 It was February 4th, 2007. 13-year-old Paris Bennett was at home with his 4-year-old sister Ella in Abilene, Texas. Their mother had hired a babysitter to watch over the two for the evening. But at some point during her stay, Paris had convinced the babysitter to step out of the house for a while. About an hour and a half later, Paris entered his sister's bedroom to do the unthinkable and his sister lost her life. About 15 minutes later, Paris called the police and concocted a story, claiming his sister had turned into a pumpkin-headed demon and that he had claimed her life out of fear and self-defense. But when investigators arrived at the scene of the crime minutes later, it became clear what had taken place here. Paris was obviously arrested, but the stories he told investigators were chilling to say the least and his true motive was completely unexpected. Paris and Ella Bennett were, for the most part, ordinary kids. They grew up with their mother in Abilene, Texas in the early 2000s. Their mother, Charity, was a single mom who did the best she could for her kids. Her children had two different fathers, but they were raised as part of the same household, with Charity presumably having full custody of them both. One interesting thing to note about Charity is that her mother, Kyla, was actually believed to have conspired against her husband and attempted to take his life, her husband naturally being Charity's father. While her mother was never found guilty, in the eyes of the public, she certainly was. Many people believe that there was more than enough evidence to prove that she was at fault, but regardless, she was found not guilty on all counts. Even Charity believes her own mother was guilty, but no one has ever been able to prove it. When Charity was a young girl, she claims her mother rarely gave her any sort of attention. For Charity, it was more or less like she didn't even exist in the eyes of her mom. Some sources say, rather strangely, that Charity made a conscious decision as a young girl to become addicted to drugs in an attempt to get her mother's attention, and finally received some form of maternal love. But even this didn't work. Her mother truly couldn't have cared less, with many people describing her as a psychopath. Now, I find it rather hard to believe that someone would purposefully become addicted to drugs, but that's what all of the sources claim, so it does appear to be true. And if this is true, it really shows just how far Charity was willing to go to feel some sort of love. Needless to say, Charity had a very hard time growing up. The unfortunate truth is, in many cases, it doesn't matter how much we try to improve the lives of our children compared to how we ourselves were raised, we're all bound to make the same mistakes and end up falling into the same path as our parents at some point or another. The important part is just that we fix these mistakes along the way. But as difficult as this may be to digest, Paris' Charity's son claims that Charity was no exception to this rule. See, when Paris was a young boy, he was described as incredibly likable and charismatic. He'd make friends with just about anyone, but as the years passed by, his behaviors began to change. He was tested at one point and found to have an IQ of 141, which is pretty impressive. His future looked incredibly bright, but then his sister was born, and everything changed in the blink of an eye. Paris claims that after his sister's birth, his mother couldn't have cared less about it. He was used to being the center of his mother's attention, but all of that went out the window rather unexpectedly. Paris believes that his mother was so caught up in his sister's life and her former drug addiction that she completely ignored him. To be unbiased here, I've got to say, this may have been true. I have no idea. I wasn't there. Paris' claims may have been 100% accurate, but what I will say is that I find that hard to believe, after taking into account the various statements and interviews that Charity has released since the impending crime took place. But in his own eyes, Paris felt so betrayed by his mother that he took every opportunity to make her life difficult. This all reached a boiling point sometime in 2006, just a year prior to the crime that would bring an entire community to their needs. We don't know the specifics surrounding this scenario, but Paris' rage towards his mother grew to such an incredible degree that he actually attempted to claim his mother's life. From the scarce details that are available, it seems Paris took off after his mother while wielding a knife, but she somehow managed to escape the situation. Paris was then put into a mental health facility so that he could get the help he needed. He was released later on, but it doesn't seem like he ever learned his lesson. This would all bring us to February of 2007, the year that everything changed for the Bennett family, and their lives would never be the same again. Sources vary, claiming what specific date this crime unfolded. Some say that it took place on February 4th, while others claim that it took place on February 5th. Charity had been working at the local Buffalo Wild Wings that evening, working late into the evening well past midnight. Knowing that she would be out for most of the night, she hired a babysitter to watch over her kids for the evening. The evening was like any other, with the kids minding their own business and playing well into the night. But at around 10pm that evening, Paris, now 13 years old, approached the babysitter and convinced her that he'd spoken with his mother and she gave the babysitter permission to go home, presumably because two kids had already gone to bed for the evening. The babysitter believed Paris and decided to leave, with Paris and his younger sister Ella now being left home alone. While it's safe to assume that the babysitter most likely believed the kids would simply go to bed, Paris had other plans. In the days after this disturbing crime was revealed, his mother says that she actually uncovered that he'd secretly been