Melody Sasser, a 48-year-old Tennessee woman, was sentenced to 100 months in prison for attempting to hire a hitman to kill the wife of a man she met on a dating website. According to People, Sasser used the dark website “Online Killers Market” to seek a hitman, offering $9,750 in Bitcoin for a “random” or “accident” killing. According to court documents, Sasser met David Wallace on Match.com and became obsessed after he revealed his engagement.
Mr Wallace told investigators that their relationship was limited to hiking companionship. Sasser had assisted him on an Appalachian Trail hike and they had also explored trails together in the Knoxville area before he relocated to Alabama and married his now-wife.
However, Sasser’s interest evolved into an unhealthy obsession. After learning of his engagement, she showed up at his Alabama home, making disturbing threats and beginning a campaign of harassment against his now-wife. Sasser monitored the couple’s activities using a fitness app and harassed the wife with six phone calls in one day.
”It needs to seem random or accident. or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation. She recently moved in with her new husband,” she wrote on the website, including details such as the couple’s license plate numbers and the wife’s workplace.
Sasser also notified the website administrator when he left her home for a mere two-mile walk.
“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.
Ultimately, the plan was unsuccessful. During the search of her home, law enforcement uncovered incriminating evidence, including a journal detailing multiple hitman websites and a handwritten account of her communications with the notorious “Online Killers Market”. Additionally, investigators found a stash of cash hidden beneath a sticky note bearing a Bitcoin address.
As a result, a federal grand jury indicted Sasser in June last year for utilising interstate commerce facilities to facilitate murder-for-hire. Sasser ultimately accepted responsibility for her crimes through a plea deal. On Wednesday, she received her sentence: 100 months in prison, accompanied by an order to pay over $5,300 in restitution to the victim.
