’The Perfect Neighbor’: What Happened to Susan Lorincz? Her Life After Killing Ajike Owens

The events leading up to the June 2023 murder of Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida, are documented in the new Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor, which is told almost entirely through police body cam footage. Owens was shot and killed by her neighbor Susan Lorincz, a woman who frequently called the police with complaints about children, including Owens’, playing in the neighborhood.

Due to Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which states that people may use deadly force as self-defense amid the imminent threat of death, Lorincz was not arrested immediately after shooting Owens through her front door and killing her. In fact, it took five days for authorities to apprehend and charge Lorincz.

So, what happened to her after the arrest and where is she now? Scroll down for everything we know.

What happened to Susan Lorincz?

Lorincz was charged with “manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault” on June 7, 2023. At her trial in August 2024, she was found guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison that November.

While Lorincz said she “feared for [her] life” when Owens knocked on her door following a dispute with her kids, Judge Robert Hodges said he found the shooting to be “completely unnecessary,” per ABC News, adding, “In this case, Ms. Lorincz was behind the door. The door was locked. She had already called law enforcement. They were en route. She knew they were en route. She was in a relatively safe position. For some reason, she went into her room and found a gun. She could have stayed in the room and put another locked door between her and Ms. Owens, but she came back out, put herself in front of the door, and at the time she fired the gun through the door, she was safe.”

Although Lorincz’s sister testified that she and her sibling were victims of abuse and a psychological trauma expert took the stand to say Lorincz was suffering from PTSD as a result of childhood abuse, Judge Hodges said this was not a mitigating factor in the “very aggressive manslaughter,” according to CNN.

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“I am so sorry I took AJ’s life. I never intended to kill her,” Lorincz said at her sentencing hearing.

Where is Susan Lorincz now?

Lorincz is in the midst of serving her 25-year sentence at Homestead Correctional Institution in South Florida. She is due to be released on April 8, 2048, according to WCJB.

In a September 2025 interview with the local news outlet, Lorincz stood by her story that she felt “terrified” by Owens and her children ahead of the June 2023 shooting. She insisted she was not capable of manslaughter, adding, “It just makes me sick. I just never, ever thought in a million years this would happen and it just … it breaks my heart. I can’t take it back. I can’t replace her.”

Why did Susan Lorincz shoot Ajike Owens?

The shooting occurred after months of tension between Lorincz and her neighbors, including Owens and her children. On the day of Owens’ murder, Lorincz got in an argument with the Black woman’s children. She reportedly threw a skate and hit Owens’ 10-year-old son’s toe amid the tension, according to The New York Times.

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Lorincz called police on the kids and claimed one of the children threatened her. “I went and threw the roller skate over to the other side,” she said on the 911 call, per People. “The kid says he’s going to beat me up for that, and he’s mouthing off to me. I feel threatened in my own home.” She reiterated later in the call that she was “fearing for [her] life.”

After Owens’ children told their mom what happened, she knocked on Lorincz’s door with her 10-year-old son. With authorities already on the way, Lorincz fired one shot through her front door and fatally killed Owens.

She shared her version of the story with WCJB more than two years later. “There were three boys, and they were very close to my sidewalk, and they had their skates around and stuff,” she alleged. “I had fallen over a skate, and I said, ‘Guys pick up your skates,’ and they’re like, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Kids, pick up your skates and please leave. You’re trespassing. You know you’re trespassing,’ and the kid said, ‘I’m going to kill you. If I can’t kill you, I’m going to find someone to kill you.'”

Lorincz claimed that when Owens knocked on her door, “She went on the tirade, expletives and just horrible language, screaming at me, pounding on the door so hard.” She alleged that Owens told her, “I’m going to f**king kill you,” and said she was “terrified.”

The Perfect Neighbor, Streaming Now, Netflix