Julia Egler initially claimed an intruder had killed her mother and her mother’s boyfriend before admitting she had staged the break-in

NEED TO KNOW

• In July 2024, a “frantic” Julia Egler, then 16, called 911 to report that an intruder had broken into her Palm Bay, Fla., home
• When officers arrived, they found Egler’s mother and her 22-year-old boyfriend dead inside
• Egler admitted to killing them because, police said, she was upset that her mother was dating a much younger man

A Florida teen who waited for her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to come home, greeting them by saying “Welcome Home” and then shot them dead has been sentenced to prison.

On Friday, Sept. 25, Julia Egler, 18, of Palm Bay, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of her mother, Kelley McCollum, 38, and her boyfriend, Matthew Szejnork, 22, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison, according to a statement from the Office of the State Attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit.

As part of Egler’s plea deal, prosecutors dropped her initial charge of two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, sparing her a trial and a possible life sentence in prison.

In court on Friday, Sept. 25, Egler, who was 16 at the time of the murders, said, “I was just a kid who made a bad decision,” Fox 35 Orlando reports. “The gun just happened to be in here. I didn’t plan what I did. I just did it.”

In charging documents obtained by Fox 35 Orlando, police alleged that Egler killed her mother because of ongoing disagreements between the two.

Egler disapproved of her mom dating a much younger man and her mother did not approve of Egler’s gender transition, police said.

Just after midnight on July 7, 2024, Palm Bay officers responded to a “frantic” 911 call from Egler, who told the dispatcher an unknown intruder had broken into the family’s home on Benchor Road SE and that she was hiding in a bedroom, the State Attorney said in the statement.  

Upon arrival, officers discovered McCollum dead from gunshot wounds in the living room. They found Szejnork in a bathroom, where he had been shot and stabbed repeatedly.

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Detectives noted that the physical evidence inside the home, including the lack of forced entry and the positioning of the evidence, contradicted Egler’s account of an intruder, the State Attorney said. 

Investigators found bloody footprints matching prints from Egler’s shoes, News 6 reported at the time.

During subsequent police interviews, Egler broke down and confessed to staging the break-in, the State Attorney said.

Egler told police she took a gun from her mother’s bedroom and waited in the kitchen for the two to come home, police said in charging documents, News 6 reports.

When her mother and Szejnork entered the kitchen, they found Egler waiting for them with a gun in her hand and a chef’s knife in her pocket, according to police.

“Welcome home,” she said she told them, admitting she shot them several times, police said.

When she ran out of bullets, she started stabbing Szejnork, who was “fighting for his life,” prosecutors said.

At that point, Egler told detectives that Szejnork “essentially asked (Egler) to take him out of his misery,” police said.

She told police she went into her mother’s bedroom to get more ammunition and returned to the kitchen where she shot him in the head, police said.

Egler will be required to serve a mandatory minimum of 25 years, after which she will be eligible for a sentence review due to her youth at the time of the crime, the State Attorney said.

After prison, Egler must undergo a mental health evaluation and serve 20 years of supervised probation.

In a victim impact statement, Szejnork’s brother, Dustin Szejnork, told the court that his family still lives next door to the house where the murders took place. 

“Her actions didn’t just take my brother, they ruined our home,” he said. “There isn’t a sentence that will bring my brother back.”

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