Confronting the Suspected Mastermind

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That's shopify dot com slash pave shhopify dot com slash pave I'm no different than any other teenager in America I love my family and my friends my two dogs and my cat I love writing, I love reading. Despite me trying to be a normal teenager, someone does want me dead This is the picture of me, a description of me, where I lived, where I worked, that Mastermind three hundred sixty five posted about me. On the Murder for Hire website. Yes. Hi, my name is Ya. We have hundreds of gang members, criminals, and people who love to kill for money . They are anonymous. You are anonymous. So come and get rid of those nasty problems This is deadly serious. This is talking about the murder of a human being. It definitely changed my life I kept looking over my shoulder. I didn't know who I could trust. I could be killed on my way to work. I could be killed on my way home from school. And that terrified me. can submit your orders to kill the people you hate. We've got some significant leads on who Yura might be. Do you think you're getting close? Yeah, absolutely As a Dark Web intelligence analyst My job is to uncover that which is hidden. Is there a chance as I look up on your screen, that may be our guy? Everyone can be found. Europe can be found So we are literally a car ride from where we're talking right now to where you believe Uura actually lives. Yes we're gonna make a left at the next street Gl, go. Where's the house? It's this one right here. Yeah, it's this house right here, where Yora might presently live Well my heart is racing Let's.ock. Are you your? Stop recording right now Late on a frigid night, in february twenty nineteen, eighteen year old Alexis Stern was driving near her hometown of Big Lake, Minnesota, when she says she noticed a white van in her rear view mirror So we started driving around town, taking deep tours But the van stuck with her. In a growing panic, she called authorities, who later located and spoke with the van's driver He claimed he was lost. He didn't know where he was. You have no doubt you were being followed, right? Yeah Alexis had every reason to be worried because of something that had happened just months earlier when out of nowhere, the police had called her. You have to talk to you It's dire and you need to come now. It's dire, he said. Yes. He said it was ursed I had no idea what to expect. Did someone die? Is someone hurt? Like am I in trouble? When Alexis arrived at the police station, she got stunning news He was just like, I think you should sit down. someomeone put a hit out on you and they want you dead I was like, this is a joke, right It was not a joke. On the Dark web, someone using the alias Mastermind three hundred sixty five had gone to a hitman for hire sight and paid about five thousand dollars worth of Bitcoin for Alexis to be assassinated. giving chilling details where I lived, where I worked, a picture of me, a description of me, everything FBI and homeomeland security agents soon got involved Although many dark webbsites are scams, Alexis knew someone out there wanted her death. And that terrified me Authorities promise to investigate The aspiring horror book author had read about the Dark Web A hidden online marketplace where criminality ranging from human trafficking to illegal weapons is advertised for sale Even murder. The more you start to dig the darker it starts to get. It was in twenty seventeen that forty eight Hours first investigated Dark Webb murder for hire The next year, we exposed about twenty active murder plots police received a tip from the CBS newews program forty eight Hours forty eight hours alerted law enforcement, leading to arrests in two states and two foreign countries. Our investigation also led us to this mysterious figure known as Europe who has been operating Hitman's sites for about five years. We don't know his real name or location But he sent us these video diaries. I am doing this video diary entry to give you official statements Looking for criminals on the Dark Web. It' not for the fain of heart. For most of her career, this woman has lived in the shadows. I was a member of the intelligence community. Now, she's a CBS newews consultant who we hired to help us look for Europe What makes it challenging is this isn't your traditional law enforcement investigation, where there's DNA and there's fingerprints and a weapon and a crime scene Lisa, as we'll call her, has altered her appearance for this interview In the world of the Dark Web, DNA email addresses, usernames, passwords Lisa analyzed Eurura's writings 'causeuse English is very good. But she says the evidence suggests he is foreign born doesn't work alone But there's definitely some support She says the murder for hire sites are all about making big money and that she found millions of dollars of profits in an online account she believes is linked to Europe. words of, I think five million Apparently, about five thousand dollars of those profits was allegedly paid to kill Alexa Sterarns. when her parents found out they weren't taking any chances. You left Minnesota? Yes We just started driving. It was scary. But who would want her dead Alexis thought she knew Back in twenty sixteen, she was a high school sophomore. struggling with her self esteem. She was just fifteen when a friend introduced