PCSO: ‘Murder for Hire’ Plot Foiled

A daycare teacher from Hiram was arrested Friday after authorities investigated a murder for hire plot.

On Friday, detectives with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division and agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Calhoun Regional Office arrested 48-year-old Melissa Bennett Silvers at Lost Mountain Academy Daycare where she worked as a teacher. Authorities subsequently charged her with conspiracy to commit murder, a felony.

According to a PCSO news release, about two weeks ago an undercover agent was contacted by Silvers in reference to a plot to kill her ex-husband. The agent spoke with Silvers on the phone over the course of two weeks discussing the details until she finally met with him in person. Silvers met the agent in the parking lot of a local Dallas business Thursday evening to finalize the details of the murder for hire.

Silvers paid the agent a portion of the agreed upon price for the job. She had also devised a plan for her ex-husband to be at their home around 8:30 a.m. Friday to receive a load of firewood—the agent was supposed to be the firewood delivery person and while he was there was supposed to shoot and kill Silvers’ ex-husband. Silvers was adamant that she wanted the incident to take place outside so there was no mess inside the home.

Silvers and her ex-husband had been divorced since January but he allowed her to live in his residence because of their adopted children. It is unknown what Silvers’ motive was regarding the “murder for hire” plot, authorities said.

Silvers as of Monday afternoon was being held in the Paulding County Detention Center with no bond.