A Knoxville woman agreed to serve 100 months in prison Wednesday for hiring an online assassin to kill the wife of a man she met on a dating website, according to authorities.
According to court documents, Melody Sasser, 48, paid a hitman nearly $10,000 in bitcoin through the dark website 'Online Killers Market' in 2023.
Sasser registered himself under the username “cattree” and contacted the website administrator to advertise his request.
“It must appear to be accidental or unintentional. Or drugs must be involved, I don't want a lengthy investigation. She recently moved in with her new husband,” he wrote.
The target of the hit, identified only by the name JW, lives in Prattville, Alabama, with her husband, DW. Sasser claimed she met DW on Match.com, a dating website popular among millennials.
DW said Sasser had helped her hike the Appalachian Trail before moving to Alabama and marrying JW.
Two months after the hit job was assigned, Sasser grew impatient. In the meantime, she left threatening voicemails on JW's phone using an app to disguise her voice, according to court documents.
He also tracked the couple's locations using an app called Strava, an exercise app where users upload mileage and routes of their previous runs. He sent a message to the dark website's administrator when JW would be on a two-mile walk based on the app's information.
“I have waited for 2 months and 11 days and the work is not done. 2 weeks ago you said it is under process and will be done in a week. The work is still not done. Does it need to be handed over to someone else? Will it be done? What is the delay? When will it be done,” Sasser wrote in a message to the administrator.
This website provides services like hacking, kidnapping, extortion, mutilation by acid attack and sexual violence. WVLT reported.
Police recovered a diary from his home that contained a list of other hitman websites, a handwritten history of communications with an online killer market, and a stack of US currency with a note attached to a list of bitcoin addresses.
On June 7, 2023, a federal grand jury charged Sasser with using interstate commerce facilities to commit murder.
In addition to the sentence of more than eight years, he must also pay restitution of more than $5,000.
