Law&Crime Sidebar - Utah Woman Admits to Murdering Her Parents, Trying to Kill Brother: ‘I Hate Them’

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Mia Bailey, a transgender woman who previously went by the name Collin, was taken into custody in Utah after an all-night manhunt. Bailey admitted to police that she shot both her mother and father before she attempted to kill her brother. She allegedly showed no remorse, telling the police she “would do it again.” Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber sits down with KUTV reporter Brian Schnee to discuss the killings and the details revealed in an affidavit.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lcsidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A woman who allegedly told police she had no remorse for gunning down her own parents in cold blood is in custody in Utah facing 11 felony counts. We're taking a deep dive into what the affidavit of probable cause reveals about Mia Bailey, all with KUTV 2 News reporter Brian Schult. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. We have another tragic story for you of a child allegedly turning a gun towards their own mother and father. This time it happened in Washington, Utah, in the southernmost part of the state. So a young man called 911 on Tuesday around 7 p.m. to report that he heard gunshots upstairs inside his home and had to run to a neighbor's for help. And when responding officer,

got there, they found the man's parents, Joseph and Gail Bailey, dead inside. So the hunt for the shooter, it actually ended up lasting all night. Law enforcement encouraged people who lived nearby to shelter in place. Authorities, they were able to identify the suspect as 28-year-old Colin Bailey. Now, Colin Bailey is actually in the process of transitioning to a female and now goes by Mia. She had legally changed her assigned gender to female and her legal name to Mia Bailey, so we're going to be referring to her as Mia Bailey moving forward. So Bailey was also known to wear wigs that gave her long hair, and police wanted people to know that the suspect could look very different from one moment to the next. Now, Bailey's bright yellow Kia Soul was spotted

on a neighbor's camera leaving the scene, and as police searched for Bailey in the area of nearby St. George, people in several neighborhoods were told to stay inside and be on alert. And then just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday, police got a report that Bailey was seen as in St. George. So law enforcement yelled at her. They found her. They yelled at her to stop. But instead, she reportedly pulled a gun out of her waistband, pointed it at her own head, and walked away. So by the time the sun rose, police had gotten a new report that Bailey may have been in some bushes in an open field. So police, they ended up surrounding her, and she finally surrendered. She was taken into custody. Her handgun was retrieved. She now faces

11 felony charges, including aggravated murder and felony discharge of a firearm. She's being held without bail. Now, as I talk about this, and I talk about Utah, and this area might seem very familiar to you, and that is why I'm going to bring in a very familiar face, somebody from that area. Brian Schnee, reporter for KUTV 2 News out in Utah, who's been covering the shooting and the search for the suspect. Brian and I covered the Ruby Frankie, Jody Hildebrand's story extensively here on sidebar, always love talking to Brian so happy to see you again wish it was under better circumstances but my gosh Brian this is uh this is quite the development well it is jesse great to talk to you

too i know we spent a lot of time talking about ruby frankie and jody hildebrand and where all of this went down was maybe 25 30 minutes from jody hildebrand's property back in ivan's utah so unique things happen in southern utah and this was just a heinous crime and i know there's a lot of focus on the Colin Mia aspect on social media. That's what a lot of folks are talking about. But the crime itself is just tragic. It is beyond words when you read a six-page probable cause affidavit from officers. Rarely do we get that much detail from an initial preliminary report from officers. It sounds like by looking at this documentation that Mia was very forthcoming with a lot of information early on after you mentioned evading law enforcement

for more than 12 hours and outlined in this probable cause affidavit apparently bragged about it after the fact that's we're going to get into that affidavit before we even get into what has been the community's reaction have you ever covered a case like this let alone a manhunt like this before well unfortunately this is a family matter right this is a domestic of some sort related situation because there was really no true, even though there's somebody running around with a gun, right, and the intentions are unknown. This was all family-based, right? This was also, the motive was directly towards Mia's parents and also Mia's brother, who, by the way, filed back last year after Mia, known as Colin at that time, filed for the name and gender change back in July,

the brother of Mia or Colin at that time, five days after they actually applied for that name gender change, the brother in court filed a protective order against Colin, now known as Mia. Interesting when you look back at that because that got thrown out. That was dismissed. The protective order wasn't anything that came to fruition. However, the name and gender change did. That came to fruition with a signed application about a month later. Interestingly enough, the brother was in the home Tuesday night when Mia came to the home with the gun and she shot both of her parents and then also tried to shoot through a door towards that brother. So we don't know a lot of things about the exact reason why this took place.

