Marine ex-girlfriend pays hitman to kill son's father, who faked death

The hitman she paid for was an undercover agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and he called Sutherland to work out a new plan: Staging his own death.

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“When they brought me down to the police station and told me about this, the first thing I said is, ‘I’m being punked,’” Sutherland told The Daily Beast. “$3,000 (was what she paid for his death). Are you (expletive) kidding me? My life’s only worth $3,000?”

Buckingham, who is a former Marine and baker, was allegedly upset with the circumstances of their separation and that she had to drive from her home in Roane County, Tenn. to New Albany, Ind., where Sutherland lived. She had moved to Tennessee with her boyfriend, Joseph Chamblin, who came to the authorities with her murder plot, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports.

Roane County Deputy Sheriff Tim Phillips told The Daily Beast that Buckingham asked Chamblin about killing Sutherland first because “she knew he’d been in the military in the past, that he was a Marine Corps sniper, and she felt that maybe he had friends that he had served with and would make her boyfriend disappear.”

The Washington Post reported that the hit man she spoke to was actually an undercover agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

After Chamblin handed over audio of Buckingham admitting to the plot, she was arrested and charged with criminal intent to commit first-degree murder.

Buckingham 's bail was $150,000. She is due in court May 2.