The murder-for-hire was reportedly arranged by mom’s brother who had allegedly raped her child
A Louisiana mother sacrificed her life to save her daughter last month by pretending to be her when two hitmen showed up at their home to carry out a murder-for-hire on the daughter, officials said.
The mother, Brittany Cormier, 34, was found shot to death in her Montegut home on Jan. 13 along with a 37-year-old neighbor, Hope Nettleton, who had been visiting at the time of the incident, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Monday.
In the release, officials noted that over the course of the investigation they had come to believe that Cormier’s brother, 35-year-old Beaux Cormier, was responsible for hiring two of his friends to carry out an attack on his niece.
Prior to the incident, Beaux Cormier had been arrested by police in Vermillion Parish and charged with raping his niece. According to Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Timothy Soignet, Cormier wanted his rape victim killed so that she could not testify against him in court.
“Through the investigation, it was learned that the rape arrest resulted in Beaux Cormier soliciting the assistance of his friends, Andrew Eskine, 25, and Dalvin Wilson, 22, to murder the victim of the rape,” the news release stated. “[Eskine and Wilson] were both financially compensated to carry out the murder.”
Officials said that Beaux Cormier helped conduct a surveillance exercise with the two hitmen prior to the homicide and noted that the group “actually attempted to carry out the homicide on a prior occasion but were unsuccessful.”
When the hit was eventually enacted on Jan. 13, Brittany Cormier allegedly pretended to be the target to spare her daughter’s life.
“Brittany Cormier was murdered as a result of telling the shooter she was in fact the rape victim, likely saving the life of the actual rape victim,” officials said in the release.
Nettleton was reportedly killed while trying to fight off the attacker.
The three suspects are currently being held on $2 million bond on two counts of first-degree murder and District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. said, “The death penalty is definitely on the table.” WNYW-TV reported.
*story by The Blaze