A woman from Florida has been arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of a teenager who she allegedly lured into a wood and shot dead because she suspected him of raping her young daughter several years previously.
Connie Serbu, a mother of two, called police herself after the attack, and told them she had confronted her victim, 18-year-old Xavier Sierra, about the rape of her daughter, who was six-years-old at the time, and then shot him dead.
Serbu said she had also recruited her brother, John Vargas, 29, to help with her plot. Vargas was also shot during a fracas at the crime scene and later died of his wounds.
Serbu was served with an arrest warrant on 25 August on a charge of second-degree murder, according to documents filed with the Collier County Clerk of Courts this week.
According to court documents, Serbu told investigators “it’s all my fault” and said she didn’t want her brother to get in trouble.
She asked police to arrest her and reportedly said: “So I don’t care, he raped my daughter ... she told me everything that happened,” the documents say.
Police said that Serbu had been told by her daughter of the alleged rape in May 2016 which she said happened on two occasions several years before.
After learning of the attack, Serbu repeatedly discussed murdering Sierra with friends and other acquaintances, court documents state.
Police said Serbu’s daughter asked her mother not to hurt Sierra, and a friend told Serbu to go to the police rather than take matters into her own hands.
Detectives discovered text messages between Serbu and Sierra, a family friend, sent in July 2016 in which she asked him to come to the house to help construct a bunk bed in exchange for money.
Serbu persuaded her brother Vargas to come with her when she picked Sierra up
According to court documents, Vargas asked Sierra about the alleged rape while Serbu drove them out to the wooded area in Naples, Florida.
When they arrived, Sierra then got out of the car and tried to run away, but Vargas and Serbu chased him.
Police said Sierra wrestled with Vargas for one of two guns, and Sierra was ultimately shot with both guns a total of six times.
Vargas was shot once in the abdomen, police said. Court documents don’t say who shot Vargas but states he was shot first.
Both weapons were found at the scene, with testing showing Serbu had held at least one of the guns.
Police were later told that Vargas had mental limitations and was “easily persuaded to go along with anything”, the Naples Daily News reported.
Police said they could not comment on the case because it was still being investigated.
