248. The Dark Web Killer - The Murder of Amy Allwine

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the mysterious murder of Amy Allwine, uncovering a shocking tale of deception, hitman websites, and a staged crime scene that changed everything. Newser.com - https://www.newser.com/story/254562/he-allegedly-went-from-ashley-madison-to-dark-web-to-murder.html StarTribune.com - https://www.startribune.com/cottage-grove-man-killed-wife-after-failing-to-hire-assassin-prosecutor-says/470749333 CoinTelegraph.com - https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-ethical-hacking-leads-to-solving-fbi-murder-case TheTimes.com - https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/kill-list-review-fascinating-true-crime-without-the-grisly-leering-6rvtdvkwp Metro.co.uk - https://metro.co.uk/2024/10/16/found-a-hitmans-kill-list-phoned-let-victims-know-late-21807287/ TwinCities.com - https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/31/amid-sensational-allegations-cottage-grove-man-convicted-of-wifes-2016-murder/ Fox9.com - https://www.fox9.com/news/convicted-dark-net-killer-claims-innocence-i-couldnt-have-done-it Caselaw.findlaw.com - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/mn-supreme-court/114641490.html CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/stephen-allwine-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/ RepublicanEagle.com - https://www.republicaneagle.com/news/public_safety/allwine-receives-life-sentence-for-killing-wife-staging-suicide/article_1add634a-beb8-56e3-8a33-25553937d603.html The-Sun.com - https://www.the-sun.com/news/5593478/hitman-hire-website-murder-documentary/ SecurityNewspaper.com - https://www.securitynewspaper.com/2022/04/11/5-members-of-yura-a-murder-for-hire-operation-on-the-dark-web-are-arrested-platforms-such-as-besa-mafia-cosa-nostra-and-crimebay-shut-down/ Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/trial-begins-former-preacher-hire-hit-man-stage-wifes-suicide Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

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• 1:00Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody, and welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland.

• 1:08Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 1:09Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 1:10Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. That was a little weird.

• 1:13Payton Moreland?

  Why?

• 1:13Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, no, I just said it differently than I normally do.

• 1:16Payton Moreland?

  Well, Garrett and I prepared a little special something for you guys for the holidays. So here we go. Three, two.

• 1:26Garrett Moreland?

  What are you doing?

• 1:27Payton Moreland?

  Jingle Bell, jingle bell, jingle bell.

• 1:30Garrett Moreland?

  I was not informed about this. Nobody told me about this.

• 1:34Payton Moreland?

  Oh.

• 1:36Garrett Moreland?

  Did I, did I miss the memo?

• 1:38Payton Moreland?

  No, I just thought about doing that right before we pressed record.

• 1:41Garrett Moreland?

  It was good, though.

• 1:42Payton Moreland?

  I thought you were gonna send him to do the Mean Girls dance for them.

• 1:45Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, I was going to, and then I got tired.

• 1:48Payton Moreland?

  What's your favorite Christmas song?

• 1:50Garrett Moreland?

  Probably Jingle Bell Rock. To be honest, I know it's so.

• 1:54Payton Moreland?

  Really?

• 1:55Garrett Moreland?

  I know it's so cliche. Yeah, I like that. I like, um, here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down.

• 2:04Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 2:05Garrett Moreland?

  Like that one. I don't know. Frosty the Snowman, dolly. I like that one, too.

• 2:13Payton Moreland?

  You got weird ones.

• 2:14Garrett Moreland?

  Those are very normal. What are you talking about?

• 2:17Payton Moreland?

  I like a.

• 2:17Garrett Moreland?

  What is yours? Or what are yours?

• 2:22Garrett Moreland?

  See, that makes me depressed.

• 2:24Payton Moreland?

  I don't even know if that's my favorite. I just really wanted to sing that. Um, what's my favorite? What's my favorite? What's my favorite? What's my favorite? Little drummer boy.

• 2:32Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, litter, litter, little drummer. That one's good, too.

• 2:35Payton Moreland?

  That's a good one. That one, that one hits you right in your fills.

• 2:39Garrett Moreland?

  Happy holidays. If you're celebrating holidays, if you're not.

• 2:43Payton Moreland?

  Happy murder day.

• 2:44Garrett Moreland?

  Happy murder day. Happy murder with my husband. Um, if you're watching on YouTube, um, I'm sorry, the lighting is off. We usually have blackout curtains right there. They are not there right now. So our set looks different. Doesn't look great. But we're getting it fixed as quick as we can. Thank you for being here and Peyton and I are probably just at home next to the fireplace hanging out while you're listening to this. And we love you all.

• 3:14Payton Moreland?

  Okay, you have 10 seconds for this amazing, beautiful episode.

• 3:19Garrett Moreland?

  Honestly, I don't have anything crazy. I, I think for the most part, I hope everyone's having a good holiday. Hope that you feel loved today. And if you don't, Peyton and I love you.

• 3:29Payton Moreland?

  Hopefully you are loved.

• 3:30Garrett Moreland?

  You are loved. Hopefully that is good enough. Daisy has not been a great dog today, so that's been kind of making me a little angry, but that's okay. We all have bad days. That's what I got for my 10 seconds. I don't really, I don't have anything crazy. Oh, I do have something crazy. Peyton don't know it yet, but in two days I'm giving her a gift.

• 3:53Payton Moreland?

  Two days? Why two days?

• 3:55Garrett Moreland?

