Kidnapping Victim Tells Her Story

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A local convenience store manager who was robbed at gunpoint and then abducted briefly during the early hours of Sunday morning, July 24, is determined not to let that traumatic experience control her life.

Mesquite resident Brandy Parry, who works at the Terrible Herbst on Mesquite Blvd and Riverside Road, agreed to speak with The Progress last week to tell the story of that terrifying night and its aftermath.

Meet the Parrys
Brandy and her husband Tim Parry moved to Mesquite a little more than three years ago from Layton, Utah. According to Brandy, the couple moved here to find some peace after a tragic event occurred in their family.

In January of 2019, their 19-year-old son committed suicide in a city park only a quarter-mile from their home. The couple were so distressed over this incident that they decided that they would have to move to a new town – somewhere that the reminders of their son and his death were not all around them.

“We don’t even feel comfortable in the state of Utah anymore because it just brings back all of these memories,” Brandy said. “We finally chose Mesquite because it is a place where we could start over fresh and get away from things. We thought it would be a good place for us to heal.”

Brandy said that, after a period of time, the move seemed help. She got a job working for Family Dollar in Mesquite. And later transitioned to a different job in a management position at the Terrible Herbst store.

Early contact
On that Saturday night, Brandy was working the graveyard shift alone at the store. Her shift started at 10 pm. When she came in she noticed a customer who was playing the gaming machines in the corner of the store. He seemed to be rather agitated as he played, she said.

“It happens a lot here that a people gamble away their rent money or their house payments or utility bills and then they try to make it back,” Brandy said. “So I thought maybe that was what he was trying to do.”

Eventually the man finished playing and left the store. Only much later, after the whole incident had unfolded, did Brandy recall that this was the same man who would hold her up at gun point and abduct that evening.

Brandy later identified him as Kyle Dynes, one of five suspects apprehended by Mesquite Police Department the following day after an extensive investigation.
In any case, after the man had left the store, Brandy continued her normal duties.

The robbery
At about midnight, Brandy had just done a routine check of equipment in the back room of the store. As she came back out front she saw a man at the Krispy Kreme donut display. She recalls he was eating a donut.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but give me all your f—ing money!’” Brandy recalled. “He told me that he had a gun. I didn’t need to see it because I could tell he was serious about that. He kept telling me he was sorry. But he told me to give him the money in the till.”

As Brandy went to open the cash drawers, the man put a bag down on the counter and next to it he set down a revolver-style handgun.
“I just remember thinking, ‘Ok, I just need to do what this guy says. I just need to keep myself safe!’” Brandy said.

Fortunately, Brandy had just cleared all of the larger bills out of the cash drawers and put them in the store safe. There was only about $50 in each of the two cash drawers.
“He was complaining that all I had were these fives and ones,” Brandy said of the perpetrator.

The man cast a glance at the safe. But Brandy thought ahead. She told him that all of the money in the safe gets picked up daily. He accepted that answer and moved on.
“I lied my way out of him getting money from the safe because all I wanted him to do was leave,” Brandy said.

The abduction
Eventually the man instructed Brandy to come with him outside of the store.
“I thought he was just going to take me enough away from the doors that I couldn’t lock them and call the cops,” Brandy said. “But that is when he made me cross the street with him to the Oasis parking lot.”
The man’s car was parked in a dark shadowed area of the lot. “I feared that he was going to kill me out there,” Brandy said. “But he made me get into his car and we drove away.”

The man told her that he was going to drive her about 50 miles away and drop her off. But that worried Brandy even more.
“I have watched enough True Crime videos and shows to know that if they drive you that far, they are planning to kill you,” she said.

Brandy said that she sat very close to the passenger side door. Her plan was to jump out of the car and try to run as he started going up the onramp of Interstate 15.

The man made a right turn out of the parking lot and headed toward the onramp.
“I was trying to talk to him,” Brandy said. “I was trying to humanize myself to him. He kept talking about his own little girl and how he didn’t want to hurt me. I told him that I had kids and grandkids and asked him please not to hurt me. I think that humanized me more for him and encouraged him not to do anything to me at that point.”

The man suddenly began asking Brandy about security cameras at the store. “I lied to him and said that they were all broken and they didn’t work,” Brandy said. “I must have sounded convincing, though, because I begged him to let me out before he got on the freeway. And he did. He made me promise that I wouldn’t flag anyone down.”

