From a car wreck to a murder for hire plot.

And so much of it caught on home surveillance camera. What it reveals in all new 2020 starts right now. It's one of the most complex investigations I've ever seen. Lust, greed, betrayal. This is where it all started. This was it. What we initially had thought was vehicle travel down the embankment us, we could tell that they had gunshot wounds. William had been shot in the head. Then Holly was shot.

She was also worried and scared. There were unidentified males going up to Miss Williams'apartment in the days leading up to the murder. We're not here for you. We're here for William.

She apparently already knew this was danger. This was somebody who was possibly a threat to her. She is frantically walking through the apartment, pacing around, and then you see her take the bar and strong back the door on the inside.

This case is all over the place. Nashville, Tennessee, Austin, Texas, Hollywood. You've got blackmail, escorts, double murder, hitmen.

So it's obvious. Was from someone that was. That was hiding. The person had used the name agent 47. A name for an assassin in a video game. The world's finest professional hitman.

And the absolute planning of this murder is something you will never have heard before.

This one is unlike any other homicide case I've ever worked on. National. Is something going on? All the time. Every week. This was like a script out of a movie. Just the way things were unfolding. And it was hard to believe.

Metro Nashville 911. What is the address of your emergency?

Somebody drove off the road and hit a tree. A construction worker at the address of 497 Oldricha Boulevard discovered a white Acura sedan crashed down an embankment at that location.

Are you with the vehicle?

Yes. There's two people there.

Okay.

They're pinned really bad. That's what I'm saying.

Okay. I'm sending the paramedics in the police department to help.

You. Come right down here to this spot. You look over the edge and there you saw this vehicle. The male subject was obviously deceased in the passenger floorboard of the car. With his face down into the floorboard. Just stuffed on the floor? Yeah. And his feet were up in the ceiling of the car. And then behind him in the back passenger seat, we see a female, obviously deceased, in the back seat. On the floorboard, in between the back seat and the front seats. Police determined that the victims are 33 year old Holly Williams and 36 year old Bill Lanway. Happy birthday to you. The two were well known fixtures on the Nashville strip. Bill and Holly did used to come to my bar together a lot and they always seemed to be having a good time. They were out together a lot. When they were with each other, they.

Were always playing jokes when I was around with each other.

Holly grew up in Murphysboro, Tennessee. Her family says she just loved Christmas because it was the season of Holly.

Life wasn't always great. Her parents divorced. She had a difficult relationship with her biological mother, and over time, it was out and out estrangement. She lived with her father and stepmother.

Holly eventually made the move to the big city and met Marie Carroll. This is, huh, this is the town. They both became skincare specialists and close friends. They made the most of the vibrant Nashville scene. How would you describe the city and your time that you spent here with Holly?

A lot of people come here to accomplish their dreams.

Your life with Holly here, what was it like?

We just loved to spend time with friends. We love to watch football games together. What are you doing? What are you doing? It kind of reminded me of Marilyn Monroe. Several men would come by and light her cigarette. That's exactly how it was with Holly and being out with her. People gravitated towards her. I mean, I did. I instantly thought she was amazing.

She was a good person. She would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. The second victim in the car, Bill Lanway, worked as an auto mechanic. He was often seen socializing with Holly and was known to have as much fun energy as his girlfriend.

Bill Lanway, life of the party, had this favorite watering hole he'd go to on the weekends where he knew everybody. Kind of like a Cheers episode. His childhood friends said, never a dull moment with him.

I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee, and known Bill since he was probably six or seven years old. Went to elementary, middle, and high school together. He's always been a staple of Nashville since I can remember living here. People go down to Broadway, midtown Gulch area, and Bill was always out in that scene, too, and he loved it. At first, it looks as if Holly and Bill were the victims of a tragic car accident. But when the vehicle is pulled up from the embankment, police discover clear signs of foul play. From the outside, it looked like a car crash. But when you looked inside, it wasn't a car crash. The passenger windows were broken out, but there was no glass around the vehicle, anywhere to be seen. Typically on a traffic crash, you'd see glass on the inside and on the outside. And when the bodies are removed from the car, police discover that Holly and Bill had been brutally shot to death. Once we got the victims out of the car, we could tell that they had gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos. William had been shot in the head at least once. Then Holly was shot in the head at least one time and shot in the torso on the left side at least one time.

For detectives, this criminal investigation is still a blank slate. They've got to figure out, why would anyone want this fun loving, well liked couple to be gunned down? They need to find out more about Bill and Holly, and they find out something that's a bit of a red flag about Bill Landway.

You can see that there was a lot of history. Like, domestically, he had still had open court cases where he was out on bond for a domestic violence situation between her and him.

Ollie's relationship with Bill was what I would say is toxic. I was very worried about her in the relationship. I know at times she wasn't happy, and she was also worried and scared. This tempestuous relationship between Bill and Holly finally came to a head following a deeply disturbing incident involving Holly's beloved dog Max.

Tell me about the dog.

She had texted me that she came home and found her dog dead. And she said, I know it was Bill. I know it was Bill.

When news breaks in Nashville about Holly and Bill's deaths, some of those close to Holly are sure they know who was behind the shootings.

I thought that Bill had. It was a murder suicide, and I know a lot of Holly's friends felt the same way.

I mean, assumed that it would be a murder suicide, especially with them found in her car like that. You thought no matter what, that this was Bill Longway? Yeah.

Holly was so afraid of Bill that she installed several cameras inside her apartment, knowing that you can disable my rock. Did those cameras capture her killer?

Holly?

Detectives are trying to unravel the mystery of a young couple who were gunned down and found in a crashed car in a ravine. Once they take a deeper dive into the relationship between Bill Lanway and Holly Williams, they discover some disturbing information.

He had been arrested for assaulting her.

In Nashville's thriving nightlife scene, Bill Lanway was seen as life of the party. But friends say that was a mask for a much deeper, darker side of Bill Landway.

