Neighbors shocked by murder-for-hire plot

KOMO-TV STAFF

This Pierce County community is in shock after learning that a Boeing employee has been accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife.

The man who claims he was hired to kill the wife turned to police - who stopped the alleged plot.

But stunned neighbors are still reeling, and news of the unusual crime has some in utter disbelief.

"It's like, 'What the heck is going on around here?' I don't know," says one neighbor, Tanya Wooten.

Says another neighbor, who asked not to be identified: "I'm amazed and bewildered. I mean, we just would have never expected that. They seem like very nice people."

The "nice people," who live on a quiet gravel street in Bonney Lake are now at the center of a murder-for-hire plot.

Police say the husband, Daniel Fiscus, paid a would-be hit man $5,000 to kill his wife - and then make it look like an accident.

"That close to home, it concerns me," says one neighbor. "I mean, I had no idea. He never came off as that type of person."

Police allege that Fiscus wanted to collect on his wife's insurance policy. But Fiscus has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit murder.

And his wife says she was "living in constant fear" that her "aggressive and hostile" husband might harm her in divorce papers filed in mid-November.

One month later, investigators say, Fiscus sought out a hit man and paid him, and that man came forward to police.

"I mean, that's pretty serious accusations that are made against him. That's pretty scary stuff," says one neighbor.

Daniel Fiscus is currently being held in the Pierce County jail on $5 million bail.

His wife reportedly went to an undisclosed location after the couple separated. She told the courts it was because she feared for her life.

Fiscus has no prior criminal history.