Former Walter Johnson HS Coach Accused In Murder, Kidnap Plot

BETHESDA, MD — A former Walter Johnson High School lacrosse coach is accused of participating in a failed 2018 plot to kidnap children from two Mennonite families in Virginia and kill their parents.

Gary Blake Reburn is one of four people who authorities have connected to the botched scheme. He and two other co-conspirators have been apprehended and are awaiting extradition from the United Kingdom, according to authorities. The fourth co-conspirator pleaded guilty in federal court last week.

Reburn is accused of conspiring with his girlfriend, Valerie Perfect Hayes, and a Florida couple to kidnap five Mennonite children living in rural Dayton, Virginia, authorities said.

Federal prosecutors say it all started after Hayes befriended Frank and Jennifer Amnott in 2014. The couple desperately wanted children but suffered multiple miscarriages.

Hayes told the couple that she worked for the government and could arrange for an adoption, authorities said. After her promises didn't amount to anything, Hayes asked the Amnotts for a favor.

According to court documents, in 2018, Hayes convinced the couple that three of her children had been abducted and were living with two separate Mennonite families in Virginia.

She asked the Amnotts to help bring them back, as well as two other children. Hayes said if they help bring them back, the couple could keep one of the children as their own, prosecutors said.

Hayes, investigators later determined, did not give birth or have any custodial rights to the children.

To effectuate the kidnapping, both couples planned to kill the parents and eliminate any witnesses, prosecutors said. Jennifer Amnott babysat Hayes' kids in Maryland while the other three allegedly carried out the plan.

"According to the plan, Hayes, Reburn, and Frank Amnott would enter the first house and hold the parents at gunpoint," federal prosecutors said in a statement. "After the two children were secured by Hayes, Reburn and Amnott would execute the parents. Then, they would drive to the second house, force entry, and perform a similar execution .… Afterwards, all of the children would be taken from Virginia to Maryland and the Amnotts would return to Florida with the child promised to them by Hayes."

The Amnotts planned to call the child "Caleb," court documents indicate.

On the night of July 28, 2018, prosecutors said Hayes disguised herself in Mennonite clothing and walked up to the first house. When a parent opened the front door, the trio forced their way into the home and held the father at gunpoint.

Unbeknownst to the trio, the wife managed to flee from the house, hide in a cornfield, and call 911, prosecutors said.

While help was on the way, Amnott and Reburn took the father to the basement and bound his wrists together behind his back, authorities said. Then Reburn went upstairs.

A deputy with the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office arrived soon after and found Frank Amnott in the basement with the father, court documents allege.

"Although the facts of this case read like the script of a bad horror movie, the defendants' murderous plot was real and it posed a grave risk to their intended victims," U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen said.

Authorities said nobody was hurt in the incident.

"If not for the quick thinking of a parent, and the immediate dispatch and response of a Rockingham County Sheriff's Office deputy, this incident could have evolved into something much worse," said David W. Archey, special agent in charge of the FBI's Richmond Division.

Hayes, Reburn, and Jennifer Amnott fled the country after the plan went awry, authorities said. They have since been apprehended and are awaiting extradition to the United States.

Frank Amnott pleaded guilty to his role in the plot last week.

On Thursday, Walter Johnson Principal Jennifer Baker sent a letter to families announcing Reburn's arrest.

"I wanted to share with our community that we recently learned our former varsity lacrosse coach, Gary B. Reburn, was arrested for his role in an attempted murder and kidnapping in Virginia," Baker wrote.

In her letter, Baker reassured parents that these charges "are unrelated to Montgomery County Public Schools students and unrelated to the time he spent as the lacrosse coach."