Investigators say Texas teenager, boyfriend spent a month planning fatal attack on her family

A high school couple forced to break up spent about a month plotting to kill the girl's parents before her mother and two younger brothers were fatally shot and stabbed in a weekend ambush, according to records released Monday.

Charlie James Wilkinson, who had been dating Penny and Terry Caffey's 16-year-old daughter, told police his girlfriend wanted her parents dead because they forbade their relationship, according to Rains County Sheriff Department investigators.

"Wilkinson stated that he and (the girl) were in love and the only way they could be together is to kill the parents," the arrest affidavit stated.

The daughter, Wilkinson, 19, Charles Allen Waid, 20, and Bobbi Gale Johnson, 18, are each charged with three counts of capital murder in the pre-dawn Saturday massacre at the Caffeys' secluded home. The girl has not been identified because of her age. All four were being held Monday on $1.5 million bond.

According to the affidavit, Waid, a friend of Wilkinson's, was offered about $2,000 to join the plot, although it doesn't specify who offered him the money.

Wilkinson and Waid broke into the house around 4 a.m. Saturday and fired on the parents while they slept, according to the affidavit. The two then went upstairs and fatally shot Mathew Caffey, 13, and stabbed Tyler Caffey, 8, with a sword, it says.

Wilkinson and Waid took cash and jewelry, then set fire to furniture and laundry to cover up the killings before leaving with the Caffeys' daughter and Johnson, who were waiting in a car parked down the road, the affidavit states.

Afterward, "Wilkinson stated that he and (the girl) had sex and slept," investigators wrote.

Rains Independent School District Superintendent David Seago said the Caffeys' daughter enrolled at Rains High School just six weeks ago. Classmates and Emory residents have said she previously had been homeschooled.

The father, Terry Caffey, was shot five times but was able to drag himself 300 yards to a neighbor's home. He remained Monday at East Texas Medical Center in nearby Tyler. The hospital would not release his condition but the neighbor, Tommy Gaston, said Caffey's health was improving.

Waid, Johnson and Wilkinson were being held in the Rains County jail. The Caffeys' daughter was being held in neighboring Hunt County's juvenile detention center.

A Rains County jailer said Monday there was no indication the suspects had attorneys. Bobby Wilkinson said he had no comment on the arrest of his son. Other family members of the suspects did not return messages or could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Caffeys' home is just outside Emory in Alba, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas.