Teen murders mum then lures stepdad home to shoot him too

Carly Gregg fired her mum's gun as she searched her bedroom for drugs

- GAIL SHORTLAND

At the start of this year, 14-yearold Carly Gregg made some changes to her appearance. She started to wear more black clothes and cut her long hair into a short bob with a fringe. These changes didn’t raise any concerns. All teenagers experiment with their style and no one could have predicted what she was about to do with the gun that was tucked under her mother’s bed.

Gregg lived in Brandon, Mississippi, with her mum Ashley Smylie and her stepfather, Heath Smylie, 39. Ashley, 40, was a maths teacher at her daughter’s school, Northwest Rankin High School.

Gregg had been recognised as an intelligent student, but she was struggling with some mental health issues, so she had attended nine weeks of sessions with a therapist. She had been put on anxiety and depression medications. Gregg mostly talked about school but admitted she was smoking marijuana and expressed concern that her mum might find out.

On 19 March 2024, Ashley and her daughter left for school together as usual. Heath went to his work as a physical therapist, less than five minutes from the house. At school, a student told Ashley that her daughter had been smoking marijuana. When Ashley and Gregg returned home just before 4pm, Heath wasn’t back yet. Ashley started to search Gregg’s room and found vape pens.

Security cameras in the home recorded Gregg walking around while holding something behind her back. She had gone to her mum’s bedroom and found the family’s handgun under Ashley’s side of the bed. Gregg then went into her bedroom and confronted her mum. The security camera recorded the gunshots and Ashley’s screams as her daughter shot her three times – twice in the head and once close-up under the chin.