By AMY JONES / Associate Editor

HOOVER — An 82-year-old Hoover woman was recently arrested and charged with conspiracy to murder three family members.

On April 18, Hoover Police took Sue Chastain Hutchison into custody in the Lee Branch shopping center parking lot, according to a Hoover Police Department press release.

On April 15, Hoover Police first received a report that Hutchison was attempting to pay to have family members killed. Hutchison appeared to be concerned about who might inherit her husband’s estate upon his death, according to the release.

Over several days, Hutchison planned three meetings with a person she believed to be a “middle man,” who supposedly knew a third person who would commit the murders. She exchanged money with the middle man during two of those meetings, according to the release.

Hutchison also gave a deadline for the murders, and insisted that the crimes not be referred to with the word “killed,” but rather with the word “eliminated.”

When detectives interviewed Hutchison, she admitted to planning the murders. She believed the murders would happen on the night of April 17, and said she watched the local news on April 18 to see if there was a story about the murders, according to Hoover Police.

Hutchison has been charged with three counts of solicitation to commit murder and three counts of conspiracy to commit murder. She is being held in the Shelby County Jail on bonds totaling $600,000.