The 911 call of a transgender teenager accused of killing her mother and stabbing her mother’s boyfriend when she ran out of bullets has been made public.
Julia Grace Egler, 16, apparently tried to blame an unidentified masked man who broke into her Palm Bay, Florida, home on July 6 and fatally shot her mother, Kelley McCollom, 41, and her mother’s boyfriend, Matthew Szejnrok, 22.
She cried hysterically on the phone call shortly after midnight, as she told the operator that the masked man must have used a hammer to smash the rear sliding glass door, changing her story as she spoke.
“I don’t think the door was locked, but I don’t think he knew there was a hammer by the back window,” Egler told officers. according to Fox 35.
When the dispatcher asked if it was his family’s hammer or if the attacker had brought his own, Egler replied: “It was just the house hammer. It was right behind (inaudible).”
‘I think they grabbed him and broke the window.’
Julia Grace Egler, 16, is accused of killing her mother and stabbing her mother’s boyfriend on Saturday night.
Egler said she then grabbed her dogs and hid in her bedroom.
She went on to claim that the unknown assailant made “loud noises” and believed he kicked down her mother’s bedroom door, but he did not dare enter her bedroom because he was not looking for her and was deterred by the barking of her pitbulls. NJ Advance Media reports.
Finally, Egler said, she heard her mother and Szejnrok return home after buying a bed frame, and then heard five to six gunshots and screams.
“I couldn’t warn him. It’s all my fault,” Egler told the operator through sobs.
She said she stayed in her bedroom for about an hour before coming out to a bloody scene, telling the dispatcher she didn’t want to let the dogs out of her bedroom “because I didn’t want them to have blood all over their paws.”
Egler also said she noticed her mother’s bedroom being kicked in and that she went into the bedroom to check a locked box of valuables, where she knew her mother kept a gun in a holster.
The holster was empty and ammunition was missing, he said.
But when asked to describe the man who entered the house, Egler simply said, “Oh… it’s hard to remember.”
Egler (pictured with her mother, Kelley McCollom, 41) had attempted to blame the gruesome killings on a masked man who broke into her home.
Police found Matthew Szejnrok’s body in the bathroom with several shell casings nearby after he allegedly pleaded with Egler to stop. The 22-year-old is pictured right.
Their story quickly unravels when the police appear at the crime scene.
Detectives noticed broken glass on McCollum’s leg and on top of Szejnrok’s phone, suggesting the glass was broken after the two had already been killed.
They later found the .38-caliber revolver just outside Julia’s bedroom window, the blood-stained knife on the bathroom counter, and bloody footprints matching her shoes.
Police also said they found drops of blood leading from the front door to the bathroom, where Szejnrok’s body was found with several bullet casings nearby after he pleaded with Egler to stop.
None of the many cameras around the house found any trace of an intruder.
Officers eventually brought Egler in for questioning, when she confessed to the double homicide.
None of the many cameras around the outside of the house found any trace of an intruder.
Authorities said she explained that she stole her mother’s gun and waited in the kitchen with her mother and a knife hidden in her pockets for them to get home around 10:30 p.m.
“Welcome home,” he told them, before allegedly opening fire on his mother with the .38-caliber revolver, shooting her several times until she was dead.
Police say Egler then pointed the gun at Szejnrok as he fled into the bathroom and begged for his life, but she shot him repeatedly anyway.
When the gun ran out of bullets, she allegedly pulled out the kitchen knife and began brutally stabbing him on the bathroom floor.
Szejnrok, mortally wounded and in agony, “essentially asked (Julia) to put him out of his misery,” the affidavit reads.
At that point, Egler returned to his mother’s room, loaded another bullet into the revolver and shot her in the head, police said in an affidavit.
Police say Egler, left, had disagreements with her mother, right, over her gender identity and argued with her about dating a 22-year-old man.
Palm Bay Police Lt. Virginia Kilmer said the mother and daughter had had “a lot of disagreements over the past few weeks.”
“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,” it said.
She had transitioned from male to female many years earlier, as a child, and had appeared as a child on McCollom’s social media pages since at least 2015.
Her posts seemed very supportive of her daughter’s gender identity, always calling her “my daughter” and sharing sweet photos of them together.
Police are now trying to put all the pieces together and are specifically investigating past episodes in which McCollom was allegedly abused.
One incident occurred with Egler’s biological father about 11 years ago, while the other involved Szejnrok in April 2024. Florida Today Report.
Szejnrok was arrested in April and charged with abusing McCollum.
Police said at the time that he and McCollom were arguing in public when he repeatedly grabbed her.
Prosecutors dropped the charges and he was allowed to return home with McCollom and Julia.
His older brother, Dustin Szejnrok, announced his death in a Facebook post, but did not explain that he was murdered.
“Hi everyone, it’s hard to put into words, but it’s easier to share with those who may not have been contacted,” she wrote.
‘My younger brother, Matthew Szejnrok, has passed away. If we haven’t contacted you, please don’t tell us anything about what happened or how it happened.’
Egler is now charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder.
She is being held in a juvenile detention center, but police said she could be charged as an adult. The investigation is ongoing.