Bill's dealt a really bad hand in life, and it's really tragic how his life started. In November of 1986, when Bill Lanway was just a toddler, his father Lyle, held Bill, his babysitter, and Bill's mother hostage for hours following a marital dispute. Afterwards, his father was arrested and taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation and care. Then, six days later, while on temporary release, Lyle Lanway violated a protective order and returned to the house. And right there, he stabbed his wife in front of young Bill. His father had killed his mother on Thanksgiving day in front of him. His dad went to prison for that.

The one fortunate thing was that he had a loving aunt and uncle who took him in and raised him and stayed very devoted to him.

Bill got voted past personality in high school. It's probably because Bill was just a funny guy. He's very social. He always was. Since he was younger, it seemed like. What was he like in high school?

He was very friendly, everybody's friend. He was older than me.

Dana Jones was four years younger than Bill in high school. The two began a romantic relationship just after Dana graduated.

We actually met at a party that was at his house. It was more of a fun type. Know, we just hung out with friends, basically. Then I found out I was pregnant six months after dating him.

And what was his reaction when he found out that you're pregnant?

We were both excited. He said he had always wanted to be a father. This is her baby book that I tried to put together.

Little princess.

Yeah. Oh, she wanted to be a princess. For Bill Lanway, the future looked so bright with a family of his own to nurture and care for. And then fate would deliver a second horrific blow.

I know this is really uncomfortable. Can you tell me the story about Maddie then and what happened?

She had flulike symptoms for about three weeks, and that's the night that we found out she had cancer. I mean, there was nothing else they could do.

You knew she was going to die.

Yeah.

What was Dole's reaction to all of this?

He was upset. I mean, he really was. He was devastated.

The cancer came back stronger and more aggressive than ever. Lanway spoke out about his daughter's death in a documentary that he participated in to help cancer patients. Felt like the whole world just came crashing down. Maddie actually battled cancer for 16 months. I hope one day I'll see my daughter again. According to Dana, the tragic illness and death of their daughter changed Bill's personality and their relationship for the worse.

It was just pushing and arguing to start with. He would damage my property. He would pick a fight. And the day after the funeral, I had packed him a little box of some of her things. And that's when I told him, never contact me again.

He never did.

He never did.

I think a part of the way he hid the emotions came from gaining relief by drinking or by partying. By the time Bill met Holly at a music festival in Nashville in 2018, he had developed a reputation as a fun loving man around town.

They seemed to click. They were bubbly. They loved to laugh. Everything seemed perfect. But it doesn't take long for the cracks to develop.

They had an on again, off again relationship where he was abusive towards her, both verbally and physically. According to these police reports from 2019, Holly claimed Bill punched her in the mouth and broke her windshield. Holly declined to press charges and refused assistance for domestic violence from the police. But in January 2020, Holly requested a restraining order against Bill, accusing him of covering her mouth, causing her to hyperventilate. It was during that same incident that she accused Bill of going into her apartment and taking her dog, Max. The court date for this incident was pending at the time of their deaths. Nobody knows if he stole the dog or just let the dog out, because she found the dog several days later on the side of the road, dead right over by her apartments. Did Holly think that Bill killed the dog? She believes it. Friends say that Holly was so scared of Bill at this point that she installed security cameras. So she had three cameras at her apartment. One of them was on the exterior looking at the walkway up to her dorm, and there were two on the inside.

One of the images found on one of the cameras installed in Holly's apartment. Bill Lanway walking through her bedroom, looking around. It's really creepy because he's breaking into her home and she hasn't given him permission to be there.

Bill decoded the digital lock on Holly's apartment and got inside. She was in the process of getting additional protection for her apartment.

There was any way I could get, because the door lock wasn't faint, he was able to come in and assault me.

So it was very apparent that their relationship wasn't good. And it was suggested initially that it could have been a murder suicide. While some of those close to Holly are convinced Bill killed her and then took his own life, detectives are not so sure. They're finding clues at the accident scene that make them suspect that the car crash might have somehow been staged. The car wasn't meant to be there. If it went straight down, it would go off a cliff, maybe 50 to 60ft tall with some trees, and it probably wouldn't be found for a very long time. There was no gun seen in the car, no cell phones, and no murder weapon. And when the detectives take a deeper look at the footage captured on Holly's surveillance cameras, they see something that catches them by surprise. There were three different men at different times that would approach the door and ask for Holly. And ask him to talk to Holly. Who's there to talk to her? We are driving the Citron C four X on Dublin's most speed bumped road, as voted by an online poll to test Citron's progressive hydraulic cushion suspension. The music is coming from a vinyl record playing on a record player set up in the backseat.

Here comes a speed bump. Let's see if this record skips perfect. Went off without a scratch. Book a test glide in a citron today. Visit Citron ie it's 2024, and in case you haven't heard, there's a presidential election this fall. Americans will head to the polls to make their voices heard. But between now and then, there's going to be a lot of news and a lot of noise. I'm Galen Druke, and every Monday and Thursday on the 538 Politics podcast, we cut through the noise with data and research to get a clearer picture of the race for the White House. What do voters really think? And which game changers will actually change the game? That's 538 politics every Monday and Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

When you take into consideration Bill's volatile relationship with Holly Williams, it made perfect sense that so many people believed that he was responsible for Holly's death. He shot her, then turned the gun on himself.

If you knew Bill, you couldn't possibly think that he could murder someone. But if you knew Holly, you had to think he killed her because you knew that she had reservations about their relationship based on domestic disputes. You a lot of people didn't attend his funeral. As much sympathy as I wanted to have, it was hard for me to come to grips with going to a funeral of somebody who could have been a murderer.

Holly's funeral was also sparsely attended. It was such a horrific set of circumstances that people don't know how to act. They don't know how to behave. I think I was in so much shock that I didn't want to see her that way or remember her that way.

