Kidnapped 14-year-old Filipino-American is free
A 14-year-old Filipino-American boy abducted in July by suspected Islamic militants in the Philippines is free, officials said.
Kevin Lunsmann was reunited with his mother, the U.S. Embassy in Manila said Monday, without offering additional details.
“It was a tough time. It was a tough five months,” Kevin’s father, Heiko, told CNN affiliate WSET, from the family home in Lynchburg, Virginia. “I’m just so happy.”
Heiko Lunsmann said the boy had plotted his escape for a while and eventually seized the opportunity some time late last week while his guards slept.
He “was spotted alone” Saturday about six miles southwest of Lamitan City on the island of Basilan, a stronghold of the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, the official Philippines News Agency said.
Army officials turned him over to American forces in the southern Mindanao region, the Philippine government said in a statement to CNN affiliate TV 5.
The Philippine Inquirer quoted the Lamitan city mayor, Roderick Furigay, as saying Kevin walked for two days, surviving on candies his captors presumably gave him and on coconuts that he retrieved by climbing trees.
“In this holiday season nothing makes me happier than knowing that an innocent victim is returned to his family in time for holiday celebrations,” Harry Thomas, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, said in a weekend statement.
“If ever we are to be inspired by the human spirit, we should take comfort in the courage, commitment and love that the Lunsmann family exhibited during this trying ordeal,” Thomas added.