The teenager who was arrested and charged for the fatal stabbing of his mother was reportedly inspired by the Menendez brothers after watching the Netflix documentary about the convicted murderers.
The 15-year-old Wisconsin suspect was charged with first-degree intentional homicide by the Racine County District Attorney's Office on Thursday. Officers who arrived at the teenager's Caledonia home at around 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday found the suspect, who dropped a knife and admitted to killing his mother.
Teen Charged With Fatally Stabbing Mother
Police then took the boy in custody after he asked the officers to kill him, as revealed by a criminal complaint. While talking with detectives, the teen said that he came home from school and suddenly felt depressed before getting an urge to murder his parents.
Before the teenager committed the fatal stabbing, he said that he had been taking his brother's anxiety medication for about a month. He justified his actions by saying that they made him feel high, which was something that he found joy in. He added that he took nine pills on Tuesday night, according to USA Today.
The suspect is known to be represented by an attorney in the Wisconsin State Public Defender's Office. The criminal complaint against the teenager said that he scoured the family's home for a hammer. This was believed to be because he also planned to kill his father after he got home from work.
However, he allegedly abandoned that plan because he was unable to find a hammer that was large enough for what he wanted to do. He instead waited until after dinner, which was when his mother was sitting on the couch using her computer to watch a movie, before committing the crime.
Inspired by the Menendez Brothers
The suspect was identified as Reed R. Gelinskey, who added that he developed the plan to kill his parents after watching the Netflix documentary about Lyle and Erik Menendez. These are the two brothers who were convicted for murdering their parents at their Beverly Hills home in 1989, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The teen said that it came to him during the documentary's "shotgun scene," which graphically depicted the brutal murders of Jose and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez. The suspect, before stabbing his mother, hid his sleeping medication and told her that he couldn't find it.
In the case of the Menendez brothers, the convicted killers said that years of abuse led them to act in what they called self-defense. However, the prosecutors in the case argued that Lyle and Erik were motivated by financial gain, as per Tribune.
