First-degree murder charges were filed last week against Velma Ogden-Whitehead, 48, the wife of murdered Des Moines resident Ron Whitehead.

Ogden-Whitehead's 18-year-old son John Ogden and his 17-year-old friend Wilson Sayachack were also charged with first-degree murder for the March 18, 2005, shooting death of Whitehead.

Investigators with the King County Sheriff's Office initially believed the murder was a random carjacking after Whitehead, 61, was murdered and his body was pushed from his Ford Mustang and left in the intersection of Eighth Avenue South and South 188th Street near Sea-Tac International Airport.

Last March, on the one-year anniversary of the slaying, Ogden-Whitehead pleaded on local television news channels for the killer to come forward.

However, she, along with her son and his friend, were arrested for her husband's murder on June 23.

According to charging papers filed by prosecutors in King County Superior Court, Ogden-Whitehead allegedly was the mastermind behind the killing.

She allegedly paid Sayachack $1,000 to murder Whitehead.

On March 18, 2005, shortly before 6 a.m., prosecutors alleged, Ogden was riding in the passenger seat and Sayachack was hiding in the trunk as Whitehead was drove his black Mustang to work at a Boeing office.

While the car was stopped at the intersection, Sayachack allegedly crawled through the fold-down backseat and shot Whitehead in the head. Ogden allegedly pushed Whitehead from the car and shot him three more times.

According to the charging papers, they left him lying dead in the middle of the intersection.