A Washington man’s alleged plan to hire a killer to murder his wife went awry this week after he text messaged the wrong phone number — and ended up sending the message to a former boss.
According to the Seattle Times, the man from Monroe, Washington was attempting to contact a person named “Shayne” that would kill his wife in exchange for half of a $1 million life insurance policy.
“You remember you said that you would help me kill my wife. I’m going to take you up on that offer,” the message read according to the Seattle Times. “I’ll split everything with the insurance 50/50.”
The man also offered “Shayne” a bonus if he were to kill his 4-year-old daughter. His daughter’s insurance policy was worth $500,000.
The text message also suggested the incident be staged as a “robbery gone wrong,” and included information about his wife’s schedule.
However, the man’s message didn’t go to Shayne. It was sent to a former former boss, who immediately called 911 and shared the text message with police.
The man accused of the crime claims that “Shayne” isn’t a real person, and suggested that his daughter must have accidentally sent the message.
The man is currently being held on probable cause of first-degree murder. The deadline for filing charges is on Monday evening.
The full transcript of the text message is below, via KVEW-TV.
"Hey Shayne hows it going. You remember you said that you would help me kill my wife. I’m going to take you up on that offer. (Her) life insurance is worth 1 million and if you want a bounes (sic) you can kill (my daughter). Her life insurance is 500k. I go to work 5 in the morning. (She) goes to work at 2:00pm so if you can make a robbery gone wrong or make it a accident she works at walmart she gets off at 11:00. I’ll split everything with the insurance 50/50. Please call or text me please.”
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.