  No, two days from when this comes out. I will be giving her a gift. I think she's gonna be really excited about it. I think you guys are all going to love it as well.

• 4:03Payton Moreland?

  What? I'm so confused about what it is.

• 4:05Garrett Moreland?

  Peyton has no idea. I can't say it. There is more I can say, but I can't say anything more than that. Because I don't want to give it away.

• 4:12Payton Moreland?

  It's nothing bad, right?

• 4:13Garrett Moreland?

  It's nothing bad. It's something amazing.

• 4:18Garrett Moreland?

  There is somebody else that knows.

• 4:20Payton Moreland?

  In my family?

• 4:22Garrett Moreland?

  You will never, ever in a million years guess.

• 4:24Payton Moreland?

  You're scaring me.

• 4:26Garrett Moreland?

  It's not gonna be bad. It's gonna be great.

• 4:27Payton Moreland?

  Is it a dog?

• 4:28Garrett Moreland?

  I'm excited for you guys to see it. It's not a dog. And on that note, let's hop into today's episode.

• 4:36Payton Moreland?

  Okay, leave us all hanging.

• 4:38Garrett Moreland?

  Well, I have to.

• 4:39Payton Moreland?

  All right, our sources for this episode are newser.com, startribune.com, coin telegraph.com, the times.com, metro.co.uk, twin cities.com, fox9.com, caselaw.findlaw.com, cbsnews.com, republican eagle.com, the sun.com, security newspaper.com and oxygen.com. So you can find absolutely anything on the internet nowadays, from old video games dating back to your childhood, to that obscure song you heard once and never thought you'd find again, to of course, more nefarious things like weapons, drugs, honestly, on the internet, you can even find murder for hire. But the wild and scary thing about the internet, especially thanks to the help of unregulated currencies like Bitcoin.

• 5:23Garrett Moreland?

  Go crypto.

• 5:24Payton Moreland?

  Is that it can all remain pretty anonymous. Now, you never know who's soliciting these services. It's hard to find out who's buying them and most of the time, people have no idea that they are the target. So if you piss off the wrong person, all it takes is a few clicks of the mouse and a quick Bitcoin transaction to land a bullseye on your back.

• 5:49Garrett Moreland?

  Which, I don't know, this is what we're gonna be on the case today.

• 5:55Garrett Moreland?

  Can I say I do have a decent knowledge of cryptocurrency? I will say that is true, but kind of like not true at the same time.

• 6:04Garrett Moreland?

  I'm just gonna sum it up really easily. Everyone has a wallet, basically, right? And that wallet has an address. So if you do figure out who owns that address, you can then basically track it.

• 6:18Garrett Moreland?

  You can track things from there.

• 6:19Payton Moreland?

  What if it's just like a fake address?

• 6:20Garrett Moreland?

  If it's sent to another, there can't be a fake address. It's gotta be a real address, right? So it can go to another address and then you track it from where that address originally came from, where that's going from there, then when it's going from there, and then when it's going from there. I've worked with cryptocurrency quite a bit. Granted, I'm still learning. There's a lot of things I might have wrong, so someone's to correct me, go ahead. But it is interesting that it is true. It's like if you know what he knows whose address that is, then yes, I mean, it can stay hidden, but that address can be tracked, like as far as.

• 6:49Payton Moreland?

  You have to put in some information.

• 6:50Garrett Moreland?

  They'll, they'll, they'll just figure out. They know someone sent it, right? Because that address is still linked to whoever sent that. So if they figure out whose address that is, I mean, game over. Interesting. Anyways, just thought I'd let everybody know that.

• 7:03Payton Moreland?

  I guess I just like, okay, this is very off topic and I'll say it really fast. I just don't even understand the concept of of

• 7:11Garrett Moreland?

  There's a lot. There's a lot to it.

• 7:14Payton Moreland?

  Cryptocurrency.

• 7:16Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, there's

• 7:17Payton Moreland?

  It just doesn't even make sense to me.

• 7:18Garrett Moreland?

  There's a ton to it.

• 7:20Payton Moreland?

  But I guess we do the same thing with money. Kind of. We just print more money. Isn't that kind of what they're doing with Bitcoin? They just dig more Bitcoin?

• 7:27Garrett Moreland?

  Welcome to the United States of America.

• 7:29Payton Moreland?

  But it's just confusing because like,

• 7:32Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, it's confusing.

• 7:33Payton Moreland?

  We just created another currency.

• 7:34Garrett Moreland?

  We'll do an episode another time, all about cryptocurrency.

• 7:37Payton Moreland?

  No, if you want to find out about cryptocurrency, go ahead and watch our Twitch live streams on Thursdays at 5:30 PT. Garrett will be talking all about that plus

• 7:48Garrett Moreland?

  But yes, yes, I will. Come watch me.

• 7:50Payton Moreland?

  So anyways, all that to say, you could possibly hire someone to kill someone in your life and then pay them Bitcoin and might not be able to track it.

• 7:59Garrett Moreland?

  Hundred percent.

• 8:00Payton Moreland?