While many of Holly and Bill's friends believe the motive behind the killings has also been laid to rest, detectives just aren't convinced it was a murder suicide. But so far, there isn't a single obvious suspect. At this point in the investigation, we didn't have anybody in mind that we thought would harm or want to harm William Lanway or Hollywood. In the search for clues, detectives decide to take a closer look at the footage from those security cameras that Holly had set up in her apartment. This is the Hillmead apartment complex just right outside of Nashville. This is where Holly's apartment is. You found these cameras? Yeah. It's something that you don't see a lot. Within investigations, there are several hours of video, so we just start watching it. So I'm really concerned of what happened just before they died. And what detectives suddenly see captured on those cameras takes them by surprise. When we're watching the surveillance video and we see men approach her door. They're doing things to hide their identity. They're wearing long sleeve, they're wearing darker black clothing. One of those individuals then tries to move the camera so that it's not capturing the action in front of Miss Williams's door.

That attempt was really unsuccessful because the video still shows the two individuals knocking on her door. They say they wanted to speak with her. Meanwhile, the camera inside the apartment shows Holly's reaction to the men at her door. She is frantically walking through the apartment, pacing around, and then you see her take the bar and strong back the door on the inside. So if someone tried to force the door open, it would have a harder time getting inside. She apparently already knew this was danger. This was somebody who was possibly a threat to her. Right. There's one guy that, as he approaches the camera, gets a pretty good look at his face. The other guy that's there, you can see his face, but he's got a huge beard, and it covers up a lot of his facial features. You've got this video of these men that came up to this house where you knew that the victims had lived, but you didn't really have any idea exactly who they were, right? To try to figure out the identity of these mysterious men showing up at Holly's door, detectives decide to do a much deeper dive into Holly's background and make another startling discovery.

Holly Williams. She was a licensed esthetician. We discovered that she had a second career, which was serving as an escort in Nashville and other cities as well. When Holly advertised for her escort business, she used the name Layla Love. She didn't use her real name, which is common and smart. If she has a client, she may not want to have contact with this person outside of work. So you wouldn't want them to know your real name. You don't want them to be able to look up your address. Holly started in the business when she was 18 or 19. She would be upfront about it with the boyfriends. They would pay her like $20,000 for a weekend to go with them on vacation or whatever.

She would express the material benefits of being an escort whether it's getting money or furniture or clothes, going shopping. So I think for her at the time, it was a lavish lifestyle in a way, but the dangers that came with it, she wanted to get away from. Now investigators are starting to think that Holly's profession as an escort could play into the identities of those strange guys caught on her home camera. So the next step is to gain access to Holly and Bill's digital devices.

We were very interested in that because of her line of work and the type of clients that she had, like, high end clients.

A third unidentified man came to the door. He was speaking to Miss Williams. Hey, Holly, this is about a client. We want to make sure you're safe, all right?

Not here. The Nashville police Department puts out an alert asking the public for help identifying the men, but get no leads.

Cops still don't know who those men are. At Holly's door, it's still a mystery. But then detectives uncover another very key detail. Someone by the name of Jimmy Green is not only texting Bill, but he's also trying to reach Holly on her personal and her escort belt.

And the startling revelation into the true identity of Jimmy Green would later rest that murder suicide theory and introduce a whole new set of possible suspects into this investigation. It's the biggest break in the case. It was huge. We had something we could actually go on. This is the Hillmead apartment complex. This is where Holly's apartment is. This is where it all started. This was it. This is where you can see on camera the footage of the two men outside of her apartment knocking on the, on the door. But you didn't really have any idea exactly who they were? Yeah, this is before we had any clue who anybody was or what they wanted.

To figure out who those men were. Detectives decide they need to start looking through some phone records.

We're looking at call detail records of just before their death. Who is contacting them? Is it mom? Is it dad? Is it a cousin? It's a family member, a friend. Who are these people that are contacting them?

They noticed a phone number that was on both Holly's and Williams'phone records, and that was interesting.

So this is the voiceover ip number here, the one that he was using to try to mask his identity.

Detective Willover is suspicious about that number, a voice over ip telephone number which works like any other number except it goes through the Internet. Most of these Internet phone numbers are purely legitimate, but Detective Wilover knows that sometimes people use them because they don't have to reveal their true identity.

So it's obvious you knew that this phone call was from someone that was hiding. Yes. Did not want to be found. Correct. But good detectives can still find that identity. Willover subpoenas the telephone provider for the subscriber information behind that particular number. And what they get back is an email address. Jimmy Green 34 at@gmail.com jimmygreen 34 at@gmail.com that's all you know, somebody that used the address. Right.

So at that point, investigators did not know who Jimmy Green 34 was. They subpoenaed records for the email account associated with Jimmy Green 34.

They want to know, is this Jimmy Green even a real person's name? The information from that subpoena only adds to the mystery. And one of the things that I found for the Jimmy Green 34 Gmail account was the person had used the name agent 47. You are agent 47, the world's finest professional hitman. Agent 47 is a moniker and a name for an assassin in a video game. I thought that was very interesting.

An assassin in a video game. But considering that Nashville detectives always thought that the murder of Bill and Holly had sort of hit man characteristics and makes them wonder, did Jimmy Green 34 have anything to do with their murders?

Whoever it is, that voiceover Internet phone line he is using leaves a trail, a list of distinct computer codes called IP addresses. And the detectives know they can follow it. Every time they send a message, it logs their IP address. Every time they make a phone call, it logs their IP address. It's like an address to your house or the tag on your car. I just compared phone numbers that used all of those IP addresses, and it comes back one phone number. What was that phone number? Adam Carey. Wow. So you identified who Jimmy Green 34 was? Yes. Adam Carrey is Jimmy Green 34. Adam Carrey is the real identity of Jimmy Green 34. It is the first actual name the investigation has uncovered. And things get even more interesting as they learn more about him. Investigators learned that Adam Carey wasn't from Nashville, but he had an address in North Carolina who was a former United States Marine with special operations training who was working in the private security industry. You're under risk impersonating a law enforcement officer. Kerry has a bit of a criminal history. In 2016, he had been pulled over for impersonating a police officer.

