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Overflow Crowd Mourns Slain Police Informant

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By CARLOS MONCADA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 13, 2008

PALM HARBOR - About 800 friends and family members gathered today for the funeral service of Rachel Hoffman, the 23-year-old Countryside High School graduate killed last week while acting as a confidential police informant.

The crowd was too large for the sanctuary at Temple Ahavat Shalom. More than 100 extra seats had to be pulled from a side room and set up in the back.

"I knew there would be a lot," Margie Weiss, Hoffman's mother, told the crowd of mourners. "I told them, 'We have to build another sanctuary.' "

Weiss and Hoffman's father, Irv Hoffman, paid tribute to their daughter during the hourlong service, as did several friends. She was remembered as someone who was gentle and kind, a person with a big smile and a zest for life.

No mention was made of the circumstances surrounding her death — posing as a drug buyer for the Tallahassee Police Department in a drug sting gone awry.

"To me, this is not a funeral but a celebration of her life," Weiss said. "As long as I'm alive, my daughter will be alive through me."

A large magnet on his daughter's refrigerator at her Tallahassee apartment summed up the way she lived her life, Hoffman said.

It reads "Be Alive," and it urges people to think freely, smile often, tell those you love that you do, rediscover old friends, make new ones, hope, grow and give.

"She packed a lot of life in her 23 years," a weeping Hoffman said. "And I wish I was more like her, celebrating life."

After the ceremony, pall bearers carried Hoffman's casket into a waiting hearse that took her to nearby Curlew Hills cemetery.

Rachel Hoffman's body was found early Friday in rural Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee. Police have come under heavy criticism from family and friends for putting the Florida State University graduate in a dangerous situation.

At the request of Tallahassee police Chief Dennis Jones, the Florida Attorney General's Office is reviewing events that led to Hoffman's death.

The undercover operation began when Hoffman agreed to work with police after she was arrested on several drug charges, including possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and possession with intent to sell ecstasy.

She agreed to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine or crack cocaine and a gun as part of the police investigation, the Tallahassee Democrat has reported.

Before the drug deal, Hoffman called investigators to tell them the location of the meeting had changed. Investigators told her to stay at the park location set up by narcotics officers, but Hoffman hung up. Few details have emerged on what happened after that.

Hoffman's family and friends said police should not have used a woefully unprepared young woman to build a case against dangerous people.

Weiss said she is forming a foundation to push for a requirement for confidential informants to seek legal advice before consenting to undercover work. It also would decriminalize marijuana convictions.

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com.

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