  And that is seemingly what happened to the victim in today's case. Forty-three year old mother, Amy Allwine. At least this is what everyone thought happened at first glance, but we're gonna obviously get into it. So the year is 2016. We are about a 30 minute drive southeast of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's a suburban area known as Cottage Grove, which is like the cutest name for a little city, you know? It's where 43 year old Steven and Amy Allwine have called home for some time now. The couple actually married 20

• 8:41Payton Moreland?

  years prior, back in 1996. They were college sweethearts who met and fell in love at a Christian university. And to most people, as life went on, they seemed to live a pretty typical middle American lifestyle. Quiet, content, happy. Steven was a freelance IT expert. Amy owned her own dog training business. So there were always Tons of furry friends in this couple's orbit. Both were deeply involved in their local church, the United Church of God. So much so that Stephen actually became a church elder, someone who gave sermons and offered guidance to other members of the congregation, like counseling couples in their marriage in times of need.

• 9:24Payton Moreland?

  So the Allwines were seen as good people. They'd even adopted a little boy back around 2006 that they named Joseph, who now in 2016 is nine years old. And Joseph was everything to mom Amy. Those who knew Amy said she lit up like a Christmas tree anytime there was a mention of her adopted son Joseph. She would go to the ends of the earth for Joseph and the family that she had built. But in November of 2016, the Allwines faced the absolute unthinkable. November 13th, 2016. That morning, Stephen was working from home in his basement office, like he often did.

• 10:08Payton Moreland?

  And around noon, he went upstairs for his lunch break and he ate lunch with Joseph and Amy. But that's when Amy told Stephen that she wasn't feeling well. So she was going to head upstairs to lay down, maybe just take a nap, rest for a bit. And Stephen said, okay, I will wrap up my workday so I can watch Joseph. Now around 1:00 PM, Amy's dad comes over to help them finish some project that they were working on in their home. But around 2:00 PM, Amy says to her dad, "Hey, can you take Joseph over to your house for a bit so Stephen can take me to the doctor?" So her dad says, "Of course." And Amy says, "We'll be by to pick Joseph up no later than 5:30 PM for dinner."

• 10:52Payton Moreland?

  Now, when 5:30 rolls around, Stephen is the one who swings by Amy's dad's house. So he's alone to get their son Joseph. And when her dad is like, "Hey, how did the doctor go? Like, what, what did they say?" Stephen is like, "Oh, um, Amy changed her mind about going and she just stayed in bed." So after a little bit longer conversation, Stephen and Joseph get back in the car and go home at around 6:50 PM. And they go inside their house and when they get to the master bedroom to check on Amy, they find her on the floor. She's in a pool of her own blood and she has a gun beside her.

• 11:31Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 11:32Payton Moreland?

  She has been shot on the right side of her head. So Stephen, the husband calls 911 and he tells the dispatcher, hey, I'm pretty sure that my wife has died by suicide. Now, this call is pretty disturbing and also memorable to the operator for a few reasons. One, because Joseph is heard in the background, asking his father why his mother would do that to herself.

• 11:59Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh, it's horrible.

• 12:00Payton Moreland?

  So obviously we're not going to play it, but he's only nine years old. And then Joseph, the son, asks Stephen another odd question on the 911 call.

• 12:11Garrett Moreland?

  Also, I don't know. I guess I'm not going to speak to it. I was just going to say, it's every parent's different and you can parent however you want, but wouldn't you like take your kid out of the bedroom and be like, hey, let's not, I guess it's not something for, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious. It's not something for a nine year old to see.

• 12:29Payton Moreland?

  In the heat of the moment, you're not thinking clearly, obviously. I wonder if it was more important to get on the phone with 911 to possibly save her than to take measures to get the kid out of the room.

• 12:38Garrett Moreland?

  It's just, you just don't want a nine year old to see that. That's horrible.

• 12:42Payton Moreland?

  Well, the other odd thing that you can hear in the back of the 911 call is, Joseph asks his dad Stephen, are you going to remarry? Now kids say weird things.

• 12:54Garrett Moreland?

  As a nine year old.

• 12:55Payton Moreland?

  Especially in moments of distress, but it's actually Stephen's reaction to the question that sticks with the operator, like as she's on the phone, she's like, what the? Because Stephen, the dad, who is calling to report that his wife has died by suicide and him and his nine year old son just stumbled upon it. laughs at his nine-year-old son's question and just says, I don't know, buddy. So meanwhile, Sergeant Gwen Martin hears the dispatch call come over her radio. And when she hears the address and that a female has died by suicide, she has this sinking feeling in her stomach because she knows that address. She knows who lives there.

• 13:39Payton Moreland?

  In fact, Sergeant Gwen knows Amy pretty well. She taught her in an eight-week course recently, one that teaches civilians about emergency services and law enforcement. This was a topic that Amy had become interested in. So Sergeant Martin had literally just seen the victim two weeks earlier. And to her, to Gwen, Amy seemed like someone who was planning for the future. She was definitely someone who would do anything for her kid. So this sergeant thought Amy showed zero signs of someone maybe battling with suicidal thoughts. Now, obviously, we never know. But she just was stunned, I think, as most of us would be.

• 14:22Payton Moreland?

  But she also knows in this line of work, you can never be certain what sort of demons someone deals with behind closed doors. So unfortunately, Sergeant Martin is also one of the first people to arrive at the crime scene. And some of what she sees that day kind of validates these thoughts of hers that, I just don't think this is suicide. Now, when she first sees Amy, she's lying face up on the floor and her pants are partially unzipped.

• 14:54Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 14:54Payton Moreland?

  And then she notices a smell. There is something cooking in the family's kitchen. Amy had a pumpkin roasting in the oven. Sergeant is like, Who puts dinner in the oven and then decides to go upstairs and die by suicide?

