Tennessee woman attempted to hire hitman to kill wife of man she met on dating website: 'Needs to seem random'
A Tennessee woman attempted to hire an online hitman for close to $10,000 to kill the wife of a man she met on the dating website Match.com, according to prosecutors.
Melody Sasser, 48, used a dark website known as "Online Killers Market" to hire a hitman for a "job" last year, according to court documents.
That website allegedly offers hitman-for-hire services, hacking, kidnapping, extortion, disfigurement by acid attack and sexual assault, WVLT reported.
Sasser, using the username "cattree," messaged the website administrator about hiring a hitman. She paid $9,750 in Bitcoin to do the "job" and emphasized that it needed to appear like an accident to avoid suspicion of criminal activity.
"It needs to seem random or accident, or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation. She recently moved in with her new husband," Sasser wrote to the administrator.
The woman she wanted dead, identified only as JW, lives in Prattville, Alabama, with her husband, identified as DW, who met Sasser on Match.com prior to his marriage.
DW said Sasser helped him with a hike along the Appalachian Trail before he moved to Alabama and married his now-wife.
Sasser had left threatening voicemails on JW's phone using technology to disguise her voice, court documents allege.
Court documents say Sasser talked with the "Online Killers Market" administrator over the course of two months over frustrations about the "job" not being completed.
"I have waited for 2 months and 11 days and the job is not completed," she wrote to the administrator. "2 weeks ago you said it was been worked on and would be done in a week. the job is still not done. does it need to be assigned to someone else? will it be done? what is the delay? when will it be done, [SIC]."
During her communications with the website, Sasser provided photographs and location information of JW, according to court documents.
Sasser was allegedly able to track the couple's whereabouts by using an app called Strava, which connects to Garmin watches to share fitness data.
At one point, she notified the "Online Killers Market" administrator when JW had left her home for a two-mile walk.
But the plot ended up unsuccessful, and it led to Sasser's arrest and her home being searched.
Law enforcement found during the search of her home a journal listing several other hitman websites, a handwritten account of communications with the "Online Killers Market" and a stack of cash underneath a sticky note with a Bitcoin address.
A federal grand jury indicted Sasser in June of last year for the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Sasser entered a plea deal on Wednesday, and she was sentenced to 100 months in prison and must pay more than $5,300 in restitution to the victim.