In Dentist's Brutal Murder, Assistant Testifies Against Hitman She Hired

A dentist is mysteriously murdered in his office. It's the plot of the 1985 whudunit comedy "Compromising Positions," but also the real-life tragedy of Dr. Albert Ro. Six years ago, in Glen Burnie, Md., Ro was stabbed 39 times and beaten until every bone in his face was broken. The murder case lay cold for four long years.

In the movie version, intrepid housewife-turned-reporter Susan Sarandon endeavors to find the truth. But in real life, it was a different, even stranger story. After police uncovered a fingerprint in 2010, the dentist's assistant, Shontay Hickman, confessed to hiring a hitman to kill Ro, reports CBS.

She admitted to embezzling $17,000 from her boss, and paying then-19-year-old Dante Jeter $1,000 to kill Ro because she was terrified of getting caught. A week before the murder, Ro (pictured above) had hired an office worker to go through his records after patients had complained that they were getting billed for payments they'd already made, according to The Baltimore Sun.