A Miami father is defending his daughter amid allegations she went onto a parody website to request a hitman to kill her toddler son.
Jazmin Paez, 18, was arrested Tuesday after police said she visited rentahitman.com and requested a killer to murder her 3-year-old before the end of the week.
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According to an arrest report, Paez offered $3,000 and even sent photos and an address of where her child would be. Police said the child was living with her grandmother at the time, after Paez became a mother at around 15 years old.
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The parody website was initially for a cybersecurity company but over the years, alleged criminals have contacted it seeking hitman services.
In an online form, Paez allegedly wrote she wanted to have her son killed "to get something done once and for all." Her extra request was "to be taken away, far, far, far away and possibly be killed but ASAP."
Once Paez's request came in, the website owner contacted Miami-Dade Police, who arrested her on charges of soliciting murder and unlawful use of a communications device.
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On Thursday, NBC6 spoke with Paez's father, who said the case is not what it seems. He said Paez has medical complications and has had over 12 surgeries in her lifetime.
"My daughter is not a monster," the father said in Spanish. "My daughter is a little girl who was born with health problems. She has liquid retained in her neck. She's had 12 surgeries, she lost the ability to move her face. She's been bullied in school, they called her 'the monster.'"
The father added that he's confident the justice system will bring out the truth.
A judge granted Paez a $15,000 bond, and she's been released from jail.
Family members told NBC6 the toddler is safe and with relatives. The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified, according to records.
Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Police admitted there was a delay in the investigation because of how unique the story was.
The website's owner, Robert Innes, said he'd called Miami-Dade's non-emergency number three times but he was referred to Crime Stoppers. He said on the third call, a detective was put on the case.
"Because of the fact that it involved online allegations, so that's what caused a little bit of a delay when he called a couple of times, but then once they were able to get a grasp on exactly what he was referring to and how this is playing out, that’s when the call taker passed that information to the on-duty supervisor in the communications bureau," Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said.
Zabaleta said once the investigation began, they arrested Paez within hours.
"The communications bureau has been in talks with us all day because of the fact that this is so bizarre, where we can utilize this now and create a best practice because of the fact that, simply because you run into something that's a little bizarre and it’s the first time you run into it, doesn’t mean you'll never run into it again," Zabaleta said.
