A Georgia teenager has pleaded guilty to killing her mother in a disturbing case that prosecutors say began with an obsession with school shootings and plans for a mass-casualty attack.
Lilyana Rose Wagner, 16, pleaded guilty to felony murder and aggravated assault in the death of her mother, 51-year-old Rachel Suzanne Wagner, the Tifton Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday, Aug. 25.
The case began unfolding on Nov. 19, 2024, when Wagner, who was 14 at the time, was involved in a car crash in Crawford County.
She was alone in the vehicle.
Wagner told responding officers that she lived alone with her mother. When Rachel could not be reached by phone and failed to show up for work that morning, officers went to the family’s home in Tifton to conduct a welfare check.
Inside, authorities found Rachel dead in her bed.
Prosecutors said she had been shot once in the back of the head.
As investigators dug deeper into the case, they uncovered what they described as an alarming online history.
According to the district attorney’s office, Wagner had become “obsessed” with school shooters and mass shootings and had developed an extensive online and social media presence centered around planning and carrying out a mass-casualty event.
Investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Tifton Police Department spent months reviewing data taken from Wagner’s phone.
Prosecutors said the device contained conversations with anonymous people who allegedly encouraged her to plan and commit murder.
Authorities said Wagner even continued communicating with some of those people after her mother had been killed and while she was at a hospital following the car crash.
Investigators also learned that Rachel had purchased the handgun used in the killing at a pawn shop in Valdosta about a month earlier.
According to prosecutors, Rachel allowed her daughter to keep the pistol and ammunition in her bedroom.
One of the most disturbing discoveries came in a handwritten confession.
Wagner allegedly wrote that killing her mother had been “a last-minute choice.”
She said she had originally planned to carry out a shooting at her former middle school but instead decided to kill her mother.
Prosecutors also said Wagner listed six school shooters who had inspired her.
“Although I didn’t commit a school shooting, the whole event was inspired by these people,” she allegedly wrote.
District Attorney Patrick Warren used the case to issue a warning to parents about the influence children can encounter online.
“Never underestimate the influence that exists behind your child’s screen,” Warren said.
He urged parents to know who their children are communicating with and what kinds of ideas they are being exposed to online.
“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,” he said.
Warren also stressed the importance of keeping communication open before dangerous online influences escalate.
“Most importantly, please keep the door open for them to come to you as the best time to intervene is before an online influence becomes a criminal record,” he said.
The consequences in this case, he added, are permanent.
“Rachel is dead, and Lilyana will spend the rest of her natural life in prison — serving a minimum of 30 years before she is eligible for parole.”
I’ll bet mom was white