Close-up image of woman using application on smartphone. — Image by pressfoto on Freepik
A woman accused of hiring a hitman to kill the wife of a man she met on Match.com is now prison-bound.
Melody Sasser, a 48-year-old from Knoxville, Tennessee, was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee said in a Sept 18 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to Sasser’s attorney for comment Sept 20 and did not immediately receive a response.
In April 2023, a foreign law enforcement agency contacted American authorities saying that an Alabama woman’s name, photo and address were part of a murder-for-hire order, officials said in a criminal complaint.
Investigators said they learned that on Jan 11, 2023, Sasser went on the dark web and ordered the hit for nearly US$10,000.
“It needs to seem random or accident. Or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation,” she wrote on the website, including details such as the couple’s license plate numbers and the wife’s workplace, according to the complaint.
Homeland security told the woman she was a target, and she suspected Sasser, officials said. The couple told investigators the husband originally met Sasser on the Match.com dating site while in Tennessee and were “hiking friends” before he moved to Alabama, according to the complaint.
In fall of 2022, the man told Sasser he was engaged, and in response she showed up to his home in Alabama without warning and said, “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die,” according to authorities.
Investigators said Sasser was monitoring the couple’s activities and locations using a fitness app. The wife also accused Sasser of harassing her over the phone, and phone records show Sasser called her six times in one day, law enforcement said.
Sasser sent follow-up messages on the hit website over the course of nearly four months before eventually saying she wanted to assign the order to someone else and sent Bitcoin to do so, investigators said.
Her attempts were unsuccessful, and she was arrested May 18, 2023, officials said.
In addition to serving 100 months in prison, Sasser was ordered to pay US$5,389 to the victim, prosecutors said. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service gggg
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