The kidnapping of Kayla Mueller, Part II

LES SILLARS: From WORLD Radio, this is Doubletake. I’m Les Sillars.

This is Episode 2 in a three-part series: The kidnapping of Kayla Mueller. She was a young American woman kidnapped by ISIS in 2013. At the end of the first episode Kayla’s parents, Marsha and Carl Mueller, had received an email from the ISIS Beatles.

MARSHA MUELLER: Well, it just said—

CARL MUELLER: We got ‘em all.

MARSHA: We have them all. We have your daughter.

The ISIS Beatles were a group of British citizens who became terrorists in Syria under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Their email to the Muellers arrived about ten months after ISIS kidnapped their daughter, Kayla, a humanitarian worker. From an early age, Kayla seemed to know her mission and purpose — to go into the world and serve others. A dream Marsha supported.

MARSHA: I encouraged Kayla to go into the world.

Discouraging her seemed futile. But after August 4th, 2013, Kayla was no longer going out into the world. She had become a hostage. With the help of another hostage, Kayla managed to slip out a letter to her parents. She signed the letter, All my everything. The Muellers’ interpreted that to mean Kayla was enduring all she could so she could come home. Likewise, the Muellers were doing all they could to secure her release.

WORLD correspondent Jenny Rough met Marsha and Carl at their home in Prescott, Arizona. In Kayla’s bedroom at the back of their home, Carl and Marsha pulled out a manilla envelope.

MARSHA: Oh, the ISIS emails, where are they? … So this must be all them.

Marsha flipped through a stack of printed emails she and Carl exchanged with the ISIS Beatles. It’s a record of a negotiation–for the life of their daughter.

The first one, dated mid-May of 2014, invited Carl and Marsha to ask three questions to confirm Kayla’s identity and prove that she was still alive. The Muellers sent the questions and waited for a reply.

Here’s Jenny:

KAYLA: Mom and Dad. I am still remaining healthy. You should have already received the three answers to the proof of life questions I provided.

JENNY ROUGH: It’s 2:42 Mountain Standard Time in Prescott, Arizona. A Thursday afternoon at the end of May, 2014.

Marsha and Carl Mueller fell silent as they listened to their daughter’s voice. The ISIS Beatles … terrorists who had captured Kayla in Syria … had attached the recording to an email. The email also included the written answers to three proof of life questions.

Marsha and Carl were certain it was Kayla on the recording. It was good to hear her voice after so long.

The written answers to the proof of life questions were correct. The stitches on Kayla’s eyebrow came from her childhood when she was playing with her brother and fell out of a wagon. She liked to say music is everywhere. And her friend Moe’s real name? Monica.

The attached recording was bare bones but important. It laid out the ransom demands.

KAYLA: Those detaining me are demanding an exchange of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s release for my release.

Here’s Kayla’s dad, Carl:

CARL: They wanted us to free Aafia Siddiqui. I don’t know if you know that story or not.

Aafia Siddiqui, a Muslim from Pakistan, came to the United States in 1990 when she was 18. She earned a bachelor's degree, then a Ph.D. 

MARSHA: She was actually a neuroscientist.

In 2002, shortly after 9/11, Siddiqui returned to Pakistan … and disappeared for five years. The FBI had issued an alert for her, believing she was linked to a global terrorist network. In the summer of 2008, Siddiqui turned up outside a compound in Ghazni and was arrested for suspicious behavior.

MARSHA: And our government picked her up in Afghanistan.

During FBI questioning, according to the U.S. government, Siddiqui seized an Army officer’s M-4 rifle, shouted “death to all Americans” in Arabic, and fired at U.S. officials.

She was brought to the United States, tried for attempted murder, and sentenced to 86 years in prison. So ISIS’s first demand to the Muellers: a prisoner exchange. Kayla for Siddiqui. But Kayla’s recording set out a second option.

KAYLA: If this is not achievable, they are demanding 5 Million euros to ensure my release. Contact details of those families released prior to me will be provided to you to help you find ways to raise money. Goodbye.

Five million euros was about the equivalent of six point two million U.S. dollars. The Muellers were hard working and frugal. They had always saved up for a rainy day. But that amount was simply too much. To raise the funds, they would have to go to the media, something the Beatles specifically told them not to do. Still, that’s not what bothered Marsha the most. It was the last word. Goodbye?! Kayla would never say it — not that way. The Muellers knew they had to send a response soon. But they weren’t sure what to write or how to address the impossible ransom demand.

