Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 'Car Lot King' Pays $750,000 to Kill Mistress in Faked Crash

Episode Date: January 17, 2022

The bodies of Holly Williams and Bill Lanway were found by a construction worker inside Williams’ crashed 2005 white Acura sedan. The car had gone off the construction road, traveled down an embankment, and struck a tree. Both airbags deployed. The scene looks like a terrible accident.... until it’s discovered that both bodies have multiple gunshot wounds. Now, a Texas Car Lot King is charged with hiring hitmen to "take care of" his mistress and her estranged boyfriend.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Dale Carson - Criminal Defense Attorney (Jacksonville), Former FBI Agent, Former Police Officer, Author: "Arrest-Proof Yourself, DaleCarsonLaw.com Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark"  Robert Crispin - Private Investigator, “Crispin Special Investigations” www.CrispinInvestigations.com Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Lecturer: University of Texas and Texas A&M, Affiliated Faculty: University of Texas Medical Branch Tony Plohetski - Investigative Reporter, Austin American-Statesman and KVUE, Twitter: @tplohetski Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Gorgeous, smart, outgoing. She had it all. Holly Williams. Plus, she had a dud boyfriend, William Lanway. They're both found dead in a car crash. Or were they? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. What an all-star panel I've got with us today as we try to uncover what happened to Holly, what really happened to Holly, straight out to investigative reporter with the Austin American Statesman and KVUE, Tony Plohetsky. Tony, thank you for being with us. Let's just start with finding Holly Williams

dead in a car crash. And I guess there in the front seat is ex-boyfriend William Landwight. Let's just start with that. Tell me what happened. Well, authorities initially were called to a construction site outside of Nashville, just to the west of downtown Nashville. And when they got there, they saw Holly Williams' white 2005 Acura. It was down an embankment and the airbags had been deployed. And there they both were, Holly Williams and her estranged boyfriend, William Lanway. So I'm looking at a shot of it right now. Her four-door car, an Acura, has gone down an embankment. I'm curious because I don't see what it hit. I can't tell that it hit a tree. I see a tree in front of the vehicle, but it doesn't look to me like it hit the tree. So let me understand something. Tony Plohetsky, what were the positions of the two

bodies of this gorgeous young girl, Holly Williams, and the boyfriend, William Lanway? Well, she was found in the back seat of this car. He was actually found in the front seat with his head down on the passenger floorboard. Say that one more time, please. Very slowly, Tony. So her body was on the back seat, stretched across the back seat. He, Landway, was found head down on the front passenger floorboard. Special guest joining us, Dr. Kendall Crowns, the chief medical examiner in Tarrant County, that's Fort Worth, and esteemed lecturer in forensic pathology at the University of Texas and at Texas A&M. Dr. Kendall Crowns, when you are determining cause of death, very often, I would have the medical examiner, which would be you, the chief medical examiner, or one of your minions, the investigators. A lot of people don't know that the medical examiner's office in a lot

of big cities has their own team of investigators. And can I tell you, Dr. Kendall Crowns, how many times it was the medical examiner detectives, investigators, that found things related to the death in question that a regular investigator, as smart as they are, sorry, Robert Crispin, don't catch. And it's because your medical examiner investigators are looking at the scene through a different lens. It's all about how the scene relates to the body. A regular investigator like myself or like Robert Crispin, now private investigator, it's Crispin Special Investigations, former law enforcement, we look at it as to how am I going to prove a crime or is there a crime?

Your medical examiner team looks at everything as it relates to the dead body. For instance, I remember a case I had, a woman was found dead by suicide. And I went to the scene and said, oh, let's look at her computer. Let's look at, was there forced entry? Let's look for a touch DNA. Let's look for this. Let's touch that. Look on the window seals. Look at the lamp, the light fixture. Did the killer turn the light on or off? Look at the phone. Look at this. Do that. Look at the doorknob. The medical examiner team was very quietly measuring the distance of the shell from the gun to the bed where she was laying. And I'm like, oh, waste of time. No, it was not a waste of time at all because they were determining would the shells have gone where they went when they were expelled from the gun if she had committed suicide. And lo and behold, they thought something was hinky.