her to an older man online I ended up meeting a guy named Adrianne. Adrianne Fry. Yes, Adrian Fry She was intrigued to learn that Adrianne Fryry lived in England I was always partial to British accents, so I thought it was kind of a bonus. Adrian was twenty He said he was training to be an accountant and liked to stream video games online. His screen name Rocket win What is up ladies and gentlemen? My name is Rockeritt and welcome to another patchnip. I wanted to have a boyfriend And it was a perfect opportunity In August of twenty sixteen Fry flew to Minnesota and got a hotel room near her house. This is Adrian right here. Yes Do your parents have any idea this is going on? No, they had no idea The two began a relationship Alexis had just turned sixteen He was already pretty much talking about getting married honestly. He was one hundred percent sad on being with me. Adrianne Fry visited Alexis twice more In the summer of twenty seventeen and in the spring of twenty eighteen She says her feelings were changing He really started trying to control my normal everyday life They had considered themselves a couple for about two years When Alexis told Adrian, it was over He freaked out. He did not like that at all. There was a lot of pleading, a lot of begging A few months later, when she told him she had a new boyfriend, She says he became angry pretty much saying you deserve everything horrible that happens to you. Do you sense that he's basically sending you a message. one hundred percent. And what is that message? that it's not gonna end that great for me Someone could sneak into the house and kill me I could be killed on my way home from school We asked Alexa Stern to read the disturbing emails between the person who wanted her dead Cod named Mastermind three hundred six five and Ua The alleged murder for hire Kingpin on the Dark Web I can see on your website that the services you offer are murder, assault, arson. A kidnapping is the job that I had in mind. Mastermind three hundred sixty five sent this picture of Alexis to Europe And then for some reason, about a week later, he upgraded his order from kidnapping to I would just like this person dead. I would just like this person to be shot and killed. It was another cold and clinical Minnesota hit order that triggered our original Dark Web murder for Hire investigation. In twenty sixteen, a forty three year old dog trainer named Amy Alwine was killed in nearby Cottage Grove Police questioned her husband Stehven We're a normal family. There' nothing nothing unique, nothing strange. Like Mastermind three hundred and sixty five, Stehven Alwine had paid Eura thousands of dollars to arrange a hit When it didn't happen, Allwine took matters into his own hands and shot his wife in the head in twenty eighteen, He was convicted of murder Do you have any doubt in your mind who put out the contract on your life? I have no doubt in my mind that it is Adrianne Fry Adrienne Fry, her ex boyfriend from England When she saw the kill order dated july fifteenth, she says the timing suddenly made sense to her. What had happened the day before july fourteenth That is when I told Adrian that I was dating someone else And it wasn't just the timing of the hit order She says it was the language too It sounds very British I would just like this person dead. But if there's any more information you would like, inbox me. I don't know anyone in America that uses the term embox me. Adrian, on the other hand, often would say that Alexis noticed Mastermind three hundred sixty five sometimes referred to himself with a lowercase eye. She says when Adrian wrote her He did the same thing. She also saw that Mastermind three hundred and sixty five wrote Thank you as one word In Adrian's messages to her, he done that too It's a quirk that would become more significant later in our investigation And there was more Mastermind three hundred sixty five touro My problem is that I don't currently have an extra fiveibrand, but I will have it in about a week's time. This part is from Adrian to me If there is a chance you may like me in years time then I will happily wait The phrases weeks time and years time are common in British English in writing them, both Mastermind three hundred and sixty five and Adrianne Fry, had left off an apostrophe. So there's a couple of phrases that matches Adrian's patterns. Yes She also realized Mastermind three hundred and sixty five seemed to have grown impatient with Uura over time And that's when she saw one particular message that sent a shiver up her spine Do you guys sell guns I need a pistol with a silencer He's asked you to help them get a gun with a silencer What does that tell you? It sounds like he is willing to take matters into his own hands if it doesn't get done. Just like Stephven Alwine. And that's what worries our Dark Web expert, Lisa She believes Ua's websites are a scam and that frustrated clients may be moved to violence. The fact that he's a scammer as opposed to an actual hitman for hire provider does not remove the fact that he is a threat or is a criminal There are people out there who believe it isra real hit Main website Alexis Stern says, after more than a year with little apparent progress on her case, she became frustrated and agreed to try her luck with us I decided I might as well take a chance and see what forty eight hours can help me with She is determined to see justice catch up to the man she says ordered her murder and the person who promised to arrange it Lisa, we have always in our investigation that Europe must live overseas. Are we right Snow feer. Ya might live right here in New York City Let's be honest, traditional banks have a habit of hitting you with overdraft and monthly fees, and those costs can really add up when you're just trying to manage your own money. But Chime is changing the way people bank. 