Inmate offers $15,000 reward on Instagram for a hitman to kill his ex, PA officials say
A Pennsylvania inmate tried to use Instagram to recruit someone to kill his ex-girlfriend, offering $15,000 and luxury goods as rewards, prosecutors say.
Detectives were alerted to the murder-for-hire plot on Nov. 25 by Montgomery County Correctional Facility officials who heard the discussion in a recorded phone call, according to a Jan. 30 news release from the district attorney’s office.
Investigators learned that before the plot, the 22-year-old inmate had lost his phone and tablet privileges for verbally abusing, harassing and threatening his ex-girlfriend, violating a protection from abuse order she had against him, officials said.
McClatchy News is not naming the men charged to protect the identity of the woman involved.
Using another inmate’s phone, he called a 20-year-old Norristown man and asked him to create a fake Instagram account and share a post offering “$15,000, a Cartier watch and a car as payment for beating up and killing the mother of his child,” according to the Montgomery County district attorney.
On the call, the inmate said the advertisement should be shared using Instagram’s story feature so it would expire after 24 hours, avoiding attention from law enforcement or other users.
After getting a warrant, detectives found eight Instagram stories shared by the fake account with the woman’s location at a specific date and time, her home address, a description of her car and “other identifying information,” the district attorney’s office said.
The posts offered the $15,000 payment, car and jewelry for the woman to “get took off the map,” officials said.
The inmate and the Norristown man accused of posting from the fake account are charged with criminal solicitation of murder of the first degree, conspiracy to murder of the first degree and criminal use of a communications facility, the district attorney’s office said.
Preliminary hearings for both men are scheduled for Feb. 11, the district attorney’s office said.
The Montgomery County Correctional Facility is about a 25-mile drive northwest from Philadelphia.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Inmate offers $15,000 reward on Instagram for a hitman to kill his ex, PA officials say."
