#7 - Adrian Fry
In 2016, Minnesota teen Alexis Stern sparked up an online relationship with a man by the name
of Adrian Fry, a 20-year-old British accountant in training who regularly streamed video games
online. The couple maintained an entirely Internet based relationship for the next 2 years. Then,
in March of 2018, Fry reportedly flew from England to Big Lake, Minnesota, and rented
a room at a hotel near Stern’s house. During the course of their first in-person meet-up,
the young woman broke up with Fry, citing his increasingly controlling behavior. Four months
later, a dark web user named “Mastermind365” contacted a secretive assassin-for-hire service
called Camorra Hitmen, expressing his interest in arranging a kidnapping. A week later,
Mastermind365 indicated that he’d “changed his mind” since his initial inquiry, and instead
sought to have their intended target murdered. The user subsequently transferred $5,000 in Bitcoin to
the dark web contractor, along with a picture of Alexis Stern. The authorities eventually caught
wind of the situation, and Stern was brought in to the Big Lake Police Department, where she
was briefed about the details of the threat made against her. The young woman immediately suggested
that the individual behind the hit was Fry, who’d become upset after she told him she was seeing
another man. Fry categorically denied his ex’s accusations, and as of the latest developments,
no one from the FBI had reached out to him. Stern has maintained her belief that Fry was behind the
murder-for-hire plot. While investigating the matter for CBS’ “48 Hours” program,
journalists took note of a subtle, but startling detail. During their dark web communications,
Mastermind365 had written the words “thank you” as one continuous word. When CBS reached
out to Fry for comment on their news story, he declined, but thanked them for the opportunity,
writing “thank you” as one word, in the same manner as Stern’s Internet stalker.
#6 - Tina Jones
Within 2 years of the start of her marriage, Illinois nurse Tina Jones began having an
affair with one of her co-workers, who also happened to be married. At some point, however,
Jones’ lover broke things off between them, prompting her to seek revenge via the dark web.
DuPage County prosecutors alleged that the jilted woman contacted the dark web-based organization
known as Sicilian Hitmen International Network to orchestrate the murder of her ex-lover’s wife.
During the course of her online interactions with the prospective hitmen, Jones reportedly provided
the intended target’s address and photograph, with instructions not to harm her husband. Over a
3-month period, the woman paid $12,000 in bitcoin to cover the cost of the assassination. In April
of 2018, however, Woodridge police received a tip about the sinister scheme and confronted Jones,
who openly confessed to her crimes. It subsequently emerged that the company she’d
contacted on the dark web was actually a scam and didn’t provide murder-for-hire services as was
promised. Jones ultimately faced several criminal charges, including attempted first-degree murder,
as well as solicitation of murder, and was held in custody on a $250,000 bond. In the
summer of 2019, she reached a plea deal with prosecutors. As part of the bargain,
Jones pleaded guilty to attempted murder in exchange for the other charges being
dropped. During her sentencing hearing, she received 12 years imprisonment as punishment,
in addition to having to pay several thousands of dollars in fines and restitution payments.
#5 - Jason Bell, Melissa Loescher, and Charles Puff
Shortly before 9 pm on May the 17th of 2022, the police in Topeka, Kansas pulled over a red
Chevy Malibu in the 3600 block of Southwest Topeka Boulevard for an alleged traffic violation. During
the course of the supposedly routine traffic stop, officers discovered that the driver, 47-year-old
Jason Bell, had a warrant out for his arrest. Furthermore, Shawnee County deputies found drugs
and various counterfeit items inside the vehicle. Among the materials recovered were fake ID cards,
bank cards, reams of fake checks, notebooks full of personal information, as well as instructions
on how to access people’s information via the dark web. Bell was arrested and charged with
possession with the intent to distribute, 18 counts of identity theft, 10 counts of forgery,
27 counts of possession of stolen property, three counts of counterfeiting, and one count of
counterfeiting U.S. currency. The Shawnee County Drug Enforcement Task Force subsequently executed
a search warrant in the 900 block of Northeast Monroe Street, leading to the discovery of even
more drugs, as well as weapons. As a result of the search, investigators also arrested 44-year-old
Charles Puff and Melissa Loescher, aged 23, in connection to Bell’s dark web operation.
#4 - Sijie Liu
Between February the 15th and March the 5th of 2019, a 37-year-old Winnipeg woman was
in contact with an individual operating on the dark web about illegally obtaining a chemical
weapon for reasons that weren’t revealed to the public. The woman, identified as Sijie Liu,
reportedly placed an order for 10 milliliters of an unidentified toxin, as well as various
pieces of protective equipment in order to handle the chemical safely. On March the 5th,
Liu traveled south to Pembina, North Dakota, where she was instructed to pick up her illicit package.