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I bought it from Carvana. You what? Yeah, great price. I even' have seven days to love it or return it. So there's no No, no buyer's remorse. More like buyers rejoice? I guuess I'll let myself out. Congratulations. I mean it. Buyers rejoice. Buy your car today on Carbana. Limitations exlusions may apply Sor sevenay day return policy, cararbana d The Hitman markarketplace is like any other auction site. It brings customers and vendors together. He's still out there somewhere. The cyberghost Europe It' still uncatchable in a hidden world still a confounding myster of customers It's probably no surprise that our global manhunt for Europe began on a computer. So Ive ventured into a very strange place for the first time in my life, the Dark Web. In twenty eighteen, we wrote to him on his website asking for an interview Much to our surprise, he agreed to sit down with us on camera in London We were already there to interview a self styled cyber crime researcher named Chris Montero, who'd been monitoring Eura and his hitman sites for more than three years. And some of people tracked to the website are very very nasty individuals So we've flown from New York to London rented this studio. you can see the lights behind me for the big interview, and we even brought in a master of disguise who's going to camouflage Eura's face Now all we need is him. The elusive Uura never showed up, claiming we could have been followed by police, but he did start sending us those video statements. We will be waiting for you to come place your orders and get rid of your problems Europe, who seems to enjoy taunting forty eight hours, sent us this email in june twenty nineteen. Unfortunately, after your show, the business has decreased tremendously People concluded that the site is a scam Eura even claimed he's going legit moving away from the murder for higher sights into the real world I opened a restaurant business And I live nice Lisa, our Dark Web expert doubts Ua has left his criminal p behind. He's still very much in business. He's still working. Absolutely. And as the cases of Amy Alwine and Alexa Stern show, Even if Eura's hitman sites are scams The customers paying him to have people killed are horrifyingly real. A lot of people want other people killed across the United States. And the world. Yes Lisa is determined to unmask Europe Everyone can be found Yura can be found And she quickly spotted her first clue a massive trail of hacked digital data Digging through that treasure trove, Lisa believes she's unearthed a few gold nuggets This is you to get it. Inluding Eura's likely password from one of his early murder for Hire sites. In this case, we've got this very unique password of Forenza twenty two. FR U N Z A twenty twenty two. So this sounds like a lead. From a digital forensics perspective, this is a huge lead Lisa immediately launched a worldwide search across the dark Web and the regular internet for that password possibly linked to Europe. In a matter of hours, she zeroed in on two hits from different sides of the planet J on the Google search. Friends of twenty two actually l us to Moldova Paces The Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet state in Eastern Europe And there's a village here called Franza It's also a common last name Frunza twenty two gave us all this intelligence with which to work with and narrow down who Eur possibly could be Lisa discovered that the online seller of this car in Moldova had also used Frunza twenty two. Could there be a link? The license plate for this car obviously gives us more information Do you have an answer yet as to who owns this vehicle? Unfortunately, we do not. We're coordinating with people on the ground in Moldova to see who this car is actually registered to. But the most compelling clue, Lisa says, connects your' possible password to a standard email address. hereere. in the United States I was able to identify that with a very high probability with an older Russian woman. in New York Lisa thinks the woman be Ua's relative The cyber search for Eura and his anonymous dark web connections will involve a tedious, time consuming process of following digital breadcrumbs. One piece of evidence stands on its own and you look at it as a breadcrumb and you try to tastase that for a bit. and then you find another breadcrumb Collectively, when you start to add all of these things up, you have a higher confidence assessment I keep my identity private Ething that could help with recognition As our global hunt for U intensifies, we're reminded that his borderless reach from the bottom of the internet has left shattered lives in his wake. Amy Allwine, murder and others marked for death living in perpetual fear are people around the world in danger And I had do something about it. What Chris Montero did was secretly hack into Ua's websites, dredching up disturbing emails from