Local

Suspects accused of killing Osceola County woman mistaken as murder-for-hire target in jail

The three people arrested in connection with the abduction and murder of a 42-year-old Osceola County woman, whom deputies say they mistook as the target in a murder-for-hire plot, all lived in the same apartment, documents show.
The three suspects lived in an apartment at Century Millenia apartments after moving to Central Florida in December.
The property management company for Century Millenia sent out a vague notice to residents at the complex after law enforcement officers served a search warrant on the trio's apartment Friday.
"It has been reported to management that an incident involving crime occurred off property, however, but as the result of a resident being involved in the incident, and our property being searched today, we feel that it is our duty to inform you of the incident," the notice said.  
According to investigators, Ishnar Lopez-Ramos, 35, allegedly hired Glorianmarie Quinones-Montes, 22, and Alexis Ramos-Rivera, 22, to kill a woman in a relationship with a man Lopez-Ramos loved.
A woman's body was found in Ormond Beach Monday and was later identified as Janice Marie Zengotita-Torres, who had been reported missing out of Osceola County.
It turns out Zengotita-Torres was mistaken for the target of a murder-for-hire plot, Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said
The pair allegedly mistook Zengotita-Torres for the target, but even after realizing she was the wrong person, they bound her and suffocated her with garbage bags, Gibson said.
Zengotita-Torres worked at the same store as the intended target and the two looked similar, investigators said.
All three suspects gave full confessions and face charges of premeditated first-degree murder, Gibson said.
"I get emotional because it just touches me so deeply that one of our citizens was killed in such a manner over a mistaken identification, and in the end it appears to be a lovers' triangle," he said. "Wow."

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — %

INLINE

%

Zengotita-Torres moved to Osceola County from Puerto Rico with her 14-year-old-son, husband and father about a year ago, investigators said.
The three people charged in her death all came to Central Florida from Puerto Rico in late December, deputies said.
As she was being led from the Osceola County Sheriff's Office to a cruiser that would take her to jail, Quinones-Montes cried and denied she was involved.
"I didn't do anything," she said.
The trio remains in the Osceola County jail Sunday morning.
The trio faced a judge Saturday morning, who denied bail to all three after finding probable cause.