Florida man pleads guilty to planning to kidnap five Mennonite children and execute their parents

A Florida man who participated in a twisted, botched plot to kidnap five children in a rural Mennonite community and kill their parents has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced to life in prison.

Frank Jesse Amnott, 31, of Pensacola, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to kill witnesses, and brandishing, carrying, and using a firearm in commission of a federal crime of violence. The charge of conspiracy to kill witnesses has a statuary sentence of mandatory life in prison. 

Amnott along with three accomplices planned to kidnap five children all under the age of eight in a Mennonite community in Dayton, Virginia in July 2018.   

The plan was first hatched back when Frank Amnott and his wife Jennifer Amnott, who lived in Florida, were contacted by their friend Valerie Perfect Hayes earlier that month. She claimed that three of her children had been kidnapped and were being held by two separate Mennonite families in Dayton, Virginia. 

He along with three accomplices were in on a plot to kidnap five Mennonite children from a rural farming community in Dayton, Virginia in July 2018. File image of Amish Mennonite women in Virginia above

Hayes, claimed she worked for the U.S. government in some clandestine intelligence capacity, was living in Maryland with her boyfriend Gary Blake Reburn. The Amnott’s and Hayes first became friends in 2014 when she was living in Florida.

Prosecutors said that her claims she worked for the government and that her kids were kidnapped were completely false.

Amnott’s friend Valerie Perfect Hayes claimed two Mennonite families had kidnapped three of her children and she wanted to abduct them back. She also claimed she worked for the government. Prosecutors her entire story is a lie

Hayes asked the Amnott’s to help her retrieve her children as well as take two additional children from the community, promising the Amnott’s, who could not conceive children, that they could keep one as their own. 

The Amnott’s had suffered multiple  pregnancies that ended in miscarriages. Lured by the prospect of finally having a child to call their own, the Amnott’s agreed.

Together the Amnotts, Hayes and her boyfriend Reburn concocted an elaborate plan to storm the traditional farming community in Virginia, secure the children and execute their parents starting at one house and continuing to the second. Killing the parents would eliminate any witnesses to the abductions. 

It’s not clear how or why Hayes identified those five specific children in the Old Order Mennonites community. 

At the time, there was a warrant out for Hayes arrest on charges of filing a false police report after she reported her husband raped her and broke into her home, only to later confess it was a lie, as per the Free Lance-Star. 

On July 29, 2018 they rolled out their devious plot to abduct the five children – all of whom were under the age of eight, and drove out from Maryland to Virginia. 

Jennifer Amnott stayed behind in Maryland to watch over Hayes other children.  

Frank Amnott, Hayes and Reburn then arrived to their first house. Hayes was disguised as a Mennonite and when a parent opened the door, the group held the parent at gunpoint and forced their way in. 

Hayes asked Frank Amnott and his wife Jennifer (together above) to help, saying they could keep one of the children as their own as they could not conceive

When the group stormed in, the other parent frantically grabbed a cordless phone and ran out of the home and hid in a cornfield nearby where they dialed 911 and an officer with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched around 10.45pm

Amnott and Reburn took the parent they were holding hostage inside to the basement where they bound his wrists together behind his back.  Amnott stayed in the basement with his gun pointed at the Mennonite father. 

When the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office arrived, the parent that called the officer emerged from the cornfield. At the same time Hayes met the officer still dressed in Mennonite clothing. 

Hayes falsely claimed she was a concerned neighbor who passed by and saw an armed man inside the house. But the parent recognized Hayes as the woman who raided the home. 

When the deputy entered the house the officer found the children unharmed and still in their bedroom. In the basement the officer found Amnott holding the other parent hostage at gunpoint and arrested him. 

The Amnott’s had suffered multiple pregnancies that ended in miscarriages. Lured by the prospect of finally having a child to call their own, the Amnott’s agreed to the kidnapping plot.

Thanks to that emergency 911 call by the concerned parent, Amnott and his crew never made it to the second house they planned to ambush. 

‘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,’ Special Agent in Charge Archey said Wednesday. 

The horrified U.S. attorney behind the charges described the failed plot as a ‘bad horror movie’. 

‘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 Cullen said Wednesday. 

‘I appreciate the diligence of the FBI and the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office in investigating this case and bringing these conspirators to justice,’ he added. 

As for Hayes and Reburn, they were able to return to Maryland to reunite with Jennifer Amnott. 

Then in early August 2018 Jennifer Amnott, Hayes and Reburn fled to the United Kingdom. They have since been arrested and are pending extradition, according a Department of Justice release. 

Frank Amnott’s sentencing is set for May, but will likely be postponed until his co-defendants go to trial. He’s expected to testify against the other three in a plea deal, as per the Daily Record.