A Wisconsin teenager has been charged with the murder of his mother — an act he allegedly claimed to carry out soon after watching a documentary about Lyle and Erik Menendez, according to court records.
Reed Gelinskey, 15, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide on March 6, 2025. The teen faces life imprisonment for the murder of his mother, identified in court documents as “SG.” Wisconsin-based NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV has identified her as Suzanne Gelinskey.
According to the criminal complaint, Gelinskey was found near the foyer of her home and could not be revived despite life-saving efforts. She was transported to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
The complaint continues to describe what allegedly occurred on March 4, according to interviews with officers as well as Reed after his arrest. It states that officers of the Caledonia Police Department were dispatched around 10:30 p.m. to a home in Franksville, Wisconsin, after authorities learned of Snapchat messages Reed allegedly sent a friend.
The complaint states that the friend contacted authorities after receiving multiple Snapchat messages from Reed, including an image of a female lying face-up on her back, another of blood on a floor, and messages asking for help and stating, “I stabbed my mother to death.”
When officers arrived at the location,the complaint continues, they encountered Reed as he was exiting the home. After being identified, the teen dropped a kitchen knife — later found to have blood on the blade and handle — and told the officer, “She is dead,” and “She is dead from what I did,” according to the complaint. Reed was then taken into custody, and blood was said to have been discovered on his clothing.
During an interview at the Caledonia Police Department, Reed allegedly claimed that on the day of his mother’s murder, he came home from school in a state of “depression” and having “an urge to kill his parents,” according to the documents. The complaint says thatin the month leading up to the murder, Reed took his brother’s anxiety medication. On the day of the murder, he told authorities that he consumed an estimated nine pills, which did not help with anxiety, but instead made him feel “high.”
The complaint says Reed’s initial plan was to kill his father but abandoned it after failing to find a large enough hammer. Instead, after having dinner, while his mother sat on the couch using her computer, he streamed Netflix’s documentary “The Menendez Brothers.”
The complaint notes Reed stated (the plan) to kill his parents came to him during the documentary’s “shotgun scene.”
The 2024 documentary examines the infamous case of the Menendez brothers, who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989 after fatally shooting them with two 12-gauge shotguns.
The complaint says Reed told authorities that at 9:50 p.m., he hid his sleep medication and concealed a steak knife when his mother went upstairs. While he was pretending he couldn’t find his medication, he lured his mother downstairs into helping. Gelensky was in front of Reed, descending the steps, when he allegedly struck her twice with a dumbbell he hid in his sweater. The complaint continues saying that when she did not fall as anticipated, he threw her to the ground where they struggled. He allegedly stabbed her three times in the chest and twice in the neck.
Reed told authorities, according to the complaint, that at some point before her death, Gelinksey asked, “Why?” to which he replied, “Pain.”
Preliminary autopsy results confirmed Gelinksey died from “sharp force injuries to the chest.” Her death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.
