Local authorities revealed that the accused teen had submitted detailed personal information about the 7-year-old child, including their name, address, identifying details, and whereabouts, to a website called rentahitman.com.
A 17-year-old teenager from western Iowa has been arrested and charged with solicitation to commit murder after allegedly attempting to hire a hitman to kill a young child
However, it is important to note that “Rent-a-Hitman” is a parody site featuring fake testimonials, a request form, and a job application for aspiring hitmen.
The Storm Lake Police Department, who released a news statement on Monday, disclosed that the website’s administrator had forwarded the teenager’s request to the authorities, following a similar pattern as a previous arrest in Tennessee. An undercover officer contacted the suspect on Friday morning, confirming the teenager’s intent to have the child killed.
Subsequently, the teenager was arrested that afternoon, and evidence obtained from their cell phone led the police to believe that the threat against the 7-year-old was credible. Fortunately, neither the child nor their family members were harmed, and they were unaware of the potential danger.
The suspect is now facing a felony charge for solicitation to commit murder
They are currently held in the Cherokee YES Center and will be referred to juvenile court while the police investigation continues. While “Rent-a-Hitman” is a fictitious website, it is worth noting that similar sites claiming to offer real hitman services exist on the dark web.
Last month, federal authorities in Knoxville filed a criminal complaint accusing a Tennessee woman of trying to hire a hitman through a dark web-hosted site called “Online Killers Market.” The woman allegedly sought the hitman to kill the wife of a man she had met on the dating application Match.com.
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