How a social media feud led to a couple’s murder

When police found Billy Payne and his fiancée Billie Jean Hayworth shot to death in a rural Tennessee home with their 7-month-old son Tyler living in Hayworth’s arms in 2012, it sparked an investigation that led them to uncover a murder concocted complex. by a woman who was in the middle of a social media feud.

Jenelle Potter is serving two concurrent life sentences for the murders after being convicted in 2015. Prosecutors say Potter deceived her parents and boyfriend into believing the couple had threatened her before her father , Marvin “Buddy” Potter, did not commit the murders.

Even all these years later, investigators said they are still grappling with the horrors of the incident.

“The little boy… just thinking about him lying there breaks my heart,” Mountain City Police Department Deputy Chief Joe Woodard, who helped investigate the case, told “20/20.” ‘affair.

“20/20” will explore the case in an episode airing April 5 at 9 p.m. ET and streaming on Hulu the next day with archival interviews with Potter and his mother before their prison sentences, key investigators and friends the victims.

The show will also feature interrogation recordings and courtroom footage from the case as well as the latest updates.

Potter told “20/20” in 2015 that she had trouble adjusting and didn’t make many friends when her family moved to Mountain City, Tennessee, in 2005.

“I didn’t grow up here,” Potter, now 42, told “20/20” in 2015. “People here don’t like foreigners.”

She befriended pharmacy worker Tracy Greenwell and the two began dating, along with Greenwell’s brother Billy Payne. Potter also had a relationship with Greenwell’s cousin, Jamie Curd, behind the back of his strict parents.

Problems began to arise when Potter claimed she was receiving harassing messages on her Facebook page and accused Hayworth of being behind them.

Eventually, Potter, Hayworth and Payne stopped being friends on Facebook.

Days after the couple was found dead, investigators interviewed Marvin, Jenelle and Barbara at their home.

“We knew they had issues with (Hayworth and Payne),” Woodard told “20/20.”

During the interview, Jenelle appeared to hide her romantic relationship with Curd from her parents. He was then arrested by the police.

After learning that he had failed the polygraph test, Curd admitted that he and Janelle’s father, Marvin, had gone to Payne and Hayworth’s home where, he claimed, Marvin had killed them.

“I didn’t really believe Buddy Potter was capable of doing that,” Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Scott Lott said in 2015. “Because Buddy had health issues.”

Armed with this new information, the police brought Marvin in for questioning.

While being questioned by detectives, Marvin said, “My life was threatened. My wife was threatened. They threatened to take Jenelle and cut her head off.”

Lott then arranged for Marvin to call his wife Barbara.

During the call, Marvin is heard telling his wife: “Before you find out from anyone else, I want you to know that I participated in this. I did it… At minus one part.” “That’s as close to a confession as we got from him,” Lott said in 2015.

While Marvin was being questioned, police executed a search warrant at the Potter home.

Deputy Chief Woodard said investigators found an “arsenal” of weapons around the home. They also discovered printed photos of the victim and her friends in the living room.

Authorities seized 51 items from the home, including their family computer. When they seized Marvin’s truck, they found bags of shredded documents.

An agent meticulously pieced together more than 100 pages of what appeared to be thousands of emails sent to the Potter family.

“After looking into them, it appeared that there was some sort of conspiracy here. They kept referring to a guy, Chris, who is supposed to be a CIA agent or something,” Lott said in 2015.

CIA agent “Chris” corresponded with Barbara and warned her about threats to her daughter’s life.

On the Potters’ computer, police analysis revealed that the emails sent by CIA agent Chris all came from the same IP address of the house where the Potters lived. Prosecutors argued that Jenelle posed as Chris and used a false identity to deceive her parents and trick Marvin Potter into committing the murder. They also claim that the rape and murder threats against Jenelle were false and fabricated by her.

“Social media allowed Jenelle Potter to be someone she wasn’t,” Brooks said. “She could assume a different identity and be as hateful as she wanted.”

In August 2013, authorities arrested Jenelle and Barbara for the murders of Payne and Hayworth.

A few months later, in October 2013, Marvin was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to two life sentences. Curd accepted a plea deal calling for two concurrent 25-year prison sentences for facilitation of first-degree murder and testified against Jenelle and Barbara. He was released conditionally.

In May 2015, Jenelle and Barbara were found guilty after a seven-day trial and sentenced to life in prison two months later.

In an interview with “20/20” after the sentencing, Jenelle and Barbara denied being involved in the murders of Payne and Hayworth.

“I didn’t hate (Hayworth and Payne). I just didn’t like them. I wanted (them) to stop. I wanted the harassment to stop,” Jenelle Potter said.

Jenelle and Marvin lost their appeals and are serving their sentences.

In 2021, Barbara’s murder conviction was overturned because her attorney, who also represented Marvin, had a conflict of interest. Instead of being retried, she pleaded guilty to the less serious charge of facilitating the murder. She is now eligible for parole in 2028.

Friends and family of the victims say the only thing that sticks in their minds is baby Tyler and the fact that he has to live the rest of his life without his mother and father.

“He was his world,” Thomas said of Hayworth. “That glow she had in her when he came into the world was just incredible.”