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. Jerrod and Jenna Wall were in the midst of a divorce at the time.
Then, Betsy Wall took her grandsons, ages 7 and 8, to her car before going back inside the home where Jenna Wall lived with her sons and her parents. In the kitchen, Betsy Wall shot and killed Jenna Wall, who died before help could arrive, police said.
When Jerrod Wall arrived at the Wyndham Woods Drive home, off Antioch Road, his estranged wife was dead and his mother was pointing a handgun to her head, police said.
Betsy Wall declined to tell investigators why she killed her daughter-in-law, Murphy told the court.
“Just let me die,” she said, according to Murphy. “Leave me alone, just let me die.”
Attorney Jimmy Berry said Betsy Wall had spent two to three weeks in a mental health facility prior to the shooting. During Friday’s hearing, Betsy Wall was allowed to face a corner of the courtroom Friday, shielding her face from everyone, including a television camera.
“There’s no question about who did it,” Berry said after the hearing. “In this case, it’s why it was done. What was her mental state at the time it was done?”
Wall has been held without bond since her arrest within hours of the shooting. Berry did not seek bond for her Friday, and the case was bound over to Superior Court.
“It’s a sad thing for both families,” Berry said. “She’d never been in any kind of trouble before. Here’s a woman that appeared to love everybody, loved the grandkids, loved her children. It’s just very sad that this happened.”
Jenna Wall's death shocked her neighborhood, friends and colleagues at Kemp Elementary School. Hundreds attended her funeral at West Cobb Church and a candlelight vigil in her honor.
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