Police: Army officer’s wifey kills her two ‘mouthy’ teenagers

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TAMPA, Florida – The wifey 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 teenagers 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 incapable to reach the 50-year-old woman, who she said was depressed and had been complaining about her children.

Schenecker’s spouse, Parker Schenecker, is an Army colonel stationed at the headquarters of U.S. Central Instruction 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.

Philip Seymour Hoffman withdrew a total of $1,200 from an ATM at a supermarket near his Fresh York City apartment the night before he was found lifeless in his bathroom with a injection needle still in his left arm, sources told NBC News.

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

Julie Schenecker left a note detailing her plans to kill her disrespectful children and then herself, telling “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 who interviewed her.

“I think we will never understand how or why a mother could take the lives of her children,” McElroy said. “That was the only reason she provided to our detectives.”

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

An arrest affidavit said Schenecker shot her son twice in the head “for talking back” as she drove him to soccer practice Thursday night. She drove home, went inwards and shot her daughter in the back of head while the teenage sat at a computer doing homework, then shot her in the face, the affidavit said.

McElroy said investigators believe the teenagers “never spotted it coming.” Both were killed with a .38-caliber pistol.

Julie Schenecker was jailed and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Wearing a white jumpsuit, she was led into a county jail later Friday visibly jiggling and being supported by a sheriff’s deputy.

The family’s home is on a cul-de-sac in a gated country club community in north Tampa. Hillsborough County property records demonstrate that the Scheneckers bought the house in two thousand eight for $448,000. It now has a market value of $261,000.

Charanun Soodjinda, 38, lives across the street. He said the Scheneckers moved in about two years ago and “fit right in.” The duo’s two children often played in the cul-de-sac with other neighborhood kids, and Julie Schenecker seemed to be at home a lot.

“They seemed like a nice family,” Soodjinda said. “I never thought this would happen. How could you do that to your children?”

Seena Jain, who carpooled with the Schenecker children and her own daughter, Sheema, 15, told the St. Petersburg Times that recently Parker Schenecker had picked up his wifey’s carpooling shift while she recovered from a serious car crash that happened about a month ago. Details of the accident weren’t instantly available.

Julie Schenecker’s Facebook page says she earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of Northern Iowa.

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