A woman allegedly wanted the wife of her lover dead, and she went to the dark web to make it happen, according to prosecutors.
Police in DuPage County, Illinois started investigating after getting a tip last Thursday that a woman was the subject of a murder-for-hire plot, the Daily Herald reported. The tip came from the CBS News program, "48 Hours," according to prosecutors.
Authorities found that in January, Tina Jones, of Des Plaines, allegedly paid a “dark-web” company more than $10,000 in bitcoin. Bitcoin is an encrypted digital currency that enables users to buy stuff without using a bank or dealing with transaction fees. It also allows the user to remain anonymous, according to CNN.
The “dark web” is part of an online space that conceals the identity and location of the user, according to CNBC. It's accessible only through specific software.
Jones, 31, had an affair with a married man, and wanted to hire the company to kill his wife, prosecutors said, reported CBS Chicago.
Jones turned herself in to police on Tuesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. She’s charged with solicitation of murder-for-hire, according to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The suspect is a registered nurse at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, the Daily Herald reported. The victim's husband is an anesthesiologist who completed his residency there, the newspaper reported.
This alleged scheme didn’t leave anyone dead, unlike a 2016 case in which a married church elder who was cheating on his wife allegedly tried to use the dark web to have her killed so he wouldn’t have to divorce her, according to the Washington Post.
Authorities said Stephen Allwine killed his wife himself after the hitman plan fell through, the newspaper reported.
The website he used, “Besa Mafia,” would accept Bitcoin for killings and beatings, but wouldn’t actually do them, authorities said. Allwine lost about $13,000 before he allegedly gunned down Amy Alllwine and let their young son find her in their Minnesota home, FOX News reported.
Law enforcement has seen a “dramatic increase” in the use of the dark web for “criminal activity,” said Woodridge, Illinois police Chief Brian Cunningham, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
If Jones makes bail, she’ll have to stay away from the victim and her family, the Sun-Times said.