In August 2024, Susan Lorincz was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the manslaughter of Ajike Owens, a beloved mum-of-four who was trying to protect her kids from the neighbourhood “Karen.”
In Netflix’s documentary, The Perfect Neighbor, we saw a pattern of concerning, and often racist, behaviour from insurance worker Susan Lorincz. It all culminated in a fatal showdown in 2023, when AJ Owens banged on Susan’s door to retrieve her son’s iPad. Susan fired a single shot through the locked and bolted door, killing AJ when the bullet bounced around her body.
After expert testimony and Susan’s own statement, an all-white jury found her guilty of manslaughter with a firearm – but she thought she was going to get away with it, according to a psychologist.
Susan Lorincz thought she was going to ‘get away with murder’
Psychologist Doctor Ashley La’Rue has been watching The Perfect Neighbor like the rest of us, and she noticed some “scary” details in the shocking Netflix show.
“The first thing we see Susan do is weaponise victimhood, and we see this throughout the documentary. In psychology, we call this emotional aversion. We see this when she’s being interrogated, and she says, ‘Oh’ [and] all of a sudden, she’s cold. Or when they’re at her door questioning her, and she talks about when she was beaten,” the doctor explained.
“She always has to redirect the focus and make herself the victim instead of the real victims.”
Doctor La’Rue also clocked the 911 call. Susan was “barely” able to speak when she was “scared for her life”, but suddenly, she found composure when talking about AJ.
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She said: “But when they start to question her about the real victim, AJ, she can speak very clearly, describing why AJ deserved to be murdered. This lets me know that she’s acting because she knows how to turn it on and off when it benefits her.”
Though it has since been proven to be untrue, Susan also claimed that she was a doctor. The actual doctor said this is called “compensatory identity construct”, where someone will deliberately attempt to elevate their “social status” to make themselves feel better. Essentially, she wanted to create this stark difference between herself and the neighbourhood families, despite it being fake.
Doctor La’Rue explained: “She has already created this cognitive distortion that she is better than her neighbour, so now she has to create a lie to support that ideology. And because she is better than them, their life does not matter.”
Susan did ‘reframing’ to gaslight the police detectives
Credit: Court TV
When Susan Lorincz was arrested, we saw her defend her actions, and specifically, the moment she referred to AJ’s children as slaves and used other racially charged language.
The doctor explained: “She does admit that she used the n-word because she’s caught red-handed. However, she changes the definition so that it is less harmful when in reality. Susan knew that she was using a derogatory racial slur, and that is the manner in which she used it when she called those children that.
“The self-delusion also rears its ugly head when Susan refers to herself as the perfect neighbour. She was everything but the perfect neighbour. Perfect neighbours do not kill one another. This is why psychology is important, because until we recognise and name these patterns, they will continue to happen. The eagle will protect itself at all costs, even if it’s the cost of someone else’s life.”
Susan now resides in the Homestead Correctional Institution in South Florida, with a release date set for 2048.
The Perfect Neighbor is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.
Featured image credit: Marion County Sheriff’s Office and TikTok/itsashleylarue