clients ordering grizzly hits and passing them on to forty eight hours. We immediately informed law enforcement The three cases we investigated in twenty eighteen in Illinois, Tennessee, and California have led to explosive conclusions. Do you understand the terror that you have caused? Woodridge, Illinois Tina Jones, a registered nurse, got involved with a married colleague When he ended the affair, she allegedly paid Ua about twelve thousand dollars to kill the man's wife Aeen CS gave Ci Peter Jones.'s Jones. mother and approaching the bench. This was a nurse. someomeone who saves lives Truth really is stranger than fiction So Woodridge Police Sergeant Daniel Murray acting on the forty eight hours tip A chillingly calm Tina Jones in for questioning. The easier it'll go for everybody involved. So I'm just going to ask you right now Did you make any threat or did you try to have somebody Do something on your behalf to Jeff's wife you sure about that Hs Buying it? No She just doesn't come off as believable I really don't know Moments later, the truth. But you gott to tell me now I did You do. Yeah Tina Jones just pleaded guilty to attempted first degree murder in a. In august twenty nineteen, Tina Jones learned her fate She will spend the next ten years in prison. For eighteen hours. Fortty eight hours also tipped off Detective Michael Oly in Clarksville, Tennessee broke the news to then twenty two year old Sydney Minor. Iess A single mom Someone went on the Dart web There is a murder for hire website and someone has paid to have you murdered. What Sidney, who was pregnant with her second child, quickly identified the father of her unborn baby as a suspect. Brandon states Syidney says he had pressured her to get an abortion He's married. D didnn't know it at the time. The only person in our mind was Brandon States because because it was his child. and she refused to get rid of the child. Brandon States eventually pleaded guilty to attempted premeditated murder In march twenty nineteen, the army specialist was sentenced by a military court to fifteen years in Fort Leavenworth. By his final court hearing, Sydney had given birth to a little girl named Sayor Brandon states asked to meet his daughter before going to prison Syidney reluctantly agreed and handed the little girl to the man who had paid money Kill them both Give me a sense of what was going through your mind at that moment Here A lot of fear She had to meet him in a qu room with police officers I'm guards I told him, I'll never forgive you for what you've done Around this same time in San Louis Obispo, California This man awaits trial. We know that you wanted your stepmother murdered, but we don't know why. Why did you do it? In late twenty nineteen, Bau Brigham, a one time YouTube star. I never did it for the money. I did it 'cause I had a lot of time on my head. is on trial for solicitation of murder after forty eight hours tipped authorities to his case In twenty eighteen, Brigham allegedly had paid Eura to arrange the assassination of his stepmother During questioning by detectives, he seemed to acknowledge ordering the hit I remember P on something stupid sight And then I was raged just sending a bunch of stuff. I do not deny he went to the site I absolutely deny that he had any intention whatsoever of hurting his stepmother Defense attorney Elon Funky Bilu says Brigham wasn't serious Evidence shows Brigham paid less than three dollars in Bitcoin toward the five thousand dollars hit. If there was true intent It wouldn't stop at two dollars and ninety five cents After nearly three weeks of testimony, it takes the jury seven hours to find Brigham guilty of solicitation of murder And a month later So I just came out of the courtroom. He was sentenced to just three years in state prison. With credit for time served, he was released in january twenty twenty Alexa Stern is frustrated that in her case, there hasn't even been an arrest. Fortty eight hours tracked her ex boyfriend, Adrianne Fry to this house in the city of Bath, England And we're watching the place So far, he hasn't emerged. The hitman marketplace is like any other auction site The man who took the kill order Adrian allegedly made is still at large too. But Lisa says finding Ua may partly depend on exposing and flipping the peoplet work with him. Everyone has a network, right We uncovered information about an important thread in Eur's web. thread stretching all the way to the sprawling city Kolkata India and a computer contractor named Santos Sharma. Uura contracted Santos Sharma to assist him with digital marketing and promotion of his. Eura had become so brazen, he actually was promoting his dark websites on the regular internet by hiring a marketing specialist This producer in India, Arshad Zargar spent weeks looking for sharm, But we managed to track down both his addresses We tipped authorities who summoned Sharma to the police station. After they questioned him, Sharma agreed to an interview with us. We asked him about the sites he created on the regular internet to advertise US sites on the Dark Web What are the websites that you created for him? I have created murderf hred. com besamafia d. com hirehitman dot com He insisted he was just an everyday internet marketer Tired on a freelance job Have you ever spoken to him? No I just chat with him, chat anail I have asked a phone number how he didn't