And it wasn't until, and this was a fluke, Dr. Kendall Crowns, I was beginning my study of blood spatter and blood evidence. And I got the bed sheet. She killed herself in bed. I'll give you a tip off. She was naked. So right there we know she didn't commit suicide because a female of her age, her education, just everything about her says she would not commit suicide naked, which is typical of most women. just staring at the bedsheets with blood on them. And lo and behold, we realized that some of the blood spatter

that is expelled at the moment the bullet hits the head was under her pillow, which was entirely impossible. Which means the scene was staged, which means it was a murder. My point being, Dr. Kendall Crowns, in this case, you've got what appears to be a car crash, but I don't see what the car crashed into. I'm going to have to ask Tony Ploheski to tell me about the damage to the car. And she's in the backseat and he's head down in the front floorboard. Is that how it would have gone down?

The airbags were deployed? Is that where you would expect to find her body and his body? So if they were in a high-speed car accident, it could very well, you know, someone could dislodge from their seat and be thrown into the back floorboards or into the back seat. And the front seat passenger could be crumpled enough to be shoved into the floorboards. But the car itself would be heavily damaged and there would be significant damage all the way around with the car and the individuals, especially when someone is thrown from the front with the car and the individuals, especially when someone is thrown from the front of the car to the back. They're often very disfigured and torn up and

occasionally have a traumatic amputation or even a decapitation. So when you see that, they aren't going to be completely intact. You know they've been into a very high-speed car accident. I am trying to figure this out. Because to you, Tony Plohetsky, I know you just heard. Tony, joining us from the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE. That's not the way they were founding. I'm looking at the car right now, and I'm not seeing damage to the front end. Yeah, there's just simply not a lot of damage. Now, what Nashville police said at the time is that the car had gone off the road,

rained down an embankment. And that one picture, Nancy, that Nashville police released, we really can't see how significant of an embankment that is. And Nashville police did say at the time that we're not talking any kind of major tree. There are clearly some bushes there and some brush there. Wait a minute. Are you talking about that sapling?

Is that the tree you're talking about? One right in front of the car. It's about, oh my goodness, it's maybe 14 inches in diameter exactly uh-uh no the tree is still straight up yeah i can see even from the one picture that they've released i can see all the way up that both side mirrors are in place and there's no damage to the car all the way up to I can even see the front wheels. There's no damage. So how in the hay, Dr. Kendall Crowns, is he is she in the backseat dead and he is upside down in the front seat? And wouldn't the deployment of the airbags keep them in place upon impact?

So, again, it's inconsistent with the scene you're describing and the way the motor vehicle is, where their bodies are positioned. The airbags will trigger if you hit something at a moderate speed. And usually the bodies aren't displaced unless it's at a really high speed. So what you're describing is inconsistent with how the bodies are found, if they were both in the front seat at the time of the accident. Once the airbag deploys, Dr. Kendall-Crowns, it deploys upon impact. I've been driving,

it was during a serial murder case too, by the way. I had been to a woman's jail, the big dollhouse, to speak with one of his victims that lived, to tell the tale, to compare what happened to her to what I thought happened

to the murder victims. And it was just lightly raining. I hit the brakes for a red light and my car skid right into the back of a taxi and the airbags deployed. And the only thing that happened to the taxi driver was the button on the top of his pants flew off. That was it. But the airbag came right up on me the moment I hit the cab. So wouldn't the airbag, whether you did or did not have a seatbelt on, wouldn't that kind of keep you pinned in place at a low-impact collision? Yes.

Yes, it would. You shouldn't go anywhere because the airbag will kind of fill into your abdomen and chest area and keep you pushed against the car seat. I mean, that's its purpose is to decrease your forward momentum so you don't hit anything structurally and get injured. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace take a listen to our cut 00c this is investigative reporter jackie howard crime online.com holly williams and bill lanway's bodies were found by a construction worker inside williams crashed 2005 white acura. The car had gone off the construction road, traveled down an embankment, and struck a tree. Both airbags deployed.

The scene looks like a terrible accident, until it's discovered that both bodies have multiple gunshot wounds. Ruh-roh. Okay. Everything that Dr. Kendall Crown said is dead on. They're dead from gunshot wounds. They're not dead from this five mile an hour slip down the side of an embankment into a sapling. That's not what happened at all. Okay, straight out to you, Robert Crispin, private investigator, former law enforcement.

