New Jersey

Mom Wanted Daughter's Ex Burned Alive: Authorities

A Pennsylvania woman has pleaded guilty to paying an undercover officer she thought was a hit man to kill her daughter's ex-boyfriend by burning him alive.

Denise Nagrodski, 52, of Easton, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, according to acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman.

“Nagrodski wanted all of the murder and mayhem she could buy,” said Director Elie Honig of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice. “Instead, she purchased a long stay in a state prison cell.”

She allegedly told the undercover detective to burn her daughter's ex-boyfriend alive and make sure he knew she was responsible for his death. She also wanted to kill the ex-boyfriend's sister and the sister's boyfriend, both of whom live with the ex-boyfriend in Somerset County, New Jersey. Nagrodski asked that the boyfriend be burned alive, and the other two be killed and then burned, according to police.

Hoffman says Nagrodski claimed the ex-boyfriend was abusive and caused her daughter to have a miscarriage years ago when she was pregnant with twins.

According to the New Jersey State Police, the NYPD Intelligence alerted the department in October 2014 that Nagrodski was looking to hire a hit man. A member of the State Police Violent Organized Crime Control South Bureau posed as a hit man and Nagrodski and the undercover detective met twice in November 2014 at the Phillipsburg Mall in Lopatcong, New Jersey, to plan the murders of the three intended victims. She paid the detective $500, according to the police report.

At their second meeting, Nagrodski gave the detective photos of the intended victims, as well as a map to the house in which she believed all three lived and another $500. Both of their meetings were secretly recorded by the detective, according to the New Jersey State Police.

Nagrodski was arrested on Nov. 25, 2014 and has been in Warren County Jail since her arrest. She is being held with bail set at $2 million, cash only and will be sentenced Oct. 16.

“Nagrodski was cruel and calculating in the way she planned the murders of her daughter’s ex-boyfriend and the other two intended victims, directing that the boyfriend be burned alive in a fire that also would serve to destroy evidence,” Hoffman said. “Fortunately, her grisly plot was exposed, and now she will face justice in the form of a lengthy prison sentence.”

The state will recommended that she be sentenced to 10 years, including eight and a half years of parole ineligibility, in prison under the terms of the plea agreement.

“This is not the first murder-for-hire that a New Jersey State Police undercover detective foiled while posing as a hit man," said Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

"These cases are always disturbing, but working cooperatively with our partner agencies, this grisly murder plot was stopped, and the woman responsible will now be spending a long time behind bars,” said Fuentes.
 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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