Kumari Shreya
ABC’s ’20/20: Sealed With a Kill’ sheds light on the case of the murders of Holly Williams and William Lanway. The critical factor in this particular case was their connection to Erik Maund, a well-known businessman who found himself on the wrong side of the law while trying to cover up his past actions. Given the fatal consequences of his plans, Maund’s fate became a subject of public interest, especially for those who could not help but wonder about the man’s current whereabouts.
Who is Erik Maund?
Based in Austin, Texas, Erik Maund was one of the partners of Maund Automotive Group, a company established by his grandfather. As 2020 rolled around, Maund had been married but was seemingly also involved in an affair with Holly Williams, a resident of Nashville, Tennessee. Maund himself travels to the latter city in order to visit a relative, where the alleged affair would take place. However, this would take a fatal turn in early 2020, changing the lives of the involved parties forever.
Maund had contacted Williams on February 3, 2020, using a fake name to inform her of his plans to visit Nashville soon. Williams herself was working as an escort and went by the name of Layla Love. Only two days later, he once again contacted her with the message, “Good morning, beautiful! Looking forward to later today. I’m in Nashville. I will meet you in the bar like last time. Text when you arrive.” This particular quickly indicated that this was far from the first time that the two had met each other.
It wasn’t until March 1, 2020, that Maund became aware of William Lanway, an estranged partner of Williams, who had learned of the ongoing affair. Lanway decided to contact Maund himself, stating that he would expose the Texas resident’s affair unless the businessman gave him money for his silence. In order to deal with the extortion attempt, Maund reached out to Gilad Peled, a former member of the Israel Defense Forces. He then established contact with combat veterans Bryon Brockway and Adam Carey. Initially, the plan had been to gather as much information about Williams and Lanway in order to balance the scales somehow by making use of the services provided by a security firm owner by Chad Brockway (Bryon Brockway’s brother) after Peled told him that the information was for a potential sex trafficking victim.
This was how the four learned the actual identities of Layla Love and the then-unknown man who had sent Maund the extortion texts. Brockway allegedly suggested killing both Williams and Lanway. According to the statements given by the parties involved, Maund had apparently agreed to give Brockway and Carey a sum of $100,000 in order to murder Williams and Lanway after the latter continued to message the Texas man for money. On March 12, 2020, Maund sent Peled $150,000, the same day that Williams and Lanway were kidnapped and murdered by Brockway and Carey. The bodies of the two victims were discovered the next day, and the investigators began to search for the people responsible for the crime. By the end of the following year, Maund had sent Peled a sum total of $1,050,000.
Erik Maund Has Been Found Guilty
Given his involvement in the murders of Holly Williams and William Lanway, Erik Maund was arrested in December 2021 after police officers in Austin pulled him over at a traffic stop. Prior to this, he was indicted on November 29, 2021, along with Gilad Peled, Bryon Brockway, and Adam Carey, on the charge of kidnapping. This was followed by another indictment in July 2022 for the charge of murder-for-hire conspiracy. The trial against Maund, Brockway, and Carey began in November 2023 with charges of murder-for-hire and fatal kidnapping levied against them.
Following a two-and-a-half-week trial and deliberation that lasted for around seven hours, the jury announced its verdict on November 17, 2023. In regards to the charge of kidnapping that resulted in death, Maund was found not guilty. However, he was indeed convicted of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. This was likely because while Maund had indeed been the one with the motivation and money behind the scheme, he had himself not done the kidnapping and the killings.
As of writing, Maund’s actual sentence has not been announced. However, based on the severity of their crimes and the interstate nature of the whole situation, Maund faces a mandatory life sentence that is to be completed in a federal prison. In order to actually find the men responsible for the crime, the Metro Nashville Police Department investigated for months and even reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) upon realizing that the case involved residents of other states.
When the team of ’20/20: Sealed With a Kill’ contacted Erik Maund’s legal team, they were told that “Erik Maund is not guilty of the charges in the indictment. Mr. Maund and counsel intend to pursue appeals on the remaining charge for which the jury returned a guilty verdict.” This indicated that Maund may contest the conviction and try to appeal his case in the future, though no plans for the same have yet been shared with the public.
Read More: Amy St. Laurent Murder: Where is Jeffery “Russ” Gorman Now?
