Story of Girl, 11, Forced by Mom to Kill Stepdad Becomes Lifetime Movie: 'It Came Full Circle' (Exclusive)

'Would You Kill For Me? The Mary Bailey Story' premieres Oct. 28 on Lifetime and PEOPLE has the first look at the trailer

Mary Elizabeth Bailey was just 11 years old when her mother asked her to do the unthinkable.

In Feb. 1987, her mother, Priscilla Wyers, handed Mary a .22-cal. rifle and forced her to shoot and kill her abusive stepfather, Wayne Wyers, after he passed out drunk in a chair inside their West Virginia home.

"'If you do this,' she said, 'it will all be over. You're not gonna go to jail, you're too young,' " Mary previously recounted to PEOPLE in 2022, noting how she pleaded with her mother but Priscilla insisted.

After police arrived, Priscilla initially told investigators she shot Wayne. But then, "she said it was all my idea," Mary previously explained.

Both Priscilla and Mary were charged with murder. Mary was ultimately placed in foster care and charges against her were dropped after she testified against her mother.

A jury found Priscilla guilty of first-degree murder in 1988. While she was sentenced to life in prison, she was eligible for parole in 1998 and released shortly thereafter. Once she returned home, Priscilla and Mary began living with each other.

Now, more than 35 years later, Mary's harrowing experience has been adapted into a film: Would You Kill For Me? The Mary Bailey Story — for which PEOPLE has an exclusive trailer.

The movie, which is set to premiere Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. EST on Lifetime, is told through three different perspectives and follows the volatile relationship between three generations of women — Ella (Melissa Joan Hart), her daughter Veronica (Olivia Scriven), and her granddaughter Mary (Presley Allard), whom Ella raises for Veronica.

After Veronica marries a man named Willard (Connor McMahon), the lives of all three women take a turn for the worse. Willard becomes increasingly abusive, and Veronica then suffers a deep betrayal when her best friend Susan (Celina “Spookyboo” Myers), becomes pregnant with Willard’s child. The relationship ultimately grows increasingly toxic, leaving Ella, Mary and her half-brother Sammy at the mercy of Willard’s alcoholic rages.

Mary shares her gratitude for having been closely involved in the movie's creation, admitting it was an emotional process — but a memorable one.

Related: 'People Magazine Investigates' Features Mom Who Made Daughter Kill Abusive Husband, Then Let Girl Take Blame

"I think for me, being on set, watching your life play out before you, you get to see your life from so many different perspectives," she tells PEOPLE. "From each person's perspective and also from the perspective of myself. There's a baby, there's a 5-year-old, there's a 11-year-old and there's me as an adult. So just being able to see that and really process that, was incredible. Absolutely."

Mary says that eventually writing her 2020 memoir, My Mother's Soldier, about her life experiences enabled her to go through a process of healing. She hopes that viewers will be able to look more deeply into how she came to forgive her mother, decades later.

“I think the movie will help them to see that she's not the worst person in the world,” Mary, who has a cameo in the film, says. “She was going through a lot of things. 'Why did she do this? How do you forgive her?' I think the movie will help them to see how I forgave her.”

Mary, who now lives with her attorney husband in North Carolina and owns a medical uniform business, also notes that the multiple perspectives in the movie are key to understanding how the events unfolded.

"Not one is played out to be so terrible that you don't have some empathy for that person," she tells PEOPLE. "But that's what I really love about it, is I think people can watch it and even if they're going through something, they can sympathize or empathize and understand what people go through and why they go through what they're going through."

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Overall, Mary hopes that the film delivers a message of healing.

"Watching it came full circle for me," she says. "But it's very emotional. But watching it and knowing that other people, hopefully millions of people, will be watching this and be able to relate to this and to find some hope, some healing through this movie. I mean, it's really good, and very excited about it. So that's mainly the focus, is healing and hope for others. "

'Would You Kill For Me? The Mary Bailey Story' premieres Saturday, Oct. 28 at 8p.m. EST on Lifetime and streams the next day.

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Read the original article on People.