Potter lived most of her adult life on social media. But when an online feud erupted, two of her former friends were found murdered in their home while their baby survived.
Watch the full story on ABC News’ “20/20” TONIGHT at 10 p.m. ET.
In a mystery that involved a supposed CIA agent, cyber bullying and a small Tennessee town, read below to see what led to the coldblooded murders.
Jenelle and Her Family Adjust to Life in Mountain City
Jenelle Potter, pictured above, said she had trouble making friends when she moved to Mountain City, Tennessee, in 2005.
“’Cause I wasn’t born and raised here. I didn’t grow up here,” Potter, 34, told “20/20.” “People here do not like outsiders.”
Because of health problems, including Type 1 diabetes, Potter spent most of her time living at home with her parents, who cared for her every day. She didn’t have a job or drive a car.
Potter’s mother Barbara Potter had a job with Hewlett-Packard, and her father Marvin Potter, known as Buddy, was a former marine who served in Vietnam. His wife told “20/20” he later worked with the CIA.
Jenelle’s sister Christie Groover, who’s been estranged from the family for a decade, said Jenelle struggled to make friends growing up.
“Instead of being herself, my parents tried to make her fit in. They also, in the same breath, would say how different she was, and then [she] became unable to make friends normally,” Groover told “20/20.”Social media became Jenelle’s life support, though she said her parents monitored her Facebook page.
Jenelle Makes Friends in Mountain City
One day while picking up prescriptions, Jenelle befriended pharmacy clerk Tracy Greenwell.
“We felt sorry for Jenelle because she was sheltered and sick and stuff,” Greenwell told “20/20.”
Jenelle spent time with Greenwell and her friends, including Greenwell’s brother Billy Payne.
“Everybody says she fell in love with Bill, but I still don’t see that,” said Greenwell.
Greenwell introduced Jenelle to her cousin Jamie Curd, who is handy with computers. The two became an item, with Jenelle hiding her relationship from her strict parents.
From time to time, Curd would visit the Potter house to fix the family computer. But behind her parents’ backs, Jenelle and Curd would secretly spend time together.
Jenelle Receives Anonymous Threats
While it seemed that Jenelle’s social life was finally blooming, she was being relentlessly bullied online with anonymous comments appearing on her Facebook page.
“I was a bad person. I was horrible. [They] threatened to get [me] raped,” Jenelle said.
“I remember I wrote, ‘Please do not write on Jenelle’s Facebook.’ I begged them. ‘Please don’t do this,’” Jenelle’s mom Barbara said.
Jenelle said one of her Facebook friends, Billie Jean Hayworth, was the one behind the attacks because Hayworth was jealous of her looks.
Hayworth was dating Billy Payne, and the couple lived together with their infant son.
A feud erupted on social media with Curd, Payne’s cousin, taking Jenelle’s side.
“[Jenelle said] she wished that Bill and Billie Jean and that damn baby would die. When I read this, I was devastated,” Lindsay Thomas, a friend of Hayworth and Payne, told “20/20.”
“[Jenelle] was always saying that somebody was mad at her. Somebody hated her. Somebody wanted to kill her,” Greenwell said. “She was paranoid about it.”
But Jenelle said there were real threats of violence against her. In one incident, police photographed a rock, pictured above, that was found in the Potters’ front yard with the names Billy Payne and Billie Jean written on it.
Eventually both sides deleted each other as friends on Facebook.
“I think that we did it to each other. I unfriended them. They unfriended me,” Jenelle said. “I did Bill first and then I think Billie did me. And I unfriended her.”
Jenelle’s Former Friends Are Found Murdered
On Jan. 31, 2012, a friend of Payne and Hayworth found them dead by single gunshots to their faces.
Payne’s throat had also been slashed as he lay in bed, and Billie Jean had been cradling their baby in her arms when she died. The 7-month-old boy survived unharmed.
“It takes a cold-blooded person to shoot someone holding a baby,” Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Scott Lott told “20/20.”
The day after the murders, Chief Deputy Joe Woodard of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department, talked to Jenelle, Barbara and Marvin at their home, which they recorded.
“Because we knew that they had trouble with [Hayworth and Payne],” Woodard told “20/20.”
During the interview, Jenelle appeared to be hiding her romantic relationship with Curd from her parents. Later that week, authorities brought Curd in and asked him to take a polygraph test, which indicated he lied about knowing the identity of Payne and Hayworth’s killer.
“Jamie in the interview had said something to the effect of, ‘Is the CIA here?’ That was a very strange question to me,” Lott said.
In a major breakthrough, Curd told detectives he’d been texting with a man named Chris who told him he was in the CIA and that it was his job to protect Jenelle at all costs.
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