New Jersey Woman Hires Hitman As Alternative To Divorce

Woman Hires Hitman as Alternative to Divorce

July 11, 2013

Former New Jersey resident Julia Merfeld attempted to hire a hitman last month to kill her husband, citing the high cost of divorce as her primary reason.

Merfeld met twice with the hitman, who was in actuality a Michigan state detective. Both times she claimed that she chose this option over filing for divorce because of exorbitant legal fees. Investigators have found that there’s more to it than just wanting an alternative to divorce and to avoiding a potentially messy court case: her husband has a life insurance policy worth $400,000. 

While Merfeld expressed that she did not want her husband to suffer, other quotes from the video recording of her conversation with the hitman reveal a woman who was eerily casual about the entire situation. In stating her reasons for wanting to pay money to kill her husband, she said:

“When I first decided to do this … it’s not that we weren’t getting along. But … terrible as it sounds, it was easier than divorcing him … You know, I didn’t have to worry about the judgment of my family, I didn’t have to worry about breaking his heart, all that stuff like this. It’s, like, how I got a clean getaway.”

Merfeld pleaded guilty to solicitation to murder two weeks ago, on June 27. Her sentencing is set for the end of this month, on July 30, 2013.