A 28-Year-Old Killed Her Parents in 2024. The Interrogation Video Just Came Out.
On May 13, 2026, the Washington City, Utah police department released the recorded interrogation of Mia Bailey, 30, conducted the day after she shot and killed her parents — Joseph and Gail Bailey — at their Washington City home on June 18, 2024. Bailey, who legally changed her name and gender designation in 2023, was 28 at the time of the killings. Fox News published its national report on the video on May 17.
The crime itself is on the court record. Bailey forced entry into her parents’ home, fired roughly 12 rounds, and killed both Joseph and Gail at close range. She then drove to her brother Cory’s home and fired through the door at Cory and his wife, who escaped and called 911. A standoff in south St. George ended in surrender. Bailey was charged with two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted aggravated murder, and multiple firearms offenses. In November 2025 she pleaded guilty and mentally ill. On December 19, 2025, Judge Keith C. Barnes(Utah 5th District) sentenced her to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life — parole-eligible in 2075.
The interrogation gives the trigger in Bailey’s own words. She tells detectives that her mother called the hospital to interfere with her gender-transition surgery: “She was trying to sabotage it. She always had boundary issues.” She says her “mental health declining, that’s why I needed that surgery.” She says, “I had one thing going on, and she took that away from me.” And: “Enough is enough, I’m taking someone with me.” The court record also documents Bailey’s diagnosed conditions — autism, psychosis, schizophrenia, ADHD, OCD, and possible bipolar disorder — which the guilty-and-mentally-ill plea formally accepts. Her brother Dustin Bailey’s on-the-record critique adds three facts the system did not address: Bailey was released from inpatient mental-health care three days before the murders; a no-contact / protective order had recently expired; and she purchased the firearm at a local pawn shop in the interim.
- 28Bailey's age at the killings, June 18, 2024 — an adult; Utah's SB 16 minor-care ban did not apply
- 12rounds fired in the home, killing both Joseph and Gail Bailey at close range — Washington County Attorney
- 3 daysbetween Bailey's release from inpatient mental-health care and the murders — brother Dustin Bailey, on the record at sentencing
- 50 yrs to lifesentence imposed by Judge Keith C. Barnes, Utah 5th District, December 19, 2025 — parole-eligible 2075
Sentencing judge: Judge Keith C. Barnes — Utah 5th District Court, presided over plea and December 19, 2025 sentencing.
Prosecutor: Washington County Attorney Jerry Jaeger (R) — appointed 2025; argued the case at sentencing.
Defense counsel: Ryan Stout — read Bailey's allocution into the record at sentencing.
Governor: Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) — signed Utah SB 16 in 2023; signed HB 193 and HB 174 in 2026.
Attorney General: AG Derek Brown (R-UT) — took office January 7, 2025.
President: President Donald Trump (R) — signed EO 14168 (Defending Women from Gender Ideology, January 20, 2025) and EO 14187 (Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, January 28, 2025).
The interrogation video was recorded by the Washington City Police Department on June 19, 2024 — the day after the killings — and was released to the public on May 13, 2026, after the conclusion of the criminal case. Bailey speaks at length, calmly, about what she had done and why. Fox News, KUTV (CBS Salt Lake), KSL (NBC Salt Lake), Fox 13, ABC4, and Court TV all reviewed and reported on the recording.
“I went to my parents to do the deed. Kill them.”
Mia Bailey · interrogation, June 19, 2024 · released May 13, 2026
“It was spur-of-the-moment. I don't regret it. I hate them.”
Mia Bailey · interrogation, June 19, 2024
According to the Washington County Attorney’s official release and the charging documents, on the evening of June 18, 2024, Bailey forced entry into the Washington City home of Joseph and Gail Bailey. Inside, she fired roughly 12 rounds and killed both parents at close range. She then drove to the home of her brother Cory Bailey, fired through the front door at Cory and his wife, who took cover and called 911. A standoff with police followed in south St. George and ended in Bailey’s surrender.
Bailey was charged with two counts of aggravated murder (a first-degree felony in Utah), one count of attempted aggravated murder, and multiple firearms offenses.
“Enough dead people for the day, or for life, I should say.”
Mia Bailey · interrogation · per Fox News, KUTV, Court TV
In the interrogation, Bailey attributes the trigger to a single act by her mother: a call to the hospital that was preparing to perform her gender-transition surgery. Bailey describes the call as an attempt to “sabotage” the procedure. She tells detectives her mental health was declining, that the surgery was the one thing she had going on, and that her mother “took that away.”
“She was trying to sabotage it. She always had boundary issues.”
Mia Bailey · interrogation, on her mother's call to the hospital
“I had one thing going on, and she took that away from me.”
Mia Bailey · interrogation
That account — given in Bailey’s own words, on video, to police — is the editorially load-bearing source for what Bailey says set her on the road to her parents’ house with a loaded firearm.
Bailey’s surviving brothers spoke at sentencing and gave statements to St. George News. Their account, on the record, identifies three specific failure points in the mental-health and protective-order systems leading up to the killings:
1. Inpatient discharge timing. Mia Bailey was released from inpatient mental-health care three days before the murders.
2. Protective order lapsed. A no-contact / protective order between Mia and her parents had recently expired and had not been renewed.
