An American teenager outsmarted the members of a suspected al Qaeda-linked terror cell, escaping after five months of being held hostage in a jungle in the Philippines. Kevin Lunsmann, 14, was lost for nearly two days, trekking without shoes, before he villagers found him, his father said. Heiko Lunsmann said, "I'm so proud of my son, he's a hero, he wandered two days through the jungle."
When he spoke to his father for the first time the boy proudly told him, "I did it on my own, Dad, they didn't release me, I did it."
Kevin Lunsmann said he convinced his four armed captors that he was going to bathe at a nearby stream, but then decided to flee. He followed a river down a mountain in Basilan province before being discovered with bruises late the next day by villagers.
When an exhausted Lunsmann was found, he initially feared the villagers and fled from them as well. Police Senior Superintendant Edwin de Ocampo said, "He was in fear, so there was a bit of a chase before the villagers convinced him that they were friends."
Last summer, Lunsmann was vacationing in the Philippines with his Filipino-American mother and his cousin. On July 12 they were on an island near Zamboanga City when they were seized and taken by boat to Basilan. The kidnappers then called the family in Virginia to demand a ransom.
Family friend Jean Gowen said Heiko Lunsmann paid a ransom intended for the release of the boy and his mother two months ago, but only the mother was released. She said, "The deal was for them to release both Kevin and Gerfa at the time, but they only released one of them. I think they wanted more money."
The mother was freed when her captors left her at a wharf on Basilan. Lunsmann's cousin also escaped from the kidnappers last month, when Filipino army forces got near the camp where they were held.
The kidnappers are believed to be led by a