Tyler Christopher and Ariana Socorro Payne

Tyler Christopher Payne

November 15, 2001 - July/August, 2006

Ariana Socorro Payne

October 18, 2002 -July/August, 2006

Tyler and Ariana were born to Jamie Hallam and Christopher Payne. Jamie and Christopher divorced in 2003. Jamie had full custody of Tyler and Ariana, and in 2003, a  judge ordered that Christopher wasn't allowed to see his children. 

After not seeing them for years, Christopher contacted Jamie and asked if he could see his children. Over these years, Christopher had gotten a new job, and a new girlfriend. He had even had a son with this new girlfriend. It seemed as if he were getting things back together. In January of 2006, after several supervised visits, Jamie allowed Tyler and Ariana to visit their father.

A few days after this, Christopher wanted Tyler and Ariana to have even longer visits with him. Since things seemed to be going alright, Jamie allowed this as well. Little did Jamie know that she would never see Tyler or Ariana ever again.

In March of 2006, Jamie hadn't seen her children in weeks. She took her court ordered custody agreement and contacted the police. They contacted the Child Protective Services, but they ordered the police to keep the children with their father.

In April of 2006, CPS closed the case and Tyler and Ariana were kept with their father. They didn't check Christopher's background. If they had, they would have found several assault charges. They also didn't check the background of Reina Gonzales who was living with Christopher Payne. They also failed to check on Tyler and Ariana after this. 

In February of 2007, managers of an abandoned storage shed called police to report a foul-smelling tub. In the tub, police found the body of Ariana Payne. She was three years old. Ariana's body was stuffed into a plastic trash bag, a designed bag, and then sealed in a plastic tub. Shortly after this, Tyler was reported missing.

In the beginning, Reina Gonzales said that she didn't know that Ariana had died. She claimed to have believed that the children had been sent back to live with their mother. Then, in a video taped testimony, she spoke of what happened in the last months of the young children's lives.

"He told me not to worry, they were his children. After that, I started getting high on heroin more so I could block out what was happenin to the children." - Reina

Reina said that Christopher hit Tyler with a belt and 'opened his head up'. She said she knew that the wound was becoming infected. Reina claimed that she and Christopher moved out of the house, but they left Tyler and Ariana in a closet.

Reina admitted that she knew that Tyler and Ariana were locked in the closet with no way to get food or water. She also knew that Ariana had died first, and Tyler was forced to stay in the closet with his sister's dead body until he died as well. Reina said they went back to clean the closet and she put both of the children's bodies in a tub. She tells police that Christopher then put them in the trunk and took them to storage.

Although Tyler's body was never found, he is presumed dead. Police believe Tyler's body was dumped in a nearby landfill. An autopsy revealed that Ariana had suffered 12 broken ribs and a broken right shoulder. This happened before she died. The fractures were in different stages of healing. Her right ulna and left fibula were also injured. It was revealed that she had a broken back near, or at the time of her death.