Police: Mother-in-law planned teacher’s death 2 months earlier

The grandmother accused of killing her daughter-in-law in June had been researching shootings and bought a gun more than two months earlier, a Cobb County police officer testified Friday.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Wall, 63, has been charged with murder in the death of Jenna Wall, a kindergarten teacher and mother of two. Jenna Wall, who would have turned 36 Saturday, was shot four times and died inside her family’s west Cobb home on June 23.

“In her web searches on the cell phone on April 19, she had researched several articles regarding someone killing their family and themselves,” Detective Shawn Murphy said during a probable cause hearing. “She researched wrongful death lawsuits, as well.”

That same day, Betsy Wall purchased the gun she later used to kill her son’s wife, Murphy said. On June 23, Wall was visiting from south Georgia when she called her son, an investigator in the Paulding County District Attorney’s Office, and told him to come get his sons, according to police. When Jerrod Wall arrived at the home, he found his estranged wife dead in the kitchen.

Read more on Friday's hearing at myajc.com.