Woman charged in murder plot

COEUR d’ALENE – Jealousy appeared to be the motive, Coeur d’Alene police said, when a Yakima woman tried to hire a hit man to kill a female friend who was involved with an ex-boyfriend.

Valerie Hansen Colbert, 47, was arrested Thursday near the ballfields on Ramsey Road in Coeur d’Alene after handing an envelope containing approximately $2,000 – police would not release the exact amount – and instructions on who to kill to an undercover detective. Colbert believed the detective was a man who would murder for hire, police said.

Colbert, formerly of Coeur d’Alene, made her first appearance in Kootenai County 1st District Court Friday afternoon. She was being held on $500,000 bail on a charge of solicitation for murder.

The arrest was set up after two men approached police just before Halloween with a bizarre story about being asked to permanently disfigure or kill someone for cash.

A 23-year-old man said he recently began receiving repeated telephone calls from a woman he knew only as “Susan,” asking if he wanted a job, police accounts say. He told police he did not know how the woman got his telephone number. The man met with “Susan” in the parking lot of a Coeur d’Alene elementary school Oct. 29 and the woman said she would pay $2,000 to have someone maimed or killed.

The man said he didn’t do that sort of work, police accounts say.

After talking the situation over, the man and his roommate went to police the next day, reported the incident and passed along a phone number for the woman.

An undercover detective with the Kootenai County Drug Task Force contacted the woman and, after exchanging several messages, agreed to meet at the Ramsey sports fields Thursday.