Texas Teenage Daughter Accused in Family Murder Plot

By Pamela Mortimer

It’s a miracle that Terry Caffey is still alive. Caffey, an East Texas resident, was shot five times and left to die in a fire that consumed the family home on Saturday evening. Three other members of the Caffey family did not survive. Those who perished were Penny Caffey, 37, and sons, Mathew, 13 and Tyler, 8.

According to authorities, Terry Caffey, the family’s patriarch and sole survivor, is one of the victims of a plot allegedly hatched by the Caffey’s 16-year-old daughter and her friends after the girl’s parents tried to force the daughter to break up with her boyfriend. The daughter and her boyfriend are two of four suspects currently in police custody. The Rains County Sheriff's Department has not released the daughter’s name.

The 911 call, released on Monday, was made by Tommy Gaston, the Caffey’s neighbor.

"I've got a man whose been shot out here by my house," a man who identified himself as Tommy Gaston told the 911 operator.

The caller told the operator that the man was conscious and breathing and that the house was on fire. "I don't know any more details," he said. "I've got to hang up and help him."

"We lost a precious family in our church. They were just some of the best people you would ever meet and that's changed. But God hasn't changed, he's still in control. The only place that we can go, the only place that we can lean upon is upon God," said Todd McGahee, the family's pastor at Miracle Faith Baptist Church located in Emory, Texas.

McGahee reported that Terry Caffey had been shot in the head, twice in the back and twice in the shoulder. Caffey, who is in critical but stable condition at the East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, Texas, is expected to recover.

The Caffey’s daughter was found hiding at the home of one of the suspects on Sunday morning. It was not clear from the police report which suspect is the girl’s boyfriend.

On Sunday morning, the four suspects went before the Justice of the Peace and were formally charged with three counts of capital murder each, police said. The suspects include the unnamed daughter, Charlie James Wilkinson, 19, Charles Allen Wade, 20, and Bobbi Gale Johnson, 18.

All suspects remain in Rains County Jail with bail set at $1.5 million.