Deadly arrangement

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

Matthew O'Shaughnessy:

I work in a gang unit, arresting gang members for gun and drug violations. But in this case we had an actual victim out there. We had someone looking to kill someone, so that raises the stakes of the investigation quite a bit. If you could save someone's life, I think that's the ultimate goal. My name is Matthew O'Shaughnessy. I'm a special agent for the Boston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. I received a phone call from a confidential informant who informed me that this fellow inmate asked him if he knew anybody on the outside who could have his wife and child killed.

Chris Hansen, Dateline NBC: Let me set the stage for you. Guillermo Vasco is a law student. He is married to Dr. Tricia Vasco. She has a family practice in a small town in Massachusetts. After their daughter is born the relationship sours, and she kicks him out of the house. He returns and kidnaps his wife and her daughter. She manages to break away and alert police. Guillermo is arrested. He is now behind bars charged with kidnapping, raping and assaulting his wife.

The informer tells Agent O'Shaughnessey that Guillermo wants to get rid of his wife so she cannot testify at his upcoming trial. But before Guillermo can be charged with murder-for-hire Agent O'Shaughnessey and his team need more evidence. I went to meet Agent O'Shaughnessey at the prison where Guillermo had been held to find out how they were going to get it.

Chris Hansen: Clearly you thought you had enough to open an investigation. What did you do the next?

Matthew O'Shaughnessy: The only way to get it done properly was to hire an undercover hitman.

Chris Hansen: So one of your guys goes in posing as a hitman.

Matthew O'Shaughnessy: That's correct.

Chris Hansen: Why was it so important to act quickly?

Matthew O'Shaughnessy: We had to act fast in this investigation because the inmate who wanted to have his wife and daughter murdered, could have gone outside and potentially hired someone else to have them killed.

Matthew O'Shaughnessey: We came up with a plan that we would have the informant advise Guillermo to write a letter to an undercover PO Box in Portland, Maine detailing what he wanted done to his wife and child.

Matthew O'Shaughnessey: The letter was written in block letters. His English wasn't all that great. So he wrote, it was very deliberate writing, almost like what a child would write. And it was written in a code. Talked about his wife as the dog and the baby as the puppy. Basically talking about a trip down to his home country of Equador. The dog is not going to survive the trip and that the hitman should bury her 10 feet down. He talked that if the puppy couldn't make the trip down the Equador, that the puppy meet the same fate as the dog.

Matthew O'Shaughnessey: I briefed Ken Croke who I'd asked to act as the undercover hitman in this case. He'd be equipped with electronic surveillance equipment. It would be great evidence in a court of law, where we'd have video and audio of our meeting.

Matthew O'Shaughnessey: Ken Croke, he has vast experience in undercover work, and has done prior murder-for-hire cases where he posed as a hitman in the past.

Matthew O'Shaughnessey: He looks like a hitman.

Ken Croke: People who do this are desperate, and I don't think they really know what to expect. For me, it's all about communication. You can't just talk, you can't set the whole scheme up.You want to hear from them what it is they want you to do. Because that's what you're there for; to gain the evidence.

Ken Croke: My name is Ken Croke. I'm an undercover special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives.

Ken Croke: One of the difficulties with this particular investigation was the fact that Vasco was already incarcerated.

Ken Croke: Jails are a small environment, and -- not that anybody who's working at the jail would tip off what we were doing. But inmates, they're amazing when it comes to detail.They are in such a routine; they are very keen to exactly what goes on in that prison every single day.And just, you know, a guard spending a little bit more time in one area kind of watching something that may be enough to tip these guys off.

Ken Croke: So Special Agent O'Shaughnessey and I had to devise a plan in order to get inside the jail. In this particular facility the only people who get to meet face-to-face with the inmates are their lawyers.So, we came up with the story that I was going to pose as an attorney and enter the facility in order to meet with Vasco face-to-face.

Ken Croke: Deceiving a criminal is one thing. Deceiving prison guards or investigators is a whole different thing. In this investigation, there was really no choice. I mean, somebody's life lies in the balance.

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