Annie Lee Cole had another bad-check charge hanging over her head and risked going back to jail. So, police say, she cooked up a deadly plot to escape her criminal past.
Cole had 28-year-old Stella Sproule kidnapped and killed, then assumed Sproule's hard-working, squeaky-clean identity, police said."I've been at homicide for the better part of 20 years and I've never seen a homicide incident that was more calculating or more devious than this," Lt. Thomas Peterson told WDIV-TV.
Cole, 32, was in custody in Indianola, Miss., where police said she had fled to stay with relatives. Her nephew, Leander Foster, 16, and Stewart McCoy, 17, were arraigned Thursday on murder and armed robbery charges.
Police believe Cole - who had a long record of fraud convictions and risked going back to jail for violating her parole - hired the two Detroit teenagers to carry out the slaying for $5,000 each.
"She knew that she was probably going to go back to prison. That was the motive behind the plan to kidnap Stella Sproule," Peterson said.
After Sproule's slaying, Cole went to a JC Penney store, using Sproule's credit card to make a purchase that was captured on a security camera, investigators said.
"I don't know what to say. We're just in shock" Sproule's sister, Ramona Wright, told the Detroit Free Press.
The plot began unraveling earlier this week, when police realized that a bullet-riddled body found in an abandoned house had been mistakenly identified as that of Annie Lee Cole.
"The body was taken to the funeral home and was ready for cremation, but our guys decided something was not right," Deputy Chief George Clarkson said.
This is what police believe happened:
Cole and Sproule were former co-workers at Transpak, a Sterling Heights auto supply company where Sproule still worked.
Cole arranged to meet Sproule on May 3 during Sproule's lunch break so that Sproule could give Cole an employment application to a department store.
When Sproule arrived at the store parking lot, she was met by two men who said they were there on Cole's behalf. They forced Sproule into her car at gunpoint and drove to a vacant building in Detroit. There, Foster shot her in the head three times, then fled with McCoy in her car and the $8 in her purse, Clarkson said.
Two days later, Foster phoned police anonymously, saying there was a body in the vacant building. A woman identifying herself as Betty Cole was at the building when investigators arrived and said she was looking for her missing sister.
Officers showed the woman the body. She said it was Annie Lee Cole's.
The body was taken to the morgue. It was to have been cremated Tuesday at a funeral home.
But during a follow-up investigation, police spoke with a brother of Cole's who told them that Annie Cole was still alive.