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I wanted to know what i can call you. i don t want to call you kidnapper, terrorist. 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. ....
And we just hugged each other. and it was just incredible. reporter: 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. your mind gets clear again. so you don t have to be worried. and i will have my family back. it just is a great feeling. it s a great feeling. reporter: on december 14th, 2011, six months after they were taken hostage, gerfa and kevin finally came home, returned to lynchburg to heiko and to gerfa s niece, sherry. it was awesome. the first thing we did was put up christmas decorations. christmas decorations. kevin and gerfa were so happy. i didn t know what to expect because of what they d been through. but they were just so grateful ....
And now she s got to talk to these people. right. someone needs to be there with her. reporter: heiko decided he should stay in lynchburg, 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, then another, they tried to help gerfa deal with mr. so. december 6th was the last day that we talked with mr. so. basically, he was saying, look, what you re offering is not enough. this might be the last communication that we ever have. we still expected calls. but on the 7th, nothing. on the 8th, nothing. on the 9th, nothing. reporter: oh, they would hear what happened to kevin. soon enough. a shock in waiting. coming up and it can feel like no matter what you do, ....
That we were worried about in lynchburg, virginia from very heavy rains. take a look at the radar map and move this map forward. my clicker is not working so our audio person in the back maryland is forwarding this for me. that wa marilyn s move. southeast today good. socked into a lot of rain. we at least have a couple of dry days here. rain come in tuesday to wednesday. move this forward here marilyn, hit one more button. big storms moving across the northeast. also bringing some flooding. flash flood warnings going on across parts of new jersey. this is a really big storm and move this forward one more time marilyn. that s marilyn, she is amazing. this is the line of storms moving across the plains. big storms across minnesota this morning. you see this line right here that s going to continue to pull towards the east no. rain out across parts of california, unfortunately where all that dry condition is going on. griff: looks like down there in southern virginia is not going to be a ....
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 ....