US woman hired dark web hitman to kill online match's wife, gets 100 months in jail

A woman in Tennessee in the United States was sentenced to 100 months in prison after she hired a contract killer to murder the wife of a man she met on an online dating app.

Melody Sasser, 48, reportedly paid almost $10,000 in cryptocurrency to an online hitman on the dark website "Online Killers Market" in 2023, court papers show. According to the documents, the website offers hitmen to provide "services" like "hacking, kidnapping, extortion, disfigurement by acid attack, and sexual violence."

Once on the dark website, Sasser chose the username "cattree" and advertised her need for a contractual killer to murder a woman in Alabama's Prattville.

'Needs to seem random'

In her advertisement, she sought a "random" or "accident" killing to get rid of the woman who was later identified as the wife of the man she claimed to have met on Match.com, an online dating platform.

"It needs to seem random or accident, or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation. She recently moved in with her new husband," the Tennessee unit of the US Attorney's office said, quoting her post.

Offering $9,750 in Bitcoin for the job, she added the woman's work and home addresses, her car's license plate number as well as other details to help the killer locate and identify her.

Used fitness app to track victim

After ordering the killing, she regularly tracked the couple’s locations using a fitness app where users upload their walks and run maps. She even passed on that information to the dark website to help the contract killers know when the man's wife would be out on a run.

However, her request went unnoticed for two months. As she grew impatient, she left threatening voicemails on the woman's phone after distorting her voice through an app, court documents reveal.

"I have waited for two months and 11 days and the job is not completed. 2 weeks ago you said it has 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," Sasser wrote in a follow-up message to the website's administrator.

Online dating turned deadly

According to court documents, Sasser had met the man, identified as DW, on Match.com before he married his future wife, identified as JW.

He told law enforcement officials that Sasser had helped him on a hike along the Appalachian Trail. The two had even hiked together in the Knoxville area before he moved to Alabama.

DW said he suspected Sasser due to the threatening voicemails that had been left on his wife’s phone.

When law enforcement searched her house, they found a list of hitman websites, a handwritten note detailing a timeline of her communication with the "Online Killers Market", a bundle of US currency and a Bitcoin address.

She was convicted of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire on June 7, 2023.

Last week, she was sentenced to 100 months or eight years in prison and also ordered to pay over $5,000 to the man's wife as restitution.

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