A 14-year-old Georgia girl murdered her mom — shooting her in the back of the head when she was in bed — after chickening out of a planned school shooting “inspired” by mass killers.
Lilyana Wagner’s cold-blooded killing of mom Rachel Wagner, 51, was discovered after she crashed her mom’s car in Tinton in November 2024 — and was found with the center of her hair shaved off, it emerged Monday as the now-16-year-old killer was sentenced to life in prison.
After the crash, cops tried calling the mom, who did not answer and had not turned up at work — and was then found dead in bed with a gunshot wound to the back of her head, District Attorney Patrick Warren said.
The killer teen later wrote a handwritten confession, saying that she had planned to kill even more people while bragging about six school shooters who “inspired” her.
“This whole thing was a last-minute choice,” she wrote of murdering her mom, who is originally from New Zealand.
“I was going to commit a school shooting at my old middle school but chose this instead. Although I didn’t commit a school shooting, the whole event was inspired by these people,” she wrote, according to the report that did not reveal which school shooters she name-checked.
Investigators soon found out that the teen had built up an “extensive online and social media reputation as being someone who was interested in planning and executing a mass casualty event,” Warren added.
She spoke with “anonymous people who encouraged her to plan and commit murder,” but went under the radar by using apps “not set up with key word and content analysis software, so the conversations were not identified and forwarded for investigation before she committed the crime,” the DA said.
It’s not clear how long Wagner had been speaking with the shadowy figures before she killed her mother.
The teen bought the gun she used from a pawn shop one month before the murder.
She pleaded guilty and will only be eligible for parole after serving 30 years.
“In this case there were no winners,” the DA said.
“Rachel is dead and Lilyana will spend the rest of her natural life in prison.
“I can’t help but think of all the decisions that were made that led to this tragic outcome; what if Lilyana had not connected with people online who encouraged her to commit this act; what if Rachel had not purchased the gun and ammunition and given them to Lilyana; and what if they both had received the help and support they needed to live normal, healthy lives?” he said.