But it's obviously that there's family tension there given the fact that she had the moment after shooting her parents and the wherewithal to go after her brother who was in that room behind a locked door with his wife trying to escape. And again, is the community shocked by this? Were they familiar with the family? What's the feeling like there right now? Yes, to get back to your initial question, we've had a reporter there for the last couple of days

by the name of Kristen McPeak, and she has talked to a number of neighbors in the area. I remember airing some part of that conversation last night on one of our shows that would be Thursday night. And the neighbor said I was outside throwing the softball with my daughter, and had I known at that time when this was going on, we probably would have made better decisions and gone inside knowing that a killer was right across the street.

I mean, how could you not be shocked? It's the typical situation of this is a nice, quaint, quiet neighborhood where people are just doing their own thing. You know, all walks of life live in that area. And then something like this happens because, you know, Jesse, crime needs no boundary. It has no boundary. It can happen anywhere. And this is one of those situations. It happened anywhere in Washington City, Utah, which is just a fringe suburb city of St. George in southern Utah.

So let's get into this probable cause. statement that was submitted in court because it is very shocking. So according to the statement from the Washington City police officer, the front of the house was part of the way open when first responders got there. And because there had been reports that people could be hurt inside, the officers went ahead and they made entry. Now, Brian, talk to us about what officers found inside the home because it was a very, very startling sight. Well, it was. I listened back to the initial conversations that happened about 7 o'clock Tuesday night. And at 703, the dispatcher calls out, hey, we got a call about gunshots, the caller, the reporting party saying, hey, the parents

upstairs, you have to imagine the reporting party was likely the brother saying the parents are likely shot. And then within six minutes, officers work their way through getting into the home from a time stamp of 7.03 p.m. to about 708, 709, the officers quickly locate two people down and shot. What's interesting about the probable cause affidavit and what we learn about what officers at least learned from Mia and how they gathered this situation, Mia went into the home, shot her mother first, a number of gunshots towards her mother. She was down, apparently making noises. So then Mia went back over, according to officers in the written report. and then shot one more bullet into her mother's head.

And then at that point, also her father comes over who she shoots at point-blank range and then shoots again to ensure that person is also deceased. I'm paraphrasing the probable cause affidavit. There's a reason why I didn't put a lot of it out on social media. It's graphic. Like, I mean, we talk about crime a lot. Jesse, I know you do it as well. Some things just sit a little differently.

And this one definitely does because of the caliber. of the family dynamic, somebody enters the home, guns down their parents, tries to gun down the other family member. There was clear motive to do something like this, trying to just figure out what that true intent was. Maybe it was from an argument. Maybe it was part of that. You know, you'd have to imagine maybe it was a transgender transition conversation, something like that, because that is a big piece to this, at least in the public eye, when they look at this case from the outside lens. We'll get into that a little bit. You know, they find these nine millimeter shell casing, so clearly it's quite the crime scene. I was startled by the fact

you have one of the victims, you have the mother in the front room of the home where the TV was on, and then, you know, there was blood that could be seen in and around there, and then the father was in the master bedroom lying in the hallway. That hallway leads to the laundry room. And in these different locations, when I hear that, when I hear these kinds of cases, Brian, it always feels so systematic. It always feels like, you know, an assassination in a way, when you have people in different parts of the house that are ultimately gunned down. That really left a chill for me. And we know the police, they cleared the rest of the home. No other people were inside. They didn't see any weapons during their search. And then the affidavit, it lays out

the specific charges that Bailey now faces. But before we can get into that, that aspect of it, where you have people in different parts of the house is what made it, I think, even more chilling. You're right. And you called it an assassination. That's basically what, I mean, I guess you would look at it as because it's clear intent to enter the home, which is why there's a burglary charge. I know we'll talk more about that too, right? Yep. Unlawful entry to that home. Immediately go to mom, as you mentioned, sitting in front of the TV right there in just your casual sitting area. But then to make that commitment to leave that area to look for other people. So it is chilling. I mean, it's a good way to put it. And like we mentioned, this is very detailed about the specifics of where people are laid out, almost gives you a footprint idea of the home as we've seen imagery of what the outside of the property looks like. It's just in a beautiful neighborhood with, you know, houses side by side, a little yard in each. It really paints a picture of, unfortunately, how this all went down in a matter of, I would imagine, just in a matter of maybe a minute or two, right? right right just so quick this is a horrible horrible story and whenever i hear allegations like this i'm

