A Twin Cities man has been charged for using the "dark web" to order his wife’s murder before deciding to poison and shoot her himself, ultimately staging her death as a suicide. A criminal complaint in Washington County alleges that Stephen Carl Allwine, 43, shot his wife, Amy Allwine, after attempting to hire a hit man on the dark web to kill her.
The dark web, otherwise known as the deep web, is the part of the internet that contains a vast amount of information that isn't indexed by search engines: information that would be useful for tracking criminals and terrorist activities.
The case began when Allwine contacted police in Cottage Grove, a Twin Cities suburb, in November 2016 to report that he had found his wife dead. Allwine told police that Amy killed herself, the Star Tribune reported. However, investigators were suspicious after gunpowder residue was found on Allwine's right hand while an autopsy on Amy found no gunpowder or blood on either of her hands, indicating there were no self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
The charges say that before Amy's death, Allwine tried to contact a hit man to kill his wife while she was on a trip in Illinois in March 2016, KARE 11 reported. Police say Allwine's username, "dogdaygod," provided detailed information to the website on the intended target, including where she would be at certain times during the day.
The alleged exchange took place over "Besa Mafia," a site where people hire murderers and assaulters for a price, KMSP reported. The charges say Besa Mafia told dogdaygod that killing someone would cost $5,000. The website said it would cost $6,000 to make the murder look like a car accident, according to the Star Tribune.
User dogdaygod was then told that the recommended murder method was to have his wife killed by a sniper, which would cost $12,000, the charges say.
Besa Mafia allegedly told dogdaygod that at one point the hitman followed his wife, Amy, but did not have an opportunity to kill her, according to KMSP.
User "dogdaygod" told the website that the murder could be done during Amy's trip to Atlanta or at her home, which was to be burned down after she was killed.
When neither happened, Besa Mafia told dogdaygod that their hitman had been arrested, though police said no such arrest took place. However, Besa Mafia continued to solicit money from dogdaygod, according to the Star Tribune.
Investigators reported that a Bitcoin account transferred from Stephen Allwine's phone to his computer proves that he is "dogdaygod."
Cell phone records also show that a woman allegedly began an affair with Stephen Allwine after the two met on Ashley Madison, a site established for married people seeking extramarital affairs, KARE 11 reported. Authorities say they also found evidence of a second woman who told police she went out on a date with Allwine after they met Ashley Madison.
Allwine was arrested Tuesday, and his bail was set at $1 million without conditions, or $500,000 if he is monitored by GPS, doesn't travel, and does not visit his 9-year-old son.
Image via Shutterstock
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