HS Lacrosse Coach Flees to the UK After His Kidnapping/Murder Plot Doesn't Work Out
Source – A former Walter Johnson High School lacrosse coach is awaiting extradition from the United Kingdom after prosecutors say he was part of a bizarre attempt to kidnap five children and kill their two sets of parents.
Gary Reburn served as a girl’s varsity lacrosse coach for at least the 2016 – 2017 season. … Federal prosecutors say Reburn’s girlfriend Valerie Hayes convinced another couple that three of her children had been kidnapped and were being held by two Mennonite couples in Dayton, Va.
Court documents say Hayes knew the couple, Frank and Jennifer Amnott, could not have children of their own and used that to get their help to take her children back and kill the two sets of parents.
In return, Hayes would allow the Amnotts to take as their own one of the two other children they planned to kidnap.
Prosecutors say Hayes, Reburn and the Amnotts attempted the kidnapping and murders on July 29, 2018.
They got as far as holding one of the parents at gunpoint before a Rockingham County deputy foiled the plot. Frank Amnott was arrested that night and pleaded guilty last week.
The three others, prosecutors say, were able to play off their roles and escaped to the United Kingdom [and] are awaiting extradition back from the UK.
Geez Louise, Gary Reburn. I can appreciate that all high school coaches are a little bit crazy, or else they wouldn’t get into coaching in the first place. And that lacrosse coaches trend higher than most on the nuttiness scale. I respect that, I honestly do.
But elaborate kidnapping and murder plots involving Mennonites and infertile couples who’ll steal someone else’s child and raise them as their own and fleeing the country is not what I mean. Forgive me if I’m coming across as all judgmental, but what ever happened to good, wholesome, old fashioned lacrosse coach craziness? The kind that involves cruel freshman hazing rituals and drinking parties and abusing the kids with four hour Saturday practices of running gassers and doing Bear Crawls. How about just losing your mind on the sideline and threatening the ref with murder, the way it’s supposed to be? Can’t you just settle for giving all the playing time to all the kids whose moms give off the impression they might bone you, or is that asking too much?
Because kidnapping and murder plots are bananas, even by the standards of lacrosse coaches. And the kind of thing that will get you fired for sure. Unless of course Walter Johnson High School lacrosse is a good program under Coach Reburn. I mean, if he’s got them winning the conference or making it to states or whatever, I think exceptions can be made. A little thing like sticking a gun in the face of the parents your planning to kill is small potatoes as long as you’re winning. Let that be a lesson to all you coaches and potential kidnapping murderers out there.