COVINGTON — A federal grand jury indicted a 39-year-old Gallatin County, Ky., woman on two counts of murder for hire in an alleged plot to have her 80- year-old husband of five months killed.

        If convicted, Elizabeth Furnish faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

        She is being held in the Kenton County Jail.

Mrs. Furnish

        Mrs. Furnish, originally from the Boston area, is accused of plotting in January to have husband Charles “Shot” Furnish killed.

        A man she allegedly contacted about her plot agreed to be an informant with police and eventually set her up with a “hit man” who really was an undercover FBI agent, police have said.

        She agreed to pay the agent $4,500 and gave him a $500 down payment, authorities said. She also showed the agent how to get into their home through a side door, they said.

        The FBI says the motive was money. Agents said Mrs. Furnish thought her husband, a retired carpenter from Detroit, was worth between $1 million and $2 million.

        Mr. Furnish had moved back to his hometown of Sparta, Ky., after his first wife of 52 years died. Mr. Furnish met his new wife through family; she was a friend of a brother's stepdaughter.

        Mrs. Furnish's attorney, David Fessler, said the allegations against his client are flimsy. He said she had been drinking heavily and abusing painkillers in the weeks before her arrest.

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