Wanda Holloway would do anything for her daughter. Even hire a hitman.

Wanda Holloway was the classic middle-class mother. She played piano at her local church and was well respected in her community.

Most importantly, she adored her 13-year-old daughter Shanna. In fact, she would do absolutely anything for her.

It's a sentiment most parents can probably relate to. But how far would you go to make your daughter happy?

For Wanda, that limit did not exist. And residents of the unassuming suburb of Channelview, east of Houston, Texas, soon learned the dark side of her love.

Channelview was somewhere with a small town feeling where neighbours said good morning and smiled at each other on the street.

So, when a police car pulled up to Wanda's home one winter evening in January, people took note.

Wanda was arrested and charged with trying to hire a man to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival.

Neighbours couldn't believe it. After all, it seemed like the plot line of a TV show, not something that would happen in Channelview. But soon the truth began to come out.

Watch the trailer for the new docuseries The Texas Cheerleader Murder Plot. Post continues below.

The case of 'the Pom-Pom Mom'.

Wanda was desperate for her daughter to make the Alice Johnson Junior High School cheerleading team. But Shanna wasn't the only one running for the spot. She was up against Amber Heath, another popular 13-year-old at their school.

For Wanda, Amber winning was not an option. She was fixated on helping Shanna, even going as far as getting kids in the neighbourhood to help campaign for her daughter's spot.

"The mum would get fliers for me to pass out at school … 'Vote for Shanna Harper'," a teenage boy told 2Houston News at the time.

Wanda tried to spin up support for her daughter by passing out rulers that said, "Vote for Shanna Harper for Cheerleader". But the campaign violated school-election rules and led to her daughter getting disqualified.

Amber made the team, but Shanna didn't.

So, Wanda came up with a plan. If Amber's mother, Verna Heath, was killed, she'd be so distraught she'd have to pull out of the team, opening up that spot for Shanna. Simple, right?

Wanda Holloway and her daughter, Shanna Harper outside the family court building in March 1991. Image: Houston Chronicle.

The undercover tapes.

Wanda recruited her ex-brother-in-law, Terry Harper to help out. At first Terry thought Wanda was just frustrated, but he soon realised she was deeply serious.

Terry immediately contacted the Harris County Sheriff's Office, but at first detectives didn't believe him — the case was so bizarre.

Later, detectives recruited Terry to secretly record his calls with Wanda, and they were shocked by what they heard.

"It's expensive, it depends on what you want done," Terry says in one of the calls, per KPRC 2 Investigates docuseries The Evidence Room.

"What kind of money are we talking about," Wanda asks.

"$7,500 is the most for both of them to be dead. $5,000 for the girl, $2,500 for the mother," Terry replies.

Then, Wanda laughs as she says: "The mother, she ain't worth crap, is she?"

Wanda Holloway in court. Image: ABC13.

On another call, Terry asks if Wanda is still interested in "taking care of that problem" and her response doesn't waver.

"The things you do for your kids," she says in one recording.

With all the evidence they needed, detectives swooped in to arrest Wanda and charge her with solicitation of capital murder.

She maintained her innocence but in 1991 a jury found her guilty. However, that verdict was then overturned due to a mistrial.

In 1966, Wanda pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 10 years behind bars. She also settled a civil suit with the family and agreed to pay the Heaths $US150,000.

After six months, she was allowed to walk free and ordered to complete the remaining sentence on probation and undertake 1,000 hours of community service.

Wanda Holloway was arrested and charged with solicitation of capital murder. Image: ABC13.

Shanna's life now.

Shanna Widner broke her silence in 2012 when, aged 34, the mother-of-two told Good Morning America the case forever changed her relationship with her mother.

"We do not have a very close relationship," she said. "We don't have a mother-daughter relationship where you sit around and gossip."

When everything happened, her family didn't speak about it.

"We didn't discuss it. It was like it didn't happen. It was just put on the back burner like nothing had happened," she said.

But despite this, watching her mother be sentenced was "probably one of the most difficult moments of my life".

"When I hugged her at that point, before they cuffed her and took her away, I really thought I'm not going to get to touch her again for another 14 years," she told GMA.

"I was lost," she said. "She was my world and I was her world and I was losing everything that was important to me."

Her relationship with her mum is now based around Shanna's sons. She said she allows her mother and sons to stay so close because she only confronted what happened when she became an adult. Before then, the family pretended everything was normal.

"When my boys were born she was just as much a part of my life as she had always had been," she said.

While her mum was still involved in her life, Shanna said she chose to focus on her own way of parenting and veer away from being a stage mum.

Feature image: The Phil Donahue Show.