philippines were working sources on the ground. word was that gerfa and kevin had been taken to one of abu sayyaf s strongholds basilan, a large island about four hours by boat from where they d been kidnapped. to a base camp deep in what was nearly impenetrable jungle. we travelled to basilan to talk with the politicians there, who may have had some influence over this group. reporter: heiko had the fbi to help. but government money? no. they don t pay ransom. the government doesn t pay ransoms. right. any decisions that are made regarding ransoms are really made by the family. but it was actually to me no choice. i know i want to pay something. just to make sure they re safe. reporter: the week after the kidnapping heiko wired a ransom payment, close to $5,000, to a bank account in the philippines. i was thinking, pay them money and it s over. but they started wanting more
abu sayyaf had taken american hostages before. some were released eventually. but some were beheaded. heiko was frantic, had no idea what to do, where to turn. and then, that very day, the cavalry came riding in. my boss from work called. come on over to work. the fbi is here for you. what was it like to know the fbi is paying attention to this? it s really real now. this is the real thing. we never know how families are going to react, obviously. but almost in every case they re in a state of crisis. reporter: mark thundercloud was the leader of a special fbi hostage negotiating unit, formed precisely for an emergency like this. more than a dozen agents descended on the lunsmann house, covered the windows, set up a surveillance system in heiko s kitchen, and got ready for what they knew was coming, a demand for ransom. he s negotiating really with someone who s selling his family. the fbi told me that my wife and son are merchandise for them. that s kind of hard to hea
that $10 million they demanded from heiko. i felt my whole body just collapsed. i knew if i cannot convince him that i don t have that money, i will never see my family again. so i looked up toward heaven. and there was this one star just blinking. i pointed at the star, this one star up in the sky. and i told them to if they can get that star, my husband can give them $10 million. reporter: gerfa knew heiko would have sent all the money they had, even as the kidnappers squeezed him by putting his terrified son on the phone. dad! just send the money. that s all they want. reporter: heiko didn t realize that the kidnappers were beating kevin as he spoke. gerfa was forced to watch. helpless, full of rage.
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? reporter: heiko was lucky in this. when mr. so made his demands, some of the most experienced fbi hostage negotiators 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 all the questions related to kevin and gerfa that we think are important for heiko to consider. and while we re doing them we re going to write notes down and pass them to heiko. he would read it and hopefully introduce it to the conversation. where s my wife? can i talk to her? if she s okay? where s my son? yeah, no, uh, your son is she with you? can i talk to them? i want to know if they re okay. reporter: mr. so didn t say. meanwhile, fbi agents in the
reporter: daniel girsch was one of the hostage negotiators assigned to guide heiko. and it gets to the point where we don t think that we re making progress. heiko feels like we re not making progress. i just think you just hope. that s all what you have, hope. reporter: but hope was hard to hang on to. the kidnappers kept threatening beheadings. even worse, they put gerfa on the phone and beat her while she talked to heiko. sweetheart, what are you doing over there? i know, honey. i m just so just tell them i don t have a million. please do that. i want this to stop.