Dad shows up to custody swap with another woman, then mom kills her, FL cops say (2025)

A mom showed up to a custody swap with five kids and a gun, then she killed a woman who arrived with her ex, according to Florida authorities and local news outlets.

The 39-year-old woman pleaded no contest to the charges stemming from the Christmas 2023 killing and was adjudicated guilty of second-degree murder, attempted murder, five counts of child neglect and fleeing and eluding law enforcement, Alachua County records show.

A judge sentenced her to life in prison.

McClatchy News is not identifying the mother to protect the identity of her children, who are listed as victims in an indictment.

Her attorney declined to comment April 29.

“There isn’t a moment that doesn’t go by that I don’t deeply regret what I’ve done,” the mother wrote in a letter read by her attorney in front of the court, broadcast by WCJB. “In all honesty, if I had one wish, it would be for Anna to be here with all her family and friends and for this to have never happened.”

The woman had an 11-month-old with a man, who she began to suspect was having a yearslong affair shortly after their baby was born, the Alachua Chronicle reported, citing an arrest report from the Gainesville Police Department.

On Christmas Day 2023, the mom drove her five kids to a Walgreens in Gainesville for a custody swap to give the 11-month-old to the child’s father, according to police.

In the car, the mom took a gun out and cocked it, then when the baby’s father pulled up in a vehicle with 31-year-old Anna Haslup Terrill, the mom got out of her vehicle with the firearm, according to reporting from Gainesville Sun.

Police said she walked over to the other vehicle while hiding the gun behind her back and shot Haslup Terrill three times, then she shot the father of her child three times, reportedly telling the man, “You made this happen,” WCJB reported.

Then she sped away with her five children, going 90 mph in a 45 mph zone as police pursued her, according to a criminal complaint and an indictment.

When law enforcement tried to box her in, she drove around their vehicles into the grass, hitting speeds of more than 100 mph during the chase, police said in the complaint.

Law enforcement said during the 13-mile chase, the mom called 911 and told operators she had shot two people and said police were following her, according to the Alachua Chronicle.

Her children could be heard on the call begging her to stop the car, the Gainesville Sun reported.

Haslup Terrill, a mom of four herself, died of her injuries, while the 11-month-old’s father survived.

Family wrote in her obituary she was a Florida State University fan who loved football and being out on the water.

“Anna loved all babies, and her children were her whole life,” family wrote in her obituary. “She was a very caring person and always wanted to take care of other people. The water, whether it be the river or the ocean, was one of Anna’s favorite things and you could find her boating, fishing and shrimping whenever she got the chance.”