A Tennessee woman who tried to hire a hitman to kill the wife of a man she met on a dating website, who reportedly dumped her after the man reportedly got engaged, learned her fate on Wednesday.
Melody Sasser, 48, was arrested in June 2023 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire. As part of a plea agreement filed in court, Sasser pleaded guilty to using a facility of interstate commerce to commit a murder for hire.
“I hope they both fall off a cliff and die.”
U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan sentenced Susser to eight years and four months in federal prison. After serving his sentence, Susser will be on supervised probation for three years.
Sasser, of Knoxville, was also ordered to pay $5,389 in restitution to the victim.
What's the background?
In 2020, Sasser met David Wallace on Match.com. People Magazine.
According to the criminal complaint, Susser and Wallace, both from Knoxville, were “hiking buddies” and Wallace said Susser had helped him on a hike along the Appalachian Mountains.
However, in the fall of 2022, Wallace allegedly told Sasser that he had gotten engaged and planned to move with his fiancé to Prattville, Alabama, about 330 miles away from Knoxville.
“I hope you both fall off a cliff and die,” Sasser reportedly replied.
Shortly thereafter, Wallace's wife allegedly told police her car had been locked and she had begun receiving threatening phone calls, with Susser using an app to disguise his voice, according to the complaint.
Wallace's wife, identified only by the initials JW, said she was traumatized by the incident and, according to court records, said she felt threatened, left her home, moved to a hotel, bought a gun and had her husband search every room in the house to make sure no intruders were inside.
According to court documents, in January 2023, Sasser used a dark web site known as the “Online Killer's Market” to hire a hit man to kill Wallace's wife.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee press release“In exchange for killing his victims, Sasser used the internet to transfer approximately $10,000 worth of cryptocurrency to the would-be assassins.”
Sasser also asked that the murder be made to “appear like a random or accidental offense.”[al]The statement said Sasser was investigating the case in order to “plant drugs on victims” or “plant drugs on victims.” Sasser was quoted as stressing that he “did not want a long-term investigation.”
Two months after paying for the assassination attempt, Sasser couldn't take it anymore.
“I have waited 2 months and 11 days but the job is still not done. 2 weeks ago the work started and you said it would be finished in a week but it is still not done. Should I give it to someone else? Will it be finished? Why is it delayed? When will it be finished?” Sasser reportedly wrote in a message to the administrator of an online assassin website.
“During his interactions with the site, Sasser provided photographs and location information of the victims,” the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
of New York Post Sasser reportedly tracked the couple's location using an exercise app called Strava, which allows users to upload their previous running distances and routes.
In the end, the murder plan failed.
Sasser was arrested as a result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Knoxville and Homeland Security Investigations Birmingham, with assistance from the Knoxville and Prattville Police Departments in Alabama.
During a search of her home, police found a diary listing several other hit man websites, handwritten records detailing her interactions with online killer markets, and stacks of U.S. dollar bills with notes attached that contained Bitcoin addresses.
Federal prosecutor Annmarie Svoldt told the judge at the sentencing hearing that the diary “was a hidden rage that she had kept secret for months.” WBIR-TV reported.
Mr Sasser's lawyer, Jeff Witt, told the judge his client had suffered a “very serious mental breakdown” and deeply regretted his actions.
“she [the victim] She was able to move forward with her life,” Witt said.
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