Woman learns her fate after trying to hire 'Online Killers Market' hitmen on dark web to kill wife of man she met on Match.com



A Tennessee woman who tried to hire hitmen to kill the wife of a man she met on a dating website — and who reportedly was jilted by news of his engagement — learned her fate Wednesday.

Melody Sasser, 48, was arrested in June 2023 over allegations of a murder-for-hire plot. As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Sasser pleaded guilty to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

'I hope you both fall off a cliff and die.'

U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan sentenced Sasser to eight years and four months in federal prison. Following her time behind bars, she will be on supervised release for three years.

Sasser, of Knoxville, also was ordered to pay $5,389 in restitution to the victim.

What's the background?

In 2020, Sasser met David Wallace on Match.com, according to People magazine.

Sasser and Wallace both were from Knoxville and were “hiking friends,” according to the criminal complaint. Wallace said Sasser had helped him on a hike along the Appalachian Trail.

However, in the fall of 2022, Wallace allegedly informed Sasser that he had gotten engaged and was moving with his fiancée to Prattville, Alabama — roughly 330 miles from Knoxville.

Sasser reportedly responded by saying, “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die.”

Not long after, Wallace's wife allegedly told police that her vehicle had been keyed and that she had started receiving threatening phone calls. Sasser used an app to disguise her voice, according to the complaint.

Wallace's wife — identified only by the initials JW — said she suffered trauma from the ordeal. Court docs said she moved out of her home and into a hotel because of the threats, bought a gun, and had her husband search every room of their home to ensure there were no intruders.

In January 2023, Sasser used a dark web-hosted site known as the "Online Killers Market" to hire hitmen to murder Wallace’s wife, according to court documents.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Tennessee said in a press release, "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."

Sasser also requested that the murder appear “to seem random or accident[al]" or to "plant drugs" on the victim, according to the release. Sasser reportedly stressed that she did "not want a long investigation."

Sasser became impatient two months after she paid for the assassination attempt.

“I have waited for 2 months and 11 days and the job is not completed. 2 weeks ago you said it was been 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?” Sasser reportedly wrote in a message to the administrator of the online assassin website.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office release stated, “In her communications with the site, Sasser provided photographs and location information of the victim.”

The New York Post reported that Sasser tracked the couple’s locations using an exercise app called Strava that allows users to upload the mileage and routes of their past runs.

Ultimately, the murder-for-hire scheme was unsuccessful.

Sasser was arrested following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Knoxville and Homeland Security Investigations Birmingham with the assistance of the Knoxville Police Department and the Prattville Police Department in Alabama.

During a search of her home, law enforcement uncovered a journal listing several other hitman websites, a handwritten account of communications with the Online Killers Market, and a stack of U.S. currency with a note attached highlighting a Bitcoin address.

Federal prosecutor Anne-Marie Svolto told the judge during the sentencing hearing that the journal “was a hidden rage that she kept secret for months," WBIR-TV reported.

Sasser's attorney, Jeff Whitt, told the judge that his client suffered a "breakdown of massive proportion," and she was deeply remorseful for her actions.

"She wants [the victim] to be able to move on with her life," Whitt said.

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AT&T data breach leaks 73M current, former users’ Social Security numbers on dark web



Telecommunications company AT&T announced Saturday that a recent data breach leaked the personal information, including Social Security numbers, of 73 million current and former customers on the dark web, TechCrunch reported.

A company press release explained that the sensitive data was published online approximately two weeks ago.

“While AT&T has made this determination, it is not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors. With respect to the balance of the data set, which includes personal information such as social security numbers, the source of the data is still being assessed,” the company stated.

AT&T has launched an investigation into the incident with the support of internal and external cybersecurity experts.

“Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier, impacting approximately 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders,” AT&T added.

The telecommunications firm reset passcodes for the millions of affected accounts after TechCrunch informed the company about the leaked data, the news outlet reported. Passcodes are usually four-digit PINs that are used as an added layer of security.

AT&T has not found evidence that the data breach resulted from unauthorized access. Additionally, it does not believe the sensitive leaked information included personal financial data or call history.

“The information varied by customer and account, but may have included full name, email address, mailing address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, AT&T account number and passcode,” it reported.

AT&T noted that it is in communication with impacted customers via email and mail and will offer complimentary identity theft and credit monitoring services. Customers were encouraged to set up fraud alerts through the national credit bureaus.

“As of today,” the company stated Saturday, “this incident has not had a material impact on AT&T’s operations.”

In 2021, a hacker claimed to have stolen 73 million customer records, but AT&T denied the data breach. In March, the allegedly stolen information was published on a cybercrime forum, TechCrunch reported. Some customers have since confirmed that their sensitive data was leaked.

Last year, AT&T acknowledged that information for 9 million customers was hacked by one of its vendors, Fox Business reported. The data leak included Customer Proprietary Network Information, such as names, account numbers, phone numbers, and email addresses.

A company spokesperson stated at the time, “A small percentage of impacted customers also had exposure of rate plan name, past due amount, monthly payment amount, various monthly charges and/or minutes used. The information was several years old.”

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'Inject her with heroin': Baby doctor who hired hit men on dark web to kidnap wife pleads guilty to federal charges



A former baby doctor – who was reportedly involved in a twisted plot to forcefully prevent his estranged wife from divorcing him – pled guilty to federal charges on Wednesday.