He's at CrispinInvestigations.com. How's that hit you, Crispin? Clearly, Nancy, this is where everything's going to start to unravel. The speed of the crash, the two dead bodies, the position of the bodies, anybody who shows up on that scene is going to say, hey, this just isn't right. I got a guy underneath the dash. Yeah, you know, Robert, when I first looked at the picture, I'm like, something's not right. Because it's kind of a gentle slope.

They'd have to be going at least fast enough to knock the tree forward to get to both of them thrown out, one in the back seat, one doubled over in the front seat. What about it, Dale Carson? I haven't even introduced you. Dale Carson with me, high-profile lawyer out of Jacksonville, former fed with the FBI and author of Arrest Proof Yourself. I don't like that.

DaleCarsonLaw.com. How does that grab you, the facts that Tony Plohetsky has just blurted out? Well, I think when you find out that they've been shot, which should not be necessarily apparent at the crime scene, but certainly would be evident at the autopsy, then the entire matter takes on a different trajectory. Well, long story short, we know it's Holly Williams, gorgeous, smart, gregarious. Everybody loves her. And this estranged boyfriend, William Lanway. So knowing what I know about him, my first thought was, ah, murder-suicide.

Why do I say that? Take a listen to our cut 00A from Crime Online. Holly Williams grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She was licensed as a medical esthetician and, by all accounts, was good at her job. But when people talk about Williams, it's to say how humble, quiet, and sweet she was. Williams had been in a long-term on-again, off-again relationship with William Bill Lanway. His upbringing was far less idyllic. As a child, Lanway was held hostage at gunpoint by his father for hours in his mother's

apartment. A week later, his father, Lyle Lanway, stabbed his mother, Candy, to death as Bill and his sister ran to a neighbor for help. Lyle Lanway went to prison for murder, and Bill was raised by an aunt. As an adult, Bill Lanway married and had a daughter, Madison K. Lanway. She was the light of his life. But the little girl died at age five from brain cancer. Friends say Lanway was never the same. Never the same, but does that explain this? Take a listen to Cut 00B. 33-year-old Holly Williams and 36-year-old William Lanway's relationship was tumultuous.

Court records show Williams called police on Lanway at least three times in one year. Lanway was arrested on a domestic assault charge for punching Williams. He was also arrested on charges of aggravated assault and false imprisonment for attacking Williams in a domestic violence incident. Williams also says Lanway tried to strangle her because she tried to run away during an argument. Williams had obtained an order of protection against Lanway. I guess she did try to run away during an argument, afraid of what he might do to her. So I'm sure police, once they figured out, hey, this is not a car crash, they immediately think murder-suicide.

Would you agree with that, Karen Stark, that he couldn't have her so nobody else would, so he shoots her and then shoots himself? I would definitely agree with that, Nancy. It's a great theory because very often in situations like that, the woman is unable to escape from the abuse, no matter how much you try. And so I don't care if there's a restraining order. This guy was not going to leave her alone. So let's go with murder-suicide for a moment now that we've figured out that it's not a car crash death. Tony Plohetsky, investigative reporter, Austin American-Statesman and KVUE. Aren't you a busy boy? Tony Plohetsky,

tell me about the injuries to William Lanway, the estranged boyfriend. Well, again, there were the injuries that we've discussed in terms of the placement of the body, but investigators quickly were able to determine exactly where they had been shot. So Lanway was found with two shots to his torso and one to his left forearm. Holly Williams had a gunshot wound to her head and one to her chest, according to their autopsy. Okay, right there, Dr. Kendall Crowns. Typically, when men, and we're going under the theory that he killed her because he couldn't have her and then killed himself, do men typically commit suicide by shooting themselves in the chest?

Not typically, but I mean it does happen. But usually they shoot themselves in the head. Some people I think they are trying to go for a dramatic look by shooting themselves in their heart. But usually males, it's to their head. Females often will try and preserve their face and shoot themselves in the torso. Dr. Kendall-Crowns, you say women normally shoot themselves in the torso, we think, subconsciously because they do not want to disfigure their face. Don't women typically commit suicide by other modes such as poison or jumping out of a window or carbon monoxide? Pills typically more often than anything else.

