{"id":88408,"date":"2025-10-19T16:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T16:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88408\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T16:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T16:40:07","slug":"two-years-after-killing-her-neighbor-where-is-susan-lorincz-the-woman-behind-netflixs-the-perfect-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88408\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Years After Killing Her Neighbor, Where Is Susan Lorincz \u2014 the Woman Behind Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Neighbor’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, a quiet Florida<\/a> neighbourhood turned into a scene of tragedy that would haunt the nation. Behind a locked metal door, 58-year-old Susan Lorincz pulled the trigger that ended the life of her neighbour, 35-year-old Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens, a devoted mother of four.<\/p>\n

What began as a dispute between neighbours became a symbol of fear, racial tension, and the deadly consequences of anger.<\/p>\n

Now, the Netflix<\/a> documentary ‘The Perfect Neighbor’<\/a> is reopening wounds and raising new questions: Who was the woman behind the door, and what has become of her since that fateful night?<\/p>\n

The Tragic Night in Ocala<\/p>\n

On the evening of June 2, 2023, Owens confronted Lorincz after the older woman allegedly threw a roller skate at her 10-year-old son and seized his iPad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Witnesses say Owens, unarmed and accompanied by her child, knocked on Lorincz’s door several times, demanding an explanation.<\/p>\n

From behind that closed door, Lorincz fired a single bullet that struck Owens in the chest.<\/p>\n

Lorincz told police she acted in self-defence, insisting she was terrified. Investigators disagreed, arguing that she was safe behind a locked door and could have waited for officers she had already called.<\/p>\n

Her arrest days later reignited nationwide outrage and fuelled debate over Florida’s controversial ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, which allows lethal force if a person believes their life is in danger.<\/p>\n

The Woman Behind ‘The Perfect Neighbor’<\/p>\n

In ‘The Perfect Neighbor’, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir pieces together the events using police body-camera footage, 911 calls, and court documents. The title comes from Lorincz’s own words during police questioning, when she described herself as ‘the perfect neighbour’ who only wanted peace.<\/p>\n

The film exposes months of escalating hostility between the two women and explores how fear and prejudice can turn ordinary neighbourhood conflicts into deadly confrontations.<\/p>\n

For Owens’ family, the documentary is a painful reminder of a life lost too soon \u2014 and of a justice system still wrestling with the meaning of accountability.<\/p>\n

The Trial and Verdict<\/p>\n

Lorincz stood trial in August 2024. Her lawyers argued that she suffered from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder and fired the gun out of panic. Prosecutors countered that Owens posed no threat and that Lorincz had acted out of anger, not fear.<\/p>\n

After just two hours of deliberation, a jury found Lorincz guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced in November 2024 to 25 years in prison. The judge called the act ‘completely unnecessary’, saying Lorincz’s excuses could not justify taking a life.<\/p>\n

Where Is Susan Lorincz Now?<\/p>\n

Lorincz is serving her sentence at the Homestead Correctional Institution in South Florida, with a projected release date of April 2048.<\/p>\n

In a September 2025 interview with WCJB, she spoke publicly for the first time since her conviction, expressing regret for what happened. ‘I just never, ever thought in a million years this would happen,’ she said. ‘It breaks my heart. I can’t take it back. I can’t replace her.’<\/p>\n

Her words brought little comfort to Owens’ family, who dismissed the apology as too late and too hollow. For them, ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ is not just a film \u2014 it is a haunting reminder of how quickly fear and hate can destroy lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years ago, a quiet Florida neighbourhood turned into a scene of tragedy that would haunt the nation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[66816,156,1094,111,139,69,66814,66815],"class_list":["post-88408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-aj-owens","tag-entertainment","tag-netflix","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-susan-lorincz","tag-the-perfect-neighbor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}