Vrinda Bachchan
On January 31, 2012, a friend of Billy Payne and his girlfriend Billie Jean Hayworth found the young couple dead by a single gunshot to each of their faces. As indicated in A&E’s ‘Murder in the 21st: All In The Family,’ they both had also been beaten black and blue before being shot to death. What’s worse is that Billie Jean’s corpse was found lying next to their 7-month-old infant son; she was reportedly carrying him when she got shot. The baby, though covered in his mother’s blood, seemed physically unharmed.
This heinous double homicide shook the sleepy and friendly town of Mountain City in Tennessee. The police and the local public were left wondering who would commit such a cold-hearted crime, and why. As the police investigated the murders, a convoluted story of love, jealousy, cyber-bullying, and catfishing emerged. If you want to know who killed Billy Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth, and if they acted alone or on someone’s orders, you’ve come to the right place. We have all the information right here.
How Did Billy Payne And Billie Jean Hayworth Die?
The small town of Mountain City, Tennessee considers itself a friendly town, so much so that it’s even written on their “Welcome to Mountain City” sign, as one enters the place. But apparently, the town is not so friendly to outsiders. Or so claims Jenelle Potter, a sheltered young woman who moved there in 2005 at the age of 23 or 24. She had learning disabilities and was diabetic too.
Jenelle lived with her rather overprotective parents, Marvin (aka Buddy) and Barbara Potter, and they kept a strict watch over her at all times. Marvin was a former marine who served in Vietnam and later allegedly worked with the CIA before retiring to a quiet life. Barbara had a job with Hewlett-Packard. Jenelle, due to multiple health concerns, had always led a sheltered life and struggled with making friends, even as a kid. The only place she could make friends was on social media, specifically through her Facebook.
One day, while picking up her prescription meds, Jenelle befriended pharmacy clerk Tracy Greenwell, who was pleasant to her primarily because she felt really sorry. They started hanging out and Jenelle reportedly formed a crush on her brother Billy Payne. But Tracy set Jenelle up with her single cousin Jamie Curd. Jamie and Jenelle started dating, but it was in secret because of Jenelle’s parents. Jamie hung out at Jenelle’s family home a lot under the pretense of fixing their computer.
Meanwhile, Jenelle started receiving online threats and anonymous hate messages and she immediately pinned the blame on Billie Jean, Billy’s girlfriend and the mother of his infant son. So sure was Jenelle that Billie Jean was behind all the cyber-bullying that there started a Facebook feud between the two and things got worse when Jamie took Jenelle’s side over his cousin Billy’s. Jenelle believes that Billie Jean was targeting her because she was jealous of Jenelle’s looks.
Their feud really kept escalating and there was even an instance of alleged rock-throwing by Billy and Billie Jean at Jenelle’s house. Eventually, both parties unfriended each other on Facebook. But that was not where things ended, sadly. It was only a few days later that Billy and Billie Jean were found dead in the house they shared, their child sitting in a pool of Billie Jean’s blood. There were bruises on the young couple’s bodies, Billy’s throat had been slashed, and they were shot dead.
Who Killed Billy Payne And Billie Jean Hayworth?
The police, aware that there was a tiff going on, went to Jenelle’s house to question her and her parents almost immediately. All three of them expressed sad shock at the murders but told them they only wanted the cyberbullying to stop and would never resort to such violence. But when the police took Jamie in for questioning, he gave them a major breakthrough in the case when he asked if the CIA was there. When probed more, he revealed that he’d been texting with someone called “Chris” from the CIA whose job was to protect Jenelle at all costs. Upon further questioning, he cracked and admitted that Marvin was the killer.
Therefore, the police brought in Jenelle’s father for questioning and to get him to confess, even though they did not fully believe he could have done it. After all, he was an old man with failing health who needed oxygen tanks to breathe and a lot of medications to fully function. Yet, Marvin did soon confess that he’d shot Payne and his girlfriend Hayworth to death in order to protect his daughter Jenelle from harm.
When the police went to search the Potters’ ranch-style house, they found an arsenal of weapons (guns and knives in almost every room). Further incriminating evidence that the police found was photos of the victims. In a moment of desperation, Barbara even tried to tear up the photos. From Marvin’s impounded truck, the police retrieved a lot of shredded papers. A dedicated agent spent a lot of time putting the shredded paper back together like a puzzle. They turned out to be emails exchanged between Barbara and the CIA Agent Chris. In the emails, he’d detailed the violent threats that Jenelle was supposedly getting from Billy and Billie Jean. As a result, scared for her daughter’s life, Barbara apparently goaded her husband into killing the duo.
But the police were still confused as to the identity of the mysterious guardian angel Chris. When they traced the IP address of the emails sent by Chris, it turned out to be the same computer at the Potter’s house. The police concluded that Jenelle herself was Chris, that she’d created a fake identity online and catfished her mother and father into a murder conspiracy. Simple-minded and timid Jenelle had been the mastermind that had orchestrated the brutal murders of Billy Payne and Billie Jean, using her naive mother, gun-loving father, and lovestruck boyfriend Jamie as pawns. Thus, all three members of the Potter family have since been convicted of murder or facilitating murder, whereas Jamie took a plea deal of 25 years on the charge of facilitating first degree murder as well.
Read More: Where is Jenelle Potter Now?
