A teenage Florida girl is being kept in juvenile prison but might face adult charges after admitting to killing her mother and her mother’s much younger boyfriend earlier this month, according to authorities.
According to the Palm Bay Police Department, 16-year-old Julia Grace Egler is charged with two charges of first-degree murder.
According to investigators, the defendant delivered a terrifying final message to Kelley McCollom, 42, and Matthew Szejnrok, 22, on Saturday night.
“Welcome home,” the girl allegedly greeted the May-December couple as the fatal ambush began inside the Benchor Road home on July 6. Police believe many bullets were fired, and both victims had multiple gunshot wounds, according to court papers acquired by Florida Today. However, the violence did not end as swiftly.
After allegedly murdering her mother with the woman’s own silver.38 Special, Egler turned the gun on Szejnrok, who pleaded with her to stop as he fled and attempted to seek sanctuary in the restroom, according to authorities. The teenager repeatedly attacked her mother’s lover with a chef’s knife. Then she used the firearm again to complete the killing.
Police believe that a bogus 911 call was placed about 12:06 a.m. on Sunday. During the call, Egler was apparently crying frantically and reporting that a man had broken into the family’s home.
Officers arrived shortly afterward and met the adolescent outside the house. At first, she allegedly adhered to her narrative about the burglar, telling authorities she hid inside her room with her pit bull after hearing “loud noises” elsewhere in the house.
The girl’s story fell apart after repeated interrogation, and she eventually confessed to the crimes, according to authorities.
According to detectives, one of the first clues was the discovery of the weapon stashed close outside the teen’s bedroom window. There were also reported bloody tracks all over the place, which matched Egler’s shoes. The bloody chef’s knife had been left out on the kitchen counter. And there was a blood trail leading to the bathroom.
According to court records obtained by the Space Coast Rocket, a local news website focusing on the region of Florida around the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the defendant admitted to breaking into her mother’s bedroom to steal the gun and some rounds of ammunition during a subsequent custodial interview at the police station. Then she placed the loaded revolver and a kitchen knife in her pockets and waited for the couple to get home. When they arrived shortly after 10:30 p.m., the bloodshed began.
Egler allegedly informed police that she stopped shooting Szejnrok because she ran out of bullets and then began using the knife. Later, at the dying man’s request, she returned to her mother’s bedroom, retrieved one bullet, reloaded the revolver with a final round, and shot him in the head. The child told detectives that the man “essentially asked (Egler) to take him out of his misery,” according to papers obtained by Orlando-based CBS affiliate WKMG.
According to authorities, in the intervening hour, the teenager admitted to staging the scene to appear as if a break-in had occurred. However, authorities believe the cover-up was poor, with glass recovered on top of the victims’ bodies and many easily accessible video cameras carrying footage that contradicted the burglary story.
According to records obtained by Orlando-based ABC station WFTV, Egler “was not happy with the fact that Kelley was not very accepting of her transition, and she also did not like that [Kelley] was dating Matthew who was 22 years old,” as a motive.
These conflicts had supposedly been boiling for a long time.
According to an affidavit obtained by Daytona Beach-based NBC affiliate WESH, by the time of the murders, the youngster “had reached a boiling point” with McCollom over gender issues and the age disparity between her and Szejnrok.
In public statements this week, law enforcement officials were also quick to express the alleged killer’s presumed purpose.
“Egler cited long-standing conflicts with her mother, including disagreements over her gender transition, as well as disapproval of her mother’s relationship with Szejnrok, as motives for the crime,” Palm Bay Police Lt. Virginia Kilmer told Space Coast Daily. “Based on the evidence, including Egler’s confession and forensic findings at the scene, she was placed under arrest and charged with two counts of 1st Degree Pre-Meditated Murder.”
The 18th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office will hold a delinquency hearing later this month to determine if Egler will be tried as an adult, according to Florida Today.
Law&Crime reached out to Palm Bay police for more information on this topic, but no comment was received at the time of publication.