watching adult videos on their home computer that night. But these weren't the typical videos that teenagers would dig up without their parent's supervision. These videos were unusually aggressive and violent, and shockingly so. Charity says that she uncovered hours of content that he had watched, each video becoming more violent and more disturbing than the last. Now, I certainly won't go into the specifics of what Paris was watching, but what I will say is that it became glaringly obvious that Paris had some serious issues. While these videos were of an adult nature and were freely viewable online, we have no idea if some of these acts were even consensual or not. All we know is that they were far beyond anything a young teenager should be exposed to, and they would have been shocking even to most adults. Here's the incredibly scary and heartbreaking part. After watching these videos, Paris got a few ideas. Minutes later, he decided to enter his sister's bedroom while she was still asleep. Now, due to his sister's age and the truly heinous extent of these crimes, I'm not really going to go any further than this. The information of what unfolded is widely available online, so feel free to look it up if you're curious, but it's not something I'm comfortable getting into, and I don't think YouTube would be too happy with me, either, if I went any further. But all I will say is that Paris entered his sister's room with a knife and a particularly chilling imagination. What he did to his sister was unlike anything that anyone should ever have to endure. We don't know just how long Paris was in Ella's room, but Charity, their mother, described Paris's actions as slow, methodical, not frenzied, and not an uncontrollable rage. Charity believes her son wanted to inflict as much pain as possible on his sister, all the while getting some sort of sick gratification for doing so. From the information I've been able to gather, my best guess would be that the crime began and ended in a period of about 30 to 45 minutes. After the crime was completed, Paris, believe it or not, called 911 and openly admitted to his crime, showing no remorse for his sister whatsoever. Once he explained what he had done, the 911 operator proceeded to walk Paris through the steps of performing CPR, hoping to keep his sister alive until paramedics could arrive. In the call, Paris agreed to carry out CPR, but in reality, he made zero attempts to save his sister's life. As he could be heard counting compressions in the phone call, he would later admit he wasn't administering aid at all. Instead, he was just walking around the house, counting, faking the entire thing. When police arrived at the scene just minutes later, they arrested Paris after just minutes of questioning. It became very clear to investigators this was no accident, it was intentional, and it was unlike anything they could have ever expected from such a young boy. But if you thought this was disturbing enough, things are only going to get worse, because when Paris was in custody, he rather quickly opened up about the crime. More specifically, he revealed his motive and no one saw this coming. Now, I can't seem to determine just how long Paris was in police custody, but my guess would be a few weeks to a few months, but most of this info has been lost to time. But while speaking with investigators and his own mother, Paris decided to open up about his crimes. But before he did so, he tried to weasel his way out of the situation. He claimed that he was delusional and believed his sister was some sort of pumpkin-headed demon that he thought was going to attack it. He wasn't going to willingly let this happen, so he claimed that he attacked the demon in self-defense. But as you might expect, this story quickly unraveled and investigators knew that he was lying. In the end, Paris decided to confess to everything that he had done, and as it would turn out, Paris wasn't ashamed of what he had done either. In fact, he was pleased with himself. When he confessed to the crime, he admitted that he had taken his sister's life for one main reason, because he wanted to hurt his mother as much as he possibly could. He knew how much his mother loved his sister and what better way to get back at her than to remove his sister from the family. The crime appears to have been revenge against his mother for not paying enough attention to him, very similar to the pain and anger that Charity herself felt regarding her own mother all those years ago. While Charity had turned to addiction to counteract her pain, Paris had taken things much further and simply wanted his mother to feel the same pain that he had felt while being ignored. Now again, I can't confirm whether Charity was truly an absent mother or not. It's entirely possible she was. But it's also entirely possible that Paris was simply jealous of his sister and wanted all of the attention for himself. There's just no way to know this for sure. But one thing is certain. The statements that Paris gave regarding the evening of the crime don't completely add up. When Charity was first speaking with her son behind bars, it seemed as though he wasn't quite ready to admit to the crime just yet. But the more she questioned him, the more information he revealed until he finally opened up and truly confessed to everything that took place that evening. He finally admitted, quote, you're right. I did kill her. According to Charity, he professed this with a sense of pride. When she pressed him about the disturbing videos that he'd been watching in the lead up to the crime, he also confessed to this and said that he'd been watching the videos because they made him angry, helping him to conjure up the courage to carry out the crime. See, he claimed he committed the crime as a way to get back at his mother. But investigators have reason to believe that this isn't entirely true. Instead, they believe there's a chance the crime may have been more sexually motivated than anything else. As they were collecting evidence from the scene of the crime, they noted that they were able to collect large