TIFT COUNTY, Ga. (TCN) — A 16-year-old girl has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting her mother in 2024.
Police visited a home to conduct a welfare check on Nov. 19, 2024, WALB reports. Lilyana Wagner, 14 at the time, had been in a vehicle crash and told officers she lived at home with her mother, Rachel Wagner, 51. Rachel Wagner had not gone to work that day and was not answering her phone. When officers arrived at the home for the welfare check, they found her deceased from a single gunshot wound to the head.
According to WALB, a joint investigation conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Tipton Police Department found information on Lilyana Wagner’s phone that showed she had been communicating with people who were encouraging her to commit violent acts. They also found the teen was interested in school shootings and other mass casualty events.
The month before she was killed, Rachel Wagner reportedly bought a gun at a pawn shop and let her daughter keep it in her room, along with ammunition. Lilyana Wagner wrote a confession and also stated she had once considered carrying out a mass shooting at the middle school she previously attended, WALB reports.
In her note, Lilyana Wagner wrote, “This whole thing was a last-minute choice, the Tifton Gazette reports. “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,” followed by a list of six school shooters.
Wagner was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years on Aug. 24, according to District Attorney Patrick Warren.
Warren said, “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? While we are left with these questions, we must use this tragedy to do better in our own lives. To help when we see a need, to speak up when we see something wrong, and to support those who are struggling,” WSB-TV reports.
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