Come over here, almost sit you in the car. And was caught possessing pipe bombs and other illegal weapons. He was convicted and served four months in prison. I get the crazy idea that Adam Carey might have himself issued a driver's license out of North Carolina. And he might have a photo attached to that that I might want to look at. This picture pops up, and it's clearly one of the guys from the video. It took a nanosecond. I just looked at it and said, that's the guy. You wouldn't even need facial recognition software to know it was a guy. It's the biggest break in the case. It was huge. We had something we could actually go on someone's life that we could look into to see who he was associating with and who he knew. Once we identified Adam Carey, then we started trying to connect him to anybody else who was involved in all this. It would take a long time, but investigators would eventually figure out that someone had hired Adam Carey in the first place. That person is a critical new name in the developing case, Brian Brockway.

Brian Brockway was also a former marine.

Brian had spent several years overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the Middle east. Yeah. Brian Brockway's brother Chad told me that after he left the marines, Brian did some top level security work for the government. He was there to protect extremely important, high end people from the United States and assets. That's correct.

A really strange picture is starting to develop. Brockway and Kerry both have elite military backgrounds. Both work in private security, and now both are interested in Holly and Bill.

So it was a real task to put together why these individuals had come to Nashville, how they knew each other, how they were connected, and then figure out what that all meant. It's a mystery. What is going on? Well, investigators eventually make a huge breakthrough in the case. After more digital sleuthing, they're able to unearth this critical document hidden on the cloud. That sounds like something out of a spy novel. It's a military style document with a bizarre sounding name, the Tennessee Sitrep. Sitrep refers to a situation report, a military term for what's going on on the ground. It illustrated there were people who were getting paid to be in Nashville to look for Holly and William, and it was sent to essentially ask for further instructions. It turns out that mysterious document was sent to another name on the growing list of people, a man by the name of Gil paled. And just like Carrie and Brockway, Gilpaled is not from Nashville either. He's located in Austin, Texas. But who is Gil tled? What's he got to do with all of this? And why on earth is he standing next to Charlie Sheen? Into exactly who was behind the brutal murders of Holly Williams and Bill Lanway now shifts nearly 900 miles to the west to Austin, Texas.

So the detectives know a man here named Galad poled, also known as Gil, who got this report about the surveillance going on in Nashville, and they just want to know more about it. Todd, I've known Gil for probably 20 years. He's just a good, warm hearted person.

Maybe six foot tall. He's dark, complexed. He definitely works out.

Oh, Gil, he is something. He's very handsome, and he would smile. He could light up the room.

Many people, even if they met him, didn't know much about him. He was still kind of an unknown entity in the area.

I believe he was born in Israel, went through military there like everybody does. He had said that he was with the Masad as part of the, you know, he was special forces. Do you believe it? I did at the time. The Masad is Israel's elite intelligence branch. Remember that report sent to Gil about what was going on in Nashville involved people who had military and intelligence backgrounds themselves.

Paulette first comes to the United States back in 1999, and his story is he came with only $500 to his name. He chooses Southern California, and there he sets out to turn all that experience in military into a career in private security.

He looked the part, he acted the part. He fit every aspect of what you would think of when you think of a bodyguard or a protective security person. As Pallet is building his life in California, he meets a woman named Jana, who is working in a salon and is an accomplished hairstylist.

So I love the girl parties or, and girls getting their colors with their friends, color cuts, all that.

Jana worked in a salon that specialized in blondes. They're in Manhattan beach. She's a superstar. So if you want awesome blonde hair, she was the one to go to. She's great. Was a woman that he ended up marrying and still married till today and having two wonderful kids. Meantime, Gil's private security work is taking off. Figures out a way to move into the world of celebrities. Hollywood. One of Pallad's clients was Charlie Sheen. Gil was with him, protecting him all the time, pulling him out of the fire before it got out of control.

Following someone around and clearing areas and making sure that the subject is safe and protected.

According to reports, in 2014, sheen fires Paulette, part of a number of staffing changes to Sheen's inner circle. It's unclear exactly what happened, but regardless, soon after, Pallet and his wife Jana leave Southern California entirely and move to Austin, Texas.

I really think the move was to have a better surroundings for his wife and kids.

It was a change of scenery, maybe a new start. His parents, I believe, and his brother lived there in Austin. He sets up his own security company, Spear Tip, and helps his wife start a hair salon called Level twelve. When I heard the name level twelve, I was like, bing. Because what it means is the highest level of blonde. I love this name.

I love being with people, and I love clients, and they really become part of your little family. But for whatever reason, the security business isn't really taking off. And by March of 2020, when Covid hits well, Gil Paulette is in some trouble. He appeared to be doing very little of the work that he actually wanted to be doing.

His business was not doing very well. He was in a real financial bind, and that's when a fateful relationship is born. A local car dealership is having a problem with homeless people on the lot. Gilpoled begins a consulting arrangement to handle that issue.

He was excited to have had a client that was a know that maybe he could get more work out of, like a client that had a reoccurring business.

The MA name was well known in Austin. Charles Mon Toyota. Let's be friends. You know the name because of commercials that have rolled on local television for decades.

In Austin, mon Toyota was really a fixture business in the Austin community.

Eric Mond managed Mon Toyota. The Mon family had become very wealthy because of the dealership.

Eric Mond and Gilpulette are about to cross paths, and when they do, it will eventually lead to murder.

But how on earth are a rich auto dealer and a security consultant from his business in Austin linked to that murder in Nashville? This was like a scene out of a movie. It was hard to believe. It was surreal. No one could have guessed just how twisted this story would be. You start with the murder of two young people in Nashville.

It's rare that we have audio from an actual kidnapping and murder.

You can hear the car starting, and then you hear glass breaking, a man screaming, and a woman screaming through the passenger side window. They shot him from that side.

What sounds like a living nightmare.

This indictment read something like a movie script. Sexual indiscretions with violence and a murder for hire plot. This is the first description of the details of what happened that night. Some of the problems that we ran into, we had to take them at the same time, dude.

