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Brooke Lyons and her then three-year-old son Carson were kidnapped in 2015 by two men and taken to the credit union she worked at where she would be expected to give them $300,000. Her story will be recounted on tonight’s two-hour episode of Dateline NBC.
On that day in 2015, Lyons, a married mother-of-one, was paying attention to her child when the two were taken hostage by the two men who were hoping to rob the credit union where she worked.
“I turned around and there he was,” Lyons told True Crime Daily. “He had a gun and a crowbar. They were wearing like Army-type camo jackets. They both wore masks. He pointed [a gun] at Carson, and he said as long as I done what he said that neither one of us were going to get hurt.”
The episode of Dateline, which is titled “A Villainous Plan” airs tonight, Friday, April 10 at 8 p.m. on NBC. It features interviews with other victims of the kidnappers including Matthew and Valerie Yussman and investigators like Sergeant David Mocarsky and former Police Chief Jim Wardwell.
Here’s what you should know about Brooke Lyons:
1. Lyons Was a Teller at a Credit Union
The bank robbers and kidnappers who targeted Lyons were only targeting people who worked at banks or credit unions in order to get money and get away without being caught. She told True Crime Daily that the bank had all of its employees’ pictures and titles on the website.
“The bank had on our website a directory that had all of our names and pictures and what we [did],” she said.
The kidnappers took her and her three-year-old son to the credit union after forcing them into their car.
“”We went to the credit union. ‘You’re going to go in, you’re going to get $350,000. No dye packs, no wires, no bait money, and if the cops get called, that’s when Carson is going to get hurt,'” said Lyons. “I got the bag and I went in.”
2. She Told Her Sons the Kidnappers Were “Friends”
In order to keep Carson from being terrified of the men, Lyons tried to tell him that they were friends and were just taking her to work at the bank in nearby Elizabethton. He didn’t believe her, though, and he said they were hunters.
When they got to the bank, they forced Lyons in without her son, telling her that as long as she did what they told her to, no one would get hurt. She told Crime Watch Daily that she hugged Carson one more time before leaving him in the car because she didn’t believe they wouldn’t hurt him.
“I couldn’t, I didn’t want to let him go, because I thought that was the last time I was ever going to hold him,” said Lyons.
3. The Men Let Her Son Go After Her Boss Called the Police
When she got into the bank, Lyons told her boss what was going on, asking her to please open the bank vault and not to call the police because the men had Carson outside at gunpoint. She wouldn’t open the vault, though, and she called the police. Security camera footage shows the heartwrenching exchange.
After they called the police, Lyons ran back outside to get Carson. She said she threw herself on top of him and begged the men, saying she had done what they asked of her but couldn’t get anyone to open the vault.
“‘No harm, no foul, nobody saw our faces,'” Lyons said the men told her then before driving her to a remote field, giving her her phone and taking off in an SUV. “Like it wasn’t a big deal. We weren’t people to them.”
4. Lyons Was Marked as a Victim Because of Social Media
For each of their robberies and kidnappings, Michael Benanti and Brian Witham found their victims via banking websites and then used social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to learn about them and their families.
They hid cameras in bushes and shrubs; Benanti even hid out in the backyard of families’ homes for hours to figure out their schedules according to Witham.
“Yeah, they hid cameras outside my house so they could watch us and learn our routine,” Lyons told Crime Watch Daily.
5. Michael Benanti and Brian Witham Were Sentenced to Prison Time
According to Knox News, Michael Benanti was the mastermind behind the crimes, and his crime partner Witham turned on him after the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to cap his punishment at 42 years with the chance to shave off more time.
Witham and Benanti met in prison in 1994 when they were both serving time in federal prison for violent crimes. Benanti was freed in 2008, and Witham was freed in 2013. At that time, they met up and became partners-in-crime.
Now, Benanti has been sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for each of the four kidnappings and another 155 years for using guns to carry out his reign of terror according to USA Today. Witham was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
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