Florida trans teen blamed ‘masked man’ after brutal stabbing of mother, boyfriend

Julia Grace Egler, 16, who transitioned from female to male, tried to place blame on an unidentified masked man after shooting Kelley McCollom, 41, and stabbing Matthew Szejnrok, 22, after running out of bullets. McCollom, the teen's mother, had been dating Szejnrok at the time. Egler has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the double homicide.

Egler cried hysterically on the phone call after dialing 911 and said that the supposed masked man had broken into the home through a glass door with a hammer. "I don't think that the door was locked, but I don't think he knew there was a hammer by the back window," Egler said on the call, per the Daily Mail.

The teen told operators the supposed man broke into the house, at which point the teen hid and claimed to hear "loud noises" in the home. After McCollom and Szejnrok allegedly arrived home with a bed frame Egler told operators there were five or six gunshots that sounded. "I couldn't warn her - it's all my fault," the accused killer told the operator.

Egler's tall tale quickly came apart after the police arrived at the scene. Detectives found a .38 caliber revolver just outside Egler's bedroom window that matched the shell casings. They found a bloody knife as well as bloody footprints matching the teen's shoes and cameras outside the home did not catch any intruder attempting to enter the home.

After being brought in for questioning, Egler confessed to the crime. "Welcome home" the teen had said to the two before shooting the 41-year-old mother until she was dead. Szejnrok ran to the bathroom, where Egler followed, allegedly shooting until running out of bullets. Egler then grabbed a knife and stabbed him repeatedly until he "essentially asked [Julia] to take him out of his misery." At that point Egler stopped the stabbing, loaded another bullet and allegedly shot him in the head.

According to Palm Bay Police Lieutenant Virginia Kilmer, the mother and Egler had "many disagreements in the previous weeks" leading up to the killing. "Egler cited long-standing conflicts with her mother, including disagreements related to her gender transition, as well as disapproval of her mother's relationship with Szejnrok, as motives for the crime," Kilmer added.

This article has been updated to reflect Julia Egler's natal sex.