Three Oklahoma sisters were sentenced to federal prison this week for an interstate murder plot that involved “disguises” and “climbing rope” but ultimately failed spectacularly.
FBI Special Agent Johnnie Sharp Jr. and the Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona announced Friday that Tierzah Maspeh, 29, was convicted for crimes including conspiracy to commit interstate stalking, discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and multiple counts of interstate stalking. AL.com reports that for her crimes, the mother was sentenced to 60 months in a federal prison.
And Tierzah wasn’t alone in court. For collaborating with their sister in the murderous plan, Charis Mapson, 33, and Elisa Mapson, 25, each received 120 months behind bars for similar charges.
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The plot centered on Tierzah’s interstate custody arrangement with the murder target: her ex-husband. The couple lived together in North Carolina before divorcing, but not before having a child together in 2013, the Trussville Tribune reports. When the couple went their separate ways, Tierzah wound up west in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while her ex headed south to Winter Park, Florida, near Orlando. He eventually remarried, and the couple’s child was passed between the two.
But at some point, the arrangement simply wasn’t working for Tierzah, who prosecutors say began conspiring with her sisters to alter the custody arrangement. Their solution was simple: kill the child’s father and his new wife.
The goal was to lure the father and his wife to a meeting spot in Walker County, in north Alabama, where they would be shot, prosecutors said.
To execute the plan, federal investigators say the Mapson sisters prepared disguises, crafted elaborate lies, and camped across state lines. Investigators say they later found a note on Tierzah’s phone with a supply and to-do list that included: “disguises, ladder, climbing rope, binoculars, ‘write down what to text Thorn,’ luck beads, bless and luck, gloves and ‘after avoid Ala.’’’ Tierzah’s white 2009 Ford F-150 pickup was even striped with black bars as a disguise, AL.com reports.
The sisters also set a specific day to carry out the plan: June 18, 2018.
On that day, the sisters—and unassuming father—convened on what the Mapson’s hoped would become the official death spot. Eldridge, Alabama, is a small town about 60 miles northwest of Birmingham. It was to a small church in Eldridge that the father drove, as planned, with his wife to collect his child. Around 4:30 p.m., a white truck was seen turning into the parking lot of the church, federal investigators said, adding, “The truck disappeared behind the church, where there is a narrow alley between the church and a wooded hill rising behind it.’’
Investigators would report that over 150 text messages and calls were exchanged between the sisters that day as they coordinated their locations and confirmed details. One message—“It’s just a Halo.”—was sent from Elisa to Charis as a supposed reference to the sharp-shooting video game, AL.com reports.
Within an hour of the white truck retreating behind the church, the father texted Tierzah to confirm the spot—she replied she was running late, claiming, “Sorry, a little while longer. (The baby) got sick and puked.”
About twenty minute later, as the father waited for the mother of his child, he was pierced in the shoulder by a bullet that struck through the trunk of the car. As seen on a nearby store’s surveillance camera, he and his wife scrambled to get out of the car and into the store as more shots were fired near them.
At a hospital in Tuscaloosa, it was determined that the father would survive his wounds. And as investigators began piecing together the events that led to the seemingly random shooting, it was determined that the shots had been fired from the wooded area behind the church—where the white truck had been seen.
According to AL.com, the sisters were quickly suspected of firing the shots. In late June, investigators pressed Tierzah on why her truck had been identified in Alabama, and she claimed that a “stalker” had snatched her truck and driven it through Alabama to visit her ex. Charis also claimed she had never been to Alabama that summer.
Once an indictment was filed against the sisters on August 29, officers tracked Tierzah and Elisa to a hideout in Fortuna, California, where they were considered “armed and dangerous,” according to a press release from the Fortuna Police Department. The police said the two sisters were arrested after a struggle, and Charis was also later detained.
In July 2021, they were convicted for the scheme and are now preparing to serve their sentenced time in federal prison.
“I applaud the sentences handed down today, as the Mapsons showed no regard for human life as they carried out their conspiracy,” Sharp of the FBI said following the sisters’ sentencing. “This case is a perfect example of how law enforcement can combine resources and efforts to bring violent criminals to justice.”