amounts of bodily fluids from the scene of the crime. Now, I'm really trying hard to keep this video as respectful as possible. So I'll let you make your own conclusions about what these fluids were, but there's a reason that these fluids led police to believe the crime may have been sexually motivated. This would certainly seem to make sense considering the videos that Paris had been watching just moments before the crime had unfolded. It's possible he had some sort of sadistic fantasies that he wanted to carry out and his sister was simply a victim of circumstance, but it's also entirely possible he planned the crime for weeks. Maybe even months, and simply took advantage of Ella because in his eyes, why not? After all, by doing so, he would get what he wanted in more ways than one. He'd act out his twisted fantasies, but also get his sister out of the picture so his mother's attention would solely be on him. Unfortunately, this seems to be the most plausible answer here. According to Paris, he didn't plan on stopping at just ending his sister's life, though. He planned on taking the life of his mother, too, but just never got the opportunity. According to charity, her son told her that the reason he spared her life was because he learned that it was a lot harder to claim someone's life than he initially thought. She went on to say that her son also claims to have spared her life because if he took her life, she would only have suffered for five or 10 minutes. But if he kept her alive, she would suffer for the rest of her life. After being sent to trial, Paris was obviously convicted and sent to a juvenile detention center. He was given a sentence of 40 years with the possibility of parole after 20 years. He'll be eligible for parole in 2027, but it's pretty much certain that he will not be granted parole. According to charity, her son has shown no improvement since he's been in prison and she claims that he's even begun a relationship with the woman on the outside and has been plotting crimes with her from behind bars. Charity has begun to fear for her life, believing that her son may end up having her taken out while he's still behind bars. She also believes with every fiber of her being that when he's ultimately released sometime around 2047, he'll come for her. But what's even worse is that after all this time, Paris is still actively carrying out crimes against his mother. According to charity, on multiple occasions when she's gone to visit her son, he's assaulted her. In one instance, she claims that she was left unsupervised with him in the visitor's room in the jail. At one point during their conversation, he slammed the table into her, pinning her against a concrete wall. He held the table against her, preventing her from breathing. She was in shock and paralyzed with fear, believing she was about to lose her life, but then he let go. But no sooner than she caught her breath, he did it again. He later told his mother, by the way, I enjoy watching your pain. Charity ended up writing a book about her life, particularly involving the crimes carried out by her son, titled, How Now Butterfly? A memoir of murder, survival, and transformation. In her book, she describes the years of abuse that she'd been subjected to by her son, even while he's behind bars. Charity, after all these years, has finally admitted that she's been forced to come to terms with the fact that she can still love her son, but she can't love the monster that he's become. She knows that whenever he's released from prison, she's going to have to move away and do her best to disappear. She spent her more recent years wondering if her brief relapse in 2006 may have been what led Paris to become the monster that he is today. See, she was an addict for years before Paris was born. But once she found out she was pregnant, she got clean. She remained clean for the first 12 years of his life, but had a short relapse less than a year before the crime took place. But truthfully, there's no sense in Charity blaming herself for the crimes of her son. If the stories that she shared over the years are true, she really did do her best to raise Paris well, but being a single mom with two kids just isn't easy and there's only so much time in a day. Charity says that in the years since the crime, she's been able to forgive her son. She said, quote, My son is a psychopath. I can't help it. That may not matter in the long run. What may matter is I can't not at this point give up on it. I love my first born with as much intensity as I did the day I found out I was pregnant with him. Charity says that she associates her daughter Ella with butterflies since the name of her book. She says that a butterfly painting was the last thing Ella ever gave to her before she lost her life. What's even more heartwarming and also heartbreaking about this is that one of Charity's friends actually found a butterfly brooch in Charity's backyard on her first day returning home after the crime. It doesn't seem like Charity knows how this brooch got there and it's more or less like it appeared out of thin air. Charity has continued to carry on Ella's legacy, founding the ELLA Foundation, which stands for Empathy, Love, Lessons, and Action. The nonprofit helps people who are affected by violence, mental illness, and the criminal justice system. One thing is for sure, while Ella's life may have been tragically cut short by a brother who she trusted endlessly, her legacy will live on for many, many years to come. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you like this video, be sure to hit that like button. If you wanna see more true crime stories, just like this one, be sure to hit that subscribe button and maybe consider sharing the video as well. If you wanna help support the channel, the best way you can do that is by leaving a comment below. Any comment at all, it really helps out the channel a lot more than you may realize. You can also pick up a true crime stories mug at tieknotes.com. But with that, my name is Tie Knotes. Thank you guys for watching and I'll catch you guys in the next video.