It was a complex and deadly plot, and those responsible threatened more harm until they got what they wanted: Revenge.
After kidnapping a man Saturday morning from his North Carolina home, the group of five allegedly brought their hostage across state lines to Atlanta. And for five days, that man was at the mercy of his alleged abductors, who threatened to dismember him.
Fortunately for Frank Arthur Janssen, things didn’t go as planned for his captors. The five left a trail of clues, including cellphone calls and text messages, leading the FBI to the apartment where Janssen was being held late Wednesday.
“According to public federal documentation Janssen was targeted by a group as part of an elaborate kidnapping plot,” FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in a statement Thursday. “Specific demands were sent to Janssen’s family for the benefit of Kelvin Melton, an inmate at the Polk Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina.”
On Thursday, the FBI released details of the complicated plot, which led to the arrests of all five suspects on federal charges. Authorities believe it all was an act of revenge for the five’s friend, Melton, a “Bloods” gang member serving a life sentence. The group’s first target, Janssen, is the father of the assistant district attorney in Wake County, N.C., who prosecuted Milton.
Late Monday, Janssen’s wife began receiving text messages from a cellphone in Georgia, according to documents filed in federal court and obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
One of the texts said if law enforcement was contacted: “we will send (Mr. Janssen) back to you in 6 boxes and every chance we get we will take someone in your family to Italy and torture them and kill them … we will do drive by and gun down anybody.”
Shortly after midnight Tuesday, a text message was sent to Christie Janssen from a different phone from a residence in Atlanta, along with a picture of Frank Janssen tied up in a chair.
“Tomorrow we call you again an again if you can not tell me where my things are at tomorrow i will start torchering (Janssen),” the message stated.
Janssen “spent five nights in the hands of a group of very dangerous people,” said John Strong, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Charlotte, N.C., office. “We can only imagine the uncertainty, confusion and fear he experienced.”
Under arrest are Jenna Paulin Martin, 21; Tiana Maynard, also known as Tiana Brooks, 30; Jevante Price, 20; Michael Montreal Gooden, 21; and Clifton James Roberts, 29. All five are believed to have ties to the Atlanta area and some have prior criminal records.
Now all five suspects are federal inmates. They appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn Brill on Thursday afternoon, dressed mostly in baggy T-shirts and pants, sitting quietly and saying nothing, yet acknowledging they understood the allegations against them.
Specific details about the five suspects and Frank Janssen were not released. But the FBI confirmed its Hostage Rescue Team, along with nearly 20 law enforcement agencies in two states, collaborated to rescue Janssen.
Federal documents describe how various cellphone calls and messages helped track the suspects, who also had contact with the imprisoned Melton in recent days. When prison deputies attempted to locate Melton’s phone, he temporarily barred the door and destroyed the phone, according to the criminal complaints against the suspects.
The extent of Janssen’s physical injuries was not released, but the FBI said he was with his family.
“Both Janssen and his family have remained strong and focused throughout this ordeal,” Lynch said. “They ask for privacy at this time.”
A detention hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Atlanta, where all five will stay temporarily before returning to North Carolina to answer the charges, Brill said.
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