Preparedness
Dark Web Hitman Plot: Match.com Date Ends in Prison
A Tennessee woman, Melody Sasser, faced her fate on Wednesday after attempting to hire assassins from the dark web to eliminate the wife of a man she had met on Match.com. Sasser, 48, was arrested in June 2023 for her involvement in a murder-for-hire scheme. As part of a plea agreement, she admitted to using interstate commerce facilities to orchestrate the plot.
“I hope you both fall off a cliff and die,” Sasser reportedly said after learning about the engagement of David Wallace, the man she met online, to another woman.
U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan sentenced Sasser to eight years and four months in federal prison. After her release, she will be under supervised release for three years. Additionally, she has been ordered to pay $5,389 in restitution to the victim.
Sasser and Wallace, both from Knoxville, initially connected on Match.com in 2020 and became hiking companions. Wallace credited Sasser with assisting him on a hike along the Appalachian Trail.
However, in the fall of 2022, Wallace informed Sasser of his engagement and subsequent move to Prattville, Alabama, with his fiancée. This news reportedly prompted Sasser’s hostile reaction.
Following the engagement announcement, Wallace’s wife, identified only as JW, reported her car being vandalized and receiving threatening phone calls. According to the criminal complaint, Sasser used an app to disguise her voice during these calls.
The threats led JW to experience significant trauma, forcing her to move into a hotel, purchase a firearm, and have her husband check their home for intruders regularly.
In January 2023, Sasser took her vendetta further by using a dark web site known as the “Online Killers Market” to hire hitmen to murder JW. Court documents reveal that Sasser paid nearly $10,000 in cryptocurrency for the hit.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Tennessee stated, “In exchange for the anticipated murder of the victim, Sasser used the internet to transmit nearly $10,000 in cryptocurrency to the would-be assassins.”
Sasser specified that the murder should appear “random or accidental” or involve planting drugs on the victim. She was adamant about avoiding a prolonged investigation.
Two months after the payment, Sasser grew frustrated with the lack of progress. She sent a message to the website administrator expressing her impatience:
“I have waited for 2 months and 11 days and the job is not completed. 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?”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted, “In her communications with the site, Sasser provided photographs and location information of the victim.”
Sasser tracked the couple’s whereabouts using an exercise app called Strava, which logs users’ mileage and routes.
Her arrest followed an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Knoxville and Birmingham, with assistance from local police departments.
A search of Sasser’s home revealed a journal documenting her communications with the Online Killers Market, a list of other hitman websites, and a stack of U.S. currency with a Bitcoin address.
Federal prosecutor Anne-Marie Svolto described the journal as “a hidden rage that she kept secret for months.”
Sasser’s attorney, Jeff Whitt, emphasized her remorse during the sentencing hearing, stating, “She wants [the victim] to be able to move on with her life.”
This case serves as a stark reminder of the dangers lurking on the dark web and the extreme lengths to which some individuals will go when driven by jealousy and anger.
Watch a local news report about the incident below:
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