3. Firearm access. Mia purchased the firearm used in the killings at a local pawn shop in the days between discharge and the crime.
The diagnoses entered on the court record — autism, psychosis, schizophrenia, ADHD, OCD, and possible bipolar disorder — are not in dispute between the prosecution and defense. They are the legal foundation of the guilty-and-mentally-ill plea Bailey accepted in November 2025. Under Utah law, that plea acknowledges criminal responsibility while formally placing the defendant’s mental illness on the record for sentencing and custody purposes.
In November 2025, Bailey pleaded guilty and mentally ill to both counts of aggravated murder and to the attempted aggravated murder of her brother. On December 19, 2025, Judge Keith C. Barnesimposed two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life, plus concurrent time on the firearms counts. Under Utah’s parole framework, Bailey’s earliest parole eligibility is 2075.
“Your acts on that day were very chilling. … It's not just that your parents have passed on now. It's the ripple effect.”
Judge Keith C. Barnes · sentencing remarks · December 19, 2025
Washington County Attorney Jerry Jaeger (R), who prosecuted the case, addressed the courtroom and framed the proceeding around the victims rather than the defendant.
“Today wasn't about Mia. It was about Joseph and Gail, two individuals whose lives were cut tragically short.”
Washington County Attorney Jerry Jaeger (R) · sentencing · December 19, 2025
Bailey did not address the court herself. Defense counsel Ryan Stout read a written allocution into the record.
“I am sincerely deeply sorry to my family that I committed this atrocity. … It makes me want to die, because I can't live with myself.”
Mia Bailey · allocution read by defense counsel Ryan Stout · December 19, 2025
Joseph and Gail Bailey’s three surviving sons — Dustin, Cory, and a third brother — spoke at sentencing and in interviews with St. George News and KSL. They described parents who had spent years trying to help a daughter they loved through a serious mental-health crisis, and who continued trying after Bailey’s legal name and gender change in 2023.
“These were two real people defined not by how they died but by how they lived.”
Dustin Bailey · sentencing statement · December 19, 2025
Cory Bailey — the brother Mia drove to after the killings and fired at through his front door — survived the attack with his wife. He, too, addressed the court.
Utah’s gender-care policy framework is on the public record. Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) signed SB 16 in January 2023, which restricted gender-affirming hormone therapy and surgical interventions for minors. In 2026, Cox signed HB 193 and HB 174, further legislation in the same policy area. At the federal level, President Donald Trump (R) signed EO 14168 on January 20, 2025, and EO 14187 on January 28, 2025, addressing federal gender-ideology policy and surgical interventions for children.
Utah’s SB 16 minor-care ban did not apply to Mia Bailey — she was 28, an adult, when she sought the surgery and when she killed her parents. The “parental sabotage” angle here is about an adult patient’s parents intervening with her surgical provider, not about a minor restricted from care by state law.
This page does not claim Utah’s ban triggered this killing. It also does not claim that gender-affirming care produces violence.
Bailey herself named the trigger in her own interrogation: her mother called the hospital. Her own documented mental-illness diagnoses — autism, psychosis, schizophrenia, ADHD, OCD, and possible bipolar disorder — were on the court record and accepted by the guilty-and-mentally-ill plea. Both facts can stand together.
The federal executive orders and the Utah statutes are listed here because they are the public-policy context in which the interrogation video was released, and because press coverage of the case has placed them in that frame. They are not the legal cause of any element of this crime.
Companion network coverage from Fox News framed the interrogation around Bailey’s own stated motive — her mother’s call to the hospital — and around the documented mental-health timeline her brothers laid out at sentencing.
Network social accounts carried the May 13 release into the broader news cycle.
Newly released interrogation video shows the calm confession of a Utah woman who killed her parents in 2024 over a gender-transition surgery dispute. The video, recorded the day after the killings, was made public on May 13, 2026.
Mia Bailey details how she killed her parents in newly released interrogation video. The Washington City Police Department released the recording after Bailey was sentenced to 50 years to life.
Federal policy context, in the words of the executive orders signed in the weeks before this video was released:
We are protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation. Parents have the right to know what is being done to their kids.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrased from public commentary surrounding Executive Order 14187 (Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, January 28, 2025).
We are restoring biological truth to the federal government.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrased from public commentary surrounding Executive Order 14168 (Defending Women from Gender Ideology, January 20, 2025).
Today wasn't about Mia. It was about Joseph and Gail, two individuals whose lives were cut tragically short. The State stands with the surviving brothers and the community of Washington City.
Your acts on that day were very chilling. It is not just that your parents have passed on now. It is the ripple effect through the family and through this community. Two consecutive terms of 25 years to life.
An adult patient with autism, psychosis, schizophrenia, ADHD, OCD, and possible bipolar disorder was released from inpatient mental-health care three days before she killed her parents. A protective order had lapsed. She bought the gun at a pawn shop in the interim. She told police her mother had called the hospital. She pleaded guilty and mentally ill and was sentenced to 50 years to life by Judge Keith C. Barnes, prosecuted by Jerry Jaeger (R). This page does not adjudicate Utah’s gender-care policy or federal executive orders. It documents what the court record and the interrogation video say, on their own terms.