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Background: The Caledonia, Wis. home of Suzanne Gelinskey, where she was found dead on March 4 (WITI). Inset (left): Suzanne Gelinskey (provided by family). Inset (right): Reed Gelinskey (right) appeared with his defense attorney Alex Hahn in court via Zoom on March 6 (WITI).
A Wisconsin teenager will be tried as an adult after he allegedly murdered his own mother, telling police that he was inspired by a show about the Menendez brothers.
According to the criminal complaint, Reed Gelinskey, 15, was taken into custody on March 4 after police found his mother, Suzanne Gelinskey, in the foyer of her home in Caledonia with “apparent stab wounds and blood-soaked clothing.” The discovery came after officers arrived on the scene to the teenager exiting the house reportedly asking “for officers to kill him” and saying, “She is dead,” and “She is dead from what I did.” As the officers approached him, he dropped a kitchen knife near the front stoop of the home.
The criminal complaint outlined an unsettling timeline as recounted by Reed Gelinskey. As the teenage suspect allegedly told police, he claimed that on the day of his mother’s death, he was “depressed” and felt “an urge to kill his parents.” He allegedly admitted to taking anxiety pills prescribed to his brother because they got him high, and on the night of March 4, he took nine pills. Reed Gelinskey allegedly told police that he searched for a hammer to kill his father with, but “could not find one large enough.”
Later that evening, Reed Gelinskey was in the living room with his mother, who was watching a movie on her computer. He then turned on a show about the Menendez brothers’ double murder case on Netflix — he told police that he “developed the plan to kill his parents” after being inspired by the “shotgun scene.” Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of shooting their parents to death in 1989.
At around 9:50 p.m., Reed Gelinskey told his mother that he was going to get his sleep medication while she went upstairs. While retrieving his medication, he put a kitchen knife in his pocket and slipped a dumbbell handle up his shirt sleeve, police said. He indicated to his mother that he couldn’t find the medication, prompting her to come back down the stairs where he was allegedly lying in wait. As the criminal complaint stated, Reed Gelinskey “hit her twice in the head with the dumbbell” as her back was turned.
When she didn’t fall down, he pushed her down to the floor and allegedly wielded the knife, stabbing his mother three times in the chest and twice in the neck. According to the criminal complaint, Suzanne Gelinskey attempted to fight her son off by kicking him.
Reed Gelinskey told police that during the alleged attack, his mother asked him, “Why?” He answered, “Pain.”
The teenager then reportedly sent an image from the scene to a friend on Snapchat and told her to call the police, which she did.
Reed Gelinskey appeared in court on March 7 and is now scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 12. He was charged as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide. During a previous court appearance on March 6, Gelinskey was ordered to be held on $1 million bond.
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