Schanda handley discusses her 2017 kidnapping on a new episode “48 Hours.”
Louisiana mom was home with her child when the delivery man knocked on her door. Two men grabbed her and forced her to get into a van. Handley’s daughter, Isabella, says she was stunned.
“I said, ‘I have valuables, I have jewelry, I have cash, I have precious metal. I can get you money.’ Didn’t interest them at all,’”Handley in promo for new episode.
Handley’s nightmare grew worse when she was dragged into the van with no windows.
“My heart sunk. I was like, we’re on an interstate or something,”Handley stated. She said that the kidnappers took her clothes and put pills into her mouth.
As Handley’s worst fears were playing out, an Iberville Parish sheriff’s deputy Chad Martin was heading home from work and noticed the driver of the van acting suspicious. “He’s following this vehicle. He sees them dart out in front of him and go in the median,”Inside Edition hears from David Begnaud (CBS News Lead Correspondent).
“It didn’t sit right with me, so I got in behind ‘em and put my emergency lights and sirens on,” Martin says.
The driver of the van tried to flee, but became stuck on a muddy road outside Lafayette.
“I opened the rear van, and in the van, what I thought was a mannequin moved. I said, ‘Oh my God, things aren’t always what they seem,’” Martin says.
Authorities later discovered that Schanda’s estranged husband, millionaire Michael Handley, was behind it all.
“As soon as Schanda Handley was found, people started getting texts and videos of Michael. It looked like he was bound, gagged, bleeding. Had he been kidnapped by the bad guys, too? It was all part of his ruse,” Begnaud said.
Schanda Handley later found surveillance video of Michael, which was basically a plan for the whole thing, according to prosecutors.
Michael Handley pleaded guilty for second-degree kidnapping. He was sentenced at 35 years hard labor.
“The Kidnapping of Schanda Handley”This Saturday airs on CBS.