• 15:10Garrett Moreland?

  Which I get that, but also.

• 15:12Payton Moreland?

  Again, it's a hard.

• 15:14Garrett Moreland?

  I don't think there's a correct way to.

• 15:17Payton Moreland?

  Or guidebook.

• 15:18Garrett Moreland?

  To do that.

• 15:19Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 15:20Garrett Moreland?

  But I get this, I get the suspicions. It makes sense, especially with how weird the call was. You're like, okay, something's off.

• 15:27Payton Moreland?

  It's also the cops' job to question everything, right? Like they're investigating.

• 15:31Garrett Moreland?

  I appreciate that. Hundred percent.

• 15:33Payton Moreland?

  All right, guys, we're jumping into an ad and I have to ask, have you ever gone to a store for one thing and then walk out with something totally different? That's me every time I shop on whatnot and I'm not mad about it. I've gotten such cool, unique stuff that I didn't even realize I needed. And honestly, feels like I'm at the mall, but from the comfort of my own home when I'm shopping on whatnot. Whatnot is the top destination for live shopping, which is wildly different from traditional e-commerce. Honestly, it is so fun. On whatnot, you're connecting with actual real sellers and other shoppers. It's like shopping with a friend. This is actually where Garrett gets all of his gaming cards, his collectible cards from. But they have way more than that makeup, perfume, clothes, handbags, jewelry.

• 16:18Payton Moreland?

  Honestly, just get on whatnot, browse around, see what it's like, see what it's all about and you'll understand my obsession. It's a great way to find new brands because sellers don't gatekeep. Garrett and I love whatnot and you will too. Download whatnot today and get $20 off your first live purchase. Search whatnot spelled W H A T N O T in the app store. Sign up and take a shopping trip. Terms apply. All right, guys, we're jumping into an ad and if you are like me, protecting the people inside your home is a top priority. I have Daisy at home, I'm about to have a baby at home and Garrett and me.

• 16:57Payton Moreland?

  And there are a lot of times where I've thought about our safety, but that is where Simply Safe comes in and has had my back honestly for years. Unlike traditional security systems that only alert you after a break in is already underway. Simply Safe is built to stop it before it starts, which is exactly what I'm looking for. I don't even want someone in my home. I want it stopped before the alarm has even gone off. Smart AI-powered cameras watch for potential threats and alert a live US-based security specialist, ready to intervene. The agent intervenes in under 30 seconds, speaking through the camera to stop an intruder in their tracks, calling for urgent 911 dispatch when it's needed most.

• 17:40Payton Moreland?

  And we've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer our listeners their biggest savings of the year: 70% off your new system with professional monitoring. If you've been thinking about a security system, it is now. 70% off, guys, when you visit simplisafe.com/husband. That is simplisafe.com/husband. And when you order, just write in "Murder with my husband" at checkout. Tells them we sent you, really helps the show. SimpliSafe: Ahead of Crime in Real Time. So, once forensics get involved, there's even more that doesn't add up to this story. The gunshot wound to Amy's head, it's on the right side, but the gun is resting on her left arm.

• 18:22Payton Moreland?

  There's also no blood spatter or gunpowder on her hands, which if Amy was the one to pull the trigger, she would have both. And then cops realize there's a few drops of blood in other parts of the primary bedroom, which makes them wonder: Did someone move her body here and clean up the actual crime scene? Now, sure enough, when they do a luminol test, they discover that the room had been recently cleaned, but was covered in bloodstains and footprints. Ones that led from the primary bedroom, to the mudroom and bathroom on the main floor, and then to Joseph's bedroom.

• 19:07Garrett Moreland?

  How do you make it so that doesn't happen? What I'm trying to ask is, how do you hide that? Just lots of bleach? Is there a certain chemical? The mask it so it doesn't so it's not shown by the

• 19:19Payton Moreland?

  Yes, there is something. I think it has to do with if the like the grout is has been recently sealed. It the blood won't get into the grout.

• 19:31Garrett Moreland?

  Well, what if it's on wood? Like, what if it's hardwood? You know what I'm saying?

• 19:34Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 19:35Garrett Moreland?

  You know enough about that or not sure?

• 19:36Payton Moreland?

  No, because when they luminol test, you can see blood like splatters and like pools. So even if you did clean it up.

• 19:44Garrett Moreland?

  Like, I wonder if there's I'm sure there

• 19:46Payton Moreland?

  It's a good question.

• 19:46Garrett Moreland?

  I'm sure there is a certain chemical. It's probably just something that you have to specially buy.

• 19:51Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 19:52Garrett Moreland?

  So unless you plan out everything methodically. Also, the way blood is and how it splatters, it's I'm sure I'm sure it'd be extremely hard to get.

• 20:00Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, sometimes there's only one drop that you miss, you know? So um, I also think it's safe to say that detectives are like, well, you can't die by suicide and then clean up your own crime scene.

• 20:13Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 20:13Payton Moreland?

  Afterward, right? So by the following day, they already have an autopsy report on Amy's body. And they find Amy had died somewhere around three fifteen P M. That day.

• 20:25Garrett Moreland?

  I just love how we can figure all this out like this.

• 20:28Payton Moreland?

