Scorned environmental advocate Melody Sasser, who hired a hitman online to murder the wife of a man she met on Match.com, learns her fate

A despised environmental expert who hired a hitman to murder the wife of a man she met on Match.com has now fallen victim to her fate.

Melody Sasser, 48, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to murder-for-hire, the Justice Department said.

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

She paid nearly $10,000 in bitcoins – an untraceable cryptocurrency – for the murder, while describing how she planned to have the murder carried out and details about the Wallaces' lives.

“It has to appear to be coincidence or accident or that these are herbal drugs, we don't want a lengthy investigation,” Sasser wrote under the username “cattree” in January 2023, according to the federal complaint.

She had hired a hitman to kill the wife of David Wallace, whom she had met on Match.com.

“She recently moved in with her new husband and works from home and the office in Birmingham.

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

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

According to the affidavit, the accuracy of the information provided regarding Jennifer Wallace and her husband was 100% confirmed.

Sasser had also uploaded a picture of Jennifer to the site so that she could be clearly identified by the hired “killer.”

She then spent two months talking to an administrator of Online Killers Market because the “work” remained unfinished.

“I have waited two months and eleven days and the work is not finished,” 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 work is not done yet. Does it need to be assigned to someone else? Will it be done? What is the delay? When will it be done?'

Sasser paid nearly $10,000 to the hitman she hired to make the murder appear “random or accidental.”

Authorities finally became aware of Sasser's alleged plan in April 2023, when a foreign law enforcement agency informed the Department of Homeland Security that Jennifer Wallace was the target of an assassination attempt.

Investigators eventually managed to track down the money in the case and subpoenaed Coinhub, the company that operates the Bitcoin ATMs that Sasser allegedly used.

The company responded with transaction data and customer information that identified Sasser as “Cattree,” the complaint says.

She had purchased bitcoins with cash at least four times at Coinhub ATMs in Knoxville.

A subsequent search of Sasser's home also found a diary with a list of several other hit-man websites, a handwritten report of conversations with Online Killers Market, and a stack of US dollars under a post-it note with a Bitcoin address.

David Wallace told officials that Sasser helped him hike an Appalachian Trail before moving to Alabama to be with his fiancée, Jennifer

When officers later informed the Wallaces about the death threat, Jennifer reportedly immediately told officers about Sasser.

Wallace told police that Sasser and her husband, David, were hiking buddies in Knoxville, Tennessee, before David moved to Alabama to be with his fiancée, Jennifer.

David, however, told police that he met Sasser on Match.com and that Sasser subsequently helped him hike the Appalachian Trail.

Jennifer Wallace told police that Sasser then showed up at their Alabama home and told them, “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die.”

She is also said to have damaged Jennifer's vehicle.

The two said they then received threatening phone calls from a person who used a device to disguise their voice.

According to prosecutors, Sasser was able to use the fitness app Strava to track the couple on their hikes and then pass this information on to the contract killer exchange.

Sasser's lawyer argued in court on Wednesday that she had no criminal record and had done many hours of volunteer work.

Sasser was indicted by a federal grand jury for using interstate commerce facilities to commit murder-for-hire.

On Wednesday, she finally took a plea deal, while her lawyer argued for a lenient sentence.

Jeff Whitt pointed out that Sasser had no criminal history and instead had spent hours volunteering for community service, WBIR reports.

“What she did was the result of a personal breakdown,” Whitt told U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan.

“It was a breakdown of massive proportions,” he said, pointing out that she had previously suffered from mental and emotional problems as a result of the death of her parents and had alcohol problems.

He also claimed that his client deeply regretted her actions and wanted Jennifer to know that she would never have to fear Sasser again.

“She wants her to be able to move on with her life,” Whitt said, arguing that his client is unlikely to 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-time attempt to do no harm.

Instead, Svolto argued, Sasser spent months trying to find ways to harass and harm Jennifer – and even kept a diary detailing her plans to kill the woman.

As a result, Jennifer suffered trauma and anxiety.

She lived away from home for a while, got a gun, and repeatedly searched every room in her house with her husband to make sure there was no attacker lurking there.

Varlan said it was unique that Sasser ultimately pleaded guilty, but noted that she hatched the murder-for-hire plan after initially pursuing and damaging the victim's vehicle.

He sentenced her to 100 months in prison, followed by three years' probation, and ordered Sasser to pay more than $5,000 in restitution.