Prosecutors claim that a Tennessee environmental compliance specialist attempted to hire a hitman to assassinate the wife of her hiking partner whom she had met on Match.com.
Melody Sasser, 47, is accused of threatening David Wallace and his wife, Jennifer, by following her opponent using a fitness app and sending real-time updates and information to a fictitious assassination website, which finally alerted authorities.
“This must seem like a chance encounter or accident” Sasser reportedly said under the pseudonym “Cattree” on the now-defunct “Online Killers Market” website. Sasser also added the option to “plant drugs on them, as I don’t want a lengthy inquiry.”
According to court filings submitted in Knoxville, Tennessee, federal court, Sasser, a truck stop employee for Pilot Flying J, furnished the website with around $9,750 worth of bitcoin on January 11 along with details on Jennifer and requirements the hitman must complete to close the case.
Even though it’s still unclear what their connection was, David Wallace and Sasser looked to have been paired on the online dating service sometime in 2020. The two were close while they trekked in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, southeast of Knoxville.
Wallace, a US Department of Energy employee, told investigators that year Sasser even assisted him in hiking the Appalachian Trail. However, their union fell apart in 2022 when Wallace and Jennifer, then his fiancée, moved to Prattville, Alabama.
The pair claims that Sasser found them and confronted them; David allegedly announced his engagement to Jennifer during their conversation.
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Sasser reportedly responded, “I hope you fall off a cliff and die,” as recorded in the court records.
Prosecutors assert that Sasser started posting on the Online Killers Market website in December and frequently vented her annoyance that no hitman had taken the job right away. According to Sasser, she was so furious that she finally complained to the site administrator.
“The job is still incomplete after 2 months and 11 days of waiting. You stated that on this two weeks ago. The work has already been done and will be finished in a week,” according to a March 22 post by user Cattree. “The project is still in progress. Is it necessary to delegate it to another person? Will it be completed? What is the hold-up, and when will it be completed?”
When Cattree was informed that the hitman turned down the assignment because it “was too risky,” she started uploading Jennifer’s data from the Strava fitness program, including her routine and hiking routes.
On April 27, the Department of Homeland Security was informed about the attack on Jennifer. Since then, detectives have been collaborating with the couple to offer protection and find the individual who ordered her death.
According to court filings, authorities tracked the money that left Cattree’s account and served a subpoena on Coinhub, which runs Bitcoin ATMs and is connected to Sasser.
Additionally, on November 9 and 14, 2022, police located Sasser’s 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe close to Jennifer’s workplace in Birmingham.
Sasser has been detained since his arrest on May 18 and will appear in court on Thursday. She may spend up to 10 years behind bars if found guilty of the murder-for-hire accusation.
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Sasser’s lawyer, M. Jeffrey Whitt, declined to comment on the ongoing dispute.
David and Jennifer Wallace could not be reached for further comment.
