A maligned environmentalist who hired a hitman to murder the wife of a man she met on Match.com has now learned her fate.
Melody Sasser, 48, was sentenced Wednesday to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder, the Justice Department announced.
Court documents previously obtained by DailyMail.com reveal how Sasser used the shady website Online Killers Market to hire a hitman to kill Jennifer Wallace, the wife of David Wallace, whom she met online.
She paid nearly $10,000 in Bitcoin, an untraceable cryptocurrency, for the murder. She described how she wanted the killing to be carried out and provided details about Wallace’s life.
“It must appear random or accidental, or involve drugs, and does not require a lengthy investigation,” Sasser wrote in January 2023 under the username “cattree,” according to the federal complaint.
Melody Sasser, 48, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder
She had hired a hitman to kill David Wallace’s wife, whom she had met on Match.com
‘She recently moved in with her new husband, she works from home and the office in Birmingham.
‘She drives a blue Subaru Outback, her husband a maroon Jeep Grand Cherokee.
‘Her husband works part-time at Publix, they have three dogs that bark and jump.
According to the sworn statement, the information provided about Jennifer Wallace and her husband has been proven to be 100% correct.
Sasser had also uploaded a photo of Jennifer to the site so she could be positively identified by the assigned “hitman.”
She then spent two months talking to an Online Killers Market administrator while the “job” remained unfinished.
“I have been waiting for 2 months and 11 days and the job is still not done,” Sasser wrote in a message to the administrator, according to Fox 19.
‘[Two] weeks ago you said it was being worked on and would be done in a week. The job is still not done. Should it be assigned to someone else? Is it being done? What is the delay? When is it being done?
Sasser paid nearly $10,000 for the hitman, who she instructed to make the killing “appear random or accidental.”
Authorities were not alerted to Sasser’s alleged plan until April 2023, when a foreign law enforcement agency notified the Department of Homeland Security that Jennifer Wallace was the target of an assassination plot.
Eventually, investigators were able to track the money to the case and subpoenaed Coinhub, a company that operated Bitcoin ATMs that Sasser allegedly used.
The company responded with transaction and customer data showing Sasser was a “cattree,” the complaint said.
She had purchased Bitcoin with cash at least four times at Coinhub ATMs in Knoxville.
A subsequent search of Sasser’s home also found a diary containing a list of other hitmen’s websites, a handwritten account of conversations with Online Killers Market, and a stack of US dollars under a sticky note with a Bitcoin address on it.
David Wallace told agents that Sasser had helped him hike a trail in the Appalachians before moving to Alabama to be with his fiancée Jennifer.
When officers later informed the Wallaces of the threat to their lives, Jennifer reportedly immediately told officers about Sasser.
Wallace told police that Sasser and her husband David were hiking buddies in Knoxville, Tennessee, before David moved to Alabama to be with his fiancée Jennifer.
However, David told police that he had met Sasser through Match.com and that Sasser had helped him hike a trail in the Appalachian Mountains.
Jennifer Wallace told police that Sasser then arrived at their Alabama home and told them, “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die.”
She also allegedly vandalized Jennifer’s vehicle.
The two then say they received threatening phone calls from someone using a device to disguise his voice.
Prosecutors said Sasser was able to track the couple on their hikes through the fitness app Strava and then passed the information on to the hitman marketplace.
Sasser’s lawyer argued in court on Wednesday that she had no criminal past and did hours of volunteer work
Sasser was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of using interstate commerce facilities to commit murder with commission.
She eventually agreed to a plea deal on Wednesday, with her attorney arguing for a lighter sentence.
Jeff Whitt noted that Sasser had no criminal history and instead volunteered hours to assist with causes that benefited public service, WBIR reports.
“What she did was the result of a personal breakdown,” Whitt told U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan.
“It was a huge breakdown,” he said, noting that she had previously struggled with mental and emotional problems stemming from the death of her parents and had alcohol problems.
He also claimed that his client deeply regretted what she had done and wanted Jennifer to know that she never had to fear Sasser again.
“She wants to move on with her life,” Whitt said, arguing that his client is unlikely to reoffend at her age, as Jennifer was in the courtroom but said nothing.
But prosecutor Anne-Marie Svolto argued that Sasser’s crime was not a one-off attempt to harm no one.
Instead, Svolto argued, Sasser spent months trying to find ways to harass and harm Jennifer, even keeping a diary in which she detailed her plans to kill the woman.
Jennifer suffered from trauma and anxiety as a result.
She had been away from home for a while, grabbed a gun and, together with her husband, repeatedly searched every room in their house to make sure no attacker was lurking.
Ultimately, Varlan said it was unique that Sasser pleaded guilty, but she also indicated that she hatched the murder plan after first stalking and vandalizing the victim’s vehicle.
He sentenced her to 100 months in prison, followed by three years of parole, and ordered Sasser to pay more than $5,000 in restitution.