Mom targeted in $25K murder-for-hire scheme by doctor fiance still lets him talk to daughter from prison: report

A Georgia mother was targeted in a $25,000 murder-for-hire scheme her respected doctor fiancé set up on the dark web — and she still lets their young daughter speak to him from prison.

Tonya discovered husband-to-be James Wan’s disturbing plot against her when he was hospitalized after breaking his ankles at a May 2022 event at their child’s school.

Nurses pulled the 37-year-old from Wan’s bedside to meet with a team of FBI agents in the hospital chapel, where they showed her proof that Wan, 52, put a hit out on her, she told the Daily Mail.

“‘You’re a victim, I’m going to tell you that,’” she recalled an agent telling her.

“‘We have a suspect in that, and that suspect is sitting up in that room.”

“I just want you to digest that for a second. We have a duty to warn you that was located, that there was money exchanged, and that’s why we’re here.’”

Agents showed Tonya, whose last name was withheld, the messages her alcoholic husband had written on the dark web, including photos of her and her license plate number.

Wan wanted the killing to look like an “accident.”

Federal agents found out about the plot after a private citizen, who was not involved, saw the dark web forum and tip-offed the FBI.

“What was the most shocking to me was the fact that he never told them to even make sure our daughter was not in the car with before doing it,” Tonya told Daily Mail.

“Our daughter would have been strapped into her car seat while watching her mommy bleed out and die.”

The pair met at a Mississippi resort where Tonya worked, and she left the Magnolia State for Georgia to be with him in 2016.

“I was embarrassed that I had given up my whole entire life and moved up here with him,” she told the British outlet.

Wan had wired $8,000 worth of bitcoin to the murder-for-hire marketplace as a 50% down payment, according to authorities, but he accidentally transferred it to the wrong crypto wallet.

Two days later, he would send another $8,000 to the correct person, who confirmed receipt.

The hitman then asked Wan how he wanted the murder done and whether he preferred it to look like “accident or normal shooting.”

“Accident is better,” Wan replied, according to the US Department of Justice. On April 29, 2022, he wired another $8,000 from an escrow account and asked “how soon should [the] work be done?”

“Is there a way I can find out any progress? If there is anyone in my location?” he wrote.

Weeks later, he would send another $1,200 to the escrow account.

This wasn’t the first time Wan had tried to harm his fiancée, she claimed.

An angry Wan crashed their car in the Blue Ridge Mountains after she forced him to leave a North Carolina casino, she contended.

Tonya managed to pull Wan out and up the embankment before the vehicle exploded, she told Daily Mail. He was arrested on suspicion of a DUI, but it was later dropped.

He stopped drinking for a year, but relapsed, sparking a series of nasty disputes in which he allegedly berated her for having less money than him, asking her how she’d “pay for a car now” and “how are you going to pay for a lawyer,” she told the Daily Mail.

The police showed up at their door several times, but she thinks his doctor status helped keep the cops at bay.

“He’s hidden behind his white coat and gotten away with so many things,” she told the outlet.

“Just because he’s wearing scrubs and he’s a doctor does not mean he’s a good person.”

She believes Wan sought out a hitman after she told coworkers of his drinking habits.

The 54-year-old doctor was sentenced to more than seven years in prison last week after he admitted to the plot and pleaded guilty in October.

Despite it all, Tonya has allowed Wan to maintain contact with their young daughter while he’s in prison.

“I never wanted her to be mad at her dad. You know, I’ve never wanted that for her. I wanted to protect his name, like as a father his image in her head.”

Wan has since apologized to Tonya, after a judge rebuked him for not doing so at the Jan. 18 sentencing.

“I’m really sorry that you are in this position. I see now that I have hurt you beyond repair. I hope you find someone who can treat you well,” he wrote in an Jan. 22 email from prison.