CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Three Americans facing life in prison for a failed 2018 attempt to kidnap five children from the Shenandoah Valley’s Old Order Mennonite community could soon be on their way back to the United States.

On July 1, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), released a judgement that would allow the U.S. to extradite Valerie Perfect Hayes, Gary Blake Reburn and Jennifer Amnott.

The deadline to appeal that ruling to the court’s Grand Chamber came and went on Monday. The ECHR confirmed that, “there has been no referral request in this case,” which means the July judgment is final, and the extradition process can now begin.

Hayes is the alleged ringleader of a four-person attempt to kidnap five children from the quiet, rural community. According to court documents, Hayes had convinced her boyfriend, Gary Reburn and her friends, Frank and Jennifer Amnott, that three of her children had been taken from her and were in the custody of two Old Order Mennonite families. She asked them to help her kidnap her children and two others, telling the Amnotts, who were desperate to have a child of their own, that they could keep one of the others.

The alleged plan, according to the court documents, was to break into the families’ homes, restrain the parents and remove the children, after which Frank Amnott and Reburn would execute the parents. It was to take place while Jennifer Amnott stayed at Hayes’ Maryland home to watch Hayes’ biological children. Prosecutors say the children she sought, all of whom where younger than eight years old, were of no relation.

The couple at the first home had two children, ages eight months and two years. The original plan was to restrain the father when he went to milk the cows in the morning, but the man they thought would be the father turned out to be a dairy hand, forcing them to change course. After the family had gone to church, Hayes, Reburn and Amnott broke into the home to look at the layout. While there, Hayes stole a cape dress and a covering, the clothing worn by Old Order Mennonite women, to help ensure entry that night.

When the couple was getting ready for bed, Hayes knocked on the door. Assuming that she was a member of one of the Old Order congregations, he opened it but then saw Amnott and Reyburn. He attempted to shut the door and keep them out, but the three were able to force their way inside. Amnott and Reyburn then took the father to the basement. The mother, however, had been able to grab a cordless phone and run to a nearby cornfield, where she called 911.

When a Rockingham County deputy sheriff arrived, the mother left the cornfield to meet him. By that time, Hayes had left the house. She, too, went to meet the deputy and told him that she was a neighbor and had seen an armed man run inside as she was passing by. Reburn then came to the front of the house. The mother believed Hayes and Reburn were among the three who had broken into her home but said nothing out of fear for her safety. The deputy then directed Reburn and Hayes to drive the mother to a safe location, after which the deputy entered the home and found the couple’s children safe upstairs. When he went to the basement, the deputy found the father held at gunpoint by Amnott, with the father on the floor and his wrists held together behind his back. Amnott was taken into custody without incident.

After dropping off the mother at a nearby country convenience store, Reburn and Hayes left for Hayes’ Maryland home, where they joined Jennifer Amnott. The three then fled to Scotland. They were found four months later with assistance from Frank Amnott, who had pled guilty. He has yet to be sentenced.

The U.S. Attorney’s office immediately requested extradition. Hayes, Reburn and Jennifer Amnott’s appeal slowly crept through Scotland’s judicial system. In 2022, the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland denied the appeal after determining there is no bar to their extradition back to the United States to stand trial. The three then requested their case be heard by the European Court of Human Rights, where the July 1 judgment was finalized following no request for referral.

When contacted regarding the July 1 judgement, Brian McGinn, the public affairs officer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia, confirmed that the extradition process would begin as soon as the judgment was finalized. When contacted on Monday regarding the possible timeline, McGinn could not be reached as he has been placed on furlough.