Police: Mother killed in case of mistaken identity in a murder-for-hire plot in Florida

Police have charged three people in a case of mistaken identity during an alleged murder-for-hire plot that left a Florida mother dead last week.

The intended target was "in a relationship with a man that the suspect [Ishnar Lopez-Ramos] loved,” Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said during a news conference Friday.

According to authorities, Lopez-Ramos allegedly hired Alexis Ramos-Rivera, 23, and his girlfriend Glorianmarie Quinones-Montes, 22, to murder the woman involved in the love triangle.

What happened?

On Jan. 7, police say the couple planned the robbery and murder. They went to their target's place of work where they mistook Janice Marie Zengotita-Torres as their intended victim.

The suspects allegedly followed the 42-year-old victim to her home where authorities say they "kidnapped her and forced her into her own car before driving away."

On Jan. 8, Zengotita-Torres was reported missing by her family when she didn't come home from work the night before, NBC News reported.

During the incident, Ramos-Rivera and Quinones-Montes stole the victim's ATM card and withdrew money from her bank account.

At some point, the suspects realized they had the wrong victim, but they decided to go through with their "plan of murder," Gibson told reporters.

The suspects drove to an apartment in Orlando where they beat the victim after tying her with zip ties and covering her head with duct tape and garbage bags, according to WCMH-TV.

The Puerto Rican mother, who had moved to the U.S. about a year ago with her husband, 14-year-old son, and her mother, eventually died.

The suspects reportedly dumped her body in Ormand Beach, where workers found it during the morning hours on Jan. 8.

Police arrested Lopez-Ramos on Friday while trying to use the victim's ATM card. She led police to the other suspects.

Did the suspects confess?

According to authorities, the trio gave full confessions of the plot and murder.

“All three confirmed that this was a murder-for-hire and the victim was mistakenly — again mistakenly —  targeted and murdered,” Gibson said.

The suspects are charged with first-degree premeditated murder charges, according to records with the Osceola County Corrections.

"I get emotional because it just touches me so deeply that one of our citizens was killed in such a manner over a mistaken identification," Gibson told reporters. "And in the end, it appears to be a lover’s triangle. Wow."