Sandra Hill Treadway

A woman who works in Athens was the alleged target of a Town Creek grandmother accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her.

Alabama court records show Sandra Hill Treadway, 54, of 6337 Alabama 101, is charged with solicitation of murder for trying to hire someone to kill her son’s former girlfriend, Lyndsey Brooke Grindol, 27, of 114 Woodland Hills Drive, Florence. Grindol, an emergency medical technician, works for Athens-Limestone Ambulance Service. Grindol was not working Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

Investigators believe Treadway had objected to Grindol’s attempts to try to gain custody of the 5-year-old child of Grindol and Treadway’s son, Matthew. Grindol had been charged with child abuse in 2013, Lawrence County court records show. The case against her was dropped May 12, 2014, because the charge could not be proved, records show. The charge could be reinstated should evidence surface to support it.

Before Sandra Treadway’s arrest Nov. 3, Matthew had custody of the couple’s child. The boy lived with Sandra and Matthew at Sandra’s Town Creek home. Matthew has since moved to Decatur. Grindol now has temporary custody of the child, records show.

The alleged plot

A Nov. 3 complaint, filed in Lawrence County District Court, charges Treadway with solicitation of murder for allegedly “paying and undercover investigator during a controlled undercover murder-for-hire operation to murder Lyndsey Grindol. The offender paid the undercover (whom she believed was a hitman) $750 as a down payment on Oct. 22, 2015, and agreed to pay the remainder of $1,250 after the murder was completed. After staging the murder of Grindol and after sending a picture of Grindol’s murder scene, the offender met with the undercover to complete the money transaction and furnish the undercover $500 in the Woodland parking lot in Moulton.”

A Dec. 3 preliminary hearing is scheduled for Treadway, court records show.

Treadway gave the undercover officer (hitman) detailed information about Grindol, including her address, a photograph and her vehicle’s tag number, The Moulton Advertiser reported. Investigators contacted Grindol and persuaded her to participate in a staged crime scene, which included taking photos of her “dead” body, the Advertiser reported.

Treadway remains free on a $35,000 bond, records show.