Woman charged in plot to kill teen
A Pinehurst, Idaho, woman is accused of conspiring with her son to have a teenage relative killed and mailing a $200 down payment to a detective posing as a hit man.
Kootenai County prosecutors allege Myra L. Caldwell participated in the plot to kill the 15-year-old so she couldn’t testify against her son, William L. Caldwell, who is charged with raping the teen.
Mother and son are being held in the Kootenai County Jail on $1 million bail.
Several agencies, comprising the North Idaho Violent Crimes Task Force, built a case against the Caldwells after a tip from a jailhouse informant, according to a detective’s report.
The informant told a Post Falls police detective that William Caldwell, 40, had hatched a plan to have the girl killed, and that Caldwell told the informant that his mother would provide the girl’s picture and address.
The charges filed Monday allege that 56-year-old Myra Caldwell did just that. During the investigation, she also allegedly told a detective posing as a hit man that she would pay $200 upfront and could “probably get together another two hundred of her own money,” according to the report.
When the detective discussed the hit with Myra Caldwell over the phone, she reportedly said that killing the girl “wouldn’t hurt her feelings at all.”
Authorities recorded several phone calls between Myra and William Caldwell. In the report, the detective indicated that the two spoke in “code,” referring to the teen as a “car” at one point that needed a “paint job.”
A search warrant was served at Myra Caldwell’s home in Pinehurst on Thursday.
Authorities said weapons and ammunition were seized. She was arrested that same day in Coeur d’Alene.
William Caldwell was served with an arrest warrant at the Kootenai County Jail, where he was incarcerated on rape charges.
The rape case developed out of the discovery of a duffel bag full of letters in February.
A Post Falls woman found the bag near the Post Falls Skate Park and turned it over to police after finding letters inside that appeared to be from a young girl to an older man.
That same day in February, William Caldwell had called Post Falls police to report he’d lost the bag, which also contained prescription medications in his name.
William Caldwell is being charged as a persistent violator because of two previous felony convictions.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for robbery in 1989 and five years in prison in 1995 on drug charges.
Both Caldwells declined jailhouse interviews for this report.