MARSHA: That’s how Zorka … came into the picture.

Zorka Martinovich was a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s crisis negotiation unit. She took on Kayla’s case. Zorka had first met the Muellers just two weeks before the recording, in May of 2014. That’s when Marsha and Carl traveled to Washington, D.C. They came to meet the families of other Americans the Beatles held hostage in Syria: Steven Sotloff, James Foley, and Peter Kassig. During that trip, the families attended a meeting at FBI headquarters. Here’s Zorka:

ZORKA MARTINOVICH: After that meeting, I inherited Kayla’s case. … And there were already things in the works, there were already things that in my mind, you know, did not happen that should have happened.

By that time, Kayla had been in the captivity of the ISIS Beatles for ten months.

Zorka says a hostage will come out one of three ways.

MARTINOVICH: They’re going to escape. They’re going to be rescued if we can figure out where they’re at. … The vast majority are going to be negotiated out.

All three options left the Muellers discouraged.

First, escape. Kayla had had the chance to try to escape once before. Five months after her capture, around Thanksgiving of 2013. Rod returned to Syria to try to rescue her.

Kayla initially met Rod Safar Jalany couch surfing in Egypt. They became friends and eventually both decided to go to the Turkish-Syrian border. He documented the revolution and Kayla helped Syrian refugees. ISIS abducted them togther in Syria, but Rod had been released after a month of torture. At the risk of being held again, he decided to go back to where Kayla was a hostage and try to get her. Here’s Rod:

ROD SAFAR JALANY: It was like, you know, too heavy a burden. I can’t leave her there. I can’t not do anything. At least I need to try.

Rod searched for any source who knew about Kayla’s whereabouts. He researched ISIS prisons, sought out information on women who were kidnapped. Asked around and asked around.

SAFAR JALANY: I found a guy in Idlib who knows somebody in ISIS who introduced me to a judge.

So Rod made a plan: Go to Idlib and present a written statement to an ISIS judge that said Kayla was his wife. Rod says that under Sharia law, someone else cannot hold another Muslim’s wife. The wife belongs to the husband. Rod even went so far as to try to get a fake marriage certificate with an official stamp, but that proved to be too difficult. Still, he called some friends in Beirut.

SAFAR JALANY: To make them like, you know, a fake witness if they received a call that we were in Beirut and we got married here and blah, blah, blah.

Marsha remembers talking to Rod over Skype about his idea.

MARSHA: He was nervous, he was smoking, … He was just really worked up. So he was scared to go in, but he was positive he was going to bring her home. He really was absolutely positive he was going to bring her out.

The Muellers agreed to the plan.

MARSHA: And at that point, any way he could get her out, I was fine with.

So Rod went to Idlib. A group of masked men met him and blindfolded him.

SAFAR JALANY: And they said, … “The judge will come and see you in two days.” They put me in a basement, a dark basement, I have no idea where. And then they moved me to another basement in another city.

At the new prison, he heard other hostages behind closed doors talking in many different languages. The next day, one of the ISIS Beatles met with Rod.

SAFAR JALANY: A person came, and he was speaking British English. He asked about my identity. … He took me to the first floor, the ground floor, because I was in the basement. … I was blindfolded, so I asked, Can I take this off? Somebody said yes, so I took it off.

The judge stood in front of Rod. And he didn’t look like any judge Rod had seen before.

SAFAR JALANY: He was masked with a long beard. Very well armed. And around him there were three or four bodyguards. So he starts asking me about where I am, from where I came.

Was he Muslim or not Muslim? Sunni or not Sunni? And who is this girl you are coming about?

SAFAR JALANY: So I told him, she is my wife. And we were in this detention center … and they tortured us to force me to say we are spies. I came here to prove she is not a spy. She is my wife. You can contact my family. You can contact my friends. Everybody knows we are married. I have no papers now because I left them in Damascus. So I made up a story for the papers. He said, I asked her but she said she didn’t know you. I said, Yes, maybe because you tortured her, maybe because she is scared, maybe she is afraid, or whatever.

