The wife of a well-known upstate New York dentist is behind bars after allegedly giving an undercover cop posing as a hitman $5,500 to kill her son-in-law and feed his body to alligators.
Melisa Rae Schonfield, 57, arranged for the contract killing during a meeting Friday in the parking lot of a Walmart in Watertown, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department said. She allegedly agreed to pay the undercover $11,000 to carry out the hit and forked over half that amount as an up-front payment.
“Some money exchanged hands. At that point, we made an arrest,” Senior Detective Dave Pustizzi told 7 News/Fox 28 in Watertown Saturday.
After her arrest, Schonfield appeared before a judge on conspiracy and criminal solicitation charges. She was ordered held on $250,000 bail.
Citing court papers, the station said Schonfield told the would-be hitman that the best way to dispose of the body was to “throw it to the alligators.” Authorities said the intended victim was her daughter’s husband, 36-year-old Ernesto Negrillo of Florida.
The station also reported, according to the court papers, that Schonfield told the undercover she wanted Negrillo killed on a Monday or Tuesday when “he wouldn’t have the kids” and that her husband knew what she was doing and even made a joke about her getting caught.
Her husband is Watertown dentist Robert Schonfield.
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