Missouri Woman Accused in Foiled Murder-for-Hire Plot

A southern Missouri woman is jailed without bond on federal charges that she tried to hire someone to kill her sister.

Federal prosecutors in Springfield charged Leta Faye Douglas of Houston, Missouri, last week with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Authorities allege that Douglas told her ex-husband in Nebraska that she questioned her sister's handling of the finances of the women's parents.

Investigators say Douglas asked her former husband to help her hire someone to kill her sister for $2,000. But the former husband, who had been divorced from Leta Douglas for 18 years, notified Nebraska authorities.

A message left Tuesday with Douglas' court-appointed public defenders was not immediately returned.

She is scheduled for a detention hearing Thursday in Springfield.