The judge asked Rod if he wanted to hear it directly from Kayla. They moved to another room in the same building.

SAFAR JALANY: And when they opened the door, there was a woman standing, wearing black from head to toe. … The judge asked me not to speak until he allowed me to speak.

A veil covered the woman’s face.

SAFAR JALANY: But the judge asked her to remove it and to look at us and to make sure she identifies me. … When she saw me, she started to shake and cry.

Rod feared Kayla might not realize he had been set free months ago and had come back to Syria specifically to rescue her. To send a signal, he purposefully wore different clothes than he’d worn the day they were captured. The judge told Rod to speak.

SAFAR JALANY: So I ask her, you know me, you recognize who I am? She said yes. I asked Why are you telling them we’re not married? She started to cry, and it was a very emotional moment. The judge interrupted us two or three times just asking her not to cry because we need to understand what she is saying.

Kayla had a moment to decide. Little time to think, little time to pray. If she did lie, she might be caught in the deceit, and who knows what sort of consequences.

Kayla made a selfless decision.

SAFAR JALANY: At the end she said, I’ll tell you the truth if you guarantee his safety. The judge said, I guarantee his safety. Kayla said … we are not married. … No.

The judge was angry. He ordered the guards to return Rod to prison. He eventually escaped. But it was the last time he ever saw Kayla.

It can be hard to understand why Kayla didn’t say yes … didn’t grasp at the chance to escape. Did she think of the story of David from 1 Samuel 21? Where David lies and pretends to be a madman to escape death? Or perhaps she thought of how Abraham lied twice about his marriage status to protect his life … only to bring about disastrous consequences for others.

Here’s Zorka’s insight:

MARTINOVICH: That is the moment when she has an opportunity. And of course, she’s somebody who is honest, who tells the truth. You’re under tremendous duress. And you’re probably thinking, we’re going to be able to work this out. And so I’m going to go with the truth because, gosh, if I lie, I’m roped into a lie.

Zorka said had she been in Kayla’s shoes, she would probably have done the same thing.

MARTINOVICH: She makes a decision I think is completely reasonable for someone in her situation. But, of course, then that takes her deeper into the hostage world, the network.

Kayla’s choice to tell the truth reminded Marsha of how Kayla tended to fess up as a child when she disobeyed.

MARSHA: I did it, Mom. It just blew me away because I wouldn’t have done that when I was little.

Theoretically, escape was still an option. But another chance of it was completely out of the Muellers’ control. That would have to be initiated by Kayla. And to Zorka, escape seemed unlikely. The ISIS Beatles held Kayla in ISIS territory. The enemy was everywhere.

The second way a hostage can come out … a rescue … was something the Muellers prayed for regularly. An organized operation made sense, especially since the ISIS Beatles had a group of American hostages, most being held together.

MARSHA: I guess we did feel they would.

U.S. forces and allies were looking for the hostages … and ISIS knew that, so they moved them around. But even so, the U.S. government had given no indication whether it planned to send in a special forces team. Instead, an Obama administration official delivered the same vague message to Carl and Marsha:

CARL: We’re doing everything we can.

MARSHA: My heart wanted to believe and trust. How do you not, you know? And really, I did. I kept believing and trusting.

But nearly a year had passed with no rescue attempt.

So that left the third possibility: negotiation. Zorka knew European countries had negotiated the release of its hostages from the ISIS Beatles. And because of those releases, Zorka had gained insight into ISIS’ operations.

MARTINOVICH: They worked through the Spaniards, and the Italians, and the French. … So we had a lot of background on what would lead to success, which would be Kayla’s safe release.

Those instances involved the exchange of money for the hostage. But the United States had a “no ransom” policy. Still, Zorka said the policy was deliberately general in many ways to allow discretion in complicated cases like Kayla’s. But when it came to paying a ransom, Zorka explains a nuance:

MARTINOVICH: So here’s the distinction, we negotiate the government, the U.S. will not provide substantive concessions. … Any concession, and generally it’s going to be money, must be done privately.

Meaning, the family or a private employer can pay.

MARTINOVICH: I think that’s a shock for families to learn. And they only learn it once they’re in this situation. They’re under tremendous duress. They’re gravely concerned for their loved one. … So what we talk about … is the potential payment of a ransom, and who would pay. … The government doesn’t pay.

