Woman Accused of Trying to Hire Hitman to Kill Wife of a Man She Met on Dating App

A Tennessee woman is accused of trying to hire a hit man earlier this year to kill the wife of a man she met on Match.com in 2020. Melody Sasser, 47, of Knoxville, Tennessee, was charged in federal court on May 11 with murder for hire in connection with a scheme to hire an online hit man to kill Jennifer Wallace of Alabama, according to a criminal complaint.

Wallace is the wife of David Wallace, whom Sasser met on the dating app and with whom she spent time hiking in the mountains of Tennessee. Here's what you need to know about this stunning case.

Sasser is described as an environmental compliance specialist who worked for the Pilot Flying J truck stop chain. She met David Wallace on Match.com when he lived in Knoxville, court documents said.

The nature of their relationship is not clear, but the two frequently hiked together in 2020 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and elsewhere. Sasser is accused of stalking Jennifer Wallace using a fitness app.

David Wallace is a retired Department of Energy emergency manager and U.S. Air Force veteran. He moved from Knoxville to Prattville, Alabama, with Jennifer Wallace.

Sasser showed up unannounced at the Wallaces' home in the fall of 2022, at which point David Wallace told her he was engaged to marry Jennifer Wallace. "I hope you fall off a cliff and die," Sasser is accused of telling him at the time.

Investigators in an unnamed foreign country on April 27 alerted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that someone had ordered a hit on Jennifer Wallace, court documents said. A U.S. user with the handle "cattree" had messaged the administrator of the Online Killers Market, a dark web site that purports to arrange murders for hire, according to the complaint.

A message on Jan. 11, 2023, included Jennifer Wallace's photo, name, and address in Prattville, as well as a description of the Wallaces' cars and license numbers and an escrow payment of about $7,500 in Bitcoin.

"It needs to seem random or accident. or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation," cattree said in her request to Online Killers Market, according to court documents. "She recently moved in with her new husband. she works at home and in [an] office in birmingham."

Cattree, later identified as Sasser, messaged Online Killers Market several times over the course of a couple of months, court documents said. On March 22, she said she had been waiting "2 months and 11 days and the job is not completed. 2 weeks ago you said it was been 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."

Online Killers Market replied, "Hello, she is not aware. He just failed as he did not attempted it yet, he felt like is too risky for him to do it Regards admin," according to court documents. The site later offered "two other hitmen that I can assign on the job," according to court documents.

Investigators tracked Sasser's car and determined that she was near Jennifer Wallace's office in November 2022, court documents said. Jennifer Wallace told federal investigators that her car had been keyed by an unknown person after David Wallace told Sasser about their engagement.

Jennifer Wallace also said she had received threatening phone calls from an untraceable number, according to court documents. Investigators eventually traced Sasser through her Bitcoin account and arrested her on May 18.

If convicted on the murder-for-hire charge, Sasser faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. She remains in custody, pending a scheduled court appearance on June 8. Pilot Flying J said Sasser is no longer employed there.