obviously, heiko s very excited. i could see and hear just joy. joy. reporter: heiko could scarcely believe it. as the news flashed across the philippines and to lynchburg, virginia. his wife, gerfa, was alive. and free. and safe. so, inexpressible joy. and then gerfa called him. and heiko realized the nightmare was just beginning. she called me really, really sad and crying. so my first question to her was where s kevin? reporter: he could hear the terror in her voice. abu sayyaf still had kevin and her cousin. they could kill them at any time they wanted. and i felt her dark place, just being a mother myself. and it was awful. reporter: and before long her terror deepened. when she learned her cousin got out, too. which meant that there in that
just give me a name. reporter: mr. so was calm, business-like, like he d done it 100 times before. in fact, he was the voice for a violent separatist group known for executing prisoners, beheadings usually. we would like to tell you that we need 10 million u.s. dollars for the release of your family. can you hear me? and i just was thinking, are you losing your mind? who do you think you ve got? just couldn t believe it. $10 million. from me. reporter: why would they think heiko had 10 million? perhaps they d watched the internet. in lynchburg the kidnapping was big news. tv crews set up shop across the street and captured heiko driving his used mercedes coupe. there you were in your fancy car. yes. you must be worth millions. that was a wrong, wrong impression.
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. i know, i told them that you don t have anything but they just like asking. how are you doing, gerfa? stop that! i am getting worried, i m getting so worried. reporter: a few seconds later the line went dead. oh my god! [ bleep ], i m smoking, i got have a [ bleep ] cigarette, or i m gonna [ bleep ] heiko, heiko you need to be ready.
reporter: mr. so didn t say. meanwhile, fbi agents in the 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.
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.