Woman, 42, is charged for murder-for-hire plot after ‘offering man $10K and sexual favors to kill her lover’s wife’
A 42-year-old woman has been charged with murder with malice after allegedly offering a man sexual favors and $10,000 to kill her lover’s wife and adult daughter.
Yue Zhou of Flushing, Queens, was accused of offering cryptocurrency and money to help her plan for the double murder, but was unaware that the dark web site she was using was a fictitious one.
Chinese Zhou, who worked as a massage therapist for spas in several states, also had a dating profile on Match.com, sources told DailyMail.com.
She was arrested in Virginia on June 5 and transported to New York on July 3. She was arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday before Judge Robert M. Levy and entered a not guilty plea. She remains in jail and has not filed a request for bail.
The two victims, whom she attempted to kill along with the fake hitman, were unharmed.
Yue Zhou, 42, of Flushing, was accused of offering cryptocurrency, money and even sexual favors to successfully carry out her double murder plan — all while being completely unaware that the dark web website she was using was fictitious.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York noted that “newer technologies,” including Bitcoin, were used to carry out her plan. “The end result would have been a cold-blooded murder for the ages.”
“Her perverse plan was only foiled because the website she used to commit the murder was a scam,” he said.
Zhou is alleged to have used an alias “BIGTREE” between March 25 and April 4, 2019, and attempted to hire a hitman.
At the time, Zhou was having an affair with her married lover and had become emotionally involved in the relationship. The documents show that she wanted to marry him and have children with him.
She was unaware that the hitman website she was using was fake and operated by a third party, and therefore allegedly made the financial transactions necessary to carry out her assassination plan.
During the investigation, special agents with Homeland Security Investigations confirmed that a cryptocurrency transaction related to the “BIGTREE” order occurred.
To pay for the murder, she contacted a Bitcoin exchange that acted as an intermediary, based in Ukraine, and made a payment of $5,000 in Bitcoin to the website.
She then gave approximately $5,000 more in cash to a middleman in Brooklyn. After both transactions were completed, she emailed the operator of the hitman website to confirm that the payments had been received.
After making the payment, she gave a detailed description of her lover’s wife, victim number one.
She gave the fake hitman the woman’s home address, her work schedule, and the best time of day to commit the murder, so that her lover would have an alibi for the killing.
She continued to provide security for the murder of her boyfriend’s daughter, victim number two.
When she suspected that the hitman website was a scam, she began sending several disturbing threats to the administrator of the hitman website, threatening physical and sexual violence against the administrator and his family.
In December 2019, Zhou contacted her lover’s daughter, from a previous marriage, and sent her threatening messages, the documents show.
She was arraigned Monday in federal court in Brooklyn
She allegedly said, “Warning: I will chop your body into a hundred pieces if you still don’t take responsibility. I know where you live. I’m watching you all the time.”
In February 2021, Zhou texted her lover’s daughter’s neighbor, offering $10,000 and sex in exchange for killing the daughter and dumping her body in a lake.
According to court documents, she said: “