Left: Julia Egler; Right: Kelley McCollom (Facebook)
A teenage Florida girl is being held in juvenile detention but could be charged as an adult after admitting to killing her mother and her mother’s much younger boyfriend earlier this month, police say.
Julia Grace Egler, 16, stands accused of two counts of murder in the first degree, according to the Palm Bay Police Department.
The defendant had a chilling, final message for Kelley McCollom, 42, and Matthew Szejnrok, 22, on Saturday night, authorities claim.
“Welcome home,” the girl allegedly told the May-December couple as the fatal ambush began inside the house on Benchor Road on July 6.
Multiple rounds were fired and both victims suffered from multiple gunshot wounds, police say, according to court records obtained by Florida Today. But the violence did not end so quickly.
After allegedly killing her mother with the woman’s own silver .38 Special, Egler turned the gun on Szejnrok — who pleaded for her to stop as he fled and tried to take refuge in the bathroom, police say. There, the teen repeatedly stabbed her mother’s boyfriend with a chef’s knife. Then, she used the handgun again to finish the kill.
At around 12:06 a.m. on Sunday, a phony 911 call was made, police allege. During the call, Egler was allegedly crying hysterically and saying a man had broken into the family’s residence.
Officers who arrived moments later met the teenager outside the house. There, she allegedly stuck to her story about the burglar at first — telling police she hid inside her room with her pit bull when she heard “loud noises” happening elsewhere in the house.
Under repeat interrogation, however, the girl’s story fell apart and she eventually confessed to the killings, police say.
Detectives say one of the first clues was finding the handgun stashed just outside the teen’s bedroom window. There were also allegedly bloody footprints all over the place — and those matched Egler’s shoes. The bloody chef’s knife was found just left out on the kitchen counter. And there was a trail of blood leading to the bathroom.
During a subsequent custodial interview at the police station, the defendant admitted that she broke into her mother’s bedroom to steal the gun and some rounds of ammunition, according to court records obtained by the Space Coast Rocket, a local news website focusing on the region of Florida located around the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Then, she put the loaded gun and a kitchen knife in her pockets and waited for the couple to come home. When they arrived just after 10:30 p.m., the carnage ensued.
As it turned out, Egler only stopped shooting Szejnrok because she ran out of bullets — and then began using the knife, she allegedly told police. Later, on the dying man’s wishes, she went back to her mother’s bedroom, grabbed one bullet, reloaded the revolver with a final round and shot him in the head. The girl told investigators the man “essentially asked (Egler) to take him out of his misery,” according to records obtained by Orlando-based CBS affiliate WKMG.
In the intervening hour or so, the girl admittedly tried to stage the scene to look like a break-in had occurred, according to police. But, authorities say, the cover-up was sloppy, with glass found on top of the victims’ bodies and multiple readily-accessible surveillance cameras containing footage that put the lie to the burglary claim.
As for a motive, police say 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,” according to documents obtained by Orlando-based ABC affiliate WFTV.
Those issues had allegedly been simmering for quite some time.
By the time of the murders, the teen “had reached a boiling point” with McCollom over the gender issues and the age gap between her and Szejnrok, according to an affidavit obtained by Daytona Beach-based NBC affiliate WESH.
Law enforcement were also relatively quick to relay the alleged killer’s presumed motive in public comments this week.
“Egler cited long-standing conflicts with her mother, including disagreements related to 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 said in comments reported by 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.”
A delinquency hearing will be held later this month during which the 18th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office will decide whether or not Egler will be charged as an adult, Florida Today reports.
Law&Crime reached out to the Palm Bay police for additional details on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at time of publication.
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