PALM BAY, Fla. – Police arrested a Palm Bay teen accused of fatally shooting her mother and her mother’s boyfriend on Saturday before she placed a phony 911 call for help, according to records obtained by News 6.
Julia Grace Egler, 16, faces two counts of first-degree murder. News 6 is naming Egler due to the circumstances of the case.
Detectives said Egler shot and killed her mother, Kelley McCollom, 38, before shooting the mother’s boyfriend, Matthew Szejnrok, 22, stabbing him repeatedly and shooting him once more before he died at the scene along Benchor Road. Egler’s motive centered on longstanding conflicts with her mother, including Egler’s disapproval that her mom was dating a 22-year-old man and alleged disagreements related to the teen’s gender transition, police said.
The report states Egler used a chef’s knife and a .38-caliber revolver that she stole from her mother’s bedroom.
Police said that the teen called 911 just after midnight Sunday while acting hysterical and claiming that a man broke into her home; officers quickly responded and arrived to find McCollom and Szejnrok’s bodies, the report states. Meeting with police outside the home — as detectives inside would soon discover bloody footprints matching the girl’s shoes, among other evidence contrary to Egler’s initial statements — the teen reportedly told investigators that she hid in her room with her dog while an unidentified burglar ransacked the residence.
After having been read her Miranda rights, Egler confessed to killing McCollom and Szejnrok, according to the arrest report.
Investigators said Egler eventually admitted to breaking into McCollom’s bedroom while she was gone, soon greeting the victims in the home’s kitchen with a gun in her hand and a knife in her pocket. Moments after Egler told the two “Welcome home,” she shot McCollom and Szejnrok several times and began stabbing Szejnrok once she ran out of ammunition, the report states.
The girl told police that Szejnrok then “essentially asked (Egler) to take him out of his misery,” prompting the teen to return to her mother’s bedroom, load one more round into the handgun and shoot him in the head, the report states.
First reported by News 6 partner Florida Today, Egler will remain in juvenile custody until a delinquency hearing later this month as the 18th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office otherwise decides whether to charge her as an adult.
