A Florida mother was kidnapped and killed in a case of mistaken identity during a murder-for-hire plot, authorities said late last week.
Janice Marie Zengotita-Torres, 42, was reported missing by her husband in Osceola County, Florida, on Monday, Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said at a news conference Friday.
The investigation into her murder revealed that Zengotita-Torres was mistaken for a woman who was the target of a murder-for-hire plot allegedly orchestrated by Ishnar Lopez-Ramos in a lover’s triangle.
“The woman was the target of the murder-for-hire — she was in a relationship with a man that the suspect, Ishnar, loved,” Gibson said.
Lopez-Ramos, 35, is accused of hiring Alexis Ramos-Rivera, 23, and his girlfriend Glorianmarie Quinones-Montes, 22, to murder the woman.
On Jan. 7 and the early morning hours of Jan. 8, the suspects planned the robbery and murder, and mistook Zengotita-Torres for their intended victim when she left a store at a shopping center Sunday night.
The suspects then followed her home, kidnapped her and forced her into her own car before driving away, Gibson said. They then made Zengotita-Torres give them her ATM card and pin number and used it to withdraw money, he said.
During the incident, Lopez-Ramos and Ramos-Rivera “realized that they had mistakenly taken the wrong person,” he said.
“However, the suspects continued with their plan of murder,” Gibson said, tying Zengotita-Torres with zip ties and her head in duct tape and garbage bags.
Zengotita-Torres struggled and Ramos-Rivera beat the victim until she was unconscious, he said, and then they dumped her body in Ormond Beach, Florida.
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SOURCE: NBC News, Daniella Silva
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