LIVERPOOL -- Police say 24-year-old Joshua Ferrara plotted to have his grandparents killed. The alleged murder for hire was going on in Florida where Ferrara was. His grandparents live in Liverpool. According to the police report, their names are George and Patricia Elkins. When authorities in Florida learned of the plot, they contacted local detectives to tell the grandparents to get out of the house.
Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh says they were already looking into other allegations involving Ferrara. He says late in January they got a call from the grandparents saying that Ferrara had stolen some items from them and forged some checks, including one for $11,000.
"I think once he realized that the grandparents were pursuing a criminal case against him, I think that became part of his motivation for having them killed," Walsh says.
According to the police report, Ferrara initially offered an acquaintance $10,000 to $15,000 to kill his grandparents. That person then contacted police. The police report says Ferrara told a witness his grandparents were "worth more dead than alive" and he didn't care how it was done, as long as it was done. After the murders, according to the police report, Ferrara wanted the bodies moved to the basement so he didn't have to see his grandparents dead. And he gave details about where the grandparents live, and the nearby Dunkin Donuts where he wanted the would be assassin to meet him after the murders were done.
No one answered when we knocked on the door. It's all a shock to Dean Barney who lives across the street and is glad, no one was hurt.
Barney says, "I've known the boy since he was a baby, I would never thought he'd do anything or be accused of anything like this and they've been good neighbors."
Ferrara is charged with criminal solicitation and is being held at the Duval County jail in Florida on $750,000 bail.