Ronald Craig Ilg, a 55-year-old former neonatal doctor in Spokane, Washington, pled guilty to transmitting threats in interstate commerce in federal court. The felony has a maximum sentence of 10 years, but Ilg's legal team made a plea agreement to a sentencing range of 60 to 96 months.

Ilg was supposed to go on trial next month and was initially facing eight federal charges, including cyberstalking, attempted kidnapping, and tampering with a witness, according to KLXY.

Ilg allegedly used the dark web to attempt to hire multiple hit men to inflict pain on his estranged wife and a colleague.

In February 2021, Ilg purportedly utilized the dark web to try to hire a hit man to injure a former professional colleague.

"According to prosecutors, Ilg, the former chief medical director of a multistate neonatology management group, first tried to orchestrate an assault on a former colleague who he believed was involved in an internal workplace investigation against him," the Daily Beast reported. "The messages obtained by the government asked the hitman to deliver a 'significant beating' that would 'injure both hands significantly or break the hands.' He allegedly wired the service $2,000 in bitcoin as compensation."

Ilg told the hit man, "I would like to see evidence that it happened. If this goes well, I have another, more complicated job [for an] entirely different target with entirely different objectives."

The other "target" was allegedly his estranged wife. Ilg reportedly wanted to hire a hit man to kidnap the mother of his child, torture her, inject her with drugs, and blackmail her.

According to court documents, Ilg instructed the hired hit man to "stop all court proceedings" in their divorce that were pending at the time.

"Plant drugs in her home and used needles a day or so after collecting her," Ilg purportedly wrote. "So, if people start looking for her while she is detained, they will find them."

The baby doctor allegedly said, "Inject her with heroin 2 times per day. Teach her to inject herself. Send pics and videos of her injecting herself for bribery later."

Ilg allegedly furnished the hit man with his wife's complete schedule.

"By early April, Scar215 had reached out to yet another dark-web site, hoping to have his request completed by the second weekend of the month," the Daily Beast reported. "He told the site he had put $5,000 in bitcoin for them in escrow, and that another $10,000 would be coming to them the next day. He promised an extra $40,000 if all of his goals were achieved in the allotted time frame."

On April 8, 2021, the day before the alleged kidnapping plot was expected to happen, Ilg took a vacation in Mexico with his mistress.

The mistress – identified in court documents as "Witness 2" – and Ilg's wife – identified in court documents as "Victim 2" – allegedly knew each other from a prior relationship with the baby doctor.

"Ilg’s wife had told investigators that she and Ilg married in 2016, and after the birth of their child in May 2018, Ilg 'located Witness 1 on the internet and invited her into the relationship with Ilg and Victim 2,'" Law & Crime reported. "As time passed, Victim 2 increasingly became uncomfortable with the relationship," the criminal complaint against Ilg says. However, although Ilg and his wife were involved in 'contentious divorce proceedings,' she and the witness 'maintained communication with each other regarding Ilg throughout the relationship.'"

On the first day of the vacation, Ilg's girlfriend notified the estranged wife, "Some strange stuff has happened while we have been here[.] I need to talk to you asap [sic] when we get back[.]”

The girlfriend found out that Ilg had a "burner" phone. According to court documents, she threw his phone into the hotel pool because she thought he had the phone so he could talk to other women. A fight ensued, according to the girlfriend. FBI special agent and key witness Ryan Butler testified that he heard audio recordings of Ilg allegedly assaulting her.

"Butler said in the tapes, he can hear her beg him to stop hurting her, then she struggles to breathe for several minutes," KREM reported.

After the fight, the girlfriend claimed that Ilg forced her to sign a contract requiring her to "unconditionally accept what [Ilg] would like to do."

The document was later presented in a court hearing. The contract appeared to be stamped with both of their fingerprints in blood.

Upon his return from the Mexico vacation on April 11, FBI agents interrogated Ilg. The FBI had been allegedly tipped off about Ilg's dark web negotiations by BBC journalists investigating murder-for-hire services on the dark web.

Ilg reportedly informed FBI agents that he arranged the "hit" on himself. The FBI released him.

The next day, Ilg was reportedly found unconscious on his kitchen floor in an apparent suicide attempt when he ingested 46 Xanax pills.

The girlfriend would later tell FBI agents that she witnessed Ilg using the dark web. When confronted, Ilg told her that he was using it for gambling. However, she said that Ilg wasn't a gambler based on a previous trip to Las Vegas.

The Department of Justice stated, "Ilg sent a letter to a key witness against him – begging the witness to marry him so he could control whether she testified. He also offered to pay tuition for the witness’s children to attend Gonzaga Preparatory School and St. Aloysius Catholic School in Spokane, Washington. Ilg even directed the witness to destroy evidence by burning Ilg’s letter."

According to court documents, Ilg used the username of “Scar215” and the password “Mufassa$." The names may have a connection to the Disney animated movie "The Lion King."

The Spokane Spokesman-Review noted, "Investigators discovered a password for the 'Scar215' account – a play on the villainous character’s brother, Mufasa, in 'The Lion King' film – in Ilg’s biometrically locked safe at his home in Otis Orchards, authorities said. They said the password and screen name were consistent with Ilg’s 'affinity for lions.'"

Authorities said Ilg transferred more than $60,000 in cryptocurrency to alleged hit men on the dark web.

Ilg told the judge on Wednesday, "Your honor, I was a broken man. I was broken and I contacted different websites on the dark web to not only injure one of my partners, but also kidnap my wife."

Spokane doctor accused of hiring hitman to kidnap, assault estranged wife pleads guilty www.youtube.com

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