A woman allegedly gave a hit man the title of a Ford van used to deliver pizzas as collateral to kill her husband.
Apparently anxious to get out of an unhappy marriage after 16 years, she allegedly even signed a promissory note for the balance of the $10,000 either in cash or by transferring the title to several other vehicles in payment for the murder for hire.
The hit man turned out to be an undercover cop, however.
A few days earlier, police got wind of the potential plan from a tipster.
The suspect, identified by multiple media outlets as Tanya Demirhan, 47, owns a pizza parlor with her husband in Lakeland, Fla.
“She told the undercover detective that ‘I want my husband gone. Gone forever,’” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. On video (see below), she also described her hubby as a jerk and a horrible person. She reportedly even asked the hit man if she should cry after learning of her husband’s murder to make it more convincing.
“I’ve never in my life ever heard of anybody who was silly enough to sign a note, but she did,” Sheriff Judd remarked .
Detectives brought Demirhan to the police station later that day and pretended that the husband had been shot to death as they interviewed her. She became very distraught during the interrogation about her husband’s supposed murder.
“The ploy continued for about six minutes, until detectives introduced the alleged hit man. Demirhan was later arrested and charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder,” ABC News reported . See embedded videos below, including interrogation video No. 2, in which the detectives confront the suspect with the signed contract and the “hit man” himself. Once confronted, she insisted that she didn’t try to kill her husband and that she is happy with him.
Sheriff Judd added that “Demirhan described a rocky marriage and said her husband beat her. But a Sheriff’s spokesperson said deputies had never been called to the couple’s… home,” Fox Tampa Bay noted .
The suspect, who had denied involvement in the whole plot or even meeting with the undercover officer, was booked into Polk County Jail. If convicted of the charge, she could face up to 20 years in prison. She also faces a charge of unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
Watch Sheriff Judd’s press conference about the alleged murder for hire along other related videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50TRbf_sH8w
[image credit: Polk County Sheriff’s Office]