And the absolute planning of this murder is something you will never have heard before.

We got a problem with one of the shooters in Nashville. I'll pay the guy 25,000, but I think it needs to go away after that. So we need to take care of him. Do you regret it because you just murdered someone, or do you regret it because you were caught?

Metro Nashville 911. What is the address of your emergency?

Somebody drove off the road and hit a tree. Two bodies were recovered from a car down an embankment outside of Nashville.

The victim's names are Holly Williams and Bill Lanway.

But when he looked inside, it wasn't a car crash. It was a murderer. A murderer with some panelizing clues. Suspicious men caught on home security video.

Outside of the victim's apartment apparently surveilling the house.

But no one could figure it out. Who would want to harm this couple and why? This one is unlike any other homicide case I've ever worked on.

Investigators learn those men in Nashville are linked to a security consultant in Austin, Texas. And that security consultant is working for a very rich man named Eric Mond, a car dealer whose grandfather Charles started the business way back in the 50s.

If you live in Austin, you know the name because of commercials that have rolled on local television for decades, you hurry to Charles mon Toyota and get our best savings on our best selection of barely driven toyotas. The name became synonymous with car buying in Austin.

The name was out there all the time. So hurry to Austin's number one volume sales dealer, Charles Montoyota. The family is a really nice family.

Anita Ashton belongs to the Austin country club, where Eric and his family have been members for years.

The men I know that play golf.

With him, so he's a hell of a lot of fun and very popular at the club.

Staff all loved him because he tipped with $100 bills.

Eric Mond is wealthy. His family lived in a 7000 square foot home that was valued at about $5 million and had ten bathrooms.

For years, Mon had enjoyed the good life in Austin with his wife and two kids. But in early 2020, that all changes. Mon goes to visit his son, who is attending college in Nashville. And while he's there, he makes an appointment to see an escort.

What's your thoughts about that?

Well, I don't think that's being a very good dad.

That escort turns out to be none other than Layla Love, whose real name was Holly Williams, and their rendezvous would lead to everything that followed. There were email and text communications between him and Holly about meeting for an encounter. He had stayed at a hotel in downtown Nashville, and they met at the bar of this hotel. The fact that he had had this affair with an escort was something he wanted to keep private. But it turns out that his secret is out. Investigators say that out of the blue, on March 1, of 2020, Mond gets a mysterious, anonymous text message.

It was a message asking Eric Mond for a sum of money in order to protect Eric Mond's family from finding out about this relationship.

The extortion was asking for $25,000.

Eric Mond was really concerned about those facts being revealed, not just to his family, but also because of his position as a decently high profile figure in the Austin area. And that's where Gil Pallett enters the picture. Now, remember, Pallet has been doing security consulting for mon toyota. Eric Mon learns that Pallet has experience dealing with extortion, so he asks for his help.

Mr. Mon showed Mr. Pallett the extortion texts on Mr. Mon's phone, and Mr. Pallet said to Mr. Mon that they should go to the police. Mr. Mahn said that they were not going to the police. So Pallet then sets out to figure it out who is actually sending that extortion threat. And what is the real identity of the woman Ma knew only as an escort named Leila love? Well, to do this, Gil reaches out to that man. You may remember Brian Brockway. He was a former marine, highly skilled in surveillance and intelligence, and now working in the private security world. Brian Brockway has extensive history in the military. He knows a lot of different contacts, a lot of people who are skilled in this type of work. To find out who Layla love really is, pallet also contacts Brian Brockway's brother, Chad, who had his own intelligence background and worked in private security. But the story Gil tells him isn't entirely truthful. Gil began to explain to me he had been retained by a family in Nashville who their daughter was missing and that she worked as an escort. So you learned her real name, Holly Williams?

We learned her real name. We issued our report, and then that was the end of it. And now with that information his brother Chad has gathered, Brian Brockway then hires Adam Carey, that private security man from North Carolina with military training. He then sends Kerry, along with two other operatives, to Nashville to try to find out what they can in person.

And that's how Adam Carey and the others end up recorded on those security cameras at Holly's front door. Their first goal was to figure out where Miss Williams lived, if she was living with anybody.

The team is able to determine that the person making those extortion threats to Eric Mond was none other than Bill Lanway. Holly's volatile, on and off again boyfriend, William, had logged into her account that she used to contact and taken screenshots of the list. Investigators say there is no evidence Holly knew what Bill was up to. Brian Brockway himself arrives in Nashville just as things hit a boiling point March 11, when Lanway actually makes a phone call to mon at his home.

He was concerned that his wife could have answered the phone, and the threat of Eric Mon's family finding out about this secret was significantly increased.

Soon after, those home security cameras record Holly and Bill leaving her apartment. And the question is, what exactly happened next? U. It's March of 2020, and there have been mysterious figures lurking outside Holly Williams apartment in Nashville, Tennessee. These men were sent there by security consultant Gil Paled, who was hired by Texas multimillionaire Eric Mon.

So far, despite their efforts, the operation has not been fruitful.

The individuals on the ground had had no success. And then on March 11, William Landway called Eric Mon's house. And that's when everything changed. Eric Mon was upset. He was freaking out. The situation had gotten out of his control.

This was really significant to Eric Mond because he was concerned that his wife could have answered the phone.

According to investigators, that March 11 phone call launched a deadly plan. Authorities say soon after, Brian Brockway told Gil paled that he and Adam Carey would murder Bill and Holly for $60,000 each. Galat paled is relaying that information directly to Eric Mon. And according to Gilat paled, he jumped on the idea of having a murder committed. Earlier that day, Brockway had flown to Nashville to join Kerry on the ground. At this point, the two other men on the surveillance team had already left, having no idea about the alleged murder for hire plot. By the night of March 12, the deadly operation was underway.

On the security video of Holly Williams apartment door from the night of March 12, around 1140, you can see the victims walking out of camera's view. Holly walks out of her apartment and goes off camera. William goes back in briefly to the apartment to get something, and then he comes back out and into what sounds like a living nightmare. This is not far from her front door, and the door camera picked up the audio of what happened in the parking lot.