In fact, Zorka once worked on a case where a family paid $1.7 million to a South American criminal group to get their family member released.

MARTINOVICH: The family put the money into a bag, literally $1.7 million dollars and pushed it out of a helicopter over the jungle at certain coordinates that were agreed upon … and you secure the release of your loved one.

But the Department of Justice had stressed to the Muellers: funding terrorism was against the law. Specifically, a violation of 18 United States Code section 2339 which prohibits providing material support to a terrorist organization. The punishment: 20 years to life.

This not only scared the families, it caused a chilling effect on private people and organizations.

Prior to the situation in Syria with the ISIS Beatles, Zorka says this:

MARTINOVICH: No family had ever been prosecuted. Some had been told, you know, we’re concerned about this. The Department of Justice understandably does not want to provide essentially a waiver because … again, they’ll give the argument, well, if we allow them to pay, or anyone to pay, it’s going to encourage more kidnappings, which we don’t see the data to support that. Kidnappings are generally crimes of opportunity.

The Muellers were not getting consistent advice or guidance. And with the threat of criminal prosecution hanging over their heads, the Muellers felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The moral dilemma hung over their heads. Marsha wrote about it in her notebook. “What would ISIS do with the money? Kill more people. Destroy more lives. For what, Kayla? No, we need another plan. God’s plan. That is our only source of hope.”

Besides, any attempt to pay a ransom under the table came with logistical complications.

MARTINOVICH: In our country, you’re going to have suspicious activity reports generated from banks. How do you physically, you know, now we have to get euros, they’re asking for euros specifically, not U.S. cash, how do you move that?

Plus, they would have to go public to raise the funds. Even if they cashed out their retirement and sold their home — they’d have to talk to journalists and news outlets to raise the full 5 million euros. But the terrorists had said NO MEDIA in all caps.

MARTINOVICH: They are deliberate in what they write, what they highlight, what they put in all caps. … You know, what do we think of all caps? All caps is yelling.

As Carl and Marsha contemplated whether to pay a ransom, and how, Zorka helped the Muellers craft their next email reply to the ISIS Beatles. There was a lot to consider.

MARTINOVICH: We don’t just concede every point to them. Like they direct us and they bully us and they threaten us, and we just do whatever they want. We have to push back a little bit and feel out where they’re really strong.

Zorka also had to decide who should send the email: both Carl and Marsha? Only one of them? Zorka thought it should come from Kayla’s father.

MARTINOVICH: He’s the man of the house. But Marsha’s also kind of this secret weapon that I see. That, like we have to hold onto that. She’ll have a role. But I’m not sure what it’s going to be yet. … And so it’s like, we’ll go with Carl. And we’re open to changing it if it doesn’t work for whatever reason.

After Zorka drafted the reply at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, she sent it to another FBI negotiator, a guy in Arizona. Then the FBI and the Muellers would all get on a conference call to finalize the language and ensure it was written in Carl’s voice.

CARL: I will do everything in my power to get Kayla home safely. … I operated our family automobile repair shop for more than thirty years. … I retired this January, at the age of sixty-two, so I could dedicate myself to getting Kayla home safely. You’ve asked for an astronomical amount of money from a family with limited resources. … The government has a policy that they will not pay a ransom. No one will help us!

The Beatles’ brutal reply came quickly. Retiring won’t help. Go back to work and make some money. No more sob stories. The reply added that governments do pay if done under the table. And it repeated the demand for Aafia Siddiqi’s release. One woman for one woman.

The end of the email contained the first threat to kill Kayla if the ransom demands were not met. We’d rather put a bullet in her head than release her for anything less. The Muellers asked the United States government for Siddiqui’s release. But again, the government said no. That, too, would be a substantive concession the government would not make.

So the Muellers were shocked to see the news on May 31st, 2014.

OBAMA: Good afternoon, everybody.

President Barack Obama held a ceremony in the White House rose garden. A mother and father stood on either side of him, the parents of Bowe Bergdahl, a military service member who had been held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

OBAMA: This morning, I called Bob and Jani Bergdahl and told them that after nearly five years in captivity, their son Bowe is coming home.

The deal involved a prisoner exchange. Five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl.

