(NewsNation) — Authorities in Tennessee arrested a woman accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill the wife of the man she met on the dating website Match.com.
Prosecutors say Melody Sasser allegedly tracked the woman using a fitness app and sent real-time information to a fake assassination website that may have tipped off investigators. According to court documents, she paid the website more than $9,700 worth of Bitcoin for the “job.”
According to a criminal complaint obtained by The Daily Beast, Sasser placed her request through the “Online Killers Market” that offered “hitman for hire” type services.
User “cattree,” who authorities believe to be Sasser, wrote on the site in January: “It needs to seem random or (like an) accident or plant drugs. (I) do not want a long investigation.”
Information from the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee explains that “cattree” communicated with the now defunct site’s administrator for months about the murder-for-hire plot and provided specific details about the victim along with a photo of her.
One message said: “Two weeks ago, you said it 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?”
Another said: “Yesterday, she worked from home and went for a two-mile walk by herself. Assign to another that can complete the job.”
A Homeland Security agent believes Sasser monitored the couple on the fitness app Strava. Investigators confirmed from the app that the victim had walked exactly two miles on the day the message was sent.
The victim’s husband said he met Sasser, an employee of Pilot Headquarters in Knoxville, on Match.com. They were allegedly “hiking friends” in East Tennessee before he moved to Alabama, where Sasser is accused of showing up unannounced at his new home in the fall of last year. After he told her he was engaged, the criminal complaint says Sasser replied: “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die.”
After the encounter, the victim said she received damage to her vehicle and started getting unpleasant, untraceable phone calls from someone using a device to disguise their voice.
Prosecutors say in November, license plate reader cameras placed Sasser’s car in the immediate area of the victim’s workplace in Alabama. They say the next month, Sasser’s alleged activity on the “Online Killers Market” started.
In late April, police in Prattville, Alabama, informed the victim of the threat on her life and sent patrols to monitor her home.
According to reports, Sasser was arrested on May 18 and remains in custody. She is charged with murder-for-hire and due in court Thursday.