Jason Payne killed his wife Nichole Payne and teenage stepson Taylor

When Nichole and Jason Payne purchased their dream home nestled in the woods of Quitman, Texas, it seemed like the perfect place for their blended family to settle down.

“She wanted this type of house and then she looked for it and she found it and she was like, ‘This is it,’ and he made it happen.” They were happy,” said their adopted son Daniel. Dateline: secrets discovered in the episode “House of Horrors”. “They did almost everything together and they (had) just a typical marriage.”

But that dream would turn into a nightmare on the morning of December 11, 2007. Jason told police he returned home after dropping his son Jackson off at school and discovered that his wife Nichole and stepson Taylor, 16 years old, were shot.

“My wife and my son are both shot. I need help,” he said in a frantic 911 call.

A rifle was found between Taylor's legs, initially leading investigators to believe it might have been a murder-suicide. But as the investigation deepened, detectives began to suspect that someone else might have wanted the mother and son dead.

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What clues were left at the murder scene?

A veteran investigator from a neighboring county assigned to assess the scene concluded it was a murder-suicide. He believed Taylor shot his mother before turning the gun on himself.

Yet other investigators weren't so sure. Lt. Miles Tucker of the Wood County Sheriff's Office noted that when authorities entered the home, Nichole's body was still warm.

“She obviously hadn’t been there very long,” he said. “When we got back to Taylor's room, Taylor was the complete opposite, he was very cold to the touch.”

This led Tucker to believe that Taylor had died much earlier than his mother, making it impossible for him to be the killer.

Investigators also found a blood-stained white rag in Jason's truck. Tucker said the blood was “very bright red,” signaling to investigators that it was “fresh blood.” DNA testing would later reveal that the blood belonged to Nichole.

Authorities also learned that the Paynes were broke and that Jason was to collect on a $100,000 life insurance policy in Nichole's name.

While Jason insisted the couple had a “pretty close” relationship, his family told a different story.

“She wasn't happy the last couple of years and there were just signs that, you know, something was wrong,” her mother said. “He was in control, he was really in control. And it seemed to get worse over time.

Nichole's sister-in-law, Sarah Hawthorne, told detectives that Nichole had considered ending the marriage, but was afraid Jason would retaliate.

“She said he wanted to burn the house down with her because she wanted to leave,” Sarah said. Dateline: secrets discovered.

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Where are Nichole and Jason Payne's children today?

Nichole and Jason's two youngest children were raised by their maternal grandparents. Today, both believe their father is guilty.

“I was very relieved when he was convicted a second time,” Jackson said. Dateline: secrets discovered. “It took a lot of weight off me to know that my father, who is a murderer, will not be free.”

Remington, who was only 2 years old at the time of the murders, still has vivid feelings from that day and believes the right person is behind bars.

“They said I was so young I didn't remember anything… and all I think about is that something like that doesn't go away,” she said. “The smell of blood is something that is always there. I think you're lucky if you forget everything.

At the time she spoke to Canning, Remington was preparing to begin college on a theater scholarship while her older brother was saving to buy a house and hoping to get his license in physical therapy.

Both are determined not to let the tragic events of their childhood define their lives.

“I imagined when I was little, this perfect family and now, the idea that one day I will be able to create this family for me and for Jackson, and have this happy family, as if I were I “I’m so excited for this,” Remington said.

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Where is Jason Payne today?

Today, Jason Payne remains in prison serving his life sentence without parole.

But his story does not end with his conviction. Investigators believe Jason then recruited his mother Faye Payne to try to find someone to intimidate the EMT who was on the scene, Leah Courtney, into changing her story.

Faye was willing to do anything she could to help her son and tried to enlist her niece to hire a man to threaten harm to Courtney's young son, but the niece secretly recorded their conversation and later released the registration with the police.

“You would do something to that child,” Faye said in the recording. “Basically, you would scare that person.”

After the shocking recording, Faye was arrested in 2016 for solicitation of witness tampering as a capital felony and later pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to 10 years probation and has since died.