two little voices working in his mind. one that was saying you should run. another one saying you should stay. one was terrified. the other one knew what was waiting for me out there was much better. my own freedom. i proceeded to walk to the edge of the house. and i looked at the creek and around the side, and i could see no one. nothing. no movement. and after that i just bolted. reporter: kevin knew, as many 14-year-olds do, that water obliterates footprints, might hide his route of escape. and so, with his heart pounding and his ears straining for the sounds of pursuers, he picked his way down the creek bed and into the jungle. and then he heard it. the bird call. it wasn t just a bird. this was more of like a an alert call that the terrorists used to communicate with another. so i knew that the signal had been put out that i had escaped. what d that do to you? as soon as i heard it, i knew i had to get out as fast as i could. i had to run. i guess it s one of those m
in 1985. brought then 16-year-old gerfa with her, hoping to give her a chance at a better life. she was so excited about the opportunity. i remember she worked at little caesar s pizza and that was the greatest thing, to get a job. reporter: she had a son, josh, went back to community college to improve herself. and there she met a german immigrant named heiko. and from then on that was it. they were a family. she become a lab technician, heiko a maintenance man. they bought a house in a leafy neighborhood of lynchburg, virginia and had kevin. and the immigrants 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 s this normal american kid who likes pizza and hot dogs and burgers, hang out with his friends, play video games, ride on his skateboard. reporter: they lived frugally, saved their money.
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 hear. yes. we try to be very transparent with the families in these cases. we try to prepare them as best as we can. did you prepare heiko for the possibility they would be executed?
suddenly i saw from the left side two men running really fast, like, on the sand with some kind of rifle. my first impression, it was some kind of robbery. i screamed for help. i was terrified. i never screamed that loud in my life. reporter: gerfa rushed back to her hut and grabbed kevin. together they ran toward the beach. but they didn t get far. in an instant they were surrounded by several armed men in military fatigues. kevin was looking at me. he was in front of me. and when suddenly someone kick him from behind. that violence right there they were rough right away. it s like, why did they why did they kick my son? reporter: a motor boat suddenly appeared. the men pushed kevin and gerfa into it. shocked and frightened, gerfa looked up to see her cousin, not quite 22 years old and the father of a newborn, holding on to the boat, trying to prevent it from leaving.
you want to fight it. because you know you re not an animal. reporter: this is gerfa s cousin. the young man who forced the kidnappers to take him so he could protect her and kevin. he takes the shorter place here. i would sleep here, and kevin will take the longest area of the cage because he s taller. we cannot move. we take one spot, and that s it. reporter: they sat in silence, forbidden to speak. they were, bit by bit, starved. fed a little rice and dried fish a single plate per day to share. then one night, about a week after they d been taken hostage, the group s leader told gerfa about the price abu sayyaf had put on her head.