LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The FBI's Louisville Field Office is asking for help finding a fugitive wanted after they say he removed his ankle monitoring device in Kentucky.
The FBI said in a news release Saturday that a federal arrest warrant had been issued for Bryan D. Conley. Officials say he removed the monitoring device on Interstate 65 near Smiths Grove, Kentucky, on June 21, the same day he was set to appear in U.S. District Court.
Conley was on supervised release while awaiting trial on interstate threatening communications charges stemming from his January 2019 arrest for attempting to ransom the parents of a kidnapped woman, a case that stemmed from Tennessee to Kentucky.
According to a criminal complaint filed in District Court, police in Brentwood, Tennessee, received a report from a woman who said her daughter had been kidnapped by Conley, who had been using the woman's phone to text her parents, demanding $20,000 ransom for her release.
Officials say Conley threatened to sell, rape, and kill the woman if her parents didn't comply with his demands.
Conley then ordered the woman's mother to drive to Toledo, Ohio, and wait for another phone call from him. The ransom was negotiated down to $400 and some jewelry, which the woman's father was to take to Toledo.
The kidnapped woman's bank account was later accessed by an "unidentified user," who was unable to answer security questions linked to her account. It was then accessed again, successfully, through her phone.
This allowed Special Agents with the FBI and police to obtain more information about Conley. They were able to find the number of the phone that made the first attempt to access the bank account, which was registered to Conley's wife in Tennessee.
Officials were then able to find out that Conley's wife had a 2014 Ford Taurus registered in her name, and that the two phone numbers, Conley's wife's and the kidnapped woman's, were in the vicinity of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Ransom payment was delivered to Conley at a gas station in Oak Grove, Kentucky, where officials with the FBI's Louisville division were able to watch him receive the payment and get into a Ford Taurus before leaving.
Agents followed Conley to another gas station in Leithchfield, Kentucky, where he was arrested by FBI Special Agents and taken into custody by U.S. Marshals. After his arrest, the kidnapped woman was also found inside the Ford Taurus Conley was traveling in.
It is unclear when he was put on supervised release to await trial.
Conley is believed to be driving a 2008 Gray Ford Fusion with Texas plate FSF-2018. The FBI says he has ties to Tennessee, Texas and Ohio.
Anyone with information on Conley's location is asked to call the FBI's Louisville office at 502-263-6000.
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