Police: Tax refund offered for ex-boyfriend hit

BAKER CITY, Ore. – A woman accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her former boyfriend offered an undercover officer $80 as a down payment and then promised to pay for the killing with $1,000 from her income-tax refund, Baker City police said.

Police got a tip from a relative of Emily Alicia Munsell, 24, on Friday, called Munsell and got the offer, the Baker City Herald reported Wednesday.

Munsell first solicited help from the relative in making the former boyfriend “disappear,” but the relative refused, Detective Jay Lohner said in a police report.

Lohner said that when he called Munsell, he told her he was a friend of the relative and wanted to help her. After getting the offer, Lohner said, he and another officer went to Munsell’s home to arrest her.

Munsell has been held on $500,000 bail. She has not entered a plea, and her next scheduled court appearance is Jan. 22. Her lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.

She is charged with solicitation to commit murder. A grand jury will hear the case to see whether further charges are warranted, District Attorney Matt Shirtcliff said.

In May, Munsell won a restraining order against the former boyfriend, the father of her child, accusing him of pointing a gun at her, and she canceled the order in September, records show.

She asked Judge Greg Baxter on Dec. 23 to rescind her former boyfriend’s parental time with their son, citing an Oregon law that deals with “immediate danger” to a child.

Baxter denied Munsell’s request.