This graphic audio may be difficult for some to hear. You can hear the car starting, and then you hear gunshots, glass breaking, a man screaming, and a woman screaming.

Seconds later, you can hear her screams get quieter and quieter, and then we don't hear anything else.

Detectives believe that the shooters ambushed Holly and Bill while they were in Holly's car. Incredibly, no neighbors reported hearing gunshots. They shot will through the passenger side window. They shot him from that side. We believe that the suspect opened the door and began firing upon will. And while he was firing at will, he had struck Holly in the chest. Authorities say the suspects then drove the victims to another location about 3 miles away. So this would have been the route to the dump site or the construction site where we located them. Investigators say surveillance video from this nearby gas station captured Holly's white Acura being driven by one of the alleged hitmen. It's trailing a black car where cops say the other suspect is behind the wheel. There's two cars in a road. Right. Holly's vehicle is following. It's that dark colored sedan. And here we are at the last little stretch. We're getting ready to pull into the construction site here. And this is where they would have stopped the car, put the car in neutral. The vehicle veered off to the right here and down this embankment, or to your right and into a tree.

When we discovered the car, the car was in drive. So somebody popped the gear and let it roll. So the engine was running. Yes.

Here's what the Nashville police know at this point. They know who Adam Carey is. They know who Eric Mond is, and they know that this Eric Mond in Austin may be the victim of an extortion attempt, possibly by Bill Lanway. Now, because these crimes are ostensibly interstate, it's time to call in the FBI.

Enter FBI Special agent David Sam, who starts by following the money. We were looking at Eric Mon and his financial transactions, and we determined that all of a sudden he makes a very large financial wire to galad paled on the day of the homicide. How much was that? 150,000. Investigators are now working with a motive, a theory of extortion, and they have a money trail, but what they really need is a confession. You had smoke, but you didn't have any smoking gun. Correct. I would have to transition from determining through circumstantial evidence who the probable people were to now being able to determine what they did when they were there. In their own words. In their own words.

Special. A clever idea. He wants to go to one of the two guys who dropped out of the original surveillance plan.

He left before the homicides. He had no idea that anything like that was going to go on. So special agent Sam convinces this man to go undercover to see if he can get the suspected killers to incriminate themselves. He made the decision that it's in the best interest everyone involved to assist. He wanted to get. He did. The idea was, let's send in this person with the proposal that he has a new murder for hire plan. 2020 has agreed to alter the voice of the undercover operative. He first calls Adam Carey. What's up, man? We're just going to kind of run by, run you through this little thing. Yeah, go ahead. Adam Carey says that he's willing to participate, that the cost is $60,000 per shooter, per victim. I would do 50, no less than 50. Each of us. The tools that you would use, all the things that you would need to commit a murder for hire, find those weak spots. Bring gloves, subcutaneous injections. If you're going to do a long shot, let's say 50 yards, you could simply get a 22 long rifle. It's startling to hear those details, but investigators want more.

So they decide to send the undercover operative to meet in person with Brian Brockway in Austin.

The undercover met with Brian Brockway at a restaurant bar area, and the beginning part of that conversation is guarded. It wasn't until Brian Brockway and the undercover went into Brian Brockway's car where we really got clear information.

This time, prosecutors and investigators just can't believe what is revealed. Brockway describes the ambush in Nashville. Some of the problems that we ran into last time is we had to take him at the same time. Dude, I took the big duties of Spiderman, caught my hand in the door and everybody, but I still got him. This was the first description of the details of what happened that night. Yes, he admitted to it right there in the recording.

Finally, investigators feel like they've got enough. It's time to round up the suspects. But in order to catch Eric Mon, there's just one more clever ruse in store.

Eric Mon is driving back from his hunting resort to home. And that's when the phone call was made. I'll pay the guy 25,000. Honestly, I think I'd rather take care of it permanently. You.

December 2021. Almost two years after the murders of William Lanway and Holly Williams, Eric Mon posts an intriguing five star review of Gilpolette's security company. Spear tip is very professional, and on top of it, they get the job done in an expedited time. Couldn't imagine using anyone else. Okay, what? I mean, talk about audacity.

A few days later, federal prosecutors and the FBI launch a highly orchestrated plan to arrest the four men they believe are responsible in the Nashville murders of Bill Lanway and Holly Williams, four defendants in three different states that needed to be arrested within a couple hours of each other. 04:00 in the morning, near Richland, North Carolina, Adam Carey was arrested by specialized tactical team. Brian Brockway was then arrested in San Diego. At the time of his arrest, Brian Brockway was attending his son's Marine Corps boot camp graduation along with his brother Chad and his family. I saw that they pulled my brother aside. I saw that they had my brother in handcuffs. And we're taking him to a police car and putting him in the back of the car. We're trying to figure out what happened, what's going on. Next up, Gil Pallad, the point person with the alleged boss. He was returning from a security conference in Las Vegas. We knew he was arriving at the airport that day, and that's where we arrested him. We had not arrested Eric Mond yet. We need to know whether Eric Mond had knowledge of the homicides, whether he was part of the conspiracy.

And again, we felt the only way to do that was to do a recording between Khalad Pallet and Eric Mond.

First, they needed to convince Gil Pallett to help nab their biggest target, Eric Mond.

The last piece of the puzzle at that point was Khalad pallet getting him to make the phone call with Eric Mond so that now we could determine what Eric Mond's knowledge of the homicides was. Tell me how it was you were able to get pled to cooperate on this. He learned how much evidence we had against him, explained to him that regardless of what you do at this point, you're getting arrested. But what you could potentially do is assist us in making the phone call.

At the time, Eric Mond was driving back from a hunting retreat in Texas, and FBI was surveilling him.

Eric Mond was driving with a friend, and he gets a call from Galad pold. He pulls over to the side of the road because he knows that he needs to speak privately. You could hear a pin drop in the room because the tension was palpable.

