days! We live in a world that tells children/and everyone else, there are no absolutes and no accountability, so why should anyone say what this young girl did is wrong.
We live in a time when right is wrong and wrong is right, all BIBLICAL PROPHECY.
Jesus Christ, died for the sins of the world, including this one, and this child(and others involved) can receive forgiveness from God; this is Amazing Grace and it is overed to all because of what Jesus did on The Cross at Calvary!
This world is passing away and either you choose life with God or death, which is eternal separation from God!
God bless this family and this community and may God heal them and comfort them as only HE can do! This act is evil not just wrong, and this is happening all over the world.
For those who walk with Jesus, keep your eyes on HIM, HE is at the gate, prepare ye the way of the LORD!
"In this world we will have trouble; but be of good cheer, for HE has overcome this world," Praise the LORD, that this world is not all there is!
in Jesus Name, Amen
Ultimately this young girl desired something her parents forbid her to have. The desire was strong that she yeilded to the point of agreeing to have her parents murdered to obtain it. Sound alot like Genesis? Adam and Eve did the same thing . We must remember as beleivers we are dealing with a fallen nature. The book of Jeremiah talks about a heart that is deceptively wicked who can know it?
While I realize most people don't want to believe this God can save her and will for give her if she in turn believes and commits her life to him. He will do it for all them involved. Its very difficult for the church world to realize this at times. God's grace is for the worst of sinners and the most self righteous saint.
It could have been anyone. You never how you will react to a situation given the right temptation. The sign is awesome in my opinion. You don't have to say much to say alot. Despite this awful tragedy God is still God. How many people may be doubting God at this at point.
As believers in the body Christ, we should realize that sin is still present in the earth. All of us are subject to fall at anytime lest we keep ourselves in fellowship, prayer, and bible study.
Most of us as believers deal with life from a fairy tale perspective. We think we are somehow suppose to be protected from ills of life. Sin is real.
God is still God. Jesus said mother will be against daughter and fathers against sons. Houses will be divided over the Word. The ungodly are trying to gain more ground. They have no compassion or concern for others. They are self-centered and puffed-up. They have gather many teachers who profess there ways. But God is still God. They have spoken evil of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They think the wrath of God is a joke. They want to "save" the world through science of men. Yet God is still God. He has set an appoint time for all things to be fulfilled. God is not slow in keeping His promise as some know slowness. God still requires us to do what is right and holy.
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. Be even if He does not, we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
this is one thing i doubt she'll ever get out of burning in hell for, this is just sick and it made me churn a very bad movement inside me, the kind that only the most disturbed individuals can cause to.
what is happening in the world?
agentorange.......why? This is a tragedy and all you do is mock a sign? How bout showing a little compassion for the subject at hand. Not the dumb sign...I though you didn't believe in signs.
wow, that photo says it all. saying 'god is still god' is about at elequent as saying 'peanut butter is still peanut butter'. The least the guy could've done is put more thought into it.
SportinLife,
Are you serious? you are using this as your platform to get back at people here who put down homosexuals? isn't that the sort of hate that resulted in this tragedy? please let it go and pray for the family and people who were affected by this tragedy. Take care