Where is Erin Caffey now? | The teenager who planned the murder of her family

Erin Caffey

What did Erin Caffey do?

Erin Caffey is an American murderer who organised the killing of her mother and her two young brothers in 2008. Her father was also targeted but survived his horrific injuries. 16-year-old Erin persuaded her 18-year-old boyfriend Charlie Wilkinson and his friend Charles Waid to kill her family after she was told she couldn’t see her boyfriend anymore. 

On the night of the murders, Erin waited outside in a car with another friend, Bobbi Johnson, while Wilkinson and Waid entered the Caffey family home in Emory, Texas. They shot members of the family and used a samurai sword to stab Erin’s mother, Penny, and her young brothers, Matthew and Tyler. 

Her father, Terry, was shot several times, but he managed to drag himself out of the house before Wilkinson and Waid set fire to the house. 


What happened after the teenagers were caught?

Shortly after the murders, Caffey, Wilkinson, Wade and Johnson were all arrested on suspicion of murder, with the latter three blaming Erin for orchestrating the killings. A former boyfriend of Erin’s, Michael Washburn, also claimed Erin told him she wanted her family dead. 

At the trial, Caffey, Wilkinson, Waid and Johnson were all charged with three counts of capital murder. Wilkinson and Waid were given life sentences without the possibility of parole. Caffey was also sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 40 years. She will be eligible to apply for parole after serving this time.

Prosecutors had initially sought the death penalty against Wilkinson and Waid, but Erin’s father, Terry Caffey, stepped in and requested they not face death as a punishment. Despite the horrific ordeal he’d been through, he still believed in forgiveness based on what his faith had taught him.

Terry Caffey has maintained a relationship with Erin but he admitted it wasn’t easy at first. Erin Caffey continues to deny her role in the planning of the murder. She insists that she tried to run away from Wilkinson on the night of the murders, but she was forced to wait in the car.


Where is Erin Caffey now? 

Erin Caffey is serving her sentence at the Texas Department of Corrections in Gatesville. She is now 32 years old. 

Erin has since reflected on her crimes in an interview on the documentary, Killer Women with Piers Morgan. She said the events were the result of “bad choices.”


What do you think of Erin Caffey’s case? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

6 thoughts on “Where is Erin Caffey now? | The teenager who planned the murder of her family”

  1. Erin Coffey, needs to rot in hell, for what she did, her Mother and Father, they were only trying to protect her from making the wrong choices and wanted what was best for her, they were right about for Erin to not see her boyfriend anymore

  2. I read the book Terror by Night. It’s the true story of the Caffey family nightmare brought by the daughter, Erin Caffey. Her poor father forgives her and has bought her lies 10 fold. He’s been convinced by her that it was all Charlie’s idea and that she just got caught up in it. Erin is rotten to the core. She is what pure evil looks like. She should Never get out of prison. She has refused to be honest about being the mastermind.

  3. I can’t help but notice the childish color of the make-up, the immature way the make-up is put on, the childish hair do, how childish & young her face looked… I have to wonder if she really just never really matured past a certain age & decided to just eliminate what was in her way.

  4. I’m 55yrs old and knowing what I know now, at the age 16, although a young Christian she was lead to believe things that were wrong but seemed right by her boyfriend. The three of whom were involved and committed the crimes were older and had to have had more understanding of the right thing to do. Instead I think they took it upon themselves to follow through with this horrible thing and wanted a sense of recognition. Helping her by killing her family should have not even crossed their mind. I’m seriously bothered that the three who actually did the crime would even think, whether Caffey said to do it, that they really believed it was their place to correct any problems for her in the way they did. As it was said there was no signs of abuse. So why believe that. NO INSTEAD THEY KILLED A FAMILY. A family they obviously knew nothing about. Very sad, it really is.

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