Where Is Erik Maund Now? Austin Businessman Had Two People Killed — All to Hide His Affair

This story has everything: an affair with an escort, contract killers, blackmail, and murder. When the bodies of Holly Williams and Bill Lanway were found in a white Toyota Acura, authorities initially thought this was a car accident. It wasn't until they got inside that police found Williams and Lanway had each been shot several times. Metro Nashville PD Det. Patrick Cuthbertson told ABC News it was like a "scene out of a movie."

Over the next three years, this investigation would spiral outward to involve a prominent Austin business owner, sex work, and a murder-for-hire plot that seemed ripped from the pages of a crime novel. At the center of all of it was Erik Maund, a man so desperate to keep his affair under wraps that he did the unthinkable. Where is Erik Maund now? He's waiting to see how much of his life he will lose to a deadly decision.

In November 2023, Maund was found guilty of conspiracy to . As of the time of this writing, he is still waiting for his sentencing. How did he get here? The answer is simple: lust and fear. Before all of this went down, Maund would often travel to Nashville from Austin in order to visit his son at college. While there, he met with an escort who called herself Layla Love. They hung out twice but in March 2020, Maund received a text from an unknown number demanding $25,000.

This person was threatening to tell Maund's family about his extracurricular activities, and instead of coming clean to his wife, Maund chose a more sinister route. He reached out to "Gilad Peled, an Israeli national who had a private security firm and was doing consulting work" for Maund's car dealership, per ABC News. Initially he wanted to find out who sent the text. Peled contacted former marine Bryon Brockway, whose brother Chad had a security firm.

According to ABC News, Chad was told he was looking into someone's missing daughter. He thought nothing of it and passed the information to his brother, who then hired another former marine by the name of Adam Carey, who along with two men headed to Nashville. Chad discovered the text was sent by Lanway whose girlfriend, Williams, also goes by Layla Love. Security cameras outside of her home show Brockway and Carey attempting to speak with her on three separate occasions.

After they were unable to speak with Lanway and Williams, Brockway informed Peled that "he and Carey could murder Lanway and Williams for $60,000 each," per ABC News. Investigators learned that Maund approved of that plan. Brockway and Carey then ambushed the couple, shooting Lanway first followed by Williams.

The two men who originally accompanied Carey to Nashville were unaware of the murder-for-hire plot. When the FBI was brought onto the case, one of these men "agreed to wear a recording device while he spoke with Carey and Brockway." During one of these recorded chats, Brockway shared enough information to implicate himself. Brockway, Carey, and Peled were immediately arrested. Maund was the last piece of the puzzle.

FBI Special Agent David Som asked Peled to call "Maund under the guise that one of the 'operatives' in the murder scheme demanded more money," per ABC News. Not only did Maund fall for this, but he offered Peled more money to get rid of the person trying to blackmail him. Getting what they needed, the FBI arrested Maund. His attorneys told ABC News' 20/20 that Maund would be pursuing an appeal.

All three men face a mandatory life sentence in federal prison.