Normal man reportedly kidnapped dies

Posted on December 27, 2016
Crime Scene
Autopsy results on Maunds Bryant, 41, are expected today. (Flickr/Alan Cleaver)

By Greg Halbleib

PEORIA – A man who was reportedly kidnapped from a home in Normal during the weekend has died.

A release from Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood said Maunds Bryant, 41, died Sunday evening at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. Police said Bryant and his stepfather were taken at gunpoint from their home in the 100 block of West Raab Road Thursday night to a Peoria residence. The men were taken in a car belonging to a woman who lives at the Normal home. She was not injured but did not call authorities. The stepfather escaped and called police, who found Bryant unresponsive in the Peoria home Friday morning.

The coroner said Bryant appeared to have suffered a head injury during the abduction. Autopsy results are expected today.

Police say Danny Smith Jr., 28, of Peoria was arrested Friday as he tried to flee the scene. Smith is charged with aggravated kidnapping and is in the Peoria County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bond.

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