A Texas woman was sentenced this week to nine years in federal prison for going on the "dark web" to try to pay a hitman $10,510 in Bitcoin to kill the woman her boyfriend was having an affair with.
Michelle Murphy, 58, of Bedford, was handed her sentence on Thursday, May 9, after she pleaded guilty in December to one count of murder-for-hire, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced in a news release.
Murphy Used ATM to Convert Cash into Crypto Before Sending the Bitcoin to Hitman's Digital Wallet
The complaint outlines the case that stretched back to last summer when Murphy used an ATM to convert cash into cryptocurrency and transferred it to a Bitcoin wallet she thought belonged to the murder-for-hire recipient. The plan was for the hitman to kill a woman her boyfriend was involved with.
The case came to light in August 2023 when the individual Murphy transferred the Bitcoin to, reported her to the Department of Homeland Security.
In an interview on Aug. 11, the intended victim told an agent she was in a romantic relationship with a man identified in the complaint as having the initials O.G. The woman said O.G. lived in Bedford with another girlfriend named "Michelle."
Murphy Used Her Dog's Breed in Dark Web Moniker, Linking Her to the Crime
Murphy's Facebook page had her listed as "In a relationship" with O.G. The agent also noted that Murphy's Facebook page had several photos of a dog that appears to be a "Mudi" breed.
"The person who tried to hire a hitman to murder the woman used a dark web moniker 'LISTMUDI, further linking Murphy to the murder-for-hire," court documents said.
On Sept. 21, 2023, agents saw O.G. and Murphy at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and closed in on the suspect. The couple was escorted to an office for an interview, where Murphy acknowledged she found out that O.G. was seeing another woman and admitted to transferring Bitcoin to pay someone to murder her, court documents said.
Murphy will be on supervised release for two years after she's released from prison, and the court recommended to the federal Bureau of Prisons that she participate in mental health treatment programs.
