Last Updated: Friday, January 19, 2018, 12:23 PM EST
A funeral service will be held this afternoon for the Kissimmee mother killed in what deputies say was a botched murder-for-hire plot.
- Janice Zengotita-Torres was mistakenly killed, detectives say
- Family to make brief public statement today before service
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Family of Janice Zangotita-Torres is expected to make a brief public statement before Friday’s private service in Kissimmee.
Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said Zangotita-Torres was abducted, then murdered, after leaving work Jan. 8. Gibson said in a bizarre and heinous twist, Zangotita-Torres was mistaken for a coworker who was the actual target of a murder-for-hire.
Investigators say Ishnar Ramos hired Alexis Ramos Rivera and his girlfriend, Glorianmarie Montes, to carry out the murder. The motive, Gibson said, may have been sparked by Ramos’ romantic interest in the intended target’s partner.
Ramos, Rivera and Montes are all being held without bond on murder charges.
On the night of their arrests, Gibson described the killing as one of the most heinous crimes he’s seen.
“I get emotional, because it just touches me so deeply that one of our citizens was killed in such a manner over a mistaken identity, and in the end, it appears to be a lovers’ triangle,” Gibson said.
Deputies say Rivera and Montes followed Zengotita-Torres home from her job at a Ross store in Kissimmee. When they arrived at Zengotita-Torres’ home, deputies say Rivera and Montes kidnapped Zengotita-Torres and took her car.
It wasn’t until the trio used an ATM card belonging to Zengotita-Torres to withdraw money from a bank that Gibson said they realized they had kidnapped the wrong person.
Despite that, Gibson said the three decided to kill her anyway. They tied Zengotita-Torres's hands with zip ties, duct-taped a trash bag over her head, beat her, then dumped her body in Ormond Beach, deputies say. Zengotita-Torres died of suffocation.
Gibson said from the night of her initial kidnapping until Thursday, the trio continued to use Zengotita-Torres' ATM card to withdraw cash. Deputies took Ramos into custody at an ATM, and based on her confession, picked up Rivera and Montes, deputies said.
"All three confirmed that this was a murder for hire, and that the victim was mistakenly targeted and murdered," Gibson said.
The Sheriff's Office said all three charged in the killing arrived in Central Florida from Puerto Rico on Dec. 26, 2017. It is still unclear how they know each other, how the killing was arranged or for how much.