“Church Leader” Attempted to Hire a Hitman on the Darkweb

A woman from Florida is facing charges for allegedly hiring a hitman on the darkweb to kill her former spouse’s significant other.

A federal criminal complaint accuses DeAnna Marie Stinson, 50, of soliciting a crime of violence and murder-for-hire. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Stinson spent $12,000 in Bitcoin on a darkweb murder-for-hire site.

According to Patch.com, Stinson is a so-called “church leader.” So that is something.

Stinson is the director of finance for Bible-Based Fellowship Church at 4811 Erlich Road in Carrollwood.
In addition to her work at the church, Stinson is the founder of Woman of Excellence Consulting in New Tampa.
According to Woman of Excellence website, Stinson founded the organization in 2002 to help small, minority-owned businesses who can’t afford administrative, organizational or accounting services.

The criminal complaint accuses Stinson of creating an account on a murder-for-hire site on the darkweb on June 24, 2021, indicating that law enforcement could have inside access. Traditionally, in murder-for-hire cases covered by Darknetlive, independent researchers such as Chris Monteiro have provided law enforcement agencies with hacked information from the site. This time, it appears as if one inside source is actually a law enforcement officer operating in an undercover capacity.

As of the time of publication, there are no publicly accessible (relevant) court records for DeAnna Marie Stinson. As a result, we know nothing more than that the information provided in the USAO press release.

On June 25, 2021, one day after creating an account, Stinson allegedly submitted an order on the site and requested a “quick hit in southern Florida.” She identified the target as the significant other of her former spouse. Stinson provided the site with the name of the victim, address, and a picture of the victim.

Between June and July 2021, Stinson submitted multiple orders for the same hit and sent the site more than $12,000 in Bitcoin to complete the job.

On July 31, 2021, Stinson told administrators to “reassign the job to someone who has a history of getting jobs done” because she “need[ed] th[e] job done ASAP.” Investigators conducted basic blockchain analysis and identified the source of Stinson’s Bitcoin payments. Investigators obtained information about Stinson after examing records provided by the cryptocurrency exchange she had used to purchase Bitcoin. She had paid the murder-for-hire site using a wallet associated with the exchange.

A law enforcement officer (LEO) who acted in an undercover capacity as a hitman for the darkweb site contacted Stinson by phone at some point this year. Stinson told the undercover hitman that she wanted him to kill her former spouse’s significant other. She agreed to send the undercover LEO $350 in Bitcoin to purchase a revolver with which the LEO would murder the target. On September 13, 2021, she sent the Bitcoin.

On September 24, the U.S. Marshals Service raided Stinson’s home and arrested her on the charges listed in the criminal complaint. She is being held at the Pinellas County Jail without bail.

There are some things about this case that stand out in the sea of similar cases. Her age is one of several noticeable things. How did someone her age even learn about the darkweb? Some suspects have been close to her age I suppose. I took a cursory glance at recent cases in this category and pulled some of the ages: German woman, 41, California man, 33, Wisconsin Woman, 37, Netherlands man, 37, New Jersey man,31, Australian Woman, 26, etc.

And I never understand how people are able to read instructions on accessing onion services but fail to recognize an obvious scam.