  Right. But they also find evidence that is inconsistent with suicide. Mainly because Amy had scopolamine in her system, and this is a drug that is used to treat nausea. And not only was it about twenty times the regular dose, Amy did not have a prescription for that drug. So how did this large of amount of this drug get into her body? Now, typically in cases like this, the first person that you're going to suspect is the husband. But this becomes a little more complicated for detectives. For starters, Stephen kept saying that he wasn't home during Amy's time of death that day.

• 21:09Payton Moreland?

  And while I'm not sure where he claimed to be, there were other witnesses who said they saw an anonymous vehicle speed away from the house shortly after her time of death. So the husband is saying, I wasn't home at that time, three fifteen P M. And the neighbors are saying, We also saw an unknown vehicle leaving around that time. Plus, Steven seems cooperative. He's willing to go down to the station for questioning. Not to mention, there's something else that the police have to consider once they get to know Amy and her past. Because Amy had actually been approached by the FBI the past spring. So Amy was already in law enforcement radar.

• 21:52Garrett Moreland?

  But the FBI, why the FBI?

• 21:54Payton Moreland?

  Because the FBI was doing an investigation of their own, completely unrelated, and found Amy's name on a dark web hit list.

• 22:05Garrett Moreland?

  Holy crap, okay.

• 22:07Payton Moreland?

  So back around-

• 22:09Garrett Moreland?

  Dude, how scary would that be?

• 22:10Payton Moreland?

  To have the FBI show up your door and be like, someone put a hit out on you?

• 22:13Garrett Moreland?

  That's wild.

• 22:14Payton Moreland?

  I mean, now you understand why maybe the husband isn't the first suspect.

• 22:17Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 22:17Payton Moreland?

  So back around May 31st, 2016, this is about five months before Amy's death. She was called in to the Cottage Grove Police Department to speak with them and the FBI. And they asked her the one question that no one ever wants to hear. Amy, do you know of anyone who might want you dead?

• 22:34Garrett Moreland?

  Do you think she told her husband about this or went without him knowing? I'm sure you know the answer, so just keep going. I'll just make that a rhetorical question for now.

• 22:41Payton Moreland?

  So it turns out the FBI had just learned about a murder-for-hire site on the dark web called the BESA Mafia. And so they had received a giant cache of data, including email exchanges between BESA Mafia and their clients. So basically, the FBI uncovered this, this dark web hit list-

• 23:01Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 23:02Payton Moreland?

  -place that you could hire. So they, they have this website, they have the clients, and then the everyday people who were on the hit list. Now, I, it's important to say that the clients didn't use their real names, obviously. But the people on the hit list, it was their real names. And Amy Allwine was one of them. They also had the username of the person who had ordered the hit on Amy. And it was someone named Dog Day God. Now, something I learned from this story was you cannot just access the dark web through Google. You actually have to have some special software to access sites like the BESA Mafia.

• 23:42Payton Moreland?

  What's interesting is this technology was actually created by the military to hide their secrets on backdoor websites. So it's sort of ironic that the military created this loophole in on the internet and now it is used for so much illegal activity. But the Basa Mafia is a whole other level of dark web criminals. The site claims to be operated by an Albanian mafia, but it seems like it's run by this evil overlord, a guy who goes by Yura. And basically, Yura and his website will recruit anyone who's up for the challenge, meaning they literally post invites

• 24:24Payton Moreland?

  for prospective killers to essentially send in audition tapes to become hitmen for this dark

• 24:30Garrett Moreland?

  website. Holy crap.

• 24:32Payton Moreland?

  A quote from one of Yura's videos on the site says, "If one searches online for," and I quote, "shot dead on street, one will find plenty of news about people being shot dead in the street by unknown people that shoot and then leave. Those are our hitmen. We will be waiting for you to come, place your orders, and then get rid of your problems."

• 24:51Garrett Moreland?

  Gosh, I can't, I can't believe it's real.

• 24:54Payton Moreland?

  And literally on this website, there is a menu of item options from $4,000 for a basic killing to $10,000 for a shoot and run, and then something as high as $50,000 for a high-profile sniper murder. They say it depends mostly on how challenging the job will be to pull off. Like, if the target has a bodyguard, they're gonna charge more. And by the way, on this website, you cannot pay with a Visa. The only currency they accept is Bitcoin because of the anonymity, meaning it isn't tied back to anyone's name or IP address. By the time the FBI discovered the Basa Mafia, they already had a list of 282 hits on this website that had

• 25:37Payton Moreland?

  been ordered across 60 different countries. I mean, there's like 17-year-old girls in Canada looking to kill ex-boyfriends on this website. Literally, anyone can log on and with a few clicks of the keyboard, it's boom, revenge at your fingertips.

• 25:53Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh, what?

• 25:56Payton Moreland?

  But Amy, this woman is seemingly harmless. She's been happily and faithfully married for the last 20 years. She's a working mom who makes YouTube videos dancing with her church elder husband. Who would want this woman dead and for what? Well, it turns out the FBI got those answers through the leak. There was 60 pages worth of correspondence between Dog Day God. This is the username that took the hit out and the Basa Mafia. So this had all started back in February of 2016, actually Valentine's Day to be exact. That's when Dog Day God first reached out to the Basa Mafia saying, I am looking to hire you for a hit.

• 26:38Payton Moreland?

