DoubleTake: The kidnapping of Kayla Mueller, Part I

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Additional support comes from The Voice of the Martyrs, serving persecuted Christians for almost 60 years.
VOM founder, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand's story of persecution and torture by communist jailers shocked the Western world. Free copies of his book Tortured for Christ, now available at vom.org. slash Saturday special.

**Les Sillers** (0:25)
From World Radio, this is Doubletake. I'm Les Sillers.
In 2011, a terrorist group that would eventually come to call itself ISIS emerged in Iraq. It soon gained a foothold in Syria, the two countries share a long border. Between October 2012 and October 2013, in Syria, ISIS took four Americans hostage. One was a young woman from Prescott, Arizona named Kayla Mueller. World correspondent Jenny Ruff met Kayla's parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, at their home. They talked about many things. How Kayla's convictions drew her to one of the most dangerous places on earth. Why she felt called to use her hands as tools to relieve the sufferings of others. And how she wound up in a very different set of hands. The brutal hands of terrorists. And not only that, but into the hands of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of ISIS.
So today on Doubletake, the first episode in a three-part series about the kidnapping of Kayla Mueller. It's a story about courage and fear and faith despite hopeless circumstances. It's also about finding yourself in a position where you're forced to negotiate for the highest stakes imaginable, the life of your daughter, with terrorists, with your own government, with yourself, and ultimately, with God.
Here's Jenny.

**Jenny Ruff** (2:05)
Kayla Mueller had been missing since August 4th, 2013, 24 days. Her parents, Marsha and Carl, were frantic.
And then they received this video.

**Patricia Chavez** (2:16)
My name is Kayla Mueller.

**Kayla Mueller** (2:20)
I've been here too long. I've been very sick.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:22)
It's very terrifying here.

**Jenny Ruff** (2:25)
About three weeks after kidnapping Kayla in Syria, her captors sent the video to a highly regarded humanitarian leader in Turkey with a big network. That was Kayla's idea. She wanted to spare her parents. But it soon reached the Muellers anyway.
Kayla appeared in front of a blank white wall, although she had grown up in a Christian home. She wore Islamic attire, a green outer garment, and a black scarf that wrapped over her head, around her neck, and covered her left shoulder. The video was only ten seconds long. Marsha thought Kayla looked exhausted and much too thin. Her lips tense, her eyes sunken. But still, the video flooded the Muellers with hope. Beyond Kayla's physical appearance, Marsha saw something in her daughter she had seen throughout all of Kayla's life.
God's strength. Hallelujah, Marsha wrote in her personal notebook. She's coming home. The Muellers had every reason to believe that was true.
Before she went missing, Kayla had been doing humanitarian work in Turkey. Dangerous work. She first moved there in December of 2012, and took a job with Support to Life, a Turkish NGO or non-governmental organization. Kayla's mom, Marsha.

**Marsha Mueller** (3:38)
And I'll never forget her reaching out to us and saying, I'm thinking of going to Turkey. I'm going to go and see if I can help.

**Jenny Ruff** (3:47)
Turkey shares a long border with the war-torn country, Syria. By the time Kayla moved there, Syria was two years into a civil war. Women and children refugees crossed into Turkey to escape Syria's violence while the men stayed behind to fight. Support to Life set up temporary shelters and aid stations to help the displaced Syrians.
Kayla assisted the refugees.

**Marsha Mueller** (4:10)
So she went to Turkey.
So she really worked with children a lot, helping them. One of the things that she did on the side was started a little thing where these women, they were very talented in sewing and knitting. So they started making things to sell. So she was trying to give people, make them feel worth like they had worth by selling what they could do.

**Jenny Ruff** (4:37)
Carl and Marsha Mueller live in Prescott, Arizona. In addition to Kayla, they have an adult son, Kayla's older brother, Eric. At the time, he lived nearby with his wife and little girl. The Muellers saw them frequently. To stay in touch with their daughter, Carl and Kayla tended to write letters and emails to one another. Marsha and Kayla also wrote constantly. And they used Skype.
In fact, the Skype notifications were so common that if the Muellers' granddaughter was around, Kayla's niece, she would talk to the screen even when nobody was on it.

**Marsha Mueller** (5:11)
She would toddle around and she comes toddling by and she said, Hi, Kayla. Because to her, Kayla was the computer.