How a Petty Facebook Feud Spiraled Into a Double Homicide

In 2012, a couple was shot in their Tennessee home. When police found their bodies, their seven-month-old son, Tyler, was still alive and in his mother’s arms. The investigation that followed uncovered a web of lies that included a fake online persona, used to manipulate a woman’s parents into committing murder on her behalf.

The victims, Billy Payne and his fiancée Billie Jean Hayworth, were shot execution-style, each killed by a single gunshot to the face; Payne’s throat had also been slashed. Jenelle Potter, the woman at the center of the case, convinced her father that her life was being threatened. The conflict traced back to a Facebook dispute, after Payne and Hayworth unfriended Potter following an earlier disagreement, a slight she did not take lightly.

Investigations uncovered a slew of details that pointed to a deeper deception. A supposed CIA agent named ‘Chris’ had been sending emails to Barbara Potter, Jenelle’s mother, warning that her daughter’s life was in danger. Investigators eventually determined that "Chris" and Jenelle Potter were the same person, who had fabricated the persona to manipulate her family.

Jenelle was secretly in a relationship with Jamie Curd, a cousin of Tracy Greenwell, who was Payne’s sister and a friend of Potter’s. Curd went to the victims’ home alongside Jennelle’s father, Marvin “Buddy” Potter, the night of the murders. Marvin later testified that he fired the shot that killed Payne, while Curd was responsible for killing Hayworth.

Curd was brought in for police questioning and, after a failed polygraph test, admitted that Marvin had killed the couple. Marvin was then brought in for questioning himself, and detectives arranged for him to call his wife. On a recorded call, Marvin told Barbara that he was “involved” in some way with the murders.

Investigators also found an ‘arsenal’ of weapons at the Potter property, along with shredded emails from 'Chris,' which prosecutors argued were authored by Jennelle herself.

In October 2013, Marvin was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to two life sentences. Jenelle and Barbara were arrested in August of 2013 and, after a seven-day trial, were convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2015. Curd accepted a plea deal, receiving two concurrent 25-year sentences for facilitating the murder; he has since been released on parole.

In 2021, Barbara’s conviction was overturned after it was determined her original trial attorney had a conflict of interest, having also representing Marvin. Rather than pursue a new trial, Barbara accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to facilitation of murder. She is expected to be eligible for parole in 2028.

Jenelle and Marvin have both appealed their convictions and lost. They are currently serving their sentences.