Former West MI Teacher Accused of Paying Bitcoin to Have Wife Killed
A former Middleville teacher has been accused of trying to hire someone to murder his wife and pay for it in Bitcoin.
Nelson Replogle, 59, a teacher at Thornapple Kellogg High School from 2000-2018, was arrested in Tennessee last month.
According to Fox 17, the FBI had been notified about a murder-for-hire plot targeting a Knoxville-are woman by employees with the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). How the BBC found out about the plot has yet to be revealed -- According to WWMT-3, "A spokesperson for BBC declined to provide a comment about the network's connection to the case."
Upon investigating, the FBI alleges they found that Replogle paid more than $17,000 in Bitcoin to a murder-for-hire website to have his wife killed while she was taking a family pet to the veterinarian.
According to WWMT-3, it's alleged the information Replogle supplied to carry out the murder "was very specific about date, time, vehicle make, model and color."
The FBI was able to trace the Bitcoin to a Coinbase wallet owned by Replogle. It was found the the Coinbase wallet was connected to Replogle's bank account and IP address.
Replogle is being held at the Blount County Jail in Maryville, Tennessee. If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison.