Mother shoots, kills her children

TAMPA, Fla. – The wife of a military officer shot and killed her son on the way to soccer practice, then drove to their upscale home and shot her daughter in the head while she studied at her computer, police said Friday. Afterward, the woman told detectives she killed the teens for being “mouthy.”

Julie Powers Schenecker admitted the slayings after officers found her covered in blood on the back porch of her home Friday morning, police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. Schenecker’s mother had called police from Texas because she was unable to reach the 50-year-old woman, who she said was depressed and had been complaining about her children.

Schenecker’s husband, Parker Schenecker, is an Army colonel stationed at the headquarters of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. The father had been away for several days when the killings happened, said CentCom spokesman Lt. Col. Michael Lawhorn, describing him as a career Army intelligence officer.

Police said Parker Schenecker was in Qatar and was told of his children’s deaths on Friday.

Julie Schenecker left a note detailing plans to kill her disrespectful children and then herself, saying “they talked back and were mouthy and that she was going to take care of it,” McElroy said. She provided the same motive to police when interviewed.

The body of Schenecker’s daughter, Calyx Powers Schenecker, 16, was found in an upstairs bedroom, McElroy said. The body of her son, Powers Beau Schenecker, 13, was found in an SUV in the garage.