CAMDEN - A Haddonfield man has been indicted for allegedly paying $20,000 to have a 14-year-old boy murdered, according to the U.S. Attorney s Office for New Jersey.
John Michael Musbach, 31, wanted to kill the victim of an earlier child-pornography crime for which he d been convicted, the federal prosecutor s office alleged Wednesday.
It claimed Musbach paid for the hit in bitcoin, but the killer was actually someone operating a scam.
The scheme allegedly had its origins in a crime committed in the summer of 2015, when Musbach exchanged sexually explicit photographs during online exchanges with a 13-year-old, the U.S. Attorney s Office said in a statement.
A 31-year-old New Jersey man facing child pornography charges paid $20,000 worth of bitcoin to have someone kill a 14-year-old boy whom he had been found sexting, according to federal prosecutors.
John Michael Musbach, of Haddonfield, has been indicted on a count of murder-for-hire, stemming from exposed transactions on the “dark web” in 2016. He was arrested and initially charged last August.
The year before, Musbach had begun chatting online with the boy who was then 13, prosecutors have said.
He began exchanging sexually explicit videos and photographs with the minor, whose parents eventually found out about it and notified police.
Musbach, who lived in Galloway at the time, was arrested by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office in March 2016 and faced child pornography charges.
UpdatedWed, Apr 14, 2021 at 7:08 pm ET
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HADDONFIELD, NJ A Haddonfield man has been indicted on charges he paid $20,000 in bitcoin to have a 14-year-old child he is accused of sexually assaulting murdered, authorities announced on Wednesday.
John Michael Musbach, 31, was charged by indictment with one count of murder-for-hire and will be scheduled for an arraignment at a later date, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
He was previously charged by complaint with one count of murder-for-hire in August.
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Musbach was arrested on child pornography charges in March 2016, according to authorities. Two months after his arrest, he began communicating with a murder-for-hire website on the dark web, according to authorities.