Mississippi girl, 14, charged with murdering her mother and wounding stepfather in shooting rampage at home ‘often talked of killing her mom’ – but classmates say they dismissed threats as ‘teen angst’

Friends and classmates of a 14-year-old girl accused of fatally shooting her mother and wounding her stepfather say she often talked about her mother’s murder.

Carly Madison Gregg was charged with murder after Heath Smylie, 38, arrived home around 5pm on March 19 to find his teacher wife Ashley Smylie, 40, dead.

The girl allegedly shot him in the shoulder at their home on Ashton Way, just outside Jackson, Mississippi, but he was able to wrestle the gun away from her.

Gregg jumped a fence in the backyard and ran away, but was caught by police about half an hour later after they hunted her down with a helicopter.

Her classmates at Northwest Rankin High School, where Smylie also taught, were shocked and believed they had missed “red flags,” writing off a teenage angst.

“She was acting normal that day, but she had always said things about how she hated her mother,” one person said.

‘Carly said a lot of alarming things, but people never took her seriously because she had never taken action before.

“She said things like ‘I’m going to kill her (her mother),’ but in a teenage angst way, which in retrospect were warning signs for everyone that we didn’t see.”

Several classmates said Gregg was taking medication for borderline personality disorder, a mental illness that causes dramatic mood swings.

Doctors told DailyMail.com that the symptoms Gregg’s friends and classmates described were consistent with BPD.

The classmate said Gregg spoke with great hatred about people she didn’t like, “and that she talked about how she didn’t like her mother.”

‘Nobody was worried because she had always been like that. It always sounded like venting,” they said.

Gregg also often claimed to friends that she was abused at home, but there is no evidence to support her allegations and police cleared her stepfather of any wrongdoing.

Another classmate said Gregg had taped “death symbols” to her laptop.

A third said: ‘I was friends with her last year and never saw any signs. It’s just heartbreaking.’

Friends said there was no change in her behavior on the day of the shooting, and the entire school couldn’t understand it.

‘Even though we are a large school, everyone has usually heard or seen everyone else. And the news spreads extremely quickly,” one person said, noting that most students learned of the shooting within half an hour of police being called.

Another student said Gregg’s negative attitude toward her mother was not reciprocated.

“Anyone who took her class knows that she always spoke so proudly of her daughter,” they said.

Students who spoke in the days after the shooting described their teachers breaking down and feeling a suffocating sense of fear.

‘The atmosphere is so thick with sadness and confusion. We are all confused and lost,” said one.

“The rest of my teachers are so down and the energy this school normally has is gone. I walk past the same teachers and even principle every day and say hello and today there were hardly any looks.

“We have counselors and mental health specialists here, but this is not something I ever thought would happen at my school.”

“My algebra teacher came into class and her voice cracked so bad she burst into tears and stayed away for 30 minutes, we didn’t even work,” said another.

‘Everyone was so sad and depressed… our school was so lively and happy and then this happened and it’s so sad now.’

Gregg had a Tumblr with no posts, but wrote “cheezitz and heinous war crimes” as the about section.

Police have not yet given any indication of a possible motive for the alleged murder.

Gregg was charged as an adult with the murder of her mother and the attempted murder of Heath Smylie, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey said.

The teen was taken to the Rankin County Juvenile Detention Center, but moved to the adult jail after charges were filed.

Gregg appeared briefly in Rankin County Court before Judge Kent McDaniel last week, where she pleaded not guilty and was granted a $1 million bond.

Smylie taught math at Northwest Rankin High, where she was loved by her students and was named New Teacher of the Year in 2022.

“This was my son’s favorite teacher, he is so angry about it,” one parent wrote on social media.

‘We miss Mrs Smylie, today was very difficult for everyone at school. She has had such an impact on us. Everyone loves her and passing her class today was so hard and just being in school was hard,” said one student.

“I cried all night last night and ten times at school today.”

Former students recalled how a much younger Gregg sometimes accompanied her mother to class.

“I never thought that sweet girl would do something like this,” one person wrote.

Her fifth-grade teacher, Shawn Mitchell, said Gregg was a straight-A student and she couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that she might have killed her mother.

‘I never thought she would do something like this. She had the sweetest mother! It breaks my heart,” she posted.

Friends and family posted online tributes to Ashley Smylie and expressed their sadness over her daughter’s alleged actions.

“My dear cousin Ashley was absolutely one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Her quiet, kind ways were a blessing to those around her. We miss her dearly,” her cousin Karen Bedells wrote.

“Please send any positive thoughts you can to my family, especially my aunt and uncle. Ashley was a sweet, genuine person who did not deserve this,” wrote another cousin, Robin Breland.

“You probably won’t see this, I don’t care if you do, but actually you could have reached someone else other than taking the life of an amazing WOMAN,” a friend commented on Gregg’s social media page.

‘There’s nothing we can do now but mourn the mistake YOU made, you didn’t have to take someone’s life to escape the problems you had.

‘Did you feel proud because you have now made an even bigger problem with yourself and others?

“Will your heart sink deeper into your chest when you pulled the trigger? Do you feel what WE FEEL NOW?

“I pray for you, and may God bless you, but what you did will stay with everyone forever.”

Less than four weeks before the shooting, Gregg posted a series of photos of the family’s two dogs and three cats, captioning it, “I love my animals.”

The Mississippi House of Representatives adjourned on March 20, the day after Smylie’s death, as a tribute to her.

Ashley Smylie previously taught at Warren Central High School for five years.

Her body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy by Rankin County Coroner David Ruth to investigate her death.

Her funeral took place on Thursday.

A week later, the school suffered another tragedy when Cameron Horne-Crook, 14, an eighth-grader at Northwest Rankin Middle School, was shot and killed Monday.

John Foote, 17, and Maxle Mooneyham, 16, were charged with murder as adults.