Inset: Lilyana Wagner (Tifton Judicial Circuit District Attorney). Background: News footage of the home in Tifton, Ga., where Rachel Wagner was shot by her daughter (WALB).
A Georgia teenager who admitted to killing her mother in a confession letter will spend the rest of her life in prison.
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. In a press release, Tifton Judicial Circuit District Attorney Patrick Warren said Lilyana Wagner, who was 14 years old when she shot her mother in the head, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years.
Warren said Lilyana was in a car wreck on Nov. 19, 2024, and told police at the scene that she lived alone with her mother. After police learned that Rachel Wagner had not shown up for work that morning and was not answering her phone, officers from the Tifton Police Department conducted a welfare check at her home.
Once inside, police found Rachel Wagner in her bed, dead from a single gunshot wound to the back of her head. An investigation into Rachel Wagner's death uncovered her daughter's extensive social media presence, which revealed that the teenager was "obsessed with school shooters and mass shootings" and was "interested" in planning a mass casualty event.
The Tifton Police Department, along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, found that Lilyana Wagner was using different apps to communicate with several people online who "encouraged" her to follow through with her plans to commit some sort of violent act. After Lilyana Wagner was taken to the hospital following the car wreck, which occurred after she killed her mother, she continued to communicate with the strangers online.
Warren addressed parents of teenagers in his press release, saying "I urge you to never underestimate the influence that exists behind your child's screen." He 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. 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 gun Lilyana Wagner used to kill her mother was legally purchased at a pawnshop, Warren said. Rachel Wagner allowed her teenage daughter to keep the gun and ammunition in her bedroom.
Lilyana Wagner reportedly confessed to the murder in a handwritten letter that explained how she chose to kill her mother instead of committing 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 listed six mass shooters as her inspiration for "the whole event."
Rachel Wagner was a New Zealand native who lived in the United States for almost 30 years. Her sister-in-law, Kiri Te Paea, spoke to New Zealand-based news outlet Stuff shortly after the murder and said Lilyana Wagner was into video games, especially "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."