Friends and classmates of a 14-year-old girl accused of shooting to death her mother and wounding her stepfather say she often talked about killing her mother.
Carly Madison Gregg was charged with murder after Heath Smylie, 38, came home around 5 p.m. on March 19 to find his schoolteacher wife, Ashley Smylie, 40, dead.
The girl allegedly shot him in the shoulder at their home on Ashton Way outside Jackson, Mississippi, but he was able to wrestle the gun away from her.
Gregg jumped a backyard fence and ran away, but was captured by police about half an hour later after they chased her in a helicopter.
Her classmates at Northwest Rankin High School, where Smylie also taught, were shocked and believe they missed the “red flags” they dismissed as teen angst.
Carly Madison Gregg, 14, allegedly shot and killed her mother and wounded her stepfather
Ashley Smylie, 40, was allegedly shot to death by her 14-year-old daughter
“She was acting normal that day, but she had always been saying things about how she hated her mother,” one said.
“Carly said a lot of alarming things, but people never took her seriously because she had never done anything to act on them before.
“He said things like ‘I’m going to kill her (his mother),’ but in a tone of teenage angst, which in hindsight for everyone now were red flags that we didn’t see.”
Several classmates said Gregg was taking medication for borderline personality disorder, a mental illness that causes dramatic mood swings.
Doctors told DailyMail.com that the symptoms Gregg’s friends and classmates described were consistent with BPD.
The classmate said Gregg spoke with great hate about people he didn’t like, “and he talked about how he didn’t like his mother.”
‘No one expressed concerns because she had always been like that. She always sounded like letting off steam,” they said.
Gregg also frequently claimed to friends that he had suffered abuse at home, but there is no evidence to support his accusations and police cleared his stepfather of any wrongdoing.
Gregg was charged as an adult with murdering her mother and attempting to murder her stepfather.
Tributes posted outside Ashley Smylie’s classroom door at Northwest Rankin High School
Another classmate said Gregg had “death symbols” taped to his laptop.
A third said: “I was friends with her last year and never saw any signs.” “It’s just heartbreaking.”
His friends said there was no change in his behavior on the day of the shooting and the entire school couldn’t understand him.
‘Although we are a large school, usually everyone has heard or seen everyone else. And word spreads extremely fast,” one said, noting that most students found out about the shooting half an hour after they called the police.
Another student said Gregg’s negative attitude toward his mother was not reciprocated.
“Anyone who has had her class knows that she always spoke with great pride about her daughter,” they said.
Students who spoke out in the days after the shooting described their teachers breaking down and feeling a suffocating sense of fear.
‘The atmosphere is full of sadness and confusion. “We are all confused and lost,” said one.
‘The rest of my teachers are very depressed and the energy that this school usually has is gone. I walk past the same teachers every day and even the principal and say hello and today there were hardly any glances.
“We have counselors and mental health specialists here, but this is not something I would have ever thought would happen at my school.”
Gregg jumped a backyard fence and ran away, but was captured by police about half an hour later after they chased her in a helicopter.
“My algebra teacher came into class and her voice was so broken she started crying and left for 30 minutes, we didn’t even work,” said another.
“Everyone was so down and depressed…our school was so vibrant and happy and then this happened and now it’s so bleak.”
Gregg had a Tumblr with no posts, but wrote “cheezitz and heinous war crimes” in the About section.
Police have not given any indication of a possible motive for the alleged murder.
Gregg was charged as an adult with the murder of her mother and the attempted murder of Heath Smylie, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said.
The teen was taken to the Rankin County Juvenile Detention Center, but transferred to the adult jail after charges were filed.
Gregg appeared briefly in Rankin County Court before Judge Kent McDaniel last week, where he pleaded not guilty and was held on $1 million bail.
Smylie taught mathematics at Northwest Rankin High, where her students loved her and named her new teacher of the year in 2022.
“This was my son’s favorite teacher, he is very upset about it,” one parent wrote on social media.
“We miss Mrs. Smylie, today was very difficult for everyone at school, she has impacted us so much everyone loves her and passing her class today was very difficult and just being at school was difficult,” said one student.
“Last night I cried all night and today I cried 10 times at school.”
Gregg (right) receiving a martial arts award
Smylie (right) with some members of her family. His funeral was held on Thursday.
Former students recalled how the much younger Gregg would sometimes accompany his mother to class.
“I never thought that sweet girl would do something like this,” one wrote.
His fifth-grade teacher, Shawn Mitchell, said Gregg was a straight-A student and couldn’t understand that he had supposedly killed his mother.
‘I would never have thought she would do something like this. She had the sweetest mom! She breaks my heart,’ she posted.
Friends and family posted tributes to Ashley Smylie online and expressed their grief over their daughter’s alleged actions.
‘My beautiful cousin Ashley was absolutely one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Her calm and kind manner blessed those around her. We miss her so much,” wrote her cousin Karen Bedells.
‘Please send as many positive thoughts as you can to my family, especially my uncles. “Ashley was a sweet, genuine person who didn’t deserve this,” another cousin, Robin Breland, posted.
“You probably won’t see this, I don’t care if you do, but you really could have reached out to (someone) besides taking the life of an amazing WOMAN,” a friend commented on Gregg’s social media page.
‘We can’t do anything now but cry for the mistake YOU made, you didn’t need to take someone’s life to get away from the problems you had.
Ashley Smylie was found dead in her home on Ashton Way near Jackson, Mississippi, on Tuesday afternoon when her husband arrived home.
Gregg appeared briefly in Rankin County Court before Judge Kent McDaniel on Wednesday morning.
‘Because now you have created an even bigger problem with yourself and others, did you feel proud?’
‘Did your heart sink deeper in your chest when you pulled the trigger? Do you feel what WE FEEL NOW?
“I pray for you and God bless you, but what you have done will be etched in everyone’s memory forever.”
Less than four weeks before the shooting, Gregg posted a series of photos of the family’s two dogs and three cats and wrote, “I love my animals.”
The Mississippi House of Representatives adjourned on March 20, the day after Smylie’s death, as a tribute to her.
Ashley Smylie previously taught at Warren Central High School for five years.
His body was taken to the state medical examiner for an autopsy by Rankin County Coroner David Ruth to investigate his death.
His funeral was held on Thursday.
The school suffered another tragedy a week later, when Cameron Horne-Crook, 14, an eighth-grade student at Northwest Rankin Middle School, was shot and killed Monday.
John Foote, 17, and Maxle Mooneyham, 16, were charged as adults with her murder.