The "hired killer" turned out to be an undercover agent. Sheriff's investigators staged the husband's death -- including taking a picture to show her husband was "dead."

The husband was unharmed.

Arrested on charges of soliciting murder and conspiracy to commit murder was Shelia Mills, 44, of Heatherton in Bossier City. She was jailed without bond this afternoon.

Bossier Chief Deputy Sheriff Julian Whittington said Mills paid $1,000 cash to an undercover agent and promised to pay another $29,000 after she collected the life insurance.

Whittington said the sting operation was arranged after a mutual friend of Mills and her husband told the husband that his wife was looking for someone to kill him. The Sheriff's Department was notified and the mutual friend set up a meeting between Mills and the undercover agent posing as the hired killer, Whittington said. Two hours later, the down payment was made, Whittington said.

District Attorney Schuyler Marvin said Mills had gone to a bar looking for someone to kill her husband.

The husband's death was staged to make it look like he had fallen off a ladder, authorities said. Pictures were taken of her husband's body lying in a pool of fake blood and then shown to Mills; they convinced her that her husband was dead, Marvin said.

Mills was arrested over the weekend after she was brought to the Sheriff's Department and saw the "hit man" and her husband, Marvin said.