From the Tallahassee Democrat
The men accused of murdering Rachel Morningstar Hoffman got their getaway car stuck in a ditch less than a half-hour after police lost contact with the confidential informant, then abandoned it and fled to Taylor County in her car, investigative reports released Friday show. The 241 pages of heavily blacked-out documents provided by the State Attorney's Office give more details about the movements of suspects Andrea Green, of Perry, and Deneilo Bradshaw, of Tallahassee, in the hours after Hoffman went missing.
The 23-year-old was killed last year while working for the Tallahassee Police Department during a botched drug sting operation, in which the first-time informant was sent alone with $13,000 to buy drugs and a handgun.
In one of the police reports, a maintenance man said he stopped to help a man fitting one suspect's description free his silver BMW between 7 and 7:30 p.m. on May 7, 2008.
Police lost all contact with Hoffman at about 6:48 p.m. Her cell phone was later found near Centerville and Pisgah Church roads.
A silver Volvo — just like the one Hoffman drove — was idling nearby, but sped off when the witness stopped. The witness lacked the tools to help get the BMW out of the dirt, became suspicious when the man opened the trunk containing neatly stacked clothing and a camouflage blanket, and left. As he drove away, the witness then watched as the silver Volvo came back.
About two hours later he drove by again and the man told police "the silver BMW was still stuck and no one was there." The car, police later learned, had been stolen days earlier from a man in Moultrie, Ga.
Hoffman's silver 2005 Volvo S40 was found about noon the following day in Taylor County. Witnesses said it had been parked there by 11:30 p.m. the night before. Hoffman's body was found the morning of May 9 in the woods nearby. Police believe she was shot with the same gun she intended to buy as part of the sting.
The name of the witness and the location of the stuck vehicle is one of many details, including the suspects' names and key locations, that are redacted in the documents.But the discernible parts of the investigators' reports show that the suspects were in Perry within an hour and a half after Hoffman was lost, passing out money to relatives and borrowing a car from a woman one had met through the social-networking Web site MySpace.
The suspects also apparently drove out of town with two juveniles, who may have later guided police to the suspects. Green and Bradshaw were eventually taken into custody outside a Macy's department store in the Orlando area.
The documents also illustrate the desperation of police to find Hoffman. Several of the officers involved noted they worked more than 24 hours straight searching for her.
The officers who searched Hoffman's apartment after she went missing reported that they found 26 grams of marijuana in a plastic bag on her bed. Hoffman, who was in a court-ordered drug diversion program, agreed to become an informant after she was busted by police with a quarter-ounce of marijuana at her east Tallahassee apartment less than a month before she was killed.
Green and Bradshaw have been charged with first degree murder. A trial date has not been set. Leon County Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker will preside.
From the time Rachel Hoffman left the Police department to the time the cops lost h er was approx. 30 minutes. WHAT???????????
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