Bitcoin
Texas Woman Gets 9 Years After Attacking Romantic Rival
A Bedford woman was sentenced Thursday to nine years in federal prison for trying to facilitate a murder-for-hire plot to kill her boyfriend’s lover, federal authorities said.
Michelle Murphy, 58, was sentenced months after pleading guilty to one count of murder for hire, a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. A criminal complaint said that on July 28, Murphy sent about $10,000 worth of bitcoin on the dark web to kill someone.
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According to the complaint, a Department of Homeland Security agent received information from a source about the payment and also obtained the possible name and address of the intended victim. The agent performed a blockchain analysis and discovered that over the previous two days, Murphy had converted cash into bitcoin at a cryptocurrency ATM in a cryptocurrency wallet.
The agent wrote that on July 28, Murphy used bitcoin traceable to his wallet to pay someone to kill someone. About two weeks later, on August 11, the agent spoke with the targeted woman, who said she was in a romantic relationship with a man who lived in Bedford with another girlfriend named Michelle.
The agent discovered through Murphy’s Facebook page that she was in a relationship with the man and also had several photos of a Mudi dog. According to the complaint, Murphy used the dark web nickname, “LISTMUDI,” when trying to hire a hitman.
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On September 21, agents confronted Murphy and her boyfriend at DFW International Airport. In an interview at a Transportation Security Administration office, Murphy “acknowledged” that she discovered her boyfriend was seeing another woman and “then admitted that she transferred Bitcoin” with the intention of paying a person to kill her, the complaint said. .
At the sentencing hearing Thursday, prosecutors and defense attorneys said it appeared the person who accepted the funds from Murphy “probably never intended to commit the murder,” the statement said.