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The 2017 kidnapping of Louisiana woman Schanda Handley made headlines given its peculiarity and the involvement of her millionaire husband Lawrence Michael Handley.
She was abducted from her Lafayette home on August 6, 2017, by two supposed delivery men hired by her estranged husband in a plot to "win her back."
Lawrence's extensive plan went down the drain when an off-duty officer tailed the kidnappers, driving in a white van with Schanda in the back. The chase came to a halt when the vehicle got stuck on a muddy road and the perpetrators had to escape on foot, leaving both the van and the victim behind.
The kidnappers' remains were discovered a few days later from a nearby waterbay. The two men had reportedly drowned as they tried escaping.
CBS 48 hours is slated to revisit the near-death experience of Schanda Handley, who if not for the vigilant cop would have been dead. The episode titled The Kidnapping of Schanda Handley will air on Saturday, October 22, 2022, at 10 pm ET.
Five key details about Schanda Handley's kidnapping case
1) Schanda Handley was kidnapped in the presence of teen daughter and neighbor
Schanda was with her 14-year-old daughter Isabella Cumberland and a neighbor in her house at the time of the kidnapping. Sources state that two "delivery men" knocked on the house door and since she was expecting a package, nothing seemed out of the ordinary to her.
The two men busted into the house and abducted her at gunpoint. She was cuffed and thrown in the back of a white van. The kidnappers also cuffed her daughter and adult neighbor and left them inside the house.
2) Evidence started piling up linking Schanda's estranged husband to the abduction
When investigators began looking into Michael Handley's background, they discovered that Schanda had continuously reported him to the police. They also found that she had filed a restraining order against him in the months prior to the abduction. Authorities found a ton of information that suggested he was responsible for the kidnapping.
Investigators further learnt that Michael had rented the vehicle and bought handcuffs from a police supply store a day prior to the abduction. After his arrest, more video footage was discovered at the couple's Mississippi home. his footage showed him talking to two kidnappers and plotting his estranged wife's abduction around two weeks before it took place.
3) Estrange millionaire husband Michael Handley was arrested at a motel
Authorities gathered sufficient evidence to build a case against Schanda Handley's estranged husband before arresting him. After a four-day long manhunt, authorities found him at a Super 8 hotel in Slidell, Louisiana.
In the motel room, they also found drugs, more than $10,000 in cash, and burner phones along with a to-do list that indicated his plans to flee.
4) Michael Handley plotted the kidnapping while under the influence of drugs
Two 27-year-old Mississippi men, Sylvester Bracey and Arsenio Haynes, were supposedly hired by Lawrence Michael Handley in August 2017 to kidnap his wife.
According to reports, Handley was under the influence of cocaine and methamphetamine for days when he plotted to have his wife abducted. It was also stated that this was allegedly his attempt to "win her back."
5) Schanda Handley's husband pleaded guilty in 2021
In July 2021, Michael Handley pleaded guilty and accepted a deal for two counts of attempted second-degree kidnapping and two counts of second-degree kidnapping. He was given a 35-year jail term for hard labor earlier this year, in March 2022.
Schanda Handley's kidnapping case airs on CBS 48 Hours on Saturday, October 22, 2022.