The idea was that Gilpoled would call Eric and tell him that one of the shooters from Nashville was back and that he wanted $25,000 from Eric Mond to keep quiet. Basically, we got a problem with one.

Of the shooters in Nashville. He found out that you were the client that paid for this, for the job. And he didn't say, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. He just said. But then he takes it further and he talks about what he wants to do about this, the solution, which is another homicide. I'll pay the guy 25,000, but I think it needs to go away after that. So we need to take care of him. He did a solid for me, and I appreciate him for that, but I just want to make sure in six months down the road, he's not going to pop back up. Honestly, I think I'd rather take care of it permanently. And then I'll just run 150 through spear tip like we did last time.

It showed his understanding of what happened in Nashville, and it also cut against any kind of argument that Eric Mond didn't want this murder to happen.

Immediately after Gil and Mon hung up, and I said, take him down. Almost immediately after that call is recorded, Mon continues to drive. He's pulled over by Texas state troopers, ends up right about here. They're ordering him to get out of the vehicle. Just then, a bunch of federal agents surround it all. And then they tell him to get out. They cuff him, and they take him off to custody. Federal investigators say a prominent Austin auto executive orchestrated a $1 million hit job.

The news of mon's arrest hits Austin like a bombshell. Senior reporter Tony Flahetzki spent today unraveling the allegations in this case.

Ashley? This murder for hire plot led to the arrest of four men across the country. But of course, here in Austin, a prominent name associated with that plot, it's Eric Charles mon. This indictment read something like a movie script, sexual indiscretions with violence, and a murder for hire plot. And then when you put the name Mond at the top of all of those details, the story spread like wildfire. As prosecutors gear up for the federal trial of the four men in Nashville, there's another shocking twist. Gil poled makes a deal. He pleads guilty to murder for hire, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and kidnapping resulting in death. He agrees to testify against his alleged co conspirators. But will this testimony help make the prosecution's case or sink it? One of the defense arguments was that galad pallet had somehow bamboozled Eric Mond into this whole situation. I think Gil would have done anything he needed to do to save himself.

On November 3 of 2023, the trial of Eric Mond, Brian Brockway, and Adam Carey began in Nashville, Tennessee, federal court.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit murder for hire with death resulting, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and then kidnapping with death resulting.

All three of the co defendants pled not guilty. I was one of the only members of the media who was there from start to finish. Of all the cases I think I've covered, this ranks as one of the most complex. You had so many defendants, each defendant had his own defense team. Robert McGuire has to figure out a way to thread the needle so that jury can make the right decision.

When I gave the opening statement, I wanted to make sure that I was clear that Eric Mon had a problem, and he solved it with murder. We felt very strongly that the recordings of the defendants were going to tell the jury what really happened.

During the trial. Federal prosecutors wanted the jury to see that home surveillance that showed Carrie right outside of Holly's door.

What do you think was in their mind when they realized that now they're on trial and that there was a camera that shot Carrie's face? They're probably kicking themselves right now. FBI Special Agent David Somme told the jury about the undercover sting operations that he designed and orchestrated, which eventually broke the case open. I believe that was the only way to really understand what happened in Nashville.

On that undercover audio tape, you can clearly hear Brian Brockway talking, almost bragging to the undercover informant.

I took the big duties of fighter man. Caught my hand in the door. When he did pen the entire frame of the door, everything that I interpreted from the wiretap was that he was bragging. He was attempting to create his own business line, run his own company. And I think in this particular case, he probably said things that were not true. That tape was corroborated by much of the evidence found in the case.

When you have the undercover recordings of the defendant's words themselves, there is no other type of evidence that is as compelling as that. Now, the man I'm waiting to hear from is the prosecution's star witness, Gil Paulette. Remember, he's the guy who, according to prosecutors, put all of this together.

I argued to the jury that, yes, Gil Palette is a liar and a profiteer, but in a criminal conspiracy, the only witnesses are criminals. Gilpoled is a lot of things, and ultimately, he did a very terrible thing, and he tried as hard as he could to make up for it. And that's what he testified to the jury. He knew he had done wrong, and all he had left was the truth.

Gil Pold told a bit of a sob story to the jury that he was down and out. Covid had basically sunk his security business. He had two children to feed and a wife. So money was a motivation to get involved. He really needed money.

But perhaps the part of the prosecution's case that had the most impact was when they played for the jury that footage of Bill and Holly being shot.

When prosecutors played that footage of the murder of Bill and Holly, everyone sat in stunned silence. That footage is some of the most difficult footage I have had to look at and listen to. As a prosecutor, it's rare that we have audio from an actual kidnapping and murder.

Prosecutors also played another key piece of audio evidence for the jury, that undercover tape of Brian Brockway apparently talking about how Holly was killed. Some of the problems that we ran into last time is we had to take them at the same time. Dude.

It confirms everyone's worst fear is that Holly was not dead when they drove away from her apartment. She was alive, injured, and in a state of terror when they reached that dump site.

On the recording, Brockway says Adam Carey was the one who then shot Holly to death. She wound up breathing and he finished it in the backseat. And he got my response. I totally got my respect for that, dude. A lot of guys with females now you'll probably ain't heard. We asked the jury to imagine what it must have been like for Holly Williams in the moments before she died. And prosecutors are not done. They're going to play another piece of video for the jury. Eric Maud's reaction to hearing those chilling shots and screams. What you're going to hear is this is outside Holly's apartment.

Okay?

This is how it went down.

But when it's the defense's turn, well, they have some video of their own to show the jury, and they used it to call into question whether Holly's real killer has been identified. The jury has just heard exactly how Holly and Bill were shot outside of her apartment. Now the prosecution shows the jury just how Eric Mond reacted to that video during his interrogation with FBI's special agent David song.

