She didn’t snap. She didn’t act in the heat of the moment.

According to chilling new details released by prosecutors in Will County, Illinois, Jenna Strouble meticulously planned the execution of her ex-boyfriend and his parents for months — buying the murder weapon in December 2025 with one clear purpose in mind: to carry out this deadly scheme.

The 30-year-old mother of two from St. John, Indiana, now faces nine counts of first-degree murder in the cold-blooded killings of 32-year-old Jacob Lambert, his mother Stacy Forde, 54, and stepfather Patrick Forde, 55, on the night of March 22–23, 2026.

Court documents paint a terrifying picture of premeditation. Strouble allegedly purchased a Glock 19 fitted with a suppressor from a store in Crown Point, Indiana, in December — three months before the murders. She even bought the suppressor online for around $589. When questioned by deputies after her arrest, she openly admitted: “She purchased it solely for this plan.”

This wasn’t a crime of passion. It was a calculated, long-brewing operation.

On the night of the killings, Strouble texted Jacob Lambert — the father of her two young children, ages 3 and 4 — asking if he wanted to “hang out” and go for a drive. He agreed, with no idea that the mother of his kids was coming armed and ready to kill.

She picked him up between 11 and 11:30 p.m. and drove to a quiet area near Plum Creek Nature Preserve in Sauk Village. There, she offered him a “surprise” — a back massage. Jacob reclined the passenger seat, took off his shirt, and lay face-down. Strouble straddled his back and massaged him for approximately 20 minutes.

Then she reached under the seat, pulled out the loaded, silenced Glock she had bought months earlier, and pressed it to the back of his head.

She held the gun there for eight full minutes.

During those agonizing minutes, Strouble later told investigators she wavered. She considered putting the weapon away and doing it another day. The gun stayed pointed at Jacob’s skull as he lay completely vulnerable beneath her.

But something — a comment, a word, or the weight of months of resentment — made her pull the trigger. One silenced shot to the back of the head. Jacob Lambert was dead instantly.

Strouble didn’t panic. She didn’t flee. According to her own statements, she lit a cigarette, composed herself, and drove straight to the Forde family home on East Norway Trail in Crete Township.

Using keys she had taken from Jacob’s body, she tried to unlock the front door. Patrick Forde heard the noise and confronted her. When he saw the gun, he reportedly shouted, “What are you doing, bitch?” Strouble responded with a hail of gunfire — firing up to 14 shots at Patrick as she advanced into the house. Stacy Forde rushed downstairs and was shot multiple times in the stairwell. Both parents died in or near the entryway.

The doorbell camera at the family home captured the horrifying sequence, from Strouble fumbling with the keys to the rapid gunfire.

After the triple execution, Strouble drove back to her home in St. John. She called her sister and confessed what she had done. Her sister contacted police. Deputies arrived at the Forde home around 2 a.m. and found the bodies. Strouble was arrested shortly afterward at her parents’ home. She waived extradition and handed over the loaded Glock when deputies arrived.

In interviews with investigators, Strouble spoke with disturbing calmness. She admitted the entire sequence and showed little remorse. She complained that Jacob was extremely patriarchal — everything had to be done his way — and that his mother was the same. She accused the family of constantly interfering in her life and how she raised the two small children, even though she was never married to Jacob.

Prosecutors say she voluntarily turned the children over to Jacob and his family at one point, only recently getting them back. When asked if she killed his parents to prevent them from gaining custody, she reportedly replied that was “some of the reasons.” She even allegedly mentioned considering killing her own parents because she didn’t feel the children would be safe with them.

The motive, according to prosecutors, boiled down to a “general dislike” for Jacob and his family, fueled by long-simmering resentment over co-parenting and perceived control. But the timeline reveals something far more sinister: Strouble had been preparing for this night since at least December, when she bought the gun and suppressor specifically for the plan.

The south Chicago suburbs and northwest Indiana are still in shock. Crete Township is a quiet, family-oriented community where such calculated violence seems unimaginable. Neighbors are horrified that a simple text inviting someone to “hang out” could end in a surprise massage turning into an execution, followed by a home invasion using the victim’s own keys.

The two young children have now lost their father and both paternal grandparents in a single night of horror. They are left with a mother charged with wiping out their entire paternal family.

Strouble appeared in court without an attorney initially and requested a delay so her lawyer could be present. Prosecutors have asked that she be held without bond, citing the orchestrated nature of the attacks and her own admissions about planning the killings months in advance.

This case exposes the dark side of toxic co-parenting relationships. What began as an on-and-off romance in 2020 produced two children — and, according to Strouble, endless interference and control that she could no longer tolerate.

But the most disturbing element is the timeline. Strouble didn’t buy the gun in a moment of rage. She purchased it in December, months before the murders, and explicitly told investigators it was bought “solely for this plan.” She then waited, prepared, lured Jacob with a friendly message, made him vulnerable with a fake massage, held death to his head for eight minutes, and carried out the rest of her scheme without hesitation.

Jacob Lambert, Stacy Forde, and Patrick Forde are gone — allegedly executed because Jenna Strouble had decided months earlier that this was how she would end the interference.

The suburbs south of Chicago will never forget the night a mother turned a back massage into a death trap and used a gun bought specifically for murder to wipe out an entire family.

As the case moves toward trial, the central horror remains: Jenna Strouble planned every detail for months. She bought the weapon in December. She hid it under the seat. She held it to Jacob’s head for eight long minutes.

And then she pulled the trigger — not once, but three times over, in a calculated triple homicide that has left two small children without their father and grandparents.

Nine counts of first-degree murder. A silenced Glock purchased solely for this plan. And a mother sitting in custody, accused of turning months of resentment into cold, premeditated murder.

The quiet streets of Crete Township may look peaceful again, but the questions will linger for years: How long was this plan really in motion? And how many warning signs were missed before one text message led to three bodies in one suburban night?