Ryan Coleman is a news writer for Entertainment Weekly with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.
The Perfect Neighbor is among the most startling documentaries Netflix has released onto its platform in years. Delving into the tragic murder of Ajike Owens, a Black Florida woman, at the hands of her white neighbor Susan Lorincz, the new film from prolific documentarian Geeta Gandbhir examines issues of race, class, community, and surveillance.
But one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it line from the film’s early minutes has viewers perplexed: Was Lorincz, who claimed to work from home, really a doctor?
Lorincz shot Owens through the door of her Ocala, Fla., home on June 2, 2023. Accompanied by her young son Israel, Owens went across the street to Lorincz’s residence that evening to retrieve a tablet Israel claimed that Lorincz, who’d repeatedly hassled and called the police on the neighborhood children for years, had stolen from him. Shortly after being taken away by paramedics, the father of Owens’ four children was informed over the phone that her injury proved fatal.
The Perfect Neighbor reconstructs the events leading up to and immediately following the shooting, largely via police body camera footage. That footage was obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, though videos taken from cellphones and doorbell cameras, as well as the audio from post-incident interviews, supplement that footage.
Early into The Perfect Neighbor, Lorincz is shown telling one officer, “I’m a single woman, I work from home,” a claim seemingly substantiated by how frequently Lorincz is shown meddling with the neighborhood kids. But in a segment of body camera footage recorded from a separate night, Lorincz recounts to another officer that in a heated exchange with “a little kid,” she said, “Listen, my name is Dr. Lorincz. Don’t tell me to shut up.”
Lorincz was arrested days after the shooting and charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, and battery, as well as two counts of assault. In August 2024, Lorincz was convicted on the manslaughter charge, and in November, a judge sentenced her to 25 years in prison.
At that sentencing hearing, a number of witnesses for the defense testified to the facts of Lorincz’s occupation, none pointing to work as a doctor.
Shannon Lynn Harris, a pastor at Lorincz’s Anthony United Methodist Church, stated that the defendant often helped elder members of the congregation navigate insurance issues because “Susan worked in the insurance industry.” Reporting from Lorincz’s 2024 trial corroborates that Lorincz herself claimed she worked in the insurance industry.
Crystal Maksou, a friend of Lorincz’s, noted vaguely that the defendant “was always working at different places,” but most recently “had some licensing [work] she got from home and was working at home a lot.” Both Ellyn Dorothy Lorincz, Susan’s younger sister, and Dr. Yenys Castillo, a forensic psychologist, claimed that Susan worked previously as an EMT paramedic, but Castillo clarified that Susan held that job “at around age 20.”
Castillo also noted that Lorincz once “worked near an airport,” leading to “trauma” because she “saw plane crash victims.” She went on to describe Lorincz “working in the kitchen as a chef” at a rehabilitation center as well.
A prosecuting attorney then asked Castillo if Lorincz’s trauma held her back from being “able to obtain multiple educational degrees,” suggesting that, while Lorincz was almost assuredly not a licensed medical doctor, she may have obtained an advanced degree in a different field.
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Gandhbir’s documentary electrified the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered this past January, earning the filmmaker the prestigious Directing Award. The film was given a limited theatrical release on Oct. 10, and is currently streaming on Netflix.
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