In March 2020, the quiet of a Nashville, Tennessee, construction site was broken by a grim discovery. A car, crashed into a tree at the bottom of an embankment, held the bodies of 36-year-old William Lanway and 33-year-old Holly Williams. What initially may have appeared as a tragic car accident was quickly determined to be a double homicide, as autopsy results revealed both individuals had been shot to death before the crash.
Lanway, a white male, and Williams had been in an on-again, off-again relationship that was, at times, tumultuous.
The investigation into their deaths uncovered a complex and shocking murder-for-hire plot that spanned across multiple states. Authorities alleged that an Austin, Texas businessman, Erik Maund, hired three other men to kidnap and murder the couple. The motive, according to investigators, stemmed from Lanway's attempt to extort Maund after Maund had a brief relationship with Williams, who worked as an escort. Maund allegedly received a text message from Lanway threatening to expose the affair to his wife if he was not paid.
Following the threat, Maund is said to have contacted Gilad Peled, who ran an Austin-based security company and was a purported former member of the Israeli Defense Forces. Peled then allegedly enlisted two former U.S. Marines, Bryon Brockway and Adam Carey, to carry out the killings. On March 12, 2020, it is reported that Brockway and Carey confronted Lanway and Williams in the parking lot of her apartment complex. They allegedly shot Lanway multiple times, killing him on the spot. They then kidnapped Williams, drove her and Lanway's body to the construction site on Old Hickory Boulevard, where they shot her multiple times as well.
In December 2021, nearly 21 months after the murders, federal authorities announced the arrests of the four men involved. Erik Maund was arrested near Austin, Gilad Peled at the Austin airport, Bryon Brockway in San Diego, California, and Adam Carey at his home in North Carolina. The indictment charged the men with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death, and firearms offenses. Investigators revealed that Maund had transferred over $750,000 to an account controlled by Peled as payment for the murders of William Lanway and Holly Williams.
