Julia Egler is expected to head to prison for the next 50 years after pleading guilty to the murders of her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. The 18-year-old received her sentence on Friday for the killings at her home in Palm Bay, Florida, according to Law&Crime. Shortly after midnight in July 2024, Egler placed a 911 call and claimed that an intruder had broken through a sliding glass door at the residence.
She claims to have told the investigators that she was in the living room when she heard the break-in, prompting her to lock herself in a bedroom with her dogs. According to her initial story, she heard five or six gunshots and screaming. She alleges that she waited about an hour before emerging to find 38-year-old Kelley McCollom and 22-year-old Matthew Szejnrok dead. However, police quickly determined that this account was fabricated.
Investigators apparently found bloody footprints beneath the broken glass near the sliding door, which proved the glass was broken after the shooting occurred rather than before. The footprints were a match for her shoes, and the murder weapon was discovered in the backyard. Egler eventually admitted that she staged the scene to make it look like a home invasion.
Her own bloody footprints apparently gave the story away
Police said the killings followed weeks of conflict inside the home. “Julia advised that she had reached her boiling point with her mother following many disagreements in the previous weeks,” police wrote in an arrest affidavit. She expressed frustration that McCollom did not accept her gender transition, and she also disapproved of the relationship between her mother and Szejnrok.McCollom reportedly died in the living room, while a wounded Szejnrok stumbled into the bathroom.
Egler apparently went to her mother’s room to reload, as she had run out of ammunition. She returned and repeatedly stabbed Szejnrok with a kitchen knife. She told detectives Szejnrok “essentially asked her to take him out of his misery” before she shot him in the head. Dustin Szejnrok, the victim’s brother, lives next door with his family and was home when the shots were fired.
Egler, who was 16 at the time of the killings, was originally charged with two counts of first-degree murder. However, she pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in a deal that spared her the life sentence a teen who killed her mother recently received. She managed to graduate from high school while she was incarcerated.
During the sentencing hearing, she addressed the court and requested a chance at future freedom. “I’m sorry. I’m haunted by grief every day. I have shown that I can be rehabilitated. Please give me a chance to reintegrate back into society,” Julia Egler said. Under Florida law, Egler will be eligible for a sentence review after serving 25 years, as she was a minor at the time of the crime. If released, she must complete 20 years of supervised probation.
Published: Sep 28, 2026 03:30 pm