always saying to myself how well do you really know the people in your life or your family's life it's a scary concept to think about but that's why i want to talk about our incredible sponsor who may be able to help you out here truth finder so truth finder is a service that could provide actual safety for you guys and i say that because truth finder is one of the largest public records search services in the United States. Their whole goal is to help people like you learn about the people in their lives. And here's how it works. You go on their website, truthfinder.com, and you type in a name. Make it easy, you type in Jesse Weber. You type in my name, and within minutes and a paid subscription purchase, you can access unlimited reports that could include

information like phone numbers, location history, criminal and traffic records, including possible arrests and criminal convictions. I don't have any of those, but you get the idea. Also, you know what's really useful is that from within the report, you can search an address, home address to see registered sex offenders that may live in that area too. That may give you some peace of mind to know what's going on around you. Now here's the kicker. Right now, you can get 50% off of your first month of confidential background reports. Just go to truthfinder.com slash LC sidebar. Forgive me for getting into it, but it does match up to the legal charges. And I have to get into a little bit of detail with this because it is important

to understand what she's charged with. So the first two counts are aggravated murder by way of domestic violence. And it says, and as you said, Brian, Mia admitted that she entered the house and almost immediately began shooting at her mother, G.B. He's identified as G.B. Mia described firing multiple shots at her mother. Multiple spent casings were located inside the home. She beat where G.B.'s body was located. Mia stated that her father, J.B., heard the shots, began walking towards her. Mia stated that she shot her father in the head, that he immediately dropped to the ground. And then after going downstairs for a time, Mia came back upstairs. described that she returned to her father who was lying on the ground and shot him one more time in the head to make sure that he was dead and while doing that Mia heard her mother making noises walk back over to her shot her in the head to make sure she was dead

Mia further stated that she didn't have any remorse for her actions that she would not change what she had done Mia stated I would do it again I hate them so Brian that is really really cold very sadistic And you walked us through what we don't know for sure what the motive could be. But why do people online suspect it might have something? And you talked about a little bit before with the protective order. Why do we think it could potentially be about this gender change? It could be. And it's really purely just speculation, I think, at this point.

But it's one of those things that Mia seems to be someone who is very forthcoming with her information. So I'm sure that we will learn maybe that motive. maybe quicker than we do when somebody is not talking, right? Maybe there's a reason where we do get that understanding. Oh, I had an argument was, I'm just throwing at an idea. Oh, I had an argument with so-and-so, a longstanding beef with so-and-so. It's clear there's family dynamics here that were at play. A protective order of, you know, a sibling against another, there's an, I don't,

and we don't know the specifics of the reasoning behind it. All of those documents were private and protected, as you'd expect them to be by the court. but it's kind of unique when you look at it that was a year ago Mia has been in this transition from Colin Troy Bailey to Mia Troy Bailey from name and gender change what's interesting about Mia's situation I did hear in the initial police dialogue via radio traffic that Mia had recently on June 5th called 911 to report that somebody had pulled a gun on her at work. It's not something where there's a court record of.

It was merely just a eight-second clip of something that happened within weeks ago. I don't know if that leads to the family in any way, but I did pull that out when combing through, you know, a couple hours of scanner chatter of actual conversation of officers work in this case. And we don't put those out at KUTV until we are able to match those up for this probable cause affidavit or person fact. But I would imagine when you look at the family dynamic here and perhaps the transition, perhaps the, you know, the conversation of my son, 27 years old, wants to transition at the age of 28 to a female. You can make a number of suggestions about

how that may have played into the family dynamic. And of course, Jesse, there's the chance that it did. It's just hard to tell at this point. I think we'll learn rather quickly though, because like I I mean, this is a detailed probable cause affidavit because Mia had to tell officers these things too. Officers can't just put all of this together like that in a matter of 12 hours. This had to have come from an interview cooperation because there's also direct quotes in there. And there's only so much the forensics can tell you about the order of the shots and what happened there. The reason I asked about what the speculation could be is because I know that neighbors have spoken out to local media about what they observed at the family. tensions with the family. Have you heard anything about that from neighbors?

