Report: Fla. mom hit teen daughter before shooting

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The woman who police say killed her two teenagers was investigated in November when she was accused of child abuse.

In a record released Monday by Tampa police, Julie Powers Schenecker’s daughter, Calyx, told a counselor that her mother had hit her in the face. The report also said the girl was seeing a counselor “for verbal abuse towards her mom.”

The teen told officers that her mother struck her several times.

Schenecker appeared in court Monday on two first-degree murder charges. She is accused of shooting her 13-year-old son Beau twice in the head “for talking back” Thursday evening, then shooting her 16-year-old daughter Calyx in the face while she was studying at a computer.

She was found Friday by police sitting on her back porch, covered in blood. Her husband, Parker Schenecker, is an Army officer. He was working in the Middle East when the shootings happened.

Police said she told detectives that she shot the children because they were “mouthy.”

Judge Walter Heinrich ordered Schenecker held without bail during the Monday hearing. Two female deputies held Schenecker by the arms during the video proceeding. Her court-appointed attorney did not make a statement.