Although in Texas, I've seen more women shoot themselves than any other jurisdiction I've worked in. Interesting. And I think it's because people have more knowledge of guns here. But as a general fact, women don't typically shoot themselves as a mode of suicide. Is that correct, Dr. Crowns? That is correct. It's more often overdose. And you're saying that typically when men do commit suicide by gun, they do not shoot themselves in the chest.

They shoot themselves in the head. That is correct. Wayne and Karen Stark. I just wanted to add to what you were saying. Women are not as violent as men for the most part. And so they avoid doing anything that's going to be like hanging themselves or shooting themselves.

And much more typically, they'll take pills or do something like be in a car and use carbon monoxide. And you know what we're doing right now, Dale Carson, a high-profile lawyer out of Jacksonville and former FBI? We're going down a rabbit hole because our whole premise is murder-suicide, that he murders her and then kills himself. But this is what happens when you're preparing a case or investigating a case. You go off on a tangent. You look at all the possibilities. And so we've chased that one down, and we doubt statistically that she was the gun person.

But, Dale Carson, do you see anything wrong with the theory he committed suicide? Absolutely, I do. You know, it's not unusual for the victim to be shot more than once, but it's often really odd where a suicide victim is able to shoot themselves several times. Exactly. You and I have been talking forever about the case of Ellen Greenberg, stabbed 20-something times, and it was deemed a suicide which is crazy same thing here how did he shoot himself three times

he shot himself dead and then came back and shot himself dead again Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Suddenly, the investigation is turned on its ear. So, in this situation, you start looking at the two dead bodies. Who are these people? This is not a murder-suicide. This is not a car crash, a deadly car crash. Take a listen to our friend Mariah Timms from the Tennessean speaking to KVUE.

Holly Williams was described by friends and family as sweet and trusting. It seems like from certain reports we can find that she and Landway have been in a relationship for a few years and in the last few months of their lives together, it turns sour at least. There are reports of domestic violence. Landway was charged both with domestic violence, domestic assault, and later aggravated assault after the second time that Holly called the cops on him. But as the investigation goes on, Tony Plohetsky joining me from KVUE and Austin American Statesman, it turns out that Holly Williams may have been dating somebody else. Well, according to information uncovered by investigators,

they were able to determine that she was having a relationship with a man in Austin, Texas, by the name of Eric Charles Mond. He's a 46-year-old father. Eric Charles Mond. Okay, go ahead. Who did you say he is? He's a 46-year-old father and comes from a well-established family here in Austin. What do you mean a well-established family here in Austin? Well, what I mean by... What does that mean? Well, it means that his family... Money

or breeding or both? It means that his family owns car dealerships here in Central Texas, a Toyota dealership, a Volkswagen dealership. It is a very well-known name, the Maughan family here in Austin. M-A-U-N-D. M-A-U-N-D, correct. So he comes from a car family, car dealership dynasty. Does he work at a car dealership? He is part owner.

The dealership was actually started by his grandfather many years ago. His father, as you can imagine, was also part of the dealership, but over time has gradually stepped away from the dealership. But family members are now— Wait a minute. You mean like Prince Harry stepped away from the monarchy? Wait a minute. What does this guy do for a living? Let me just ask.

Does he get out on the lot and sell cars? Or is he just a trust fund baby? What is he? He's a part owner. I mean, on paper... That's not really an answer. That was not one of the two options, Tony Plohetsky. Does the man work or does he live off what his grandfather did? You know,

I don't know the answer to that i i do know that he had an office at a dealership and and went to work uh as far as i know how whether or not he punched the clock and was there eight hours a day i think we probably know the answer to that but in terms of his daily work life i don't i don't know what i know is that he lives in a five million dollar you said we probably know the answer i don't know. What I know is that he lived in a $5 million... You said we probably know the answer. I don't know the answer. What is the answer? Does everybody know but me? What's the answer?

Okay, thank you, D.L. Carson, who's not an investigative reporter, Tony Plahatsky. Okay, now wait a minute. You told me that Eric Charles Maughan is a father, right? Yes, he is a father. Now, I assume that means it's attached to a mother,

which means is he a married man? He is a married father, yes. He is a married dad. Take a listen to our cut, 00D from Crime Online. As the investigation into the couple's murder progressed, another name became linked with Holly Williams, Eric Charles Mond, a prominent Austin businessman whose family runs multiple auto dealerships in Texas. Mond and Williams had a relationship, and Mond wanted to see Williams again when he traveled to the Nashville area to visit a relative. In early February, he emailed Williams to set up a meeting.

