Jealous Woman Who Hired Hitman Tracked Her Rival Using Strava

A Tennessee woman has been sentenced to 100 months in prison after allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill the wife of a man she met on a dating website.

Melody Sasser, 48, of Knoxville, pleaded guilty to the federal charge of using interstate commerce facilities to commit murder for hire, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She was sentenced Wednesday, Sept. 18.

According to court documents, Sasser was distraught when she found out “DW” was engaged – and she then sought to have his new wife killed using the “dark web” site Online Killers Market.

In January 2023 messages to an administrator of the site — which “claims to offer ‘hitman’ type services,” according to the federal complaint — a user under the name “cattree” specified how the killing should be handled.

“It needs to look random or accidental. or herbal drugs, I don’t want a long investigation,” the user wrote, according to the complaint.

The user uploaded a photo of the intended victim, who was then married to DW and living in Prattville, Alabama, and provided details about her home, vehicle, work schedule and favorite hiking routes — the latter apparently taken from the fitness tracking app Strava.

Sasser paid for the order with Bitcoin purchases totaling approximately $9,750 over a period of several months, the complaint states.

Two months later, she expressed her frustration to Online Killers Market administrators: “The job is still not done. Should it be given to someone else. Will it be done. How late is it. When will it be done,” her message read.

The following month, in April 2023, federal investigators began investigating a tip of a murder-for-hire plot. When they contacted the alleged victim, she speculated that the culprit might be Sasser, who had been a “hiking buddy” of her husband when he was single and living in Tennessee.

The husband, who is retired from the Air Force, said he met Sasser on Match.com and that she helped him plan a hike on the Appalachian Trail. When he told her in the fall of 2022 that he was moving to Alabama and getting married, she reportedly became angry.

She showed up unannounced at their Prattville home and made threats, telling them, “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die,” according to the complaint.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Sasser faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and she received 8 1/2 years. After her release, she will be required to serve three years of supervised release and pay $5,389.31 in restitution to the victim.

Originally published: September 23, 2024 at 11:18 a.m.