A Georgia teenager who confessed in a letter to killing her mother has been sentenced to spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Lilyana Wagner, 16, pleaded guilty to felony murder and aggravated assault in connection with the November 2024 death of her mother, 51-year-old Rachel Suzanne Wagner. Tifton Judicial Circuit District Attorney Patrick Warren said in a press release that Lilyana Wagner, who was 14 years old when she shot her mother in the head, received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Warren said Lilyana was involved in a car crash on Nov. 19, 2024, and informed police at the scene that she lived alone with her mother. After officers learned that Rachel Wagner had not shown up for work that morning and was not responding to her phone, Tifton Police Department officers carried out a welfare check at her home.
Inside, police discovered Rachel Wagner in her bed, deceased from a single gunshot wound to the back of her head. An investigation into Rachel Wagner’s death revealed her daughter’s extensive social media activity, which showed that the teenager was “obsessed with school shooters and mass shootings” and was “interested” in planning a mass casualty event.
The Tifton Police Department, working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, determined that Lilyana Wagner was using various apps to communicate with multiple people online who “encouraged” her to carry out her plans to commit some sort of violent act. After Lilyana Wagner was taken to the hospital following the car crash, which happened after she killed her mother, she continued to communicate with the strangers online.
Warren directed a message to parents of teenagers in his press release, stating “I urge you to never underestimate the influence that exists behind your child’s screen.” He continued, “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. 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.”
The firearm Lilyana Wagner used to kill her mother was legally bought at a pawnshop, Warren said. Rachel Wagner allowed her teenage daughter to keep the gun and ammunition in her bedroom.
Lilyana Wagner reportedly admitted to the murder in a handwritten letter that detailed how she chose to kill her mother rather than carry out a mass shooting. She wrote, “This whole thing was a last-minute choice. I was going to commit a school shooting at my old middle school but chose this instead.” The teenager named six mass shooters as her inspiration for “the whole event.”
Rachel Wagner was a native of New Zealand who had lived in the United States for nearly 30 years. Her sister-in-law, Kiri Te Paea, spoke with New Zealand-based news outlet Stuff shortly after the murder and said Lilyana Wagner was interested in video games, particularly “guns and shooting games.” The homeschooled teen reportedly spent “hours and hours gaming while Rachel was at work and she would do her homework very quickly and then go back to the gaming.”
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