Lake County Sheriff's Office/PixabayA 17-year-old Florida girl has been arrested after stealing her parents’ debit card – and then using it to pay two people to kill them.
Alyssa Michelle Hatcher was arrested on Monday (September 9) by the Umatilla Police Department.
The Umatilla High School student has since been charged with two counts of criminal solicitation for murder and one count of theft, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office’s arrest affidavit.
The plan began to unfurl after an undisclosed juvenile witness contacted the sheriff’s department to let them know Hatcher had given a friend ‘a lot of money’ to find someone to kill her parents.
An investigation soon found that the teenager had stolen her parents’ debit card and used it to complete two transactions: one for $503, another for $926.40, with both payments being given to two different individuals, according to the arrest affidavit.
The sheriff’s office Sergeant Fred Jones said in a statement:
According to investigators the juvenile suspect stole her parents debit card and made two separate transactions withdrawing funds to pay the individuals to carry out the murder.
The juvenile suspect was placed in custody and transported to the Lake County Jail where she was processed and turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Lake County Sheriff's OfficeAs reported by Fox 35, Detective D. Causey got in contact with Hatcher’s boyfriend to try and get to the bottom of the sinister plot.
He told the detective that Hatcher was last seen on Monday morning (September 9) at a known drug house – allegedly, she said this is where she wanted her parents to be killed.
Lake County Sheriff's OfficeThere was no dispute over the claims: in a recorded interview, Hatcher admitted the whole thing, saying she had stolen the card and made two transactions.
She did go into further detail however: Hatcher added that $100 of the first transaction was used to buy cocaine while another $400 was given to the second witness. The witness was to then find someone to kill her parents.
After the first person failed to carry out the murder, Hatcher said she gave $900 to a ‘black male’ to complete her bidding.
Speaking to Fox 35, Sgt. Jones added:
This is a sad case when you think about the family dynamics and everything… whether it was going to take place or not, the money did exchange hands and we’re glad we were able to stop what could’ve happened
When it comes to something like that I cannot imagine the shock you would be in as a parent knowing that this is my daughter – what my daughter intended to do.
According to the affidavit, Hatcher’s parents are pursuing charges against her.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.