situation was looking more and more dangerous for quin gray. here again is josh mankiewicz. it was sunday afternoon, almost two full days since quin was abducted. and after a terrible morning when the money drop at the crab shack restaurant turned so disastrous, a text message, apparently from quin, was sent to her mom s cell phone around 2:00 p.m. mom, please, no cops. i am so sorry about all of this, but they are pissed, and i want to see my girls. the fbi s hostage negotiator was toni kravit. do you think about the kids in a situation like this? absolutely. reid made arrangements for them to stay elsewhere so they would be somewhat shielded by this. we are in the business of preserving life. that s what we do. do you think quin, maybe she s not even alive any more? we don t know. we don t know for sure.
and successful businessman was at the sheriff s office near his expensive home in pontra vedra, florida. a wealthy community 20 miles south of jacksonville. his wife quin was kidnapped just a few hours earlier. the ransom, $50,000. i m not going to be able to work, sleep, eat, breathe until this is resolved. one thing you have to understand is that in the modern-day market place of crime, kidnapping for ransom is practically an antique. here s why. it s not difficult to abduct a family member of a rich person, but things like improved technical surveillance, cooperation between law enforcement agencies, even caller i.d., now make it just about impossible to pick up ransom money and escape undetected. as a result, the kind of kidnapping you see in the movies, pretty much exists only in hollywood. but for reid gray, this was frightening, nerve racking, reality. and no car trouble, no phone calls in the middle of the
in danger. he picked up his girls from school and took them to a friend s house. while he waited at the sheriff s office. reid was still in his shirt and tie from work, and he was an emotional wreck. he shared more details about quin s brief frantic call to him hours earlier. quin said that there is somebody with a gun pointed at her head. on that call, she said there were three kidnappers and they weral bainian. the $50,000 ransom was to pay back money reid had borrowed from a loan shark, but reid gray insists he didn t owe money to anyone. probably make $1.3 million this year. 50 grand doesn t mean much. why ask $50,000 from a man making more than a million dollars a year? reid didn t know, and neither did investigators. at this point, there was only one goal, quin s safe return.
dear reid, i need you to read this and be calm. reid, do not be a hero. this is professional, and there are three men holding me right now and they want $50,000 cash. i will be okay if you get them the money. what do you know about the victim? we knew she was a housewife raising children in one of the prettier parts of our county. reid and quin gray were new to saint john s county. having just moved into their beachfront holm in upon tra vee dra, it s an area known for its world famous golf course and luxe homes. i don t want to use the term perfect kidnapping victim, but it fit. and her husband made a lot of money. her husband made a lot of money. worst case scenario, we make one wrong move they kill her. on the day quin was kidnapped, the 37-year-old pta mom had made appointments for her daughters to have hair cuts and she was far along in the planning for an upcoming party for one of her daughters birthdays. now reid gray tried to shield the 8 and 6-year-olds from the
cover teams spotted at the chick-fil-a? is that what quin meant by fed cars? a few minutes later on reid s phone from quin, i know you want me dead. reid texted back, i don t know if that s quin. i have your $50,000. stop with me, just give me my wife. there was no reply. investigators brought reid back do his house and parked in the driveway. they set up a mini command center in the house using a recorder to tape all incoming calls, and that s when something happened that no one expected. we sent the detectives to that home and we didn t do it surreptitiously because we hadn t thought about t. they walked in the front door? they pulled in in an unmarked vehicle. the minute we pulled in, we received ape text from the victim. reid got another text from the cell phone. wait for instructions. you ve up twice already. you involved other people. whose ford is in the driveway?