Yue Zhou, Murder-for-Hire, New York 2024

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Yue Zhou Charged with Murder-for-Hire, Queens NY, 2024

A 42-year-old woman from Flushing, New York, has been charged with murder-for-hire after allegedly using a hitman-for-hire website on the dark web to order the murder of her lover’s wife.

Yue Zhou, 42, was arrested on June 5, 2024, in the Eastern District of Virginia and removed to the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. She is scheduled to be arraigned today at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.

According to the indictment, Zhou sought to hire a hitman through a murder-for-hire website on the dark web between March 25, 2019, and April 4, 2019, to murder Victim-1, the spouse of the defendant’s then-romantic partner. Zhou placed an order to have Victim-1 murdered using an alias on the website and paid $5,000 in Bitcoin to the Website. She also provided a detailed description of Victim-1, including her home, work schedule, and the best times to target Victim-1.

Zhou later tried to use the Website to secure the murder of Victim-2, her romantic partner’s adult daughter. In February 2021, Zhou sent a text message to a neighbor of Victim-2 seeking to hire that neighbor to kill Victim-2. Zhou offered the neighbor $10,000 and sexual favors in exchange for killing Victim-2 and disposing of the body in a lake.

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and Zhou is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Amanda Shami and Andy Palacio are in charge of the prosecution.

United States Attorney Breon Peace and HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ivan J. Arvelo announced the charges. ‘As alleged, the defendant took affirmative steps to hire a hit man to carry out the ruthless killing of the wife of her romantic partner,’ stated United States Attorney Peace. ‘Her depraved plan was only thwarted because the website she used to set up the murder-for-hire was a scam.’