N.J. man paid $20K in bitcoin to have hitman kill child porn victim, feds say
Updated 9:00 PM;
A Camden County man, who admitted to exchanging sexually explicit images with a child, is accused of paying $20,000 in bitcoin to have his 14-year-old victim murdered, prosecutors said Wednesday.
John Michael Musbach, 31, of Haddonfield, was indicted on a federal murder-for-hire charge, New Jersey Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced. The alleged plot stemmed from a child pornography-related case that began with local charges in Atlantic County.
Musbach pleaded guilty in 2017 to endangering the welfare of a child by sexual contact after an investigation revealed he used an online chat program to request and receive sexually explicit videos and photographs of the minor in 2015, according to prosecutors. He also sent the minor explicit images of himself, authorities said.
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Arriving officers found a 77-year-old woman dead at the scene. They say the driver of the vehicle, 56-year-old Michael Ortiz of Atlantic City, stayed at the scene and he was taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center-City Division with non-life threatening injuries.
According to police,
An initial investigation by conducted by Officer Eric Knuttel of the Accident Investigations Section revealed the pedestrian was crossing Route 40 in the left lane. It is believed that she was going to attempt to climb over the concrete median barrier to cross the roadway when she was struck.
Next of kin has not been located. The cause of the crash is under investigation with assistance from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.
A man from Camden County, who formerly lived in Galloway, who has been under investigation by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office for child pornography-related offenses was indicted Wednesday for allegedly paying $20,000 in bitcoin to have a 14-year-old victim murdered.
Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig says 31-year-old John Michael Musbach of Haddonfield was charged with one count of murder-for-hire and will be scheduled for an arraignment at a later date.
Honig s office says in the summer of 2015, Musbach began communicating via an internet chat website with his victim, who was 13-years-old at the time. Musbach began using those chats to request and receive sexually explicit videos and photographs of that child and to send to that child sexually explicit videos and photographs of himself.
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.