Scorned environmental officer who hired hitman on dark website Online Killers Market to murder wife of man she met on Match.com learns her fate

A scorned environmental compliance specialist who hired a hitman to murder the wife of a man she met on Match.com has learned her fate.

Melody Sasser, 48, was sentenced Wednesday to serve more than eight years behind bars after pleading guilty to murder-for-hire charges, the Department of Justice announced.

Court documents previously obtained by DailyMail.com detail how Sasser placed an order on the dark website Online Killers Market to hire a hitman to kill Jennifer Wallace, the wife of David Wallace, whom she had met online.

She paid nearly $10,000 in Bitcoin - an untraceable cryptocurrency - for the hit, as she described how she wanted the murder to be executed and details about the Wallace's life.

'It needs to seem random or accident, or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation,' Sasser wrote under the username 'cattree' in January 2023, according to the federal complaint.

'She recently moved in with her new husband, she works at home and in office in Birmingham.

'She drives a blue Subaru Outback, her husband drives a maroon Jeep Grand Cherokee.

'Her husband works at Publix part time, they have three dogs that bark and jump.

According to the affidavit, the information submitted about Jennifer Wallace and her husband was verified to be 100% accurate.

Sasser had also uploaded an image of Jennifer to the site so she could be positively identified by the assigned 'hitman'.

She then spoke with an Online Killers Market administrator for two months, as the 'job' was left unfinished.

'I have waited for 2 months and 11 days and the job is not completed,' 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. Does it need to be assigned to someone else? Will it be done? What is the delay? When will it be done?'

Authorities were finally made aware of Sasser's alleged scheme in April 2023, when a foreign law enforcement agency notified the Department of Homeland Security's that Jennifer Wallace was the target of an assassination plot.

Investigators ultimately managed to follow the money in the case and subpoenaed Coinhub, which operates Bitcoin ATM machines that Sasser had allegedly used.

The company responded with transaction data and customer info that identified Sasser as 'cattree', according to the complaint.

She had purchased Bitcoin with cash on at least four occasions at Coinhub ATMs in Knoxville.

An ensuing search of Sasser's home also uncovered a journal listing several other hitmen websites, a handwritten account of conversations with Online Killers Market and a stack of US currency under a sticky note listing a Bitcoin address.

When officers later informed the Wallace's of the threat on their lives, Jennifer is said to have immediately told officers about Sasser.

Wallace told cops that Sasser and her husband David had been hiking friends in Knoxville, Tennessee, prior to David moving to Alabama to be with his fiancé Jennifer.

David, though, told police he had met Sasser on Match.com and that Sasser had gone on to help him hike an Appalachian trail.

Jennifer Wallace told police that Sasser then turned up at their home in Alabama 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 started to receive threatening phone calls from a person using a device to disguise their voice.

Using the fitness app Strava, prosecutors say Sasser was able to follow the couple on their hikes and she then relayed this information back to the hitman marketplace.

Sasser was indicted by a federal grand jury for the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

She ultimately entered a plea deal on Wednesday, as her attorney argued for a lenient sentence.

Jeff Whitt noted that Sasser had no prior criminal history, and instead spent hours volunteering to help with public service causes, WBIR reports.

'What she did was the result of a personal breakdown,' Whitt told US District Court Judge Thomas Varlan.

'This was a breakdown of massive proportion,' he said, noting that she had previously suffered from mental and emotional problems as a result of her parents' death and had alcohol abuse problems.

He also claimed his client was deeply remorseful for what she had done and wanted Jennifer to know she would never have to fear Sasser ever again.

'She wants her to be able to move on with her life,' Whitt said, arguing that his client likely won't reoffend at her age, as Jennifer sat in the courtroom but did not speak.

But prosecutor Anne-Marie Svolto argued that Sasser's crime was not a one-off attempt to do no harm.

Instead, Svolto argued, Sasser worked for months trying to figure out ways to harass and harm Jennifer - even keeping a journal detailing her plans to kill the woman.

As a result, Jennifer suffered trauma and fear.

She lived away from her home for a while, got a gun and she and her husband repeatedly searched every room of their home to ensure no attacker was lurking there.

In the end, Varlan said it was unique that Sasser pleaded guilty, but noted the murder-for-hire plan was something she worked up to after first stalking and vandalizing the victim's vehicle.

He sentenced her to 100 months behind bars followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered Sasser to pay over $5,000 in restitution.