Local

Osceola County mother killed after being mistaken for target in murder-for-hire plot, sheriff says

By WFTV Web Staff
By WFTV Web Staff
Three people were taken into custody Friday in connection with the abduction and murder of a 42-year-old Osceola County woman, officials said. 
It turns out that the victim was mistaken for the target of a murder-for-hire plot, Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said.
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.
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 she loved.
Raw video: Osceola County murder suspects taken to jail
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.
Raw video: Osceola County sheriff gives update on arrests in woman's death
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 women 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.

Cox Media Group

Most Read