A 23-year-old New Jersey man is accused of plotting to pay an NYPD officer to kidnap a woman and bring her to his home to be raped -- the latest twist in a bizarre plot that envisioned cooking, roasting and eating women.
Michael Vanhise allegedly plotted with 28-year-old Gilberto Valle, an NYPD officer from Queens who was charged in October with two counts of attempted kidnapping. Valle allegedly fantasized about how "tasty" one potential victim looked, and told a co-conspirator that his oven is "big enough to fit one of these girls if I folded their legs."
Federal prosecutors said Friday that Vanhise is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. They say he sent Valle a photo of a woman and was planning to pay Valle $5,000 to kidnap her.
"Just so that you know she may be knocked out when I get her to you. I don't know how long the solvent I am using will last but I have to knock her out to get her out of her apartment safely," Valle wrote in an email, according to prosecutors.
"I definitely want her and how much again, I'm sorry to ask but I don't remember," Vanhise allegedly wrote back. "Just make sure she doesn't die before I get her," he later wrote.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Vanhise's arrest "is the second in this bone-chilling case, but we are not finished." At least two other co-conspirators are involved, according to court papers.
Information on an attorney for Vanhise was not immediately available.
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Defense lawyer Julia Gato has said in court Valle's online chats were "just idle talk," pointing out no ropes, chemicals or other suspicious material were found in his home.
"We're talking about someone with a fantasy, in a deviant world where people talk about unreal things," said Gato. "At worst, he has sexual fantasies about people he knows."
Gato said Valle was a respected officer in the NYPD, with six and a half years on the force. He was suspended from the NYPD pending the outcome of the case.
