Woman posed as a CIA agent to trick her PARENTS into killing her Facebook friends

DAWN was just breaking on January 31, 2012 when the murders were executed with military precision.

Opening the unlocked back door of a house in north-eastern Tennessee, the killers crept into the home of Billy Payne and his fiancée Billie-Jean Hayworth and gunned them down, before slipping away unseen.

A few hours later, a horrified neighbour found the body of Billy, a 36-year-old factory worker, lifeless on his bed, a bullet wound to his face and his throat slashed.

Jenelle led a sheltered, friendless life until Billy took her under his wing and invited her to social gatherings 

In the nursery next door lay Billie-Jean, 23, shot in the head while cradling their seven-month-old son Tyler.

The baby, still in his mother’s arms, was splattered in her blood – but, miraculously, had survived.

“I’ve tried over 100 jury cases, and 18 first-degree murders, and no other case has been like this one,” says assistant district attorney general Dennis Brooks, prosecutor in the subsequent murder trials.

Residents of Mountain City were horrfied by the killings.

 

Billy Payne and his fiancée Billie-Jean Hayworth were brutally murdered in 2012. Their baby, who was in his mother’s arms as she was killed, miraculously survived.

With a population of 2,500, it’s the kind of place where nothing much ever happens.

The welcome sign proclaims it “a friendly hometown”, and there are just three shops – no cinema, no mall and hardly any crime.

“We don’t have murders in Johnson County,” says Brooks.

“Everyone is friendly, everyone knows everyone – if you pass someone in the street, you stop to talk. Perhaps every few years there would be a domestic incident, but not a home invasion like this. Not an execution.”

Barbara and Buddy, Jenelle’s parents, believed Jenelle when she told them Billy and Billie-Jean were threatening and intimidating her 

There was no physical evidence left at the scene – no DNA, no bullet casings, no fingerprints.

But suspicion quickly turned to the Potter family, who lived nearby: father Marvin – known as “Buddy” – then aged 60, mother Barbara, 61, and their daughter Jenelle, 31, who had been embroiled in a very public Facebook feud with the victims.

The Potter family had moved to Mountain City from Philadelphia in 2004, but had never fitted in.

Buddy, a former soldier who had served in Vietnam, raised eyebrows with his not-so-subtle hints that he had been in the CIA, while Barbara always seemed to be involved in one conflict or another with her extended family.

Jenelle, meanwhile, was socially awkward and struggled to make friends.

Almost 6ft tall, with diabetes, mild learning disabilities and a peculiarly childlike voice, she had never had a job or boyfriend, never left home and never got her driving licence.

Her parents were strict and overbearing, so the internet became Jenelle’s lifeline.

On her Facebook page, she posted endless pictures of puppies and hearts.

“I’m a very sweet, caring person,” her profile read.

.Billy introduced Jenelle to his cousin Jamie and the pair embarked on a romance they kept secret from her parents

“I love life and I love to make other’s laugh” [sic]

 In 2009, Jenelle finally made friends with a group of locals including Billy Payne, who had a reputation as a nice guy with time for everyone. For the first time in her life, Jenelle must have felt like she belonged.

“That may have been the beginning of her obsession with Billy,” says Brooks.

“He included her in social occasions, like going rock climbing or just hanging out. To someone like Jenelle, who led such a boring, sheltered life, that must have seemed like something special.”

Billy even set her up with his cousin Jamie Curd, now 43, and the pair embarked on a romance that she kept secret from her parents, introducing Jamie to them as a friend.

But the following year, after Billy got together with Billie-Jean, Jenelle suddenly accused the group of unfriending her on Facebook and cyber-bullying.

She told her parents that they were bombarding her with messages and threats of rape and violence, making crank phone calls and driving past their house to intimidate her.

Their motivation, she claimed, was simply that she was too pretty.

Billy, Billie-Jean and their friends, meanwhile, insisted that Jenelle was the one harassing them.

After the murders, police went to see the Potters.

They denied any knowledge, but Jamie was taken to the station for questioning.

He too claimed to know nothing, but failed a lie detector test.

Then he asked a question that blew the case wide open: “Is the CIA here?”

Smelling a rat, investigators asked why the USA’s foreign intelligence agency would be involved in a small-town homicide – and Jamie eventually cracked. 

 Jamie admitted to murdering the couple with Jenelle’s father after the were warned that her life was in danger by a ‘CIA operative’

He admitted to shooting Billy and Billie-Jean with Jenelle’s father after they were encouraged to do so by a CIA operative called Chris, who said Jenelle’s life was in danger.

Just a week after the killings, Buddy and Jamie were charged with first-degree murder – but the investigation was just beginning.