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A Texas businessman, two former U.S. Marines and a purported former member of the Israeli Defense Forces were arrested last week in connection to a murder-for-hire kidnapping plot that involved a Nashville couple and an extortion attempt, federal authorities said.
In early February of 2020, Erik Charles Maund, 46, of Austin, emailed a woman with whom he had a prior relationship and made plans to meet her while visiting Nashville to see a relative, the Justice Department said.
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Following Maund’s visit, prosecutors said a man who had a romantic relationship with the same woman began sending him text messages that threatened to reveal the relationship and demanded money.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Monday identified the couple as 33-year-old Holly Williams and 36-year-old William Lanway.
Holly Williams, left, and William Lanway were killed as part of an elaborate murder-for-hire kidnapping plot to keep Williams' affair with Texas businessman Erik Charles Maund a secret, according to federal prosecutors. (Metropolitan Nashville Police Department )
Maund, described as a partner in Maund Automotive Group in Austin, allegedly hired three men, whom authorities identified as Gilad Peled, Bryon Brockway and Adam Carey, to help deal with the extortion demands from Lanway.
Peled, 47, of Austin, had made himself out to be a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces, prosecutors said. Brockway, 46, of Austin, and Carey, 30, of Richlands, N.C., were both former active-duty members of the U.S. Marines. Carey previously served in the Marine’s Special Operations Group.
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The indictment alleges that the conspiracy began on March 5, 2020, when Maund withdrew $15,000 from his bank account and an "intelligence report" was prepared and given to Peled "by a relative of Brockway who worked for an internet-based security company."
Carey and others traveled to Nashville to surveil Williams and Lanway, confirming her address and that Lanway had been staying with her, prosecutors said.
The indictment alleges that on March 12, 2020, Maund wire-transferred $150,000 from his bank account to an account controlled by Peled. On that same day, Brockway and Carey, armed with firearms, confronted Williams and Lanway in the parking lot of Williams' apartment complex.
Brockway and Carey shot Lanway multiple times, killing him, and kidnapped Williams, prosecutors alleged. The men allegedly drove Lanway’s body and Williams to a construction site in Nashville, where they shot Williams multiple times. The bodies were left at the site.
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Sometime after March 11, 2020, Maund wire-transferred more than $750,000 from his bank account to Peled’s as payment to Peled, Brockway and Carey for the murder-for-hire kidnapping plot, prosecutors said.
The FBI and MNPD orchestrated the arrests of all four men on Friday.
All four men were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, and carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
If convicted, all four men face life in prison.
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