Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jun 2009
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Copyright: 2009 Tallahassee Democrat
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/hdEs6Z0o
Website: http://www.tallahassee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/444
Author: Jennifer Portman, Democrat Senior Writer

HEAVILY REDACTED DOCUMENTS RELEASED IN HOFFMAN CASE

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.
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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.
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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. 
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