Teen planned middle school massacre before making deadly ‘last-minute choice’ to kill mom: official

A teenage Georgia girl was convicted of brutally killing her mother after abandoning a plan to commit a school shooting, following an obsession with mass casualty events, authorities said.

Lilyana Rose Wagner, 16, was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder and aggravated assault in the November 2024 death of her mother Rachel Wagner, 51, Tifton District Attorney Patrick Warren said Tuesday.

The slaying was discovered after Wagner, then 14, crashed her mother's car. Wagner told responding officers that she lived alone with her mother.

The officers went to the home to perform a welfare check and discovered Rachel Wagner, who had not shown up for work and wasn't answering her phone, dead from a gunshot wound to the back of her head.

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Investigators found that the teenage Wagner had become obsessed with school shooters and mass shootings, developing an online and social media reputation as someone interested in planning and executing a mass casualty event.

In a handwritten confession, the teen described the decision to kill her mother instead.

"This whole thing was a last-minute choice," she wrote. "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 then listed the names of six different school shooters from memory.

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In the months before the killing, officials said Wagner communicated via apps with anonymous people who encouraged her to plan and commit murder.

Investigators later found that Rachel Wagner had purchased the gun her daughter used at a pawn shop a month before the killing. She allowed the teen to keep the weapon and ammunition in her bedroom, prosecutors said.

In a statement, Warren warned parents to monitor the content their children view online.

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"I urge you to never underestimate the influence that exists behind your child’s screen," Warren said. "In the courtroom, I see the consequences after the messages and the online encouragement from strangers have already turned into real-world crimes."

"By then, remorse for your actions cannot erase the damage, and a prosecution cannot give victims back what was taken," Warren added. "It is your duty to know who is influencing your child, and it is your duty to know what they are being taught to believe is acceptable."

Lilyana Wagner will serve 30 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.