Set up a meeting to visit a relative? What relative? You mean, is this a booty call? Is that what's happening, Tony Plohetsky? This married guy with children, Eric Charles Maughan, the car dealership dynasty heir, he goes from Austin to Nashville to set up a meeting with Holly Williams. Is that what happened? Well, so one important fact is that he has a son who attends college and has been attending college in Nashville for the past couple of years.

Okay, so he really is going to visit someone, and that would be his son. Go ahead. So authorities believe that over the past couple of years, as he has gone to Nashville frequently, he developed a relationship with Holly Williams. I love the way you say that. I love the way you say that, developed a relationship. Really? Is it like our relationship,

Tony Plahetsky? We're friends. You're a reporter. I like to ask you questions and you answer them for the most part correctly. That, I mean, can we stop putting perfume on the pig? Karen Stark, it's a booty call. Sure sounds like a booty call Nancy I mean he's never thought I would hear Karen Stark say the words booty call it's just something wrong with it go ahead it certainly looks like he's fooling around with this woman he's using the opportunity to visit his son to be involved with somebody else be involved with interesting be involved with somebody else. Be involved with. Interesting. Be involved, Elle Carson. I don't think that's quite the way I would put it.

Be involved. You mean jumping a sack. All you have to do is read. If you read the text message that he sent to her, you'd fully understand and appreciate what was going on because that's clearly what it was. Why don't you read it for our listeners since apparently Tony Plohansky can't bring himself to call it what it is.

Go ahead and read the text, Dale. Well, I don't have it with me, but essentially it says, hey, beautiful. I'm excited. Yeah, he calls her beautiful. I mean, he says, meet me in the lobby of the hotel just like you did last time. That's what he says. Okay, can we just slow down? First of all, you were not called on, Tony Plohetsky.

Okay, number one, you're completely out of turn. And if you were in court, you know, a defendant can be restrained and gagged and forced to sit there. It's awesome when that happens. Dale Carson, since you couldn't spit it out quickly enough, so he says, hey, beautiful. Like, all the guys went, yeah, he called her beautiful. Am I impressed by that? No. If my husband shows up with flowers, he goes, hi, beautiful. I'm like, okay, what's up? I'd much rather him clean out the guinea pig cage one day or clean up after supper. That's much more valuable to me than cheap words that mean nothing. All right. So this is the part that I'm hinging on right here.

Let's go to you, Crispin. Private I, Robert Crispin. Crispin, special investigations, not just investigations, but special investigations. Crispin, meet me in the hotel lobby like last time. What? Did he even bother to slow the car down? I'm sure he didn't go to the front door and ring the doorbell and ask daddy to send her out with a bouquet of flowers.

Meet me in the lobby? Are you kidding? That's the relationship. Meet me in the lobby of the hotel like last time. What? Clearly there's history there. Absolute history here. And, you know, let's speed things up.

It's just a business transaction probably for him. And that's probably the relationship they had. And this woman, Holly Williams, let me just guess, thinks she's in love. I bet you anything. Based on what we know about her, she thinks they have a future. Okay, then he's planning to, quote, set up a meeting with her. Take a listen to this. In March, after visiting with Williams, Mond, who was married, received communications himself in the form of a series of text messages from Bill Lanway. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.

Isn't he supposed to be getting sexy messages back from Holly? Instead, he gets messages from Bill Lanway, the estranged boyfriend? Okay, take a listen to our friend Dave Mack, Crime Online, cut 10. After his visit to Nashville on March 1, 2020, Mond received a series of text messages from an individual, William Lanway, who had a personal romantic relationship with Williams. Lanway demanded payment from Maude and threatened to expose his relationship with Williams if he did not receive it. Maude then enlisted the services of Gilad Pallad, Brian Brockaway, and Adam Carey to assist with dealing with the threats to expose his relationship with Williams and the extortion demands.

