Teenager Sentenced to Life in Killing of His Own Mother in Small Welsh Seaside Town
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Eighteen-year-old Tristan Roberts of Prestatyn, a seaside town in Denbighshire, Wales, United Kingdom, has pleaded guilty of murdering his own mother, 45-year-old Angela Shellis.
Angela Shellis was a teacher who worked as a teaching assistant at Rhyl High School. She had divorced from her husband, with whom she had two sons, several years earlier, and moved back to the area. Tristan Roberts was the younger of her sons; the other, Ethan, was studying elsewhere at university.
Tristan Roberts has been described by news outlets as a “woman-hating” teenager. He spent the majority of his day frequenting Discord servers, allegedly making violent statements to the point that he was banned several times.
Angela Shellis' body was discovered at Morfa Nature Reserve near Prestatyn on October 25, 2026, by early-morning dog walkers who alerted police. Police arrived at the scene and followed a sprawling trail of the victim's blood. The trail stretched over 300 feet down a gravel path and led them to a concealed wooded spot where the body was located.
Police also found a balaclava saturated in blood nearby, as well as a pair of gloves and a walking crutch that had been thrown into the overgrowth.
Initially, police did not know who the victim was. However, they soon received a phone call from a worried relative of Shellis, who said she was known to use a walking crutch. Several hours later, police arrested a suspect- the victim's own teenage son, 18-year-old Tristan Roberts.
He was taken into custody and questioned multiple times. He only gave a two-word answer to every question thrown his way: "No comment." On October 28, 2026, he was officially charged with murder.
According to the BBC, Roberts, who is described as "serial killer obsessed" and misogynistic, spent hours of his days writing hateful and violent comments on Discord. He often referenced Patrick Bateman, the protagonist of the book and movie American Psycho, as well as the fictional serial killer Dexter, from the series of the same name. Although kicked from Discord multiple times, he continued to return under various usernames. On the night that he killed his mother, he allegedly changed his Discord name to: Tonight's the night.
Through evidence found in the victim's home, police were able to piece together a timeline of what happened on the night of Shellis' murder. Police recovered a Dictaphone from Shellis' closet. It contained a disturbing, several-hour-long recording. The recording began with what investigators identified as Roberts' voice stating: "This is Tristan Roberts. Tonight I'm going to murder my mother with a sledgehammer."
The recording that followed captured the audio from Angela Shellis' murder.
The attack initially took place in the victim's bedroom. She was reportedly held and threatened with a hammer. Ring doorbell footage from the home showed Shellis and Roberts leaving the residence at around 03:19 am.
Shellis was reportedly convinced that they were going to a local pub to seek medical attention. She was made to cover her face with a balaclava by Roberts. Roberts was wearing a backpack with a hammer inside and leading his mother, who struggled to walk, to the nature reserve where her body would later be found.
The Dictaphone recording captured the moment Roberts told his mother, in an American accent, to sit on a bench as he took the hammer from his backpack. This caused her to scream. He then bludgeoned her to death.
After signs of life faded, Roberts can be heard commenting on the crime, saying, "Oh my God," and "Job's done."
CCTV surveillance did not capture Roberts until shortly after 05:30 am. He was alone, on his way back to Shellis' home. Around an hour later, footage captured him returning to the scene of the crime with a plastic bag of what investigators believe to be cleaning solutions to clean up the trail of blood.
Despite his efforts, he was interrupted by people walking their dogs and left the scene. The blood remained visible along the trail. He then logged on to Discord to gloat about what he had done in detail. He also asked an AI chatbot how to remove blood from a wall and bed. It would later be revealed that Roberts had been consulting the AI chatbot about the best weapon for an inexperienced killer prior to the attack.
Still in possession of Shellis' cell phone, Roberts began responding to messages from his older brother, posing as Shellis, and claiming to have the flu. Feeling uneasy, the older brother, Ethan, who did not live in the area as he was studying elsewhere for university, asked Shellis to call so he "knew she was alive." No call came.
“I think I’m alive,” Roberts typed, adding a crying laughing emoji. Ethan would later say in court that he knew something was wrong at that moment and that he knew he wasn't speaking to his mother. He said his mother would never ignore his pleas for her to call him.
Ethan was aware of his brother’s history. Tristan Roberts had reportedly stayed at a hospital in Bodelwyddan for a stint before being released with nowhere to live. He then moved back in with Angela Shellis. He got into trouble with the law multiple times in the following years, on one occasion for being in possession of a knife.
Angela had recorded her son’s worrying behavior in her own journal. She detailed that he had acquired a military-style backpack filled with a fully black outfit and balaclava. According to the Independent (UK), Shellis had attempted to seek help regarding her son’s behavior. She sent a message to a social worker, as well as friends, where she shared that Roberts had purchased a hammer and knife. She added that she was concerned about his mental health and felt she did not get sufficient help with her son.
Roberts was diagnosed with both autism and ADHD, and his behavior reportedly became worse around 2021, following his parents’ split and their relocation to Wales.
The judge stated that medical experts found no mental disorder contributed to Tristan Roberts’ actions on the night he killed his mother. They said he was in full control of what he did. The judge acknowledged Roberts did struggle with mental health issues but said they did not have "a substantial impact."
In court, Roberts’ aunt, who was Angela Shellis’ sister, Sarah Gunther, said to Roberts: "We all fought so hard to try and get you the help you needed; none of us ever gave up on you-Angela especially. We all showed you love and cared for you, and tried to include you in everything we did. I just wish that if you felt you didn't want to live under the same roof as Angela, you had considered that it could have been resolved in so many other ways, without going to the extreme of taking her away from everyone who loved her."
Ethan Roberts, who said he was unable to comprehend what had happened to his mother and had to pause his studies at university, said: “All my mum ever did was love Tristan; she looked after him and put up with way more than anyone ever should have, but that was my mum-she would do anything for us, anything for him.”
The small town of Prestatyn remains in shock following the murder of their beloved community member, who many feel did not receive adequate help. Those following the case question if intervention could have prevented the murder.
