Florida woman becomes victim of mistaken identity
In this photo, police tape marks off the entrance to the apartment building where shooting suspect Omar Mateen is believed to have lived on June 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida. Getty Images / Joe Raedle

A murder-for-hire plot went terribly wrong when the hired killers kidnapped and killed the wrong woman, police officials said.

The incident took place in Florida where a couple tied and duct-taped a woman and killed her even after realizing that they had abducted the wrong woman, the New York Post reported.

The victim was identified as Janice Marie Zengotita-Torres, 42, of Kissimmee, a city in central Florida's Osceola County, just south of Orlando. Reports stated that the killer duo forced Zengotita-Torres into the trunk of her car, tortured her for her ATM card, and then suffocated and killed her with garbage bags.

Authorities said that Zengotita-Torres, who was a mother to a 14-year-old son, was found Monday, Jan. 8. Her body was dumped in Ormond Beach, six miles north of Daytona, Florida.

Speaking of the incident, Russ Gibson, Osceola County Sheriff said: “Even after accused hit team Alexis Ramos and Glorianmarie Quinones Montes realized they had the wrong woman, they still continued with their plan of murder,” the New York Post reported. “It was just a mistaken identity,” Gibson said. “I don’t say that lightly, that this woman lost her life for no reason. This mother, this wife, this daughter — for no reason, at all.”

According to a report in the ABC News, Alexis Ramos, 22, and his girlfriend Glorianmarie Quinones-Montes were supposedly hired by Ishnar Lopez Ramos, 35, to kill a woman who was in a relationship with another man, Ramos’ romantic rival.

However, things turned awry when Lopez Ramos, Ramos, and Quinones-Montes apparently mistook Zengotita-Torres for the intended target.

During a press conference Friday, Gibson said: "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.”

Reports stated that the suspects spotted Zengotita-Torres late Sunday night as she was leaving a store in Osceola County where she worked.

Ramos' and Quinones-Montes both followed the victim to a parking lot near her home and allegedly abducted her. After kidnapping her, they drove to a nearby bank where they supposedly withdrew money using Zengotita-Torres’s ATM card, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office added that the suspects did not realize that they had abducted the wrong person until they reached her house in Orlando, however, even after that they continued with their alleged plan.

Police officials arrested Lopez Ramos after she was caught wearing Zengotita-Torres's clothes on a surveillance camera while trying to use the victim’s ATM card. After questioning, Lopez Ramos gave a full confession to authorities and revealed the location of the other two suspects who were then arrested.

As of now, all three suspects have been booked in Osceola County Jail and face charges of premeditated first-degree murder.

RELATED STORIES