Third part in a three-part series

WILLS POINT, Texas – In the biblical story of Job, Satan tested a good man's convictions. He killed his family, destroyed his home and inflicted emotional misery.

But Job persevered, and in the end, God rewarded his faith.

Terry Caffey says he's been bestowed with blessings, too. A year after the murder of his wife and two sons, ages 13 and 8, he has remarried, retooled his work life and reinvigorated his Christian ministry. Caffey says he has forgiven his 17-year-old daughter and three of her friends, who were convicted of the murders earlier this year.

"I don't believe God saved my life to go work in a factory making pencil erasers or something. I feel God saved my life because he's got a purpose for it," Caffey said. "I want people to know you can move forward and you can find forgiveness. I want my life to be a testament to that."

The marketing of that message has already begun.

Caffey is working on a book about the murders, selling his CD, Walking in the Light of the Living, and has launched a Web site, www.terrycaffey.com. An agent for his publisher is negotiating summer appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil.

During the day, he repairs rental houses for a real estate investor. At night, he works as an evangelist, preaching at churches and speaking to youth groups.

"I lost so much this year," Caffey said recently, standing in the pulpit of First Missionary Baptist Church in Terrell. He motioned to a family photo – of himself, Penny, Erin, Matthew and Tyler.

"This was my family," he said. "They lived on this Earth. They walked and talked, they mattered. They mattered to God."

He tells the story of the murders and his harrowing escape, which feathers into a sermon on a Christian paradox.

Why would an omnipotent and merciful God allow innocent people to suffer?

The answer, he says, isn't always easy for the Earth-dwelling to digest – that there is comfort in knowing God is in control, even during agony and anguish, and he will ultimately relieve your pain.

As he did for Job and Terry Caffey.

"The God who delivered me can deliver you from whatever you're struggling with tonight," he told them. And then the kicker: "But if you don't know Jesus, you're walking in darkness, like I was that night."

In January, Erin Caffey accepted a plea deal that will keep her in prison until she's at least 59 years old. Her former boyfriend, 19-year-old Charlie Wilkinson, and the other man who assisted in the murders, 20-year-old Charles Waid, were sentenced to life in prison. An accomplice, 18-year-old Bobbi Johnson, received a 40-year term.

All of them owe what's left of their lives to Terry Caffey.

"Had it not been for him, I would have sought the death penalty on all three adults," said Robert Vititow, the Rains County district attorney. "The girl [Johnson] would have gotten life at trial, and I would have sought life without parole on the juvenile [Erin]."

Caffey started a quiet campaign in the months after the murders to spare the lives of the male defendants and request leniency for his daughter and Johnson.

He assisted Erin's attorney in her defense, lobbied Vititow as he prepared the prosecution, and eventually filed a request with the court.

"My heart tells me there have been enough deaths," he wrote. "I want them in this lifetime to have a chance for remorse and to come to a place of repentance for what they have done."

Vititow said he came around to Caffey's argument, but Lisa Tanner, an assistant attorney general assigned to help with the prosecution, continued to push for a stiffer punishment. She agreed with the lead investigators in the case – that Erin was the mastermind of the murders.

Tanner declined to comment through a spokesman. Neither Erin Caffey, Wilkinson, Waid nor Johnson is yet eligible to grant interviews.

"It simply would not have happened except for that girl," Vititow said, referring to Erin. "She was the reason it happened to this family. But was she the mastermind? No."

He said Erin's boyfriend, Wilkinson, enlisted help in the murders, gathered the weapons and planned how they would be conducted. But even he probably did not fully grasp what was happening when the slaughter began.

After the murders, Vititow said, Erin exclaimed, "That was awesome!"

"Yeah, she was rejoicing and she was excited about it," Vititow said. "But did she really want them dead? Or was it one of those stupid things kids say? I just don't think any of them thought it was real. It's like they were living a fantasy, like a video game."

Terry Caffey confronted his family's killers, Wilkinson and Waid, the morning before they were sentenced to life in prison.

He asked them 10 questions – all of which could be boiled down to this – "Why?"

Their answers fell flat, and Caffey sought resolution in his faith.

"As a spiritual man, I don't believe it was Wilkinson or Waid," he said. "Satan was present. Demons were in my house that night."

Caffey married a colleague from work eight months after the murders.

He says his new wife Sonja's sons – 17-year-old Blake Doss and 9-year-old Tanner Smith – remind him of the boys he lost.

They live in a neat ranch-style home a few miles from White Rose Cemetery in Wills Point, where Penny and the boys are buried.

MELANIE BURFORD/DMN

Terry Caffey, his new wife, Sonja, and stepsons Tanner Smith (center) and Blake Doss live near the Wills Point cemetery where Penny, Matthew and Tyler Caffey are buried.

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"See the healing?" he said one night recently, smiling broadly as his youngest stepson wrapped his waist in a hug. "This has taught me to be a better husband and a better daddy."

His parenting style may be more relaxed, he says, but he hasn't given up his ideals.

One night recently he discovered his 9-year-old playing a violent video game. Caffey later destroyed the disc.

"He didn't understand completely why he couldn't play it, you know, because other kids are playing it," he said. "I'm pretty much the same parent I've always been, in terms of my values and belief systems."

So far, he and his new family have visited Erin twice in prison. Once they even posed for a family photo. Each time, Erin gives a few more details about the murders.

Caffey says she's adjusting, taking classes and plans to witness to other inmates.

Others may see his daughter as a monster, but Caffey says he can't stop thinking of her as his little girl.

There are so many memories – Erin singing at the top of her lungs, playing with her brothers in the yard, laughing at his silly jokes.

Once, after bringing his first born home from the hospital, Caffey remembers rocking Erin while her mother got ready for dinner.

"I just began thanking God for her," he said. "And I remember thinking, 'No matter how big you get, you'll always be daddy's little girl.' "

It's a contract between parent and child.

"I made a promise that I would stand by her," he said. "I didn't say, 'I'll stand by you if you're a good girl' or 'I'll stand by you if you do what I say.' I told her I'd stand by her; and that's what I'm going to do."

These stories are based on more than 20 hours of exclusive interviews with Terry Caffey, the lone survivor of the March 1, 2008, attack.

In addition, more than 50 hours of interviews were conducted with family members, witnesses and police officers. Hundreds of pages of court records were reviewed, including a never-before-released report from the lead investigator in the case, confessions from the convicted killers, and photographic evidence from the night of the murders. Staffers also visited the crime scene.