Woman Wanted Husband Dead

Norma McDermott Accused Of Trying To Hire Hitman

POSTED: Thursday, August 19, 2010
UPDATED: 8:03 pm EDT August 19, 2010

PORT HURON, Mich. -- A 42-year-old Michigan woman was arrested Tuesday after she tried to hire an undercover police officer to kill her husband, the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office said.

Sheriff Tim Donnellon said Norma McDermott and her 47-year-old husband, Joe McDermott, live in Lexington, but that McDermott was arrested in the parking lot of Birchwood Mall just after 9 p.m. while she was making a deal with an undercover officer to hire him as a hit man.

Donnellon said McDermott had called a friend inquiring into how she could find a person to kill her husband of 11 years. That person called authorities, who then set up the meeting with the undercover officer and McDermott.

"I said it was stupid and she realizes now it was stupid," said McDermott's daughter, Heather Downs.

Downs said she expected her parents to file for divorce because of past problems but said she never thought her mother would do anything criminal.

Donnellon said it's not exactly clear why the woman would want to kill her husband, except for "major marital disharmony."

McDermott was arraigned Thursday on an attempted murder charge. She is being held on a $750,000 bond. If she posts bail, she has been court ordered to stay away from her husband.

From: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/24690903/detail.html