Yeah, and that's the same thing. Some of the neighbors have described to, you know, our reporter that was there for the last couple of days after this really unfolded. And, you know, at the same time, it, it is just an observation from somebody that lived maybe across the street. To be honest with you, as you know, that can happen in any neighborhood, in any home, behind any closed door. So I hate to infer too much. But it sounds like that could of that could have definitely played into this, especially with such a, I think a lot of things online are overshadowed by the conversation of the Colin Mia gender conversation and transgender situation here. The crime itself is disgusting and heinous and it's about as bad

as it gets. And the charges, as you know, with your expertise, 10 first degree felonies that were laid out right away and then a third degree tacked on in there for other things, that is a significant charge in any daily life of preliminary charges thrown at some that is the book being thrown at before they even get to court right those are the early suggestions of this could be life this could be more right this is a a major crime and it's a shame that so many people are looking into this one avenue about the individual rather than the true way that this will impact the community and family and friends because this is a really, really disgusting act that we know way too much about rather quickly.

And Ryan, I'm glad I'm glad you mentioned that because, yeah, you know, focusing on the motive, it's important from the legal point of view. You don't even have to prove motive to prove any of these charges at trial. It definitely helps tell the story. But at the same time, it's so vital to understand what happened. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. What matters is two lives were lost and there could have been a further loss of life, which gets me into more of the charges.

Because we have another count, count three, attempted aggravated murder, again in connection with domestic violence for, as you said, allegedly trying to kill her adult brother, the affidavit reads, after shooting both G.B. and J.B. on the main floor of the residence, Mia went downstairs to the basement of the home. While downstairs, Mia sought out her brother, C.B., who had locked himself in his bedroom after hearing an argument and gunshots upstairs. Upon discovering the locked door, Mia fired one round through the door in the direction of her brother. The brother's door was observed to have a whole, with a small caliber round. Further, a suspected bullet hole was observed in the wall inside of the brother's room. Now, Mia stated that her brother was not her main target, but she would not have been sad had the gunshot killed him. Mia indicated that she knew her brother and his wife were in that bedroom, but they were not the main target. CB and his wife, AB, both described hearing banging on the bedroom door and then a gunshot as they were trying to flee the residence from a downstairs. window, which is just absolutely terrifying to think about. Count four, aggravated burglary, which we were talking about before, because she's accused of entering the home without

permission. Mia entered a residence that was not her own through the front door. Mia admits that she had falling out with both of her parents and her brother who resided in that home. Mia did not have permission to enter the residence. She admitted to entering through an unlocked front door. Mia's brother, C.B. and his wife, A.B., told officers that they heard the deceased victims yell at Mia to get out of their home. And this part's chilling too. Mia told officers that she went to the residents with the intent to kill her parents, which is a very specific legal term.

So, Brian, the idea that she wasn't even supposed to be there is extra, you know, it's an extra piece of information that's important here, supports the burglary charge, but it's also incredibly chilling. It is. And the admission from Mia with, you mentioned the word intent, right? I think that doesn't help Mia Bailey in a court of law by any means, I would imagine. There's probably the situation here where you can quickly gather an understanding that Mia had the full intention of carrying out this crime, likely had planned it, likely had said, hey, you know, this date and time, I'm going to go do this. Because it was obviously knowing when everyone was going to be home, certain, you know, seven o'clock at night.

perhaps after work, right? A certain, you know, situation has to play out where you know that everybody that you want to be there has to be there at that time. And you're right, though. When you talk about the brother and the third charge, there was some early questioning about that before this probable cause affidavit comes out

because the charges came down earlier when the booking came down and then about eight to nine hours later, that's when we get the documentation. It was just by the natural way of how the process worked. we didn't really understand why that third aggravated murder charge was there, but now it's clearly part of the intent to shoot directly into that room where the brother and the brother's wife were.