  But what is the recommended way to convert cash to Bitcoin anonymously? After a few more emails were sent back and forth negotiating a price. Dog Day God agreed to send over $12,000 in Bitcoin for the hit job. And they finally revealed their target was a woman named Amy Allwine. The words they used were, I need this B word dead, so please help me. The message continues, said that Amy had stolen clients from this person's dog training business. But it suggested the betrayal went far beyond that because the email also implied that Amy not only was stealing clients, had been sleeping with the business competitor's husband.

• 27:17Garrett Moreland?

  All right, so it sounds like there may be another wife involved, but let's see.

• 27:25Payton Moreland?

  They even offer up the perfect opportunity for the hit to happen. They told the Basa Mafia that Amy had an upcoming business trip to Moline, Illinois. And we have actually been to Moline, Illinois in the podcast history before, and I pronounced it Moline.

• 27:43Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 27:43Payton Moreland?

  And everyone told me, little Peyton, it is Moline. So I'd like everyone to know it is Moline, Illinois. They even give them the hotel that Amy is going to be staying at, a description of her car and the route that she would likely take. And on top of that, they offer up ways they would like for Amy to be killed.

• 28:02Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 28:03Payton Moreland?

  They want it to look like an accident and they don't want the son or the husband to be harmed in any way. Now clearly, nothing happens to Amy during this business trip, as you know, but this exchange continues for the next four months as Dog Day God works with the Basa Mafia to help coordinate other options for this hit. They give them daily updates on Amy's movements, when she was at the grocery store, the gas station, heading out of town. I mean, Amy has a full-time stalker who's now trying to take a hit out on her. So when the police sit down with Amy in May of 2016, they uncover all of this, they pull Amy in, they're like, lady, you are in trouble. And she is, of course, shocked about the whole

• 28:42Payton Moreland?

  thing. She tells the FBI, I've never had an affair. She offers the FBI a couple names of people it could be.

• 28:50Garrett Moreland?

  Interesting.

• 28:51Payton Moreland?

  But she's like, I don't know anyone in my life who fits this description. Steven, her husband, even asks the police, is there any way they might have gotten the wrong Amy? But apparently, Dog Day God had even sent Basa Mafia pictures of Amy, so there's no confusion. They have the right Amy, which is why the FBI says to the Allwines, we think you should take these threats seriously. And they have to because they don't stop once the FBI gets involved. In July of 2016, five months before her death, Amy receives two anonymous emails, presumably from Dog Day God. They say, quote, "Amy, I still blame you for my life falling apart. Here's what is going to happen. I will come after everything

• 29:34Payton Moreland?

  else that you love. Here is how you can save your family: commit suicide. So why not do it now and save them?"

• 29:40Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 29:42Payton Moreland?

  I mean, that's terrifying.

• 29:43Garrett Moreland?

  It's horrible.

• 29:44Payton Moreland?

  That would be so scary to get that email. So Amy does the right thing. She shares these emails with the FBI, who begin interviewing suspects, including some of Amy and Steven's work colleagues. They don't find anything, mainly because that email from Dog Day God was untraceable. So they tell the Allwines, the best thing for them to do now is get a home security system, install a few cameras, buy a gun. But Amy is living in absolute fear at this point. I mean, she's afraid to even be in her own home. She's worried someone is going to come in during the night and kill her.

• 30:17Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 30:18Payton Moreland?

  So now you can see why all of this is especially scary when in November of 2016, Amy Allwine dies by suicide. So naturally, her friends and family are furious with the FBI and local police. They're like, you were warned that she was going to be killed and you did nothing. She was just alone in her house. Even though they claimed they had increased security patrols in the area to keep a closer eye on her, she still was killed. And so to many, the hired hitman possibility makes a lot of sense. Not only did people report cars fleeing from the neighborhood that day, the mastermind of the Basa Mafia, the guy known as Yura, actually

• 31:03Payton Moreland?

  releases a video on the site after her death and says-

• 31:06Garrett Moreland?

  Her being killed?

• 31:07Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, and he masks, no, not of her being killed. He masks his voice and his face and he says, "Hey, this website should be taken seriously because we are responsible for Amy's death. We took that hit out."

• 31:19Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 31:20Payton Moreland?

  But even if Basa Mafia carried out the hit, it still didn't answer the question of who ordered it. So far, many of the names that Allwines had given the police just didn't check out, which is why they also haven't totally ruled out the possibility that maybe Steven, the husband, was somehow involved, especially because of how he acted the day his wife died. Not only did he have that odd conversation with his son on the 911 call where he laughed and they talked about remarry, well, he also seemed a bit too calm when he came in for questioning. Plus, as police dig further into Amy's case over the following days, they find one really incriminating detail. Remember how Dog Day God had to pay for the hit using Bitcoin?

• 32:00Garrett Moreland?

  Ah, he bought Bitcoin, didn't he?

• 32:02Payton Moreland?

  Well, in order to do that, the user had to send a 34-character wallet code to make that transaction. This is kind of something Garrett was talking about earlier. And that same exact wallet code was later found on Steven's computer.

• 32:19Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, see-

• 32:21Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 32:21Payton Moreland?

  So.

• 32:21Garrett Moreland?

  It's not, it, you can definitely hide yourself, especially if no one ever finds that you own that wallet. There's no name on it, but if someone does, game over.

• 32:30Payton Moreland?

  Which they're obviously gonna search the husband's computer.

• 32:34Garrett Moreland?

  Correct.

• 32:35Payton Moreland?