OBAMA: The United States of America does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind.

The rose ceremony occurred only two days after the ISIS Beatles sent the Muellers their request for Sidiqqi’s release.

OBAMA: Sergeant Bergdahl has missed birthdays and holidays, and the simple moments with family and friends, which all of us take for granted.

Kayla also had missed holidays and birthdays. She had turned 25 the month ISIS took her hostage and her 26th birthday was around the corner.

OBAMA: But while Bowe was gone, he was never forgotten. His parents thought about him and prayed for him every single day, as did his sister Skye who prayed for his safe return.

The Muellers also prayed continuously, as did Kayla’s brother, Eric.

In his speech, Obama made a promise … without naming names … to other American hostages.

OBAMA: We also remain deeply committed to securing the release of American citizens who are unjustly detained abroad.

The Muellers felt betrayed. Like a pawn in a political battle they had been forced into. Clearly, the government does make substantive concessions to terrorists. Zorka concedes the rules are different when dealing with a servicemember or a government employee, but she thought the splashy way the White House handled it was a mistake, especially because the White House had not given the FBI a head’s up.

The ISIS Beatles seized the opportunity to hang this development over the Muellers.

MARTINOVICH: ISIS is super media savvy. They track everything that’s going on.

The Beatles next email arrived days later. Here, a voice actor reads it:

ISIS BEATLE: The U.S. Government has recently released FIVE HIGH PROFILE GUANTANAMO PRISONERS for ONE AMERICAN SOLDIER captured in Afghanistan. … Is the life of your daughter worth LESS to your government than that of a soldier?

Zorka says part of the Beatles strategy is to convince the hostages nobody cares.

MARTINOVICH: What the kidnappers are often telling hostages is that they’re not even getting ahold of us. They don’t care about you. Your government doesn’t care .

Over the next month, June to July 2014, the Muellers and the ISIS Beatles exchanged five more emails. Carl affirmed he would avoid the media, but insisted he needed time to gather the ransom money. ISIS’ response was short: deliver Siddiqui or the cash. To them, it was a business transaction. Kayla, a commodity. Carl matched that email with his own short reply saying he was working on what they asked.

Even if the United States government would not pay, why not Support to Life, the organization Kayla had worked for? Or Doctors without Borders, the nonprofit Rod loaned his skills to and the reason he and Kayla went into Syria in the first place? FBI negotiator Zorka again:

MARTINOVICH: In my experience, when these things happen, understandably the lawyers get involved. And so, who has responsibility? Who legally has responsibility? Who has moral responsibility, which is different. And so Support to Life? I will say for humanitarian organizations in general, most will not pay a ransom. Period. … So they also don’t want people contributing to their organizations to think: I’m contributing money and you’re using it to pay ransoms. So it becomes this complicated web.

One dead end after another.

Plus, government officials outside the FBI continued to give Marsha and Carl false hope.

MARTINOVICH: They were still hearing … well, maybe the government can do this ransom as lure. They were hearing from other people in the government other options that might work. … But it’s not really happening. And it’s cruel to give them hope in something that is not likely to happen while this clock is ticking and the situation on the ground is changing for the worse.

On July 5th, 2014, a video began circulating on the internet. A bearded man dressed in all black ascended a staircase to the minbar of a mosque in Mosel. The bearded man was a terrorist on the United States’ most-wanted list: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. He delivered a speech in Arabic.

ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI: [Speaking Arabic]

He declared himself the leader of all Muslims.

Under the United States’ Rewards for Justice program, the U.S. was offering $10 million for his capture. An amount that would soon increase to $25 million.

Baghdadi was a religious scholar. Back in 2003, American forces had held him captive for about a year in Iraq. Then they decided he was a low-level threat and let him go. But within the confines of the American prison with other jihadists, Baghdadi had become even more radicalized.

Audio from PBS:

NARRATOR: After his release, … [Baghdadi speaking] in audio recordings, Baghdadi would use his religious authority to justify acts of terror. … As the group’s new leader, Baghdadi worked to rebuild And … he looked for a state in chaos to exploit. He saw one across the border in Syria. Civil unrest was breaking out. … Protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been met with force. … As the unrest grew, Baghdadi secretly sent agents into Syria to help fuel the civil war.

Baghdadi’s forces grew.

