they were a family! she became a lab technician, heiko a maintenance man. they bought a house in the leafy neighborhood of lynchburg, virginia and had kevin. and the immigrant son became an all american kid. he was 14 that summer of 2011. smart, studious, and looking forward to the start of high school in the fall. he is this normal american kit, likes pizza, hotdogs, burgers, hang out with his friends, play video games, right on his state board. they lived frugally, saved their money. which is how eventually heiko could afford his used mercedes sportscar, and gerfa and kevin that vacation ship to the philippines. life was good. but now, it was very bad indeed. when i first heard they were kidnapped, the first thing that came to my mind was, my gosh, it s abu sayyaf! abu sayyaf a small but extremely violent militant
right there looking around. it s like, i m right here. [laughs] but he just looked and i was like, you don t recognize me. [laughs] i said okay, it must be the look. and i stopped crying. right? and i see this woman, and i can see tears. as i got closer and closer, i realized i knew who that was. we just ran up to each other and we just hugged each other. and it was just incredible. back in lynchburg, kevin s dad, heiko, was delivering christmas turkeys to a hospital when somebody found him and gave him the news. i was so happy. [laughs] your mind gets clear again. but you don t have to be worried. and i will have my family back. it s just a great feeling. it s a great feeling. on december 14th, 2011, six months after they were taken hostage, gerfa and kevin, finally came home. returning to lynchburg, to
they didn t kill her. instead, they dropped her off on a footbridge nary village and told her, they would be in touch, soon. the started to disappear in the dark ocean. and i knew right than, that my connection to kevin was gone. it was worse than being in prison. there was no freedom for me. she got in touch with the philippine military. was evacuated to manila, the philippines capital. back in lynchburg, lead fbi negotiator mark thundercloud thought he knew why the kidnappers released gerfa. their intent was to let her go to help raise more money. and now she is out, now she has got to talk to these people. someone needs to be there with her. heiko decided he should stay in lynchburg to, try to find the money. and mark thundercloud moved his operations from the family s kitchen to a hotel room in manila. and there as one month passed, and then another, they tried to help gerfa deal with mr. so. december 6th was the last day with that we talk with mr. so. basically he was sa
dollars for the u.s. release of your family. can you hear me? and i was just was thinking, are you losing your mind? who do you think you ve got? just couldn t believe. it 10 million. from the? why would they think heiko had 10 million? perhaps they d watch the internet. in lynchburg, the kidnapping was big news. tv crew set up shop across the street and captured heiko driving his use mercedes coop. there you are in your fancy car. yes. you must be worth millions. that was the wrong, wrong impression. i m not a rich person, but i will give whatever i can get together. okay? we need 10 million u.s. dollars for the release of your family. okay? heiko was lucky in this. when mr. so made his demands, some of the most experienced hostage negotiations in the country were right there listening in. ready to point out the right way for heiko to respond. literally. these are for general visual prompts that we want heiko to think about. we have other questions related
when suddenly a mother, her teenage son, and a cousin were all kidnapped by a group of men with guns wanting money and lots of it. but the worldwide hostage drama be resolved before it was all too late? here with heart of darkness is keith morrison. they lay in wait, unseen underneath the green canopy, armed to the teeth, immersed and there to find extremist beliefs, hunting, stalking, deadly in this particular heart of darkness. it was the summer of 2011, a jungle clad island in the southern tip of the philippines, where they prepared the place. the news of the terrible committed here, flashed halfway around the world and came crashing down out of nowhere on a modest working class family. in lynchburg, virginia. i got a phone call for my mother. the first thing she said was