Haddonfield Man Tried To Have 14-Year-Old Killed For $20K: FBI

HADDONFIELD, NJ — A Haddonfield man who was facing charges of child pornography has been arrested for attempting to pay a hitman $20,000 in Bitcoin to kill the 14-year-old at the center of the charges, according to authorities.

John Michael Musbach, 31, was arrested on child pornography charges in March 2016, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a release. Two months after his arrest, he began communicating with a murder-for-hire website on the dark web, according to authorities.

The website he visited advertised that they were the right guys “if you wanted to kill someone or beat the s--- out of him,” authorities said.

“We have professional hitmen available throughout the entire USA, Canada and Europe and you can hire a contract killer easily,” the advertisement read, according to the release. “Most of our gang members are drug dealers, but they do contract killing when they are short on cash. No undercover cops here. No risks of getting caught, because we are professional killers: We don’t ask you for your name, we don’t want to know who you are or where you live… You pay in Bitcoin to escrow, and money is held in escrow until job is done.”

He asked if a 14-year-old was too young to be targeted for a killing, according to authorities. After being told it wasn’t, he arranged for the child to be killed for 40 Bitcoin, which is worth about $20,000, authorities said. He also followed up with the website’s administrator to find out when the killing would take place, authorities said.

When pressed for an additional $5,000 to secure the hit, Musbach attempted to cancel the arrangement and get a refund, authorities said.

Musbach had begun communicating with the then-13-year-old, who lived in upstate New York, online in 2015, according authorities. At some point, he solicited the child to exchange sexually explicit pictures and videos, according to authorities.

The victim’s parents found out what was happening in September of that year and alerted local police, Carpenito said. Officers then informed Musbach he was under investigation for online sexual contact, and warned him to stay away from the victim, authorities said.

At the time, Musbach lived in Galloway. He was arrested by officers from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office on March 31, 2016, on charges of child pornography. Officers seized his cell phone and business laptop during the execution of a search warrant at his home.

Musbach admitted to having sent sexually explicit images and videos of himself to the victim and having requested and received sexually explicit images and videos from the victim, all while knowing that the victim was 13 years old, Carpnenito said.

In 2017, he pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child by sexual contact and was given a two-year suspended sentence with parole supervision for life.

In 2019, a cooperating informant began providing information to agents from Homeland Security Investigations in St. Paul, Minnesota, authorities said. This included information about Musbach’s attempts to have the child killed.

By then, the original communication had been scraped from the website, but the informant had original copies, authorities said.

“Hey there, I am in south NJ and need a handgun with ammo because I lack the ability to obtain one myself legally,” Musbach said in the original message. “How would getting this work and how much would it cost?

“Alternatively to a gun order, I could place a hit order. However, the target would be 14. Is that an acceptable age or too young? I can budget up to $20k for the order.”

“Yes, 14 years old is acceptable,” the response read. “We have gang members to do the hit; however the price is about 18500. This should be in your budget, please add order using the order page and add 40 bitcoin to your account The bitcoin will remain into your account until the job is done. Let me know.”

“Ok I will get the bitcoin tomorrow the 9th and let you know once it's there and the order placed,” Musbach responded.

Once he placed the order, he was told the killing would take place. When he hadn’t heard anything within seven days, he sent another message.

“A little worried I haven't heard anything,” he wrote. “There's three days left. Please keep me posted on how things are going and do the job within the next three days. If it's not possible, please let me know and I will withdraw the bitcoin.”

“There is a small problem; the assigned hitman got arrested for cocaine possession while he was near the place,” came the response. “We have another hitman ready to do the hit, but he saith this is an important person, and he asks for a difference of $5,000 Can you get the difference exchanged to bitcoin and deposited to your account, for the new hitman to do your job? He is better than the one who got arrested for cocaine; he can do it tomorrow. If not, as soon as the assigned hitman is out, he will do the job. He won’t be long, as his cocaine possession was not a large quantity let me know.”

When he couldn’t raise the additional money, he asked for a refund.

“I am sorry to disappoint you. Unfortunately, our site is a scam, and we pass customer and target information to law enforcement,” came the response.

He was then told the site had been hacked, and was told he had four days to send an additional 22 bitcoin or the hackers would inform the police.

Agents were able to confirm Musbach’s identity and link him to the screen name used in the alleged murder-for-hire scheme, authorities said. They were also able to trace the flow of money from Musbach’s account used in the scheme.

Musbach was charged by complaint with one count of murder-for-hire. He faces a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of the greater of $250,000, twice the gross profits to Musbach or twice the gross losses to the victim.