Reporting to the police
As soon as the car was out of sight, Brandy called 911 from her cell phone and began running across the street toward the Casablanca.
“At that point it was all adrenaline,” she said. “My fight or flight kicked in and I was like, I’m going to fight!”

As she spoke to the 911 dispatcher, Brandy ran to the entrance of the Casablanca and waited just inside the doors of the casino. She was terrified that the man would turn around and come after her again. She was panicked.
“I just kept thinking to myself, ‘You’ve got to stay strong, You’ve got to keep your wits about you.’,” she said.

A few minutes later, officers from the Mesquite Police Department arrived and made contact with her. They took her back to the Terrible Herbst store to take her full statement.
While all of this was happening, there had been one other customer in the store that the suspect had not known about. It was actually a friend of Brandy’s from when she had worked at the Family Dollar. She was tucked away in a corner playing on one of the gaming machines at the store.

Without really listening, she had heard sounds of a conversation at the front counter and then heard the door bell sound signifying, she thought, that the customer had left the store. A few minutes later she emerged from the games to find no one in the store; not even Brandy. She immediately knew something was wrong and called 911.

By the time the police and Brandy arrived back at the store, another police car was already there responding to the friend’s call.
Brandy said that she related everything to the officers who took her detailed report. But by this time, shock from the trauma was already setting in. Brandy was starting to not feel well.

Eventually the city’s victims advocate was called to the scene, an EMS unit was dispatched and Brandy was taken to the emergency room at Mesa View Regional Hospital. That was more than 90 minutes after the event had taken place.

Investigation and arrests
The incident tipped off a remarkable investigation by the MPD. Throughout the day on Sunday, officers worked gathering any available video evidence that would identify the suspect of the crime.
Officers eventually observed video surveillance that showed the vehicle that was used in the robbery as it returned to a Virgin River Casino hotel room after the robbery.

Officers responded to the hotel room and observed the robbery suspect and a female exit the hotel room and approach the vehicle used in the robbery. Officers contacted the suspects who attempted to flee on foot. But they were quickly and safely detained. Three other occupants of the hotel room were also detained.

Detectives obtained and executed a search warrant for the hotel room. They recovered the revolver and the key and registration for another stolen vehicle which was also found at the scene.

Kyle Lewis Dynes, 34, of Uhrichsville, OH, was arrested and charged with felony robbery with use of a deadly weapon, felony first-degree kidnapping, and misdemeanor obstructing an officer.

David Eugene Jordan, Jr., 32, of Mesquite, NV, was arrested and charged with felony conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon, felony grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and felony possession of a stolen vehicle.

Cody Jones, 35, of New Phila, OH, was arrested and charged with felony possession of a stolen vehicle.
Nicole Dessecker, 33, of New Phila, OH, was arrested and charged with gross misdemeanor conspiracy to possess a stolen vehicle.

Tabbetha Perez, 36, of Canton, OH, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

Aftermath and moving on
The following few days were traumatic ones for Brandy. Before learning that her kidnapper had been apprehended she was in a constant state of terror. For the next day or two she couldn’t even leave her apartment.

“All I kept thinking was that he was going to find me,” Brandy said. “He is going to regret letting me go and he is going to kill me. I tried to go to a mental health appointment to get some help with it, but I had a severe panic attack and I couldn’t go.”

Finally, her husband, Tim, and their son drove her to Las Vegas where Tim’s brother lives. They stayed there for a couple of days where she felt safe. Later she got word that the suspects had been arrested and she returned home.

She is now trying to put all the pieces back together again. She said that her mental health provider has diagnosed her with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But she is determined to get through it and find healing on the other side.

“I have decided that I need to take my life back,” she said. “I don’t want to be a victim, I want to be a survivor! I don’t want this experience to leave me homebound where I can’t go outside and see my grandkids play, and where I am afraid to return to work.”

Terrible’s has been very generous to her. Her employer has told her to take all the time she needs before coming back. But Brandy has set a goal to be back to her same job within a month.
“I want these people to know that they can’t hurt me and they can’t keep me down,” Brandy added. “I may have been frightened and I may struggle with PTSD for a while. But I am getting help. I am going to get stronger. And they are not going to take that away from me living my life!”