Muskegon mom caught in plot to kill husband

Julia Merfeld, 21, caught attempting to hire killer for husband

MUSKEGON, Mich. – A young Muskegon mother was caught on a hidden camera trying to pay someone to kill her husband.

The 21-year-old mother of two shopped around for a hitman to whack her husband and wound up the star of a cops hidden camera movie.

On the tape, Julia Merfeld thinks she is hiring a hitman when she gets into his car to seal the deal. The undercover cop she is really talking with agrees that robbery is the best plan.

Merfeld offers up an X-box and a 20-inch flat screen TV as collateral for payment along with $100.

She says she wants the hit to be clean and easy; her prize $400,000 in insurance money. 

"I don't want to be the one to come home to that," Merfeld says on tape. "I want to be like, if the cops call me or come to work, I want to be at work already so I don't have to worry about how did you discover it, blah blah blah."

Merfeld next is heard asking the undercover officer to wait to kill her husband until he can see their kids one last time.

"If he can just see them one more time, I mean we were going to go to Jersey with them. When I first decided to do this it's not like we weren't getting along, but I was just easier, as terrible as it sounds, it was easier then divorcing him. I don't have to worry about the judgment of my family, not breaking his heart, not stuff like this if I kind of got a clean getaway," Merfeld said.

When she exits the car, the last thing you hear on the tape is the cop saying "here she comes." 

Merfeld is taken down by police and charged with solicitation for murder. She actually pleads guilty, but her husband Jake says he doesn't want his wife to do any jail time. 

Despite the husband's request, Merfeld is going away for at least six years when she's sentenced. 

 

 

 

 


About the Author:

Paula Tutman is an Emmy award-winning journalist who came to Local 4 in 1992. She's married and the stepmother of three beautiful and brilliant daughters. Her personal philosophy in life, love and community is, "Do as much as you can possibly do, not as little as you can possibly get away with".