Teen Brutally Murdered Mom After Being Inspired by Netflix Menendez Brothers Doc: Police

Reed Gelinskey, 15, has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide, and will be tried as an adult for the killing of his mother, according to Wisconsin Circuit Court criminal complaint and Law&Crime.

Per the complaint, on March 4, the Caledonia Police Department responded to a report of a “juvenile who stabbed his mother to death.” Upon arrival at the Racine County home, police said in the docs they saw a man — later identified as Gelinskey — leaving the house, before he “dropped a brown and silver kitchen knife.” The teen then allegedly admitted to killing his mother.

“He then made statements for officers to kill him and stated, ‘she is dead,’ and ‘she is dead from what I did,'” the complaint stated, adding that Gelinskey was taken into custody.

“Gelinskey later made an excited utterance stating he struck his mother over the head with a dumbbell in an attempt to knock her out so he could stab her with the knife,” the document said.

In the complaint, police recalled what they allegedly discovered inside the home. They said they found an “unresponsive” female, identified as Gelinskey’s mother, Suzanne, with “apparent stab wounds and blood-soaked clothing.”

According to police, they found the kitchen knife Gelinskey dropped on the front stoop, before also discovering another blooded knife and “silver adjustable dumbbell bar” in the kitchen.

The complaint detailed Gelinskey’s recollection of events he allegedly told police after he was taken into custody.

Gelinskey allegedly recalled that he returned home from school on Tuesday and “felt depression and an urge to kill his parents.” Per the complaint, he told police that he had been taking his brother’s anxiety medication “for about a month,” and on Tuesday night, he “took approximately 9 pills and that it does not help his anxiety but it makes him high and he enjoys that.”

Gelinskey allegedly admitted that he looked for a hammer “because he was going to kill his father when he came home from work but could not find one large enough.”

Per police, he said he was sitting on the couch with his mother after dinner, and put on the Netflix Menendez Brothers documentary.

The Menendez Brothers is one of two Netflix shows about Erik and Lyle’s murder of their parents that dropped on the streamer last year. While the documentary featured the brothers speaking out for the first time — from prison — and sharing the story of their parents’ murders and the subsequent trial “in their own words,” Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is a retelling of the brothers’ 1989 killing of their parents, the trial, and conviction.

According to the complaint, Gelinskey told police that he “turned on the Menendez Brothers documentary on Netflix” and “stated that he then developed the plan to kill his parents,” saying “it came to him while he watched the ‘shotgun scene.'”

Gelinskey allegedly said his mother went upstairs around 9:50 p.m., and he “got up and hid his sleeping medication.” Police said Gelinskey told them he got a steak knife and put it in his pocket, before calling for his mother to tell her he couldn’t find his medication. Gelinskey said, per the complaint, that he “hid a dumbbell bar in the sleeve of his sweatshirt” when his mother came downstairs to help him find his missing pills.

“Gelinskey stated while his mother’s back was to him he hit her twice in the head with the dumbbell. Gelinskey said he thought she would fall over but she did not so he threw her to the ground and grabbed the knife,” the complaint stated. “Gelinskey said she tried to kick him off of her approximately 7 times but eventually he stabbed her three times in the chest and twice in the neck. Gelinskey stated his mother asked him, ‘why?’ and he replied, ‘pain.'”

The teen said that he then reached out to a female friend on Snapchat and “told her to call the police,” per the doc. The complaint noted earlier that the Snapchat message allegedly featured a photo of “a female laying face-up on her back,” with Gelinskey’s friend telling police that she “saw a Snapchat photo with blood on the floor” and that the teen admitted that he “needed help and that he stabbed his mother to death.”

Gelinskey appeared in adult court via Zoom on Thursday from a juvenile detention center, according to local FOX affiliate WITI.

“This was an extremely violent but planned offense. It’s dangerous in its nature. His original plan was not for just the one victim but for two,” Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson said, per the outlet.

Gelinskey also appeared in court on Friday. His preliminary hearing is set for March 12.