Was Austin Taylor Wages' death a suicide or homicide?

The cold-blooded shooting of Nichole Payne and Austin Taylor Wages led the Quitman authorities to believe that the nature of the crime was murder-suicide. While Taylor was assumed to be the shooter, the times of their deaths did not match the narrative.

Nichole Payne's death was declared a homicide but Taylor's cause of death was categorized as undetermined. However, circumstantial evidence and forensic tests such as bloodstain spatter analysis determined that Austin Taylor Wages was murdered like his mother.

The Dateline: Secrets Uncovered episode titled House of Horrors showcases the horrific death of Nichole Payne and Austin Taylor Wages. Episode 2 of season 13 aired on Oxygen on June 12, 2024, at 8 pm EST. The official synopsis reads:

"When Nichole Payne and her son Taylor are found dead in their home, investigators wonder if this is a murder-suicide or if someone wants it to look that way. The mystery takes nearly a decade to unravel."

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Did Austin Taylor Wages take his life? Details explored

On December 11, 2007, Austin Taylor Wages and his mother, Nichole Payne, had been found shot to death in their home in Quitman, Texas. An early morning call from Jason Payne to the Quitman Police Department alerted the officials of the situation.

As the deputies arrived at the crime scene, they found Nichole in her bedroom downstairs shot in the back of her head. Austin Taylor Wages was found in the garage-turned-bedroom space where he was found dead lying on his back on the bed. The murder weapon was a rifle kept between his legs and he had been shot on the side of his mouth, per court documents.

During his statement, Jason Payne shared that Nichole had been in bed as she was sick. Meanwhile, he left with their children, Riley and Jackson, to drop Jackson at his kindergarten. He mentioned that Taylor had been ranting about not owning a cell phone.

According to Oxygen, Jason shared in a police interview:

“I mean, just kind of ranting, and — said he wasn’t going to school. I think he was mad over the cell phone.”

While Detective Miles Tucker figured that it was unusual for Taylor to throw a tantrum given his shy and polite reputation, the investigators initially assumed the nature of the crime to be a murder-suicide. Taylor was reportedly assumed to have pulled the trigger on his mother.

In a turn of events, Jason Payne became the primary suspect in the case after certain facts failed to add up. There were no fingerprints on the murder weapon, indicating that it had been cleaned after the bullets were fired. Moreover, Nichole's body was found to be warm while East Texas Medical Center EMT, Leah Courtney, shared:

“He’s [Taylor] blue, and, as cold as his body was, I knew there was no helping him.”

The investigators found a bloody rag with Nichole's DNA inside Jason's truck and also found out about the $100,000 life insurance policy payout he was in line for. Jason Payne was sentenced to life in prison with no parole. Upon Jason's arrest, Nichole’s mother, Sherry, shared with Oxygen:

“It was heartbreaking to think that not only did a monster take Taylor’s life at 16 years old, but he also was trying to take his whole reputation and brand him as a murderer.”

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Watch all the details on the episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered available for streaming on NBC.