She presented a Nexus ID card to border patrol agents and indicated that she was going shopping
for the day in Grand Forks. Her white Subaru Forester subsequently arrived at the parcel
pickup location, where she reportedly provided a fake name, “Julie Chen”. She picked up 6 packages
for her fictitious “Julie Chen” character and 1 package for Sijie Liu, whom she described as
a “friend” of hers. Shortly thereafter, Liu was intercepted by law enforcement agents,
who brought her to Homeland Security for questioning. She admitted to her misdeeds,
plainly stating to officers, “I know what I did was wrong”. The authorities had been well
aware of Liu’s illegal transaction, as the individual with whom she’d communicated on
the dark web was actually an undercover FBI agent. In June of 2020, the woman pleaded
guilty to one count of attempting to acquire a chemical weapon, which led to 2 other charges
getting dismissed. She consequently faced a prison term of 6 years as punishment.
#3 - Kelly Harper
In December of 2020, Wisconsin woman Kelly Harper attempted to orchestrate the murder of
her ex-husband by way of the dark web. According to official documents on the matter, the woman,
in her late-30s at the time, got in contact with a dark web-based operation that allegedly offered
murder-for-hire services to its prospective clientele. Between the 3rd and 10th of December,
Harper was found to have been in communication with the illicit site’s administrator under the
online alias “Malik8”, referring to her ex as “the target”. The murderous plot was ultimately foiled
by journalists with the BBC, who’d been working on an investigation into the inner workings of the
dark web when they stumbled upon Harper’s name and what she was planning. The police in Sun Prairie,
Wisconsin were notified of the situation on January the 12th of 2021. Investigators
subsequently obtained evidence that Harper had wired an undisclosed sum of cryptocurrency to her
dark web contact as payment for the hit. Images of the intended victim that had been sent to the dark
website’s administrator were also recovered during a search of Harper’s residence. In early February,
the woman was taken into custody on a charge of solicitation of murder. In the wake of her arrest,
it emerged that Harper and her ex-husband had been in the midst of a contentious divorce at the time
she devised her murder plot. She’d reportedly levied accusations of abuse on the man, which
were later found to be unsubstantiated and he was never charged. In October of 2021, Harper pleaded
guilty to her murder solicitation charge and was consequently sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Today’s topic was requested by Seeking Eudaimonia, Rara36, Mitchell Putukara. if you have any other
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#2 - David Mitchell
A Scottish man was found to have communicated with US-based dark web entities about the purchase of a
firearm between September the 17th and 19th of 2018. Court records indicated that 48-year-old
David Mitchell spent more than 2,000 units of cryptocurrency to pay for an illicit package
containing a fully operational Glock handgun, a silencer and ammunition. The items were eventually
intercepted by US border officials, who noted that the package had been addressed to Mitchell
at his office in Dunfermline, Fife. A sting operation was then put into motion by Scotland’s
Organized Crime Partnership, which sent a dummy package to Mitchell in the real one’s stead. A
subsequent search of the man’s Edinburgh home culminated with his arrest. While in custody,
Mitchell claimed not to have had ill intentions for the illegal weapon,
but simply sought to circumvent Scottish and US authorities. In December of 2018,
the man admitted 3 firearms offenses during a hearing in Edinburgh High Court. The
following month, the presiding judge handed down a sentence of 5 years behind bars for his crimes.
#1 - Chloe Ayling
A 20-year-old British model was kidnapped after arriving in Milan for a photoshoot on
July the 11th of 2017. According to the Italian state police, Chloe Ayling was accosted by a
criminal gang who dosed her with ketamine before assaulting her and locking her in a suitcase for
several hours. She was held in captivity for 6 days, during which time her kidnapper allegedly
attempted to sell her to the highest bidder on the dark web. To stop the twisted auction from
happening, the captors demanded ransom from Ayling’s agent. Fortunately, on July the 17th,
the model was released before any ransom was paid, and she was subsequently taken to
the British consulate in Milan. In the aftermath, investigators arrested 30-year-old Polish national
Lukasz Pawel Herba in connection to Ayling’s horrifying ordeal. The suspect claimed to be
part of the so-called “Black Death Group”, an organization that specializes in illegal
trafficking via the dark web. He reportedly admitted to being involved in previous online
auctions to sell abducted women. Ayling told investigators that, at some point while she was
imprisoned, one of her captors said, in English, that their boss was upset about the fact that
she had a child, as it was against the group’s policy “to sell mothers”. The authorities have
speculated that Ayling’s motherhood was why she was ultimately released. In court, Herba claimed
that the model had been in on the kidnapping in a ploy to ease her financial burdens, an accusation
she vehemently denied. In the end, Herba was sentenced to 16 years and 9 months behind bars.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather learn that there was an active dark web
auction centered around your murder or get into a taxi only to recognize the
driver as a wanted serial killer? Let us know in the comments section below!