KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Knoxville woman was sentenced to more than eight years for using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire conspiracy following a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Knoxville and HSI Birmingham, Alabama, investigation.
Melody Sasser, 48, of Knoxville, was sentenced to 100 months in federal prison and will be on supervised release for three years. Sasser was also ordered to pay $5,389.31 in restitution to the victim in this case.
According to filed court documents, Sasser admitted to using a dark web-hosted site known as the Online Killers Market for the purpose of hiring a hitman to murder an Alabama resident. In her communications with the site, Sasser provided photographs and location information of the victim. Sasser also requested that the killing appear “to seem random or accident. Or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation.” In exchange for the anticipated murder of the victim, Sasser used the internet to transmit nearly $10,000 in cryptocurrency to the would-be assassins.
Ultimately, the plan was unsuccessful. Sasser was arrested, and her home searched. At her house, law enforcement uncovered a journal listing out several other hitman websites, a handwritten account of communications with the Online Killers Market, and a stack of U.S. currency underneath a sticky note listing a Bitcoin address.
The Knoxville Police Department and the Prattville Police Department in Alabama assisted in the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee Anne-Marie Svolto prosecuted the case.