A New Jersey hairdresser has been indicted for allegedly attempting to hire a hitman she met on Tinder to kill her ex-boyfriend and his teenage daughter.
Jaclyn Diiorio, 28, was charged with two counts of using interstate facilities to facilitate a murder-for-hire scheme, as stated by the Department of Justice.
According to a federal indictment, Diiorio used her phone and sought the help of a confidential informant to arrange the killing of her ex-boyfriend, Philadelphia police officer Matthew O’Hanlon, and his 19-year-old daughter.
Authorities arrested Diiorio in Gloucester Township back in April after she began negotiations with the informant for the murder.
She initially connected with the purported hitman through Tinder and communicated through calls and texts from March 31 to April 3, indicating she wanted her ex-boyfriend dead and revealing his law enforcement background, prosecutors reported.
Diiorio and the fake hitman first met at a Wawa store in Runnemede on March 31 after their discussions. They later met again at a Dollar General on April 4, where she handed over $500 as a down payment, assuring the informant that she would pay approximately $12,000 in total for the job.
However, the informant alerted Camden County detectives, who contacted Philadelphia Police to warn them as well as the intended victims.
Upon her arrest, officers discovered an unlabeled bottle of pills suspected to contain alprazolam. Diiorio now faces multiple charges, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, along with possession of a controlled dangerous substance.
Following the federal indictment, county prosecutors dropped their own charges, leaving the federal authorities to handle the case.
Prosecutors indicated this wasn’t Diiorio’s first attempt at hiring someone to kill her ex and his daughter. She reportedly mentioned to the informant that she had been previously misled by others who provided her with counterfeit evidence of a murder contract, according to reports.
At the time of the plot, Diiorio and O’Hanlon had already been separated for over a month.
Currently, Diiorio is in federal custody, with a detention hearing set for Monday. Her attorney, Robert Gamburg, has stated she plans to plead not guilty.
Before the federal charges were filed, Gamburg sought to have the county charges dismissed, claiming that the evidence was obtained through entrapment. He characterized the informant as a desperate individual motivated by financial gain, arguing that their communications went unmonitored for significant periods leading up to Diiorio’s arrest.
If convicted, Diiorio could face up to 20 years in federal prison.
