Advertisement 'I'll blow your brains out': Mom charged with murder for slaying daughter, tying up family Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A 52-year-old woman in Washington state was charged with aggravated first-degree murder Friday, accused of fatally shooting her teen daughter point-blank between the eyes while holding her ex-husband and son hostage in their home.Svetlana Laurel is also charged with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. If convicted as charged for aggravated first-degree murder, Laurel would face life in prison without parole, as required by state law.The King County medical examiner identified the daughter Friday as 14-year-old Natalie Gulizia and determined she had died of homicide by a single gunshot wound to her head. Natalie was a graduate of Hope Lutheran School in West Seattle and was attending Burien's Kennedy Catholic High School, according to a message from Hope Lutheran.The church planned to host a vigil for Natalie at noon Sunday.Laurel and her ex-husband underwent an acrimonious divorce that was finalized in 2016, according to court documents. Though she initially had custody of their children, her ex-husband ultimately secured custody and she was only allowed supervised visits."It is clear that the defendant holds a deep animus towards her ex-husband and she has proven to be capable of committing the most horrific acts against her own children," wrote John B. Castleton, the senior deputy prosecuting attorney who filed the charges in King County.The ex-husband and daughter went to Seattle for an event shortly after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, leaving the 12-year-old son at their home.About 10 minutes after they left, the boy heard a knock on the door and the doorbell ring. Then he heard his mother calling his name. He was confused about why she was there because she had only been at that house once, eight months earlier to drop something off, he later told investigators.But the boy let her in and she gave him what she described as Christmas presents. He opened them to find they were old clothes of his. Laurel reportedly told him that was all she could afford.She then allegedly went to the back door and locked it, and then locked the interior door to the garage. Laurel asked her son to show her his bedroom upstairs. There, she told him to sit on the ground and proceeded to use zipties to bind his wrists and ankles. She also duct taped a sock into his mouth, but when that rendered the son unable to answer her questions, she removed it. Laurel then reportedly showed her son a stun gun and told him that, if he screamed, she would use it on him.The boy was bound for the next two hours while Laurel told him his father was ruining her life, according to Renton police. She then called an old friend from Russia.That Russian friend, who now lives in New York, later told detectives that he had fielded a strange call from Laurel, in which she told him that she had amended her will to include him. He asked her to call him back the next day, but she said in Russian, "I'm not going to be here." She ended the call.The man took this to mean she was suicidal and tried several times to call her back before eventually calling 911.Meanwhile, the ex-husband and daughter arrived home about 8 p.m., at which time the ex-husband noticed the door leading from the garage to inside the home was locked, which was unusual, reports said. Gulizia said she thought her brother was playing a joke on them, her father said.When they unlocked the door, they were immediately confronted by Laurel, according to court records. When they asked, "What are you doing here?" she produced a stun gun and attacked her ex-husband with it, reports say.About 8:13 p.m., Gulizia took her cellphone and ran upstairs to her bedroom to call 911. She told the call taker that her mother had a Taser and had bound her brother.The ex-husband told police that Laurel used the stun gun to order his compliance and ordered him to sit down and bind his legs together with zip ties. She then bound his wrists.Police say she then put down her stun gun and brandished a handgun, saying, "You've made my life miserable. Now I'm gonna make yours miserable. If you move from that chair I'll blow your brains out."Laurel allegedly struck her ex-husband in the head a few times with the gun and pointed the barrel at his head.The father yelled, "She has a gun." The boy, still bound upstairs, heard this and told his sister. She repeated it to the call taker. Minutes later, the girl told the call taker that her mother was headed upstairs. She then slipped the phone into her pocket, with the line still open, reports say.The incident report says the 911 call taker could hear the woman yelling in the background, asking where the phone was and then accusing Gulizia of calling 911. She was then allegedly heard saying something about "blow your head off." The call taker then heard a noise similar to zip ties being secured, followed by a bang. Someone then screamed about someone being dead, according to the report.The son heard his mother shoot his sister during their dispute, he said. He hopped to his sister's room and found her head covered in blood, court documents say.Laurel went downstairs, pointed the gun at her ex-husband and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed and failed to fire. As she struggled to clear the weapon, the father freed his hands and lunged at her, slamming her head against a wall and throwing her across the room, disarming her in the process.The son, from the top of the stairs, yelled at his father to run.The father headed out the front door, legs still bound and holding the gun by the tip of the handle, as officers arrived. He was followed by his son, who had hopped down the stairs, and then by Laurel.Officers determined that the gun had misfired. Reports say the magazine was loaded, but the slide wouldn't move all the way forward. Officers found a bullet was already chambered.Police found Gulizia dead of a gunshot wound to her head. There was a spent bullet at her feet.Officers recovered the stun gun and an unfired bullet in the kitchen where Laurel allegedly had pulled the trigger on her ex-husband.Laurel continues to be held without bail.