The gory and vicious murder of a single mother shocked the residents of the small town of Roanoke, Texas in September 2008. But even more shocking was the realization that 43-year-old Susan Bailey's two teenagers, 17-year-old Jennifer and 13 -year-old David, were behind the bloody rampage, along with Jennifer's boyfriend, 16-year-old Paul Henson.
.jpg)
“This young, timid, friar girl transformed in front of my eyes,” Tracy Murphree, Denton Co. Sheriff, said on Snapped: Killer Couples, airing Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen. “I'd never seen anything like it. She looked up at me. It was evil… If she could have come across the table and hurt me she would have done it at that time. “We were dealing with a killer.”
The other twist? Another 14-year-old girl was in on the teenagers' plot to kill their parents, run away to Canada, and start a community.
How did four teenagers end up trying to kill their parents and start a new life?
What happened to Susan Bailey?
On Sept. 26, 2008, Susan Bailey's co-workers reached out to her emergency contact de ella — her mother de ella — when she failed to show up for work, and they were unable to find her. Susan's mother, who was also unable to contact her daughter or grandchildren, Jennifer and David, called Roanoke, Texas police.
Authorities went to the home for a welfare check that evening, but no one answered. The Baileys' car was gone, and there were no signs of forced entry.
The next morning, Susan's mother called officers again when she was still unable to reach her daughter and grandkids, but with nothing out of place at the house, police were still not able to enter.
But two days later, an officer in Yankton, South Dakota — 725 miles north of Roanoke — spotted a car with Texas plates trying to get gas around 3:30 a.m. Filled with three teenagers and in violation of curfew laws, he pulled the driver over. The license plates came back to match Susan Bailey.
Inside the car were Paul Henson, Jennifer Bailey, and David Bailey. No one in the car had a driver's license. Yankton officers contacted Roanoke police.
“They told me that the Bailey kids were in South Dakota,” Brian Peterson, former Roanoke police detective, said on Snapped: Killer Couples. “I told them, I said, ‘Something bad happened. There’s no way Susan would let those kids go off on their own.’”