NARRATOR: By 2013, Baghdadi’s army captured whole sections of Syria.

He established ISIS in Syria. His appearance at the mosque in Mosel in 2014 demonstrated his intentions to expand ISIS’ presence in Iraq. After he declared himself the ruler of Muslims around the world, he disappeared from the public eye again.

A week later, July 12th, 2014, the ISIS Beatles sent the Muellers another email. It contained terrifying news.

ISIS BEATLE: You have 30 days to have the FULL 5 MILLION EUROS CASH DEMAND … READY IN TURKEY! If you fail to meet this deadline, we will send you a picture of Kayla’s dead body!

Another death threat. This one with a deadline. And the ISIS Beatles gave a reason for it:

ISIS BEATLE: Let it be known that this will be our FIRST act of revenge taken for the MISERABLY FAILED and unsuccessful attempt by your arrogant government to free their prisoners.

That part confused the Muellers. A failed attempt by the U.S. government to free the hostages? What were the Beatles referring to?

MARSHA: So I call the FBI agent—

A guy who worked with Zorka—

MARSHA: And I woke him up. And … he said, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

The FBI had no knowledge of any raid or rescue attempt to free Kayla. Also?

MARSHA: The White House told us they didn’t do anything. … ISIS is lying. ISIS is always lying.

Again, the Muellers were troubled. And at a complete loss.

MARSHA: ISIS was telling us it happened. Our government is telling us, no, it didn’t. So who do you believe?

Either way, the Muellers felt like they needed to change tactics.

MARSHA: We had 30 days, which would have put it about Kayla’s birthday, August 14th, when she would be killed.

The Muellers sent another email begging for more time and for permission to go to the media to help raise money. They included a newspaper story describing how Kayla had helped reunite a refugee Syrian boy with his family.

The Beatles responded: 11 days left. Act fast, they said.

Carl wrote back immediately.

CARL: I’m acting as fast as I can. … If I had the money, I would have paid it on the spot.

Zorka suspected the ISIS Beatles were bluffing. She says death threats typically come with a much shorter deadline … 72 hours or less. Plus, ISIS had always been sensitive to the fact that Kayla was a female. Killing a female would reflect poorly on the Beatles.

But tensions with ISIS continued to escalate, and quickly. ISIS forces in Iraq attacked the Yazidi community. Yazidis are an ethnic religious minority. ISIS executed thousands of Yazidi men and kidnapped the women, forcing them to become sex slaves. Some of those young Yazidi women were brought into Syria and held with Kayla.

President Obama ordered a response to ISIS’ attack on the Yazidi community. He authorized the U.S. military to bomb ISIS in Iraq. Carl and Marsha feared the United States’ military action put Kayla at greater risk. They sent another email to the Beatles, begging for more time. No response.

On August 12th, Carl offered the Beatles his life’s savings — everything he had. No response.

On the eve of the deadline for Kayla’s execution, Marsha remembers wondering if Kayla was being killed at the very moment. “Was the deadline Arizona time or Syria time?” Marsha later wrote. “The midnight of or the midnight after the deadline?”

Both midnights came and went.

The Muellers’ minds kept going to the worst possible places. They hoped and prayed for any information their daughter was still alive. Zorka still doubted the Beatles would carry out their death threat.

MARTINOVICH: My assessment to Carl and Marsha and the government is they’re not going to kill Kayla. But they’re going to kill someone else.

They did.

ANNOUNCERS: Let’s start Tamer with the beheading. … Awful tragic news from overseas late today. … The Islamic State of Iraq and El Sham released a video showing the execution of American Journalist James Foley. The clip, which is still being verified, has sent chills around the globe. In it, Foley was forced to read a statement blaming America … for his killing. Now ISIS is threatening to kill that other American hostage if the U.S. does not get out of Iraq.

On August 19th, 2014, ISIS released a graphic video on the web titled “Message to America.” It showed Jim Foley dressed in an orange jumpsuit, an imitation of the clothing the Guantanamo Bay prisoners wore. He was on his knees in the desert. Standing next to him, a man dressed in all black. A hood covered the terrorist almost completely—exposing only his eyes. He held a large knife as he delivered his message to America.