  So they learn all of this and they're like, okay, so the husband, Stephen Allwine, was Dog Day God. So the question was at this point, why would this church elder want his wife dead? Here's a little detail about Stephen and Amy's church. Not only did they not believe in divorce, if a church elder was ever found committing adultery, they would be asked to leave the congregation.

• 33:02Garrett Moreland?

  He was cheating on his wife.

• 33:03Payton Moreland?

  Well, this was something that was definitely problematic for Stephen, who had been seeking out affairs over the internet for the last two years. He was actually doing this on the site, Ashley Madison, to be exact, which ironically he learned about while offering marriage counseling to one of the couples at his church. For anyone who doesn't know, Ashley Madison is a popular website that rose to fame in the mid 2000s that encourages extramarital affairs.

• 33:29Garrett Moreland?

  I thought it was a dating website.

• 33:31Payton Moreland?

  No, so you can get on, create an account and it's literally to cheat. Like everyone on there is stepping out on their marriage.

• 33:38Garrett Moreland?

  I literally thought it was, I mean, probably a good thing. I don't know what it is, but I thought it was a dating website. That's crazy.

• 33:45Payton Moreland?

  Um, yeah, so.

• 33:46Garrett Moreland?

  It's kind of like GoDaddy. When I wasn't old enough to know what GoDaddy was, I was like, that sounds like a porn website. Later on, I'm like, oh, it's just domains.

• 33:56Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 33:56Garrett Moreland?

  Kind of funny.

• 33:57Payton Moreland?

  So actually there was a huge leak from Ashley Madison's database in 2015.

• 34:06Payton Moreland?

  Which is not good. This is not the website that you want to leak because it threatened millions of users. It ruined a lot of lives, a lot of marriages. So whether or not Stephen was involved in the leak, I actually have no idea, but it's very possible. It scared him into making some pretty rash decisions because this just happened a year earlier. A bunch of people who were using this site get leaked and he's using this site. Hey guys, coming at you today with a sponsor that. Happens to be Mint Mobile. Remember being a kid around the holidays and anytime you would ask for something, mom would always say, "Wait until the holidays." Well, with Mint Mobile's holiday deal, there's no waiting. Right now, this second, all of their plans are $15 a month.

• 34:47Payton Moreland?

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• 35:18Garrett Moreland?

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• 35:33Payton Moreland?

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• 36:18Payton Moreland?

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• 36:40Payton Moreland?

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• 37:05Payton Moreland?

  Now, I'm not sure if Amy knew about the at least three different affairs that he was having.

• 37:11Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 37:11Payton Moreland?

  But I do know that Steven realized there was no way to actually be with any of these new women if his church didn't allow him to get divorced. So maybe Steven had to come up with a different plan. Maybe he needed to have his wife killed so he could go on and be a free man, which was when Steven possibly took to the dark web and stumbled upon the base of mafia. Maybe he thought it was an easy way for him to walk away with his hands clean. So maybe he forked over the Bitcoin around $12,000 to be exact, and then waited and waited and waited and talked to this website. But there's also the possibility that he was met with every single excuse. They would just keep making a new plan, a new plan. Steven would send more money.

• 37:52Payton Moreland?

  Obviously, we know nothing was coming of it, which is why probably in July of 2016, Dog Day God emailed Amy themselves, remember, and told them that they would kill her whole family if she didn't kill herself. But when Amy went right to the FBI with those emails, maybe Steven realized his plan wasn't working the way he expected it to.

• 38:10Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 38:10Payton Moreland?

  And it seemed like the base of mafia, the, this website on the dark web that he had paid, they were never gonna pull through. And Steven wasn't wrong. You know why?

• 38:22Garrett Moreland?

  They took his money.

• 38:23Payton Moreland?

  The entire website was a scam.

• 38:25Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 38:26Payton Moreland?

  This website on the dark web was a con to make money off of pathetically desperate people who were trying to get someone out of their lives for good.

• 38:33Garrett Moreland?

  That's so wild. That's honestly. For the first time, I'm kind of glad that they were scamming everybody because one, they weren't killing people and two, they were scamming people that wanted to kill other people.

• 38:44Payton Moreland?

  And here's the thing.

• 38:45Garrett Moreland?

  Robin Hood, maybe.

• 38:46Payton Moreland?

  Amy's death actually promoted this website because the website made a video in 2016 after she died saying, "Look."

• 38:54Garrett Moreland?

  But it wasn't even them.

• 38:55Payton Moreland?

  Yes.

• 38:55Garrett Moreland?

  It was.

• 38:56Payton Moreland?

  But they said, "Look, we took a hit out. Someone took a hit out on her and we did it. Look, she's dead." So it was all a marketing ploy. Why wouldn't they take the credit? It legitimized their fake business. Now, I guess it never occurred to Steven that $12,000 for a hit was suspiciously cheap. Like, that does feel very cheap, but it was low enough for them to rope in the cash. And if they were paying with Bitcoin, there's no way he's ever gonna see that money again.

• 39:24Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 39:24Payton Moreland?

  Now, once Steven finally figured out that he'd been scammed, he was already so committed to the idea of having Amy killed, that he chose a new path. He's like, "I'm just gonna do it myself."

• 39:34Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 39:35Payton Moreland?

