Tim Lambesis, The Metal Singer Who Tried To Hire Someone To Kill His Wife
Chelsea Lauren/Getty ImagesTim Lambesis, vocalist of the Christian metalcore band As I Lay Dying, was voted “most like Jesus” by his classmates.
Tim Lambesis grew up in a Christian household, attended a Christian high school, studied religion at Liberty University, and then formed a Christian metal band called As I Lay Dying.
In 2004, Lambesis married a woman named Meggan Murphy. Together, they adopted three children from Ethiopia. He spent a lot of time working out. To an outside observer, Lambesis was a stellar guy.
Then in 2013, he tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife — a decidedly un-Christian thing to do.
There had been some bizarre warning signs. In 2012, Lambesis took to Tumblr to discuss the band’s album, Awakened. He also confessed that his religious beliefs were changing, and that although he was “still inspired” by the words of Jesus, he no longer felt that the doctrine he was raised on was true.
In August 2012, Lambesis emailed his wife and informed her that he no longer loved her, nor did he believe in God. Around this time, he also reportedly referenced a scene from the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall, in which Schwarzenegger’s character shoots his wife and says, “Consider this a divorce.”
Meggan Lambesis filed for divorce in September 2012, citing an incident in which Tim had allegedly fallen asleep while watching their children, who were playing near a pool.
It was amid this messy divorce that in April 2013 Tim Lambesis approached another member of his gym, asking if he knew anyone he could pay to have Meggan killed. This gym buddy did not — but the police did.
On May 7, Lambesis met with a man named “Red,” believing he was a hitman. He gave “Red” $1,000, his wife’s address, pictures of her, security codes to get into her house, and dates when Lambesis would be with their children so he’d have an alibi.
Unfortunately for Lambesis, “Red” was an undercover cop. Lambesis was sentenced to six years in prison for soliciting a hitman to murder his wife and served two and a half years of his sentence before being released on parole.
