A Florida woman is accused of hiring a “hit man” to kill her husband, and offering a pizza delivery van as collateral, authorities said.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says Tanya Demirhan, 47, hated her husband Atilla Demirhan so much, she wanted him dead. They’ve been married for 17 years and opened a pizza parlor together in Lakeland.
Tanya Demirhan offered to pay $10,000 to a man who authorities say was actually an undercover detective, but she didn’t have the cash so Demirhan agreed to transfer vehicle titles to the man as payment, including a pizza delivery van, according to authorities.
She allegedly signed an affidavit to pay the rest of the money and, according to authorities, asked the detective how she should react to her husband’s death.
“What should I do in front of the police? Just cry?” she says in the conversation, which was recorded.
“Yeah, that’s what I would do,” he responded.
Demirhan later posed for a selfie with her husband, in order to provide the photo to the detective, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities pulled her over hours later in a traffic stop Saturday, bringing her downtown and sharing a devastating ruse with her: Her husband was dead. Demirhan can be seen crying in the police video.
“It’s too much, too much,” she says in the video released by the Sheriff’s Office. “He said 2015 is going to be good.”
The ploy continued for about six minutes, until detectives introduced the alleged hit man. Demirhan was later arrested and charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
Demirhan denied any involvement with the alleged murder-for-hire plot and denied knowing the undercover detective, according to the sheriff’s office.