Wrong Woman Kidnapped and Killed in Alleged Love Triangle Murder-for-Hire Plot: Police
A Florida woman was kidnapped and killed in what police are calling a murder-for-hire plot gone awry.
In a press conference held on Friday night, Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson revealed that the plot began after Ishnar Marie Lopez-Ramos, 35, allegedly hired Alexis Ramos-Rivera, 22, and his girlfriend Glorianmarie Quinones-Montes, 22, to murder a woman who was in a relationship with a man that Lopez-Ramos was in love with, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The murder was planned and executed between Jan. 7 and “the early morning hours of the 8th.”
According to police, the suspects were able to track the woman to a store at a shopping center in Osceola County. However, once there, the suspects mistakenly identified Janice Zengotita-Torres, 42, as the “intended target when she left the store.”
PEOPLE’s request for additional comment from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office was not immediately returned.
Not realizing their mistake, “the suspects followed the victim to her apartment and in the parking lot they forcibly put the victim into the back of her own vehicle and they drove away,” Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson explained.
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The suspects then allegedly drove to a nearby bank where they obtained Zengotita-Torres’ ATM card and pin code.
After Lopez-Ramos allegedly “withdrew money from the victim’s account,” the suspects drove back to the victim’s apartment in Orlando. While Quinones-Montes went into the victim’s apartment, Lopez-Ramos and Ramos-Rivera “realized that they had mistakingly taken the wrong person.”
“However, the suspects continued with their plan of murder and allegedly tied the victim with zip ties and then [covered] her head in duct tape and garbage bags,” Gibson continued.
After Ramos-Rivera allegedly “began beating the victim until she was unconscious,” the three suspects drove the victim’s vehicle to Ormond Beach, where they dumped her body. They then allegedly drove back to Orlando before leaving the victim’s vehicle in Orange County.
According to police, the victim died “from suffocation.”
Police said Zengotita-Torres’ husband contacted the sheriff’s office on the morning of Jan. 8 to report her missing.
The body of a woman found at Ormond Beach on Jan. 8 was “positively identified as Janice Zengotita-Torres” two days later, police said.
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Police said the first suspect they apprehended was Lopez-Ramos, who was caught “while she was attempting to use the ATM card of the victim.” After she was brought back to the sheriff’s office, Lopez-Ramos gave “a full confession” and named the two other suspects.
After the police apprehended Ramos-Rivera and Quinones-Montes, they also gave full confessions.
According to police, “all three confirmed that this was a murder-for-hire and the victim was mistakingly targeted and murdered.”
“I get emotional because it 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 lover’s triangle,” Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson continued at the press conference held on Friday.
According to online jail records, Lopez-Ramos, Ramos-Rivera and Quinones-Montes are currently housed in Osceola County Jail and face charges of premeditated first-degree murder. No attorneys are listed for all three suspects.
