Knoxville Woman Sentenced To Over Eight Years In Murder For Hire Plot

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On September 18, 2024, Melody Sasser, 48, of Knoxville, TN, was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 100 months by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, United States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville.  Following her imprisonment, Sasser will be on supervised release for three years.  Sasser was also ordered to pay over $5,389.31 in restitution to the victim in this case.  

As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Sasser pled guilty to using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1958. 

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.   

United States Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud made the announcement.

The charges were the result of an investigation by HSI Knoxville and HSI Birmingham, with the assistance of the Knoxville Police Department and the Prattville, Alabama Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne-Marie Svolto of the Eastern District of Tennessee is prosecuting the case.

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