John Michael Musbach, of Haddonfield, New Jersey pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child by sexual contact. He was then sentenced in 2018 and the case was considered to be over. But there was more to the story.
In 2019, while working with a cooperating informant, authorities discovered correspondence between Musbach and some darknet criminals.
According to the Department of Justice, the correspondence showed an additional serious crime that Musbach was involved in. He tried to hire a hitman to kill his victim and cover up his crimes.
“Those messages revealed that in May 2016, Musbach arranged for a murder-for-hire from the website. He asked if a 14-year-old was too young to target, and upon hearing that the age was not a problem, paid approximately 40 bitcoin (approximately $20,000) for the hit.”
Musbach, who was known as “Agentisai” to his potential co-conspirators, reached out to the unnamed darknet site May 7, 2016.
At first he was trying to buy a gun and ammo, but according to BreakingAC.com, he upped the ante soon after.
“Alternatively to a gun order, I could place a hit order,” Musbach said a day later.
He even acknowledged the age of the target.
“However, the target would be 14. Is that an acceptable age or too young?”
And ultimately settled on a price.
“I can budget up to $20k for the order.”
The site seemed to accept the request, but Musbach’s sinister plan began to fall apart. The darknet operators told Musbach that the hitman was arrested for drug possession and the price would be going up.
Musbach then tried to get a refund on his 40 BTC, which was worth around $20k at the time. But the would-be hitmen revealed themselves to be scammers who would be going to the authorities without prompt payment.
Musbach is now facing 10 years in prison for his attempted murder to hire ploy.
