Allegedly consumed by jealous rage, Melody Sasser hired a dark web hitman to kill the wife of David Wallace, a man she'd met on Match.com.
Melody Sasser/FacebookMelody Sasser, 47, allegedly paid $10,000 to an online murder-for-hire site.
Police have arrested a Tennessee woman for allegedly hiring a hitman to kill the wife of a man she had met on a dating site.
Melody Sasser, 47, matched with David Wallace on Match.com in 2020, and the two became hiking buddies in the Knoxville, Tennessee area. But when Wallace moved to Alabama to be with his fiancée, Jennifer, Sasser became enraged and obsessed.
In the fall of 2022, Sasser reportedly drove to the couple’s home and, after learning David was getting married, said, “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die,” as detailed in an official criminal complaint.
Around the same time, Jennifer discovered that the sides of her car had been slashed, apparently with a key. Furthermore, the couple received a number of disturbing, threatening phone calls in which the caller used a device to disguise their voice.
But police say Sasser didn’t stop there. In January 2023, Sasser allegedly paid nearly $10,000 in Bitcoin to the dark web hitman site Online Killers Market (OKM) to kill Jennifer.
“It needs to seem random or [an] accident. Or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation,” Sasser allegedly wrote to the site under the username “Cattree.”
The message went on to provide more information about Jennifer and her husband, including the cars they drive and where they work.
“She recently moved in with her new husband. She works at home and in office in Birmingham,” the user wrote. “They have three dogs that bark and jump but nice dogs.”
“Cattree” also uploaded pictures of Jennifer to OKM to help the hitman identify her.
Authorities say Sasser messaged OKM again later to provide further information about Jennifer’s daily routine.
“Yesterday she worked from home and went for a two mile walk by herself,” Sasser allegedly wrote. New York Post reports that authorities later discovered that Sasser had access to Jennifer’s location through Strava, a fitness app that allows for location tracking.
David Wallace/LinkedInDavid Wallace, the man Melody Sasser met on Match.com.
Later messages reveal that “Cattree” was getting frustrated with OKM when the hit had not been completed by late March, 2023.
“I have waited for 2 months and 11 days and the job is not completed,” Sasser allegedly wrote. “2 weeks ago you said is was [being] 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.”
Ultimately, the assigned hitman declined the offer because it was “too risky,” which was when “Cattree” took to sharing Jennifer’s information from the Strava app.
By April 2023, a foreign law enforcement agency had reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to report that Jennifer Wallace was the target of an attempted assassination plot. U.S. authorities then notified the Wallace family, offering them protection and assuring them that they would do what they could to track down the person responsible.
As Daily Mail reports, Jennifer told them that they need not look far. Based on what her husband had told her, Jennifer was sure the person they were looking for was his old hiking buddy, Melody Sasser.
To get concrete proof that Sasser was behind the plot, authorities subpoenaed Coinhub, a company that operates Bitcoin ATMs. The company provided authorities with data that linked Sasser to the user “Cattree.”
Authorities also identified Sasser’s vehicle in the parking lot of Jennifer’s workplace on two separate dates.
With this information, authorities arrested Sasser on murder-for-hire charges on May 18th. This Thursday, Sasser will appear in federal court for her first hearing.
If convicted on murder-for-hire charges, Sasser could receive up to 10 years in jail.
After reading about Melody Sasser’s murder-for-hire plot, discover the story of Dalia Dippolito, the woman who was caught on tape hiring a hitman to murder her husband. Then, dive into the story of Jennifer Pan, the young woman who hired hitmen to kill her overbearing parents.
