Police say a New Tampa mom shot her teen children to death

NEW TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa Police have arrested a New Tampa mother after they say she shot her two teenage children to death Thursday night.

Investigators say Julie Powers Schenecker, 50, shot and killed her children with a .38 caliber gun in their home.

Officers went to the home in the Ashton Reserve subdivision around 7:45 Friday morning after the police department received an out-of-state phone call from the suspect's mother.

After first seeing Schenecker outside covered in blood, police found the woman's son, Beau, 13, in the garage, and her daughter, Calyx, 16, was found in an upstairs bedroom, both fatally wounded.

Police say the grandmother received an email from Schenecker, saying she was depressed.  The grandmother tried to call the family, and could not reach anyone, so she called police.

According to investigators, Schenecker was driving her son to soccer practice when she allegedly shot him in the head twice for talking back to her. She then drove home and parked her van in the garage, leaving the victim on the front passenger-side seat.

Still armed, she reportedly went inside the house, walked up behind her daughter while she did her homework on the computer, and fired one shot into the back of her head and one shot to her face.

Both victims died at the scene.

After being read her miranda rights, police say Schenecker admitted to purchasing the revolver last weekend, and said she planned to murder her children and then kill herself.

Schenecker was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree.

The children's father, Colonel Parker Schenecker, is a military intelligence officer assigned to US Central Command (CENTCOM).  He is in his 3rd year at MacDill, and is currently on temporary assignment in the Middle East.

The investigation continues.

Stay with abcactionnews.com for more on this developing story.