LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A teenager accused of hiring someone to kill her parents made her first appearance in court on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old girl used her parents' stolen debit card in an attempt to pay someone to kill her mother and father, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said the girl's friend reported the crime to a school resource officer at Tavares High School, saying that Alyssa Hatcher paid "a lot of money" to a mutual acquaintance in order for that person to kill her parents.
Financial records showed that Hatcher, an Umatilla High School student, recently used her parents' stolen debit card to withdraw $500 from an ATM and send $926.40 to someone on PayPal. Hatcher's parents reported the stolen card and the fraudulent transactions to the Umatilla Police Department on Sunday.
Police said Hatcher's mother discovered that her debit card was missing from her locked wallet inside her home. She later found it and a piece of paper with her bank account information written on it in her daughter's room, according to the report.
Hatcher admitted in a recorded interview with deputies that $100 from the ATM withdraw was used to buy cocaine, then she gave the remaining $400 to a friend to give to someone to kill her parents, according to authorities.
Since her parents were still not killed, she gave $900 to a man who she hoped would kill them, records show.
Hatcher was arrested Monday on two counts of criminal solicitation for murder.
Sgt. Fred Jones from the Lake County Sheriff's Office said investigators are trying to figure out a motive.
There were people who were saying on social media how much she hates her parents,” Jones said.
Still, Jones said that's not an excuse.
“There’s nothing that your parents can do -- being your grounded, your cars taken away, you can’t go to the prom or wherever -- for you to get to this point,” Jones said.
Hatcher was transferred Tuesday morning from the Lake County Jail to the juvenile jail in Ocala. She'll appear before a judge Wednesday morning.