JIHADI JOHN: This is James Wright Foley, an American citizen of your country. As a government, you have been at the forefront of the aggression toward the Islamic state. You have plotted against us and gone far out of your way to find reasons to interfere in our affairs. Today, your military air force is attacking us daily in Iraq. Your strikes have caused casualties amongst Muslims.

He spoke English with a British accent. An ISIS Beatle.

JIHADI JOHN: You are no longer fighting an insurgency. We are an Islamic arm, a state that has been accepted by a large number of Muslims worldwide. So effectively, any aggression toward the Islamic state is an aggression toward Muslims from all walks of life who have accepted Islamic caliphate as their leadership. So any attempt by you, Obama, to deny the Muslims their rights of living in safety under the Islamic caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.

His name: Mohammed Emwazi. He became known as Jihadi John.

MARSHA: Jihadi John was the thug who beheaded people.

Obama condemned the execution. But the American people wanted answers.

MARSHA: August 19th, they behead Jim Foley. So then, people started saying to the government, weren’t you doing anything? And of course, then they say, well, yes, we did a raid on the 4th of July.

Audio from Associated Press:

AP REPORTER: Speaking hours after Islamic state militants released a video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley, President Obama angrily condemned the group and pledged to keep attacking it despite its efforts to kill another U.S. hostage.

OBAMA: Let’s be clear about ISIL. They have rampaged across cities and villages killing innocent unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence.

AP REPORTER: Late Wednesday, the administration also revealed it sent special forces into Syria this summer to rescue Foley and other US hostages, but were unable to locate them.

So the U.S. government had tried to rescue Kayla and the other American hostages, after all.

MARSHA: So then we know they truly did do the raid. ISIS was not lying to us. So you know…

The American government had misled the Muellers by telling them it had not conducted a raid. But the truth was it had. ISIS had picked up chatter before the raid could be carried out. So ISIS moved Kayla and the other hostages from a house in Raqqa to a new location. The United States missed them by hours.

MARSHA: I remember this one former military guy telling me … that they did realize they had been there, and Kayla had written her name on the wall.

Inside the room in the now-empty house in Raqqa, she had taken a pebble and scratched five letters in all caps: K-A-Y-L-A.

MARSHA: It was small. I remember asking them, you know, where was it on the wall? How far up? Because I wanted her to be standing, not lying. It was high. So Kayla was still hanging in there being strong. … It was a scratch. In fact, I was worried it would go away because it was so faint. But you can see it for sure. It’s there.

Over time, the Muellers learned more. Here’s Carl:

CARL: We know … that the special forces guys were ready to go a week before he signed off on it. He would not sign off on that raid.

The Muellers suspect it was because Obama wanted to make a statement by conducting the raid on July 4th, Independence Day.

CARL:… Because he wouldn’t sign off on the raid even though the people were telling him they were ready to go, he missed them by a day, maybe two.

Carl was angry.

CARL: The Obama administration did not care about the American hostages.

A full year had passed since Kayla’s abduction. The whole time, the Muellers had mostly been on the same page. But learning of the failed raid added a significant strain.

MARSHA: Carl … I remember arguing with him. Because up until then, we were really, we would disagree on certain things, but he actually said, Marsha, they are not going to do anything. We need to do it. And I remember turning to him like this and saying what are we going to do. Who can we get to help us?

The following month, on September 2nd, 2014, Jihadi John released another video. Titled “A Second Message to America,” it showed him executing American hostage Steven Sotloff. Then Jihadi John threatened to soon kill a third hostage.

Throughout their ordeal, Marsha clung tighter and tighter to her faith. But Carl began to distance himself.

CARL: How can this loving, caring, forgiving God do this to Kayla and Marsha and me and my family? How can this happen when you pray every day and every night constantly for 18 months. And you go through hell. Really, God? I keep saying I’m mad at God, I’m mad at God. Because I do have that background for my whole life.

MARSHA: So you believe in God. You’re just angry at God.

CARL: I want to believe in God. I want to. Because I want to see Kayla again.

When Marsha read the Bible, she tried to make sense of her faith.

MARSHA: We need to realize we are all created by God and He did give us the will to do things. And we know what’s right and wrong in our hearts.

Marsha and Carl’s hearts were shattered over the beheadings. Marsha often prayed that God would soften the hearts of those