Woman charged in assassination plot

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee woman has been accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill the wife of a man she met on a dating app, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Melody Sasser is charged with murder for hire, according to the complaint filed last month in US District Court in Knoxville.

An account linked to Sasser during an investigation used a dark-web hosted site to order the killing of a woman in Prattville, Ala., WATE-TV reported, citing the complaint.

A special agent with the Department of Homeland Security received information about the plot from a foreign law enforcement agency on April 27 and an investigation revealed that Sasser and the woman’s husband met through Match.com, the complaint said.

When the intended victim was informed of the threat by authorities, she said her husband and Sasser were hiking friends in Knoxville before he moved to Alabama, the complaint said. The victim also said Sasser had harassed and threatened her and her husband since finding out they were engaged, according to the complaint.