A brother and sister from Mississippi have been sentenced to federal prison for attempting to have their stepfather murdered as part of a plot driven by financial gain, according to U.S. authorities.
Joshua D. Bryan, 29, and his sister Regan E. Bryan, 30, tried to hire a hitman to kill their stepfather in hopes of collecting on life insurance benefits, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi announced on November 26.
Court documents indicate that the siblings were set to inherit around $6 million from a family trust established following the death of a relative, whose name has been kept private.
In December 2020, a confidential informant met with Regan at her home in Pearl, Mississippi, during which she claimed her stepfather had harmed her in the past and expressed a desire to have him killed. The informant offered to carry out the murder, and Regan responded that she would “take care of him for the rest of his life” if he went through with it.
The following day, the informant alerted the stepfather about the siblings’ dangerous plan. Over the next few months, meetings continued between the informant and both Regan and Joshua, who were heard discussing the murder plot and ways to avoid getting caught.
The siblings were arrested early in 2021. Regan eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for hire and received a sentence of 65 months in prison. Joshua, on the other hand, was sentenced to 120 months after being convicted of both conspiracy to commit murder for hire and murder for hire following a trial that concluded on December 15, 2023.
