Pediatric nurse 'tried to hire a hitman to kill her husband for $1M life insurance policy'

By Michael Zennie

Last updated at 9:45 PM on 26th February 2012

A pediatric nurse and the mother of two children in Tacoma, Washington, allegedly tried to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband so she could cash out his $1 million life insurance policy.

Karen Lofgren, 47, reached out to a longtime friend who was on federal probation and asked him to find a man who would murder her husband of eight years and make it look like a botched robbery.

She said she would give the killer half of the life insurance money and even handed over a pair of $5,000 diamond earrings as a down payment to show how serious she was, according to police.

Hiding: Karen Lofgren used her long hair to shield her face as she walked in to court to hear charges she tried to hire a hitman on her husband

But Lofgren's friend went to his probation officer and became a police informant. And the 'assassin' he found for her was actually an undercover police detective.

The detective tried several times to offer Lofgren the chance to back out of her plot, but she stuck to her guns, according to prosecutors.

'Lofgren assured the detective that she was serious about the plan and had been thinking about it for three years,' according to court reports.

She told the informant her problems would disappear if her husband, with whom she was fighting a messy divorce battle, died.

She hid her face with her long blond hair as she was escorted into court Friday and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation for first-degree murder.

Nurse: Lofgren worked for 20 years as a pediatric nurse at Mary Bridge Children's Health Center in Tacoma, Washington

Her lawyer, Wayne Fricke, told the Tacoma News-Tribune the idea to kill Lofgren's husband was 'planted' in her head by someone else.

He said his client has been a nurse for 20 years at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Medical Center and had a 'pristine' record.

'I haven’t seen the reports, so I don’t have a lot of information,” Fricke told the News-Tribune.

'But this is not what it seems.'

Her estranged husband, Todd Hardin, said he previously suspected she might be trying to kill him because of hushed conversations he overheard while they were still together.

'I fear for my life. Karen is a very unstable person who will try anything to keep me from our girls,' he told KING 5 news.

Lofgren was being held on $1 million bail.