Sheriff

Victim in Mistaken Identity Murder Called Home to Check on Son Hours Before Kidnapping, Death

Janice Zengotita-Torres called home to check on her son during her shift at a Ross store in Osceola County. Hours later, all calls to her phone went straight to voicemail.

A missing-person report shows that Zengotita-Torres called home Jan. 7 at about 10:14 p.m. After her Ross Dress for Less shift at The Loop mall near Kissimmee, she chatted with a co-worker outside before driving away.

From 4:30 a.m. on Monday onward, the calls from Zengotita-Torres' family to her phone were met by automatically voicemail, the report shows.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said Zengotita-Torres was kidnapped, WESH reports.

The two suspects charged with killing Zengotita-Torres were hired by a woman named Ishnar Lopez Ramos, who allegedly wanted to murder a woman who "was in a relationship with a man that the suspect, Ishnar, loved," Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson said at a news conference Friday.

"This woman lost her life for no reason. This mother, this wife, this daughter, for no reason at all,” Sheriff Russell Gibson told WESH.

Zengotita-Torres was not that woman. The sheriff’s office said the "murder-for-hire" case became a case of "mistaken identity."

Investigators said the suspects believed they tracked the intended witness but incorrectly snatched Zengotita-Torres instead.

Officials said that even after the suspects realized their mistake, they still killed Zengotita-Torres and left her body on a remote road in Ormond Beach.

Detectives said someone used Zengotita-Torres' credit card to withdraw about $700 in two transactions.

Lopez-Ramos, 35, is accused of hiring Alexis Ramos-Rivera, 23, and his girlfriend Glorianmarie Quinones-Montes, 22, to kill her, NBC News reported.

Lopez-Ramos and Ramos-Rivera face a first-degree murder charge. Quinnones-Montes is facing a premeditated murder charge.

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