Two Marine veterans and a former Israel Defense Forces member have been charged with kidnapping resulting in death after they were reportedly hired by a Texas man, also charged, to deal with an extortion attempt, according to a recently unsealed indictment.
Force recon Marine veteran Bryon Brockway, 46, from Texas, and special operations forces Marine veteran Adam Carey, 30, from North Carolina, along with the two other men, spent 12 days conspiring and carrying out a kidnapping and murder plot, according to a Monday press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
“This investigation began with the discovery of two bodies inside a vehicle on Good Friday 2020,” Chief John Drake said when making the announcement, local news outlets reported.
All four men have been charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, and the carrying, brandishing and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. They each face up to life in prison if convicted.
It all began when Erik C. Maund, a 46-year-old married owner of an auto dealership in Austin, Texas, allegedly had an affair in Nashville during a February 2020 business trip with on-and-off again girlfriend Holly Williams, court documents revealed.
Less than a month later , the woman’s romantic partner, William Lanway, reportedly threatened Maund via text messages on March 1, saying that he would expose the affair unless Maund paid him off, documents showed.
Rather than pay up, Maund allegedly sought the services of Gilad Peled, 47, a former member of IDF and Mossad — Israel’s national intelligence agency — and owner of SpearTip Security Group in Austin, Texas, to deal with the threats.
The company, formerly known as Speartip Enterprises, was a private security service business that advertised responding to extortion demands as an available service on its website, court documents stated.
Within days, Brockway and Carey, the two Marine veterans, were allegedly brought onboard by Peled to help handle Maund’s situation.
An unnamed relative of Brockway’s then prepared an “intelligence report” for the group, while Carey allegedly spent between March 5 and March 11 surveilling Williams and Lanway.
According to court documents, a separate document entitled, “Tennessee Sitrep,” confirmed the address at which Williams and Lanway were living and the identifying information of her car.
Within the “sitrep” was a statement confirming that Carey and the others would “use everything at their disposal to stop the attempted extortion,” the Department of Justice stated in a press release.
After Maund made more than $150,000 in payments to Peled, court documents allege, Brockway and Carey confronted Williams and Lanway at her apartment complex’s parking lot on March 12, 2020.
After allegedly shooting Lanway multiple times, the two Marine veterans then allegedly kidnapped Williams, taking both her and Lanway’s body to a construction site.
It was at the construction site on Old Hickory Boulevard in Nashville that they allegedly shot Williams several times, including at least once in the head.
Williams was 33 years old and Lanway was 36.
Brockway and Carey left the bodies at the construction site, court documents allege. After returning the rental car they had used to transport Williams and Lanway and shutting down the Pinger app account used to discuss plans, the two went their separate ways, court documents show.
In total, Maund transferred more than $750,000 to an account owned by Peled as payment for the murders, court records allege.
All four men were arrested Friday. Maund was taken into police custody at a traffic stop near Austin, Texas, while Peled was caught at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in the same city. Brockway was arrested in San Diego, while Carey was arrested at his home in North Carolina.
While each man will make an initial appearance before U.S. magistrate judges in the district where they were arrested, all four will return to the Middle District of Tennessee at a later date for trial.
Multiple FBI field offices, local police departments and Naval Criminal Investigation Services aided in the investigation, according to the press release.
The case will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire of the Middle District of Tennessee with co-council from Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bryan Stephany of the Eastern District of North Carolina; Matt Harding of the Western District of Texas; and Derek Ko of the Southern District of California.
Rachel is a Marine Corps veteran and a master's candidate at New York University's Business & Economic Reporting program.
