A Georgia teenager has been sentenced for killing her mother in a case authorities say grew out of the girl’s fixation on mass shootings and an abandoned plan to attack a school.
Lilyana Rose Wagner, now 16, received a life prison sentence after pleading guilty to murder and aggravated assault in the November 2024 death of her mother, 51-year-old Rachel Wagner, Tifton District Attorney Patrick Warren said Tuesday.
The investigation began after Wagner, who was 14 at the time, crashed her mother’s vehicle. When officers arrived at the scene, she told them she lived alone with her mother.
Police then went to the family’s home for a welfare check after learning Rachel Wagner had missed work and was not responding to phone calls. Inside, they found her dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
Lilyana Wagner, 16, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her mother, Rachel Wagner. Authorities said the teen had been consumed by thoughts of carrying out a school shooting before ultimately choosing to kill her mother instead. (District Attorney Patrick Warren of the Tifton Judicial Circuit)
According to investigators, Wagner had developed an intense interest in school shooters and mass casualty attacks, building an online and social media identity tied to the idea of planning and carrying out such violence.
A handwritten confession later uncovered by investigators detailed how the teenager said she shifted her focus from a school attack to killing her mother.
“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.
Authorities said the teen named half a dozen school shooters in her confession. (iStock)
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.
“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.