I want you to understand what we're talking about here. What you're going to hear is, this is outside Holly's apartment, okay? This is how it went down. This is about the time she's getting shot and he's getting shot. This is someone I think you cared about. I wanted to get him to understand the gravity of the situation. I wanted to see if he had a reaction. Do you think he gave you any sense of regret of what he had done? I would hope at some level he might. But the question is, why? Does he regret know, do you regret it because you just murdered someone, or do you regret it because you were caught?

When it's time for the defense's case, they go right after the prosecution's star witness saying Gil Pallett can't be trusted and he's lying about the murder plot to save his own skin.

The defense hammered Pallette on cross examination, pointing out that he lied about being a former israeli intelligence agent and that he initially lied to the FBI by downplaying his involvement in the murder for hire plot. The defense also accused him of getting a sweetheart sentencing deal in exchange for his testimony. His sentence will ultimately be determined by the judge. So Mr. Paulette doesn't know what sentence he's going to receive from the judge, and neither do I. All arrows point to Gil, right? Gil was brought in by the FBI. He was pressured, he was threatened, and he was essentially given no other option than to cooperate.

The defense calls Brian Brockway's brother Chad to the stand. Remember, Pallet had asked him to do an initial background check on Holly and Bill.

Chad testifies that pallet lied to him from the get go. Remember, he says Pallet told him the case actually involved a client whose daughter was a victim of sex trafficking and was trapped in the ES court business. When did you realize this was not anything about sex trafficking? When we read the indictment. Gail pled cried on the stand and left all of them out to drive to save himself. During the trial, the defense brought forward a couple of ideas to try to plant seeds of doubt in the jurors. They tried to say that what happened in Nashville happened outside of the knowledge of Eric Maund. The defense tried to cast doubt on that undercover phone call between Mond and paled, saying there was no clear admission of guilt. We got a problem with one of the shooters in. Uh huh. So we need to take care of him. He did a solid for me, and I appreciate him for that, but I just want to make sure he's not going to pop back up.

But Brooks got her own response to that. She says Mon's words speak for themselves. He talked about how it wasn't really about the money for him and he wanted to take care of the problem permanently.

When the jury listened to that call, we argued that you knew who was the boss and who was the help.

The defense wants the jury to consider that there could be another explanation for the murder.

Jurors are shown that video of Holly setting up security cameras in her apartment. Remember, she installed those cameras to protect herself from her on and off again boyfriend, Bill Lanway.

If there was any way I could get a traditional deadbolt lock because the door lock wasn't able to come in and assault me.

Jurors are shown video of Bill caught on camera entering Holly's apartment and looking for her in her bedroom. But investigators had eliminated Bill as a possible suspect based on the evidence, which they say confirmed that he was a victim of the murder for higher plot. It looked like a mob job. There was no gun to be seen in the car.

The defense raises another possibility. Perhaps one of Holly's clients might have been responsible for the killings, implying that that's what got her killed, not Eric Mond essentially blaming the victim. And that did not set well at all with prosecutor Robert McGuire, who angrily protested in court, I'm passionate in trial.

The defense has a job to do and I respect it. But I didn't want the jury to receive an imperfect picture of who Holly Williams was.

So the defense closing arguments were interesting because you had three different defendants and different attorneys stating their case to the jury. But there are some consistent themes here. You cannot trust star witness Gil Paulette. He was the one who capitalized the most on this by receiving in the end, a total of $905,000. He was the main guy.

Through the course of the trial, I actually started feeling a lot better about what the verdict was going to be. People closely following this case wondered if Eric Mawen's defense team was going to be able to pull off an acquittal.

After a 14 day trial, the prosecution calling 20 witnesses and using 200 exhibits to make its case, it finally goes to the jury. And the feeling in the courtroom was that, well, could go either way. I think you're always worried when the case goes to the jury. You're always nervous. Always.

Three years and eight months after Holly Williams and Bill Lanway were found brutally gunned down in Nashville, there's finally a verdict in their murder case. I've had over a hundred jury trials and my heart is always beating out of my chest when the jury is about to announce their verdict.

After about 7 hours of deliberation, the jury found Maud guilty of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, but not guilty of kidnapping resulting in death.

District Judge William Campbell dismissed the conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge against Maud at trial, finding there was insufficient evidence to support it.

Then they went on to Brian Brockway and Adam Carey, and they were both found guilty of all three counts that they were charged with.

When that verdict came back, as it did, it was definitely a little bit of a shock to all of us. There is no way possible that my brother is guilty of the charges that they have brought against him in this investigation. And the motivation was greed, plain and simple. And another motivation we had is knowing that someone with so much money and so much power, they could just write a check and expect something just to go away. Mawn's defense team sent 2020 this statement saying Eric Mawn is not guilty of the charges in the indictment. Mr. Mond and counsel intend to pursue appeals on the remaining charge, for which the jury returned a guilty verdict. Attorneys for Adam Carey and Brian Brockway declined comment. The families, both families, they didn't deserve this tragedy and this trauma for both of their loved ones being killed the way they were killed. Bill definitely had his demons, traumatic situations, but he was a guy that tried to push through everything. Bill Lanway, through his entire life, he was just met with tragedy after tragedy. He's not innocent in all of this, but yet he didn't deserve what happened to him.

If you think about Bill's whole life full circle, one of the first memories of his life is probably trying to protect his mother from his father. And the last living moments of his life were trying to protect his girlfriend from a murderer.

Holly was a victim of circumstance. The evidence that we presented at the trial was that Holly did not know anything about this extortion plan. What are you doing? What are you doing?

Many people see Holly Williams as a woman who was repeatedly victimized and victimized at the end of her life.

I wanted to protect her because I felt like I saw some pain in her.

It is this beautiful young lady's birthday today.

And just seeing how sweet she was and just quiet, I just knew the world can be harsh towards people like her.

Happy birthday. To know there are so many layers to this mystery. And when Gil Paulette is sentenced this June, the judge will take into consideration his cooperation during the trial.

And while there's is no sentencing date yet set for the three, Eric Mond, Adam Carey and Brian Brockway, they're all facing mandatory life sentences. That's our program for tonight. I'm Deborah Roberts.

And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.