  But again, he actually used the dark web as a tool. So this is where I'm getting into what Steven actually did. This time, when he realizes, "Hey, this website is not gonna kill my wife." He goes online and begins searching for drugs and he found a site called Dream Market. And for one reason or another, he decided to purchase a large amount of scopolamine. Um, that's the anti-nausea medicine that was found in her system, which in large doses can make people loopy, disoriented, even compliant. And remember, Amy had 20 times the normal amount in her system when the coroner did her autopsy. So on the afternoon of November 13th, 2016, or in the days leading up to it,

• 40:15Payton Moreland?

  Steven had begun slipping Amy that large dose in her food or drink, which was why Amy felt so sick that afternoon.

• 40:23Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 40:23Payton Moreland?

  When her dad came over. Now, once the dad took Joseph and the son was out of the house, it seems Steven took advantage of the state that he'd put Amy in. He grabbed the gun the family had bought to protect themselves from this hit. And Steven then used that gun to kill Amy and staged her death as a suicide. Now, maybe others think that Amy had decided to protect her family from those mysterious threats after all.

• 40:48Garrett Moreland?

  No, not with all the evidence that shows she didn't shoot herself.

• 40:52Payton Moreland?

  Right. Now, Steven denies all of this. He insists, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't do this. It has to be whoever took the hit out on her. There was no way he would ever do anything to his wife and leave his son motherless. However, as we know, there was a lot of evidence to suggest this was another lie. So there's a lot of things I find ironic in this case, but maybe one of the biggest things is that Steven was an IT guy. He should have known how to cover his tracks, at least when it came to computers, right? And yet, his computer was some of the best evidence against him. For example, Steven had a browser set up on his computer that could let him access the dark web as well as on his phone. So he was definitely accessing it.

• 41:35Payton Moreland?

  Dog Day God first contacted the Bay of Mafia on Valentine's Day. Shortly after sending that message, Steven's computer showed him Googling how to use Bitcoin. And remember, the first message was, how do I use Bitcoin? The following day, he was looking up Amy's itinerary for her business trip to Moline, Illinois, and figuring out what drive she would take to get there. Now, remember that message was this exact information. On March 6, Steven downloads a picture to the family's desktop. It's of Amy on their recent trip to Hawaii.

• 42:05Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh. And that's the picture that we

• 42:07Payton Moreland?

  That is the picture that is sent. Days later, there's an email from the Bay of Mafia to Dog Day God explaining how to purchase Bitcoin and that he should then report that money stolen to his bank to cover his trail. Now, immediately after, Steven calls the Cottage Grove Police and says he's been a victim of a scam. So while police couldn't exactly trace Dog Day God's IP address, it's detail after detail like this that basically proves this was happening from Steven's computer. So unless someone is repeatedly breaking into his home, accessing his computer and keeping up this charade for months leading up to Amy's death, it has to be him. Which is why he's finally arrested and charged with second degree murder in January of 2017. However, once he got in front of a grand

• 42:52Payton Moreland?

  Those charges were escalated to first degree murder because everything is screaming premeditation, right? So there's an eight day trial and Steven is like, hey, I didn't do any of this. I mean, there were plenty of female friends in her life who had access to their home and computer. He's like, someone had to have been coming in and um, using my computer. He also was like, the police did such a bad job. There was also this hit out for her. But as we know, after years of doing this show, the simplest explanation is often the most likely. So after the eight day trial, the jury deliberated for six hours to conclude that Steven Allwine was guilty of first degree murder.

• 43:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yes, sir.

• 43:31Payton Moreland?

  At his sentencing, the judge gave Steven an earful before handing down his sentence, saying, quote, "You're an incredible actor, a hypocrite, and a cold, calculating killer." Then he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

• 43:45Garrett Moreland?

  Good.

• 43:45Payton Moreland?

  Now, as for the Basa mafia and their scam website.

• 43:49Garrett Moreland?

  Nobody knows who they are.

• 43:50Payton Moreland?

  The FBI has since traced the website to a location in Romania. And as of 2022, at least five members of the fraudulent organization have been arrested and are facing charges like murder, organized crime, and money laundering. But the website and others like it are still operating in corners of the dark web today. And that is just the reality we live in.

• 44:12Garrett Moreland?

  That's so wild.

• 44:13Payton Moreland?

  And that is the case of Amy Allwine.

• 44:15Garrett Moreland?

  That's so sad. Amy was just a good mom.

• 44:18Payton Moreland?

  Because they couldn't get divorced. It's just so ironic.

• 44:22Garrett Moreland?

  It's just so sad.

• 44:22Payton Moreland?

  It's so ironic to me, too, that you're, you're having three affairs. So you don't want to be with your wife anymore because you want to be a member of this church, right? You want to, you want to be an elder of this church. So your solution is to murder? One of like, the most important commandments?

• 44:41Payton Moreland?

  You know what I mean?

• 44:42Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 44:42Payton Moreland?

  It just like.

• 44:43Garrett Moreland?

  I know.

• 44:44Payton Moreland?

  The reasoning for the murder is because you want to stay at church? That just like, doesn't even.

• 44:49Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, it's just hypocritical. It's crazy what happens.

• 44:52Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. All right, you guys, that was our episode for this week. We hope you have an amazing holiday and we will see you next time with another episode. I love it.

• 45:01Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 45:02Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 45:11Payton Moreland?

  Thank you Simply Safe for sponsoring the show. Right now, save 70% off with professional monitoring when you visit simplysafe.com/husband. That is simplysafe.com/husband. And when you order, write in "Murder with my Husband" at checkout. It tells them we sent you, really helps the show. Simply Safe, ahead of crime, in real time.