A 42-year-old Microsoft employee who paid $16,000 worth of Bitcoin to a hitman who used the dark web to kill the parents of five adopted children has been sentenced to seven years in prison after admitting to the sick plot.

• Christopher Pence, 42, pleads guilty to organizing murder-for-hire plot online
• He believed that his adopted children's birth parents were abusing them.
• Pence gave out $16,000 worth of Bitcoin to darknet users in this scheme.

A Microsoft security engineer has been sentenced to seven years in prison for accessing a dark web hitman site and orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot targeting the parents of an adopted child.

Christopher Robin Pence, 42, of Cedar City, Utah, was sentenced Thursday in the Northern District of New York. He pleaded guilty in December last year to abetting and paying for the murders of a 35-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman.

Mr. Pence later confessed to FBI agents that he planned to kill the upstate New York couple because he believed child abuse was occurring at their home in Hoosick Falls.

He first accessed the darknet site in July 2021 using Onion Router, a peer-to-peer overlay network that allows users to browse the internet anonymously.

According to documents reviewed by DailyMail.com, Pence arranged the murder with another user and website administrator in exchange for about $16,000 worth of Bitcoin.

“The anonymous user provided the site administrator with the names, addresses, photographs, and method of murder of the intended victims,” ​​the criminal complaint states.

Mr. Pence issued the following instructions regarding the killing:It must be made to look like an accident or a robbery gone wrong, and if possible, care must be taken not to harm the three children the victim is known to be protecting.

He sent the money using methods such as a cryptocurrency wallet service that advertises itself as a way to protect money transfers from prying eyes.

Investigators linked information obtained from the cryptocurrency exchange account, including date of birth and Social Security number, to Mr. Pence, who had accessed the site until August 2021.

In an interview later that year, FBI agents told Pence that they were hired to take over management of the murder-for-hire site and that the site's operators provided them with the names of users, including their own.

Investigators interviewed Mr. Pence's targets in September 2021 and learned that Mr. Pence's family had adopted five children, and that “conflicts between the two families had escalated.” I learned.

Tensions were so high that the Hoosick Falls couple wanted to maintain custody of their child and reported Pence's family to local child welfare authorities, documents also show.

The criminal complaint alleges that the photos Pence provided to the site's administrators “are photos of the targeted victims with their children that the targeted victims provided to Pence and his family for use as a 'baby book.' It is pointed out that it matches the photograph.

Officials executed a federal search warrant on Mr. Pence's Cedar City home the following month to seize electronic documents. He later admitted his involvement in the scheme.

Records show that on the morning of Oct. 27, 2021, two employees made small talk with Pence while riding in a government-issued Chevrolet Tahoe.

One agent told Mr. Pence that no arrests had been made and that he had “no obligation” to speak to them.

“Thank you, okay?” I'm just trying to understand – because obviously we're here for a reason, right? the agent said.

That was enough to convince him. In 2018, Pence revealed that he and his family, who were living in Washington at the time, were traveling across Massachusetts on a six-week national tour.

His wife Michelle suddenly received a message from a woman asking for help for her five children. The Pence family, including 10 children, agreed to meet with the woman and pray with her.

Pence claimed the woman told him her children weren't safe near her husband, who was courting other women.

“The mother basically said, 'I need a place to take my kids, it's not safe here,'” Pence told investigators.

“So off we went. We arrived in Massachusetts with 10 kids and left there with 15.”

Pence claimed that after the adoption, he began separating the children from their birth parents, but that the couple followed them to Texas and then demanded: We move the trailer to our family's property in Utah.

The seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom home and surrounding 20 acres of land are valued at about $1 million, according to property records.

Pence also claimed that one of his children was being disciplined and abused by his birth parents and refused to stand by any longer.

“In everything you're dealing with, in everything you're doing, you're the protector of these kids, okay?” one agent said.

“It's clear to me that you are the savior of these children and that you are doing it for the family. I didn't understand why before, but you know that you would do anything for these children. I understand that clearly.”

Mr. Pence seemed unconvinced, asking, “Have I ruined my life?” He said.

When asked if there was anything he wanted at home, the Microsoft engineer replied, “I'd like a time machine.” He was arrested the same day.

According to websites viewed by DailyMail.com, Christopher and Michelle Pence were actively seeking adoption and were advertising themselves through a “family profile.”

“We take in a huge number of children with special needs. I don’t mind contacting parents (by email, phone, mail, or in person),” Michelle wrote.

She noted that her husband “works full-time for Microsoft as a computer network security engineer and has a flexible work schedule,” and that their “moral values” stem from their “Christian beliefs.” He added that there is.

In the years leading up to his sentencing, Pence's family continued to rally around him.

His sister April Foltz set up a GoFundMe in December 2021, posting several photos of Pence, Michelle, and their children.

“This is my brother's family. They are a very happy and loving family. He is being charged with a horrific crime that did not involve any harm or cheating on his children or his wife and did not involve adultery,” Foltz said. he wrote.

She described Pence as a “steady provider” and said the pending lawsuit “left me with no money to pay my mortgage, buy food and utilities, and put gas in my car.” He explained.

In a follow-up post, Michelle asked for prayers.

These included pleas such as “I want the prison guards, especially the judge, to support my release,'' and “I want my family to be united through this difficult trial.''

“And please pray that the charges will be dropped,” Michelle wrote.

Mr. Pence pled guilty on December 6, 2023, to one count of using an interstate commercial facility in the commission of a murder-for-hire plot.

After completing his sentence, Pence was ordered to serve three years of supervised release.