send me. He said they're not in touch at all anymore and that he doesn't know Uura's real name or location, but wishes he did because Uura scammed him too. Euras still owes him about four hundred dollars. And And he has been trying to get in touch with him, asking for the money Sharma was released without charges. But hacker Chris Montero says EurA's operations took a body blow. The work of forty eight hours investigating Santos Shama in India. That was very important in shutting down his advertising operations. Lisa wants to see Uura shut down completelyict. And she believes she's getting close to finding you. And it'll be right up here. Right on the right I'm gonna drop my head down Well her heart is racing And we're closing in on Adrian Frery too. He lives in this house west of London. Gs see what happens Hey, good evening We staked out Adrian Fry's house in England. The young man Alexis believes, ordered her murder and asked Uura about obtaining a gun For days, it seemed like nobody was home And then one night in february twenty twenty Take a look at this. car has pulled up in front of the house So we're going to head over now Go knock on the door and see if we can speak face to face with Adrianne Frery. Hey, good evening. My name is Peter Vance and I was wondering if Adrian's here. Adrian's brother answered the door, saying Adrian was visiting friends He gave us the name of a nearby town and we went to check it out, but couldn't find him ever meet with Adrianne Fry again. And not unless he's behind bars But that now seems unlikely. In november twenty nineteen, Alexis Stern received a letter from the FBI saying the case was being closed because The United States attttorney's Office has declined to prosecute But authorities never explained why the case was dropped and refused to tell forty eight Hours what, if anything, they had ever done to investigate Adrianne Fry or Eura. all law enforcement, just try and close our side if you can. In our own two year global search for Europe. We've been stood up in the UK. What would he say? I don't think he's coming I found Europe's marketing guru in India. I have created murderforhred. com besamafia d. com But not Yura himself and hit a dead end with that car ad in Moldova, where we had hired a local researcher to track down the owners Lisa now believes it's just a coincidence that Fonza twenty two appeared in the car app There's no direct correlation In january twenty twenty, we followed Lisa's lead to a woman in New York City, who Lisa now believes is Uura's mother in law We've just left Manhattan, where we head Queens Maybe we'll find Europe I hope so. It took three months of digging through digital clues for Lisa to uncover what she calls strong evidence against the man she now believes is Europe It includes a link to that unusual password Franza twenty two forty eight hours discovered an email address that included gun and killer connected to the man Lisa found in New York City It was enough to make me pause when I saw that email address Lisa believes the man had moved to the US from overseas in the nineteen nineties. and now owns a large repair business registered some kind of tech company And most recently bought a restaurant I have high confidence that This man is very likely Europe what's that confidence level? If you put it in a percentage, seventy five to eighty, which is in intelligence terms quite high. Lisa says there's no such thing as one hundred percent certainty on the secretive dark Web That's why we decided not to name the man or show his face And we're in a position where we can take a look down a sidewalk and see if he approaches We spotted him on a public sidewalk. bl Hey, how you doing? I'm Peter Van Santt with CBS News, and we have some questions that we'd like to get answered if we may Our investigation of murder for hire on the Dark Web has led us here, and I want to ask you Are you yourough? Cool You're Uura is a person who runs has run various Murder for hire sites on the dark Web. What are you talking about? Can you explain yourself? I then asked him about Fonza twenty two, that potentially incriminating password. How do you explain that on the Ba Mafia website? The administrator uses a password Lisa says to pay special attention to the man's reaction A after I mentioned the password. The minute you hit in with the evidence, that is the key piece of evidence in this The password. The password. He immediately then shuts down and starts going, No, no, no, no, I don't want tona be here He then did something I've never seen before Before we start anything, I want to make sure the whole world knows what's going on. He started streaming our conversation live on Facebook, where he began speaking more to his followers than to me What's up guys Something is going on. I got some guys over here. This in itself is taking control of the communication He wants his words and his voice to be heard and not yours. You can answer my question. There's no os here We also tried to ask the man about another striking similarity between him and Ua in the real world Wellura wrote us and said that he'd recently taken his money and opened a new restaurant Would you've done that What restaurant are you talking about again this restaurant, not far from where we met him He opened the place in twenty eighteen Just six months later, Eura wrote forty eight hours that he had done the same