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Parents Blame Tallahassee Police In Drug Informant's Death
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Police say 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman's body was found early Friday in rural Taylor County.
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Published: May 12, 2008
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TALLAHASSEE - Irv Hoffman and Margie Weiss spent Mother's Day planning their only child's funeral.
"We had to go to her apartment and turn off the utilities and go through her things. This was a kid who was going to go far in life," Weiss, of Safety Harbor, said Sunday during a drive back from Tallahassee.
Police say 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman's body was found early Friday in rural Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee, after a two-day search. Two people are in custody.
The Pinellas County woman, a graduate of Countryside High School in Clearwater, was cooperating with the narcotics squad in an investigation when she disappeared Wednesday.
Her father said it didn't make any sense involving his daughter in a drug and weapons investigation.
"To throw her to the lions, it's just too unbearable to think about," said Hoffman, 58, of Palm Harbor.
At a news conference Sunday, attorneys for the woman's family said Hoffman should not have been placed in such a dangerous situation.
Attorney Johnny Devine criticized Tallahassee police, saying authorities blamed Hoffman, a recent graduate of Florida State University, for her death.
Hoffman, who was facing several felony charges, had agreed to cooperate with narcotics officers and was posing as a buyer.
Police have said Hoffman didn't follow protocol when she left with Andrea J. Green and Deneilo Bradshaw, who are now suspects in her disappearance and death.
Green and Bradshaw both face kidnapping and armed robbery charges. Jail records show they have not made court appearances or been granted bail.
Authorities should have done a better job protecting Hoffman, Devine said.
Her parents remembered a vivacious young woman who loved life and "was a shining light whenever she walked into a room," Weiss, 57, said.
"She was the most loving, beautiful girl you could meet," her father said.
"She wanted to go to culinary school. She wanted to open a restaurant with a friend. She loved nature, music and art," he said. "I feel like the wind has been kicked out of me."
Although Hoffman majored in psychology at FSU, her passion was cooking. She wanted to attend a culinary school in Arizona.
"She always had room in her heart and a place at a table," said Susan Mike, a family friend.
Weiss said she wants to push for a law in which confidential informants are required to seek legal advice before consenting to undercover work. She also wants marijuana convictions decriminalized.
She said her daughter called two weeks ago to tell her she wanted to work undercover with the Tallahassee police to expunge her arrest record, which included a marijuana charge. Weiss advised against it.
"It was totally wrong. She trusted them. She put her trust in them," she said.
Officers established a safe zone in the area where Hoffman was supposed to purchase ecstasy, cocaine and a gun, Tallahassee police spokesman David McCranie said. An investigator told her not to go to another location.
Devine, who represented Hoffman on previous drug charges, said neither he nor the state attorney's office knew about the arrangement.
Department policy did not call for the state attorney's office to be notified, and it was Hoffman's responsibility to inform her attorney of the situation, McCranie said.
The funeral service for Hoffman will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor.
"She was an innocent, and they try to slander her," Weiss said. "It's Mother's Day, and they're trying to make my daughter sound like a criminal."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or rshopes@tampatrib.com.
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