And then, of course, all of that, you know, dialogue as it's written plays into, you know, what Mia's intent really was in all of this. When you hear the brother, there's the yelling, there's the get out of the house, clearly wasn't supposed to be there, as you mentioned. And so when you put it all together rather quickly in six pages, this really paints a surprisingly good picture of what took place, at least from the officer's account here. And from a legal point of view, the brother and his wife might not have been the targets. But if she fired into that room knowing they were there, you can get a murder charge or attempted murder charge. Now, and also I should tell you, all the comments that she allegedly made to law enforcement, sure, defense counsel will try to say they were coerced.

You know, maybe her Miranda rights weren't properly read. There are different legal arguments you could make to try to get those statements out. If they, we do not have a situation like this, and this comes into a trial, you can imagine how devastating that testimony will be for her. And just to finish it up with the counts, counts five, six, seven, and eight. There are a felony discharge of a firearm. These are the counts that relate to Bailey's mother, who the medical examiner says was struck by four bullets total. Counts nine and ten are felony discharge of a firearm. These are related to Bailey's father, who again was allegedly shot twice.

And then count 11 is another firearm charge for allegedly shooting at a brother through a locked door. At the end of the affidavit, the officer requests that Bailey be denied bail. Brian, what is the status on that? Well, it makes sense. When I checked in with the Washington County Sheriff's Office yesterday, who oversees the jail operations at the purgatory correctional facility, which may sound familiar. They're in Hurricane, Utah, where Ruby, Frankie and Jody Hildebrandt were held from a lot of our conversations. As last update as I knew it, Mia was still in observation. A lot of the conversation is where is Mia going to be booked with a male population or a female population?

And I specifically asked about that yesterday because of the ongoing questions from people has to do with the point of Mia's transition. So that'll be determined likely in the next couple weeks. So they don't have an answer on that? They don't have an answer about where they did not have an answer at least publicly on the record to me in the moment of where. moment of where they will likely put Mia after observation, which of course, a crucial time being booked in 24, 48 hours, potential suicide, you know, you name it. And the reason why I bring that up is because I listened to the nearly 45, 50 minutes of conversation between officers trying to get Mia to surrender. She was in tears. She had a gun to her head. She had a gun in her

mouth and that is a very real possibility. So that observation period I think is crucial in terms of Mia Bailey being held at this point. I did want to bring it back to some of the other things with the request for no bail that Mia did brag apparently according to the officers about being able to evade law enforcement by hiding in bushes and and you know running from them and maneuvering over fences jumping over fences and walls hiding the bushes. Covering honestly covering a lot of ground, too. I mean, they had a Department of Public Safety helicopter in the sky that night looking for her. When they found Mia the next day, they did not have a helicopter. They were using drones. They got a tip that somebody had gone off into the field nearby, this housing complex.

And we've had some great video shared with us by some of our KUTV viewers that lived there because there's homes all over the place. And this one giant field that presumably at some point will be another development. But it was just this brush covered field. And yeah, Hearing that play out, actually, for me, was kind of sad, right? Because it was this moment of this person, I think, after evading law enforcement for 12 hours, finally started to get the wheels turning about what they had done. The shock had worn off. Mia apparently asking an officer about how do I surrender?

What are the penalties? There was genuine concern from me about what am I facing now before me was even in custody. And then, as I mentioned, the tears, the potential thought of taking Mia's life in that moment, right? So that was hard to listen to. It really was because it was a crisis moment. Obviously, after the crime was done, which is probably, however you want to look at this, awful. So to listen to that kind of come full circle after it's been 12 to 14 hours, it was quite remarkable, too, because it was in great detail how officers were describing every, which movement she puts the gun down she shows the officer it's empty i mean the whole deal and then

taken into custody um as a surrender peacefully the video shows no actual force from police which sometimes you have to take someone in with force so looking at all of that i'm just glad they were able to come up with a good safe resolution given that area was just surrounded by people in their homes and someone walking around with a gun who just gun down two people their parents and also tried to shoot another one. It's a horrific situation that could have been even worse where you could have had more victims. But when you talk about bail, I mean, they're putting evidence of her being a flight risk, danger to the community. So those are serious factors that would work against her. Brian Schnee, love talking to you, love having you on. As this case progresses, would love to

have you come back and we can try to make sense of what happened here. I know it's going to be a very big story in your community that you're going to continue to cover. We'd like to do the same here on Sidebar. And, you know, always a pleasure talking to you, my friend. Always love having you on. As always, thanks for having me. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

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