Julie Schenecker Released From Hospital; Charged With Killing Kids
Jan. 30, 2011— -- A Tampa, Fla., mother accused of murdering her two teenage children because they were "mouthy" is due in court Monday, after being released from a hospital today.
Julie Schenecker, 50, a military officer's wife, was arrested Friday when police, responding to call from a concerned relative, found her covered in blood on the back porch of her home.
The woman allegedly confessed to the officers there that she had shot her 13-year-old son and then her 16-year-old daughter because they were "mouthy."
She was taken to a Tampa hospital late Friday night for what police said was a previously existing medical condition, but was released this morning and taken to the Hillsborough County Jail.
According to police, Schenecker shot her son twice in the head while they were on the way to soccer practice, then drove to the family home in in a gated country club community in north Tampa, where she shot her daughter in the back of the head while the teen was studying at her computer.
"I think we will never understand how or why a mother could take the lives of her children," police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. "That was the only reason she provided to our detectives.
"We dont believe that the children knew that the mother meant to harm them."
Schenecker's daughter, Calyx, 16, was found in an upstairs bedroom, and Beau, 13, was found in an SUV in the garage, McElroy said.
Both had been shot with a .38-caliber pistol that police believe had been bought five days earlier, according to the Tampa Tribune.
Investigators believe the teens "never saw it coming," McElroy said.
Schenecker, who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, was taken to Tampa General Hospital just before midnight, ABC affiliate WFTS-TV in Tampa reported.
