A young mother from Florida, aged 18, was taken into custody on Tuesday, accused of attempting to contract a hitman to assassinate her 3-year-old son via a mock website. The teenager, Jazmin Paez, is believed to have approached the parody site rentahitman.com with a request to have her toddler son murdered before the end of the week.
According to court records, Paez allegedly sent the website comprehensive instructions, including her son’s photographs and precise whereabouts. Miami-Dade police disclosed that Paez filled out an online form on the site, expressing her wish for a hitman to “resolve an issue once and for all.” She allegedly asked for her son to “be removed to a distant place, potentially to be killed, and at the earliest.”
Paez allegedly used an alias when interacting with the website and selected “Put me in coach” as her code phrase, as stated in the arrest report. The website owner, Robert Innes, found Paez’s request unusually detailed and suspicious. Despite receiving hundreds of similar requests daily, Innes found this one particularly credible.
Innes pointed out the meticulous research into names and addresses and the confirmation of the intended victim’s residence as a significant warning sign. Despite initial skepticism from the Miami-Dade Police Department and being directed to CrimeStoppers, Innes continued his attempts to alert the authorities.
A detective was eventually assigned to the case. Investigators, pretending to be the hitman, contacted Paez, who allegedly agreed to pay them $3,000 to execute her son. Paez was subsequently arrested and now faces charges of soliciting murder and unlawful use of a communications device. She is currently held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bail set at $15,000.
The child is reported to be safe and is currently with relatives. The Florida Department of Children and Families has been notified of the situation.
Innes initially set up the rent-a-hitman website as a cybersecurity project, but it has inadvertently led to the arrest of several individuals who failed to recognize its satirical nature. Earlier this year, an Air National Guardsman was arrested for allegedly applying for a hitman job through the site.