Well, Hetsky, what the hay? So the boyfriend, upside down dead in the car, is, what, extorting the car dealership heir? Threatening to rat out his sex affair with Holly to who? Aunt Maughan's wife? That's what investigators allege in a 13-page federal indictment that frankly reads more like a movie script. But yes, and a couple of outstanding questions

that we don't know the answer to is exactly how much Landway was asking from Maude. No dollar amount has ever been established. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, take a listen to Hour Cut 7 from our friends at KVUE. Listen. The indictment alleges that Maughan then hired, either directly or indirectly, according to the indictment, three other men in the plot. One of those men, Galid Pallad, owns an Austin-based security firm

called Speartip Security, and just five days ago, Maughan left a glowing Google review of that company. The two other men, Byron Brockway and Adam Carey, also had military and security experience, according to those federal documents. Carey and Brockway both had served in special operations in the Marines, and authorities say Maughan paid them at least $750,000 as part of the plot. In a statement this afternoon, attorneys Perry Minton and Sam Bassett said they are representing Maughan and that, quote, we have spoken to Mr. Maughan only briefly on the matter. We will understand more in the coming days and weeks. The entire Maughan family loves and supports their son. Okay, so let me understand what is happening.

To Robert Crispin joining me, private investigator at Crispin Special Investigations, what happened? Sounds to me like these guys want to get some money out of him and extort him for his affair he's having and rat it out to the wife. Which starts the slow roll of getting yourself caught with their electronic transmissions, which is the best evidence out there for an investigator. Because from the start, this entire thing. You're not kidding. Go ahead. From the start, this entire thing stunk. The position of Go ahead. From the start, this entire thing stunk. The position of the bodies.

There's no driver. It's a passenger. Where's the driver? The low impact crash. The bodies don't match the speed of the crash. The relationship between the two. Sure, that comes into play. They had some domestic violence,

but how many women go back to the guy or how many guys go back to the abusive woman? It's life. It's what they do. Now we've got two dead bodies. Now the electronic evidence starts coming in. It's a investigator's dream, electronic evidence. And it's evidence that you can't alter or destroy.

And it tells a story, Nancy. It lays everything out. What a bunch of idiots. And now I know they're special ops, which you'd think that they would set this up so it's never to be detected but guess what guys that's typically in the movies where the murders are arranged and the hitman is never discovered they're not jason bourne all right let's just put it that way take a listen to our cut 11 dave m, Crime Online. On March 5, 2020, Eric Mond withdrew $15,000 from his bank account.

On that same day, an intelligence report was prepared and provided to Gilad Pallad by a relative of Brian Brockway, who worked for an Internet-based security company. A series of actions were then undertaken by Adam Carey and others, including traveling from out of state to Nashville to surveil Williams and Landway, creating and using a Pinger account to attempt to communicate with Williams and Landway. On March 9th, 2020, Pallet received a document entitled Tennessee Sit Rep, which stated that Adam Carey and others had surveilled Williams, confirmed her address and vehicle, confirmed that Landway had been staying at the same address, and advised that Carey and

others would use everything at their disposal to stop the attempted extortion of Eric Mond. It's exactly what Robert Crispin said. The electronic trail these idgits are leaving behind is damning. Take a listen to Our Cut 12, Crime Online. On March 11, 2020, Gil Pallet deposited $8,000 in cash into Speartip Security's business account and $7,000 in cash into his personal bank account. The following day, Eric Mon transferred $150,000 via wire from his bank account to a bank account controlled by Pallet. On that same day, Brian Brockway and Adam Carey, armed with firearms, confronted Holly Williams and William Landway in the parking lot of Williams' apartment complex in West Nashville.

They murdered Landway by shooting him several times. They then kidnapped Williams and drove her and the body of Landway to a construction site on Old Hickory Boulevard in West Nashville, where they then murdered Williams by shooting her several times. The bodies were then discarded at the construction site, and within hours of the murders, the Pinger account used to communicate was deleted and a rental car rented by Brockway was returned. Carey then drove Brockway to Memphis, Tennessee, and Brockway caught a flight to Austin, Texas. Adam Carey then drove to Austin from Memphis. Wow. Tony Plohetsky joining me, investigative reporter, KVUE and Austin American-Statesman. The electronic trail these idiots leave behind is overwhelming. Air was willing to pay $750,000 to two hitmen to kill his lover, Holly Williams, and her estranged boyfriend. I mean, they're dead in the water based on all this evidence.

Yeah, I mean, when you look at the totality of everything, I mean, my goodness, the high dollar, very high dollar bank transaction, the electronic communication between all four of these players, sophisticated, it was not. I mean, we're dealing with a lot of money, but we're not dealing with a lot of sophistication. A lot of brains? No. A lot of money? Yes. For those of you just joining us, a high-profile businessman, the heir to a car dealership dynasty, charged with paying hitmen $750,000 to murder his mistress and her ex-boyfriend after the ex-boyfriend threatens to tell his wife about the sex affair. Listen to our cut, 13 Fox 7. Three men from Austin are facing charges in a murder for higher plot connected to the brutal killings of a couple in Nashville. Police arrested these men on Friday. 46-year-old Eric Charles Mond, a partner at Mond Automotive Group, a dealership company founded by his father. 47-year-old Gilead Pallid, a former member of the Israeli Defense

Forces and owner of Speartip Security in Austin. And 46-year-old Pallid, a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces and owner of Speartip Security in Austin, and 46 year old Brian Brockway, a former Marine and owner of Austin Security Company, Inc. Force. A fourth man from North Carolina was also arrested. According to the indictment, Mond would travel to Nashville often, where he would occasionally meet with 33 year old Holly Williams. Her boyfriend, William Lanway, threatened to expose their relationship if Mond, who's married, did not pay up. In March of 2020, police began looking for suspects after the bodies of Williams and Lanway were found at a construction site in Nashville. Detectives say Mond hired the other men to kidnap the couple and kill them for about $750,000. To you, Dale Carson, why do I always hear it injected that they were with Israeli military?

What does that mean? Well, the Israeli military is very well trained and they're CIDF. Then there's a supposition that they're better than anybody else. I have known several of them to be in the United States, but that's like saying you're a sniper at a bar. It's often not true. What about it, Crispin? What's the mystique about being in the Israeli military? I think it's just bragging rights for those guys so they can get business. And clearly, you know, this guy went to them to hire them. So, you know, you, you go to hire somebody, you go to hire an investigator, you go to hire,

you know, a security firm, you go to their website, let's look at their resume. Let's look at their bragging rights. You know, you don't want to hire somebody. Oh, their hit man website. You know, listen, these guys took it to a level that we've never seen. Haven't they? They got greedy. Dr. Kendall Crowns, you called it at the get-go that something was way off. What about it, Karen Stark?

He's willing to pay $750,000 to have two people murdered. I'll tell you Nancy. Why don't you just tell your wife, look, I screwed up, I had an affair. And then let the chips fall where they may. That would have been better than this. Make all the money. Yeah, you don't want to split all the money, of course. You're right, Dale Carson.

What about it, Karen? You know what? If that were the case, then a lot of people would be out of a job because, yes, it's very easy to just say, look, this happened and I made a mistake. But people don't do that. They're stupid. They think, okay, I'm going to throw a lot of money at this and see if I can get rid of the people.

And I'll save myself from this embarrassment. It doesn't happen. How many times have we seen that the minute that you talk to somebody else and try to set up any kind of murder, you're going to get caught. It's going to happen. There's going to be some kind of trail. It's human nature. Tony Plohatsky, where does the case stand now?

So all four of these men have been indicted federally, and they are sitting in federal detention facilities. None of them, by the way, have sought to have their their bond reduced at this point so they they're incarcerated on what charges what federal charges murder conspiracy uh a whole a whole number of charges actually well conspiracy is the actual main one because mon is subject to that if he didn't actually participate directly in the murder. He certainly set it up. Well, under the law, if they're going to be prosecuted where they were killed in Nashville, setting up a murder makes you guilty of a murder just because you didn't pull the trigger

yourself. If you're the mastermind, you're going down for murder. And the last time I looked in Tennessee, don't they still, that's your stomping grounds, don't they still have the death penalty? Yeah, I think I'd let the Tennessee prosecutor take care of that. Forget about interstate commerce. It's a federal case, so there is no murder. Well, I like the way you're thinking.

However, the local authorities can prosecute them for murder. There is a murder at the state level. The feds have bigfooted it and trying to get them on other charges, but I'd go for the tried and true murder slash death penalty route. But that's just me. Hey, let's see where this thing lands. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.