North Myrtle Beach police say Travis Dean Messer, 18, tried to hire a confidential police informant to kidnap and kill a person.

Police say they initially heard from the informant on July 21, saying Messer wanted him to kidnap the victim.

The informant told police Messer continued to contact him to not only kidnap, but to kill the victim as well, and offered him several hundred dollars to do it.

On July 26, officers started getting all the text messages from the informant's cell phone.

On July 27, the victim and the informant talked to police and asked them to prosecute Messer.

Messer was booked into J. Reuben Long Detention Center August 24 on an Attempted Murder charge.