VIDEO: Austin Car Magnate Allegedly Hired Hit Men to Murder Ex-Girlfriend and Her Ex-Boyfriend

Erik Charles Maund
FBI
Amy Furr

An Austin, Texas, businessman described as a partner in his family’s Maund Auto Group, was indicted in the contract killings of his former girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend, according to federal prosecutors.

The Austin American-Statesman reported Monday:

According to investigators, Erik Charles Maund hired an Austin security specialist and two other men — a purported member of the Israeli Defense Forces and a special operations U.S. Marine — to shoot the pair. The motive, investigators say: The former boyfriend called Maund, who is married, to extort him by threatening to expose the affair.

Maund paid over $750,000 for the hits in March of last year, a federal indictment unsealed on Monday noted.

The remains of 33-year-old Holly A. Williams and 36-year-old William L. Lanway were found in March 2020 inside a white Acura at a Nashville construction site, reports said.

At the time of the discovery, Nashville officers said they were searching for three men seen outside Williams’ apartment, and recorded on video, in the days before the homicides took place.

Meanwhile, it was not clear if Maund was still part of the company, KVUE reported.

The indictment said Maund traveled often to Nashville to visit a person Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents described as being a member of the family.

In February of last year, he contacted Williams to say he would be in Nashville and wished to see her.

A few weeks later, Maund got a text from Lanway who told him he wanted money or he would reveal the affair with Williams, according to investigators.

It was then that Maund began to “set events in motion to kidnap, threaten and intimidate (Williams and Lanway) in retaliation,” the indictment continued.

The Metro Nashville Police Department shared photos Monday of Williams and Lanway:

Per the American-Statesman report:

He contacted Gilad Peled, who operated the Austin-based firm Speartip Security, which the indictment said specialized in “responding to extortion demands.” Peled held himself out to be a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces. The indictment said two other men, Bryon Brockway and Adam Carey, joined the plot but did not describe how they were associated with Maund. But it added that Maund hired them either “directly or indirectly.”

Federal authorities explained they followed money going from Maund to Peled “as payment to Peled, Broadway, and Carey for the kidnapping and murder.”

The indictment said Brockway and Carey confronted Williams and Lanway outside their apartments and kidnapped them. Lanway was shot in the head, then the two shot Williams.

Maund later finished the payments for the killings, according to prosecutors.

FBI agents arrested the four men on Friday, KXAN reported:

The suspects were in federal custody on Monday and face up to life in prison if they are convicted in the case, the American-Statesman article concluded.

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