Kelly Harper Columbus Wisconsin woman arrested after paying an administrator of a dark web-site $5K in bitcoin for murder for hire of an un-named targeted victim.
A Wisconsin woman has been accused of paying the administrator of a dark-web site in bitcoin to kill a man.
Kelly Harper, 37, of Columbus was charged Monday with using the internet to hire someone to commit murder, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Harper is married and is believed to have four children, according to her social media and online records.
The FBI has not confirmed Harper’s relationship to the victim.
Harper browsed murder-for-hire sites on the dark web to try to arrange the murder of an unidentified Sun Prairie man, according to a criminal complaint.
‘The target needs to be killed, he is a white 5 foot 5 male, dark brown short hair, blue eyes, weighs 165 pounds.’
She allegedly gave the administrator of one site a photo of her intended target and his car in December.
Wrote Harper: ‘The target needs to be killed, he is a white 5 foot 5 male, dark brown short hair, blue eyes, weighs 165 pounds.’
The post included details about where the ‘targeted victim’ worked and his cellphone number.
The administrator then asked for proof of payment, to which Harper responded by sharing a screenshot of a bitcoin wallet worth about $5,633, authorities said.
Second murder-for-hire site
The FBI was tipped off to the plot on January 12 by the victim and his girlfriend after being contacted by three local journalists who had discovered a murder for hire plot on the dark web site.
The journalists also uncovered a bitcoin payment allegedly made by Harper to a second murder-for-hire site. The details of that payment was not included in the complaint.
The FBI analyzed the transfers and linked it to an IP address, email and phone number associated with Harper’s bitcoin wallet, the complaint says.
When FBI agents searched Harper’s home, they discovered screenshots of the murder-for-hire site on her computer as well as an image that she sent to the site administrator, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Harper allegedly admitted to agents that she had paid in bitcoin to have the man killed.
The woman was taken into custody in Dane County Jail.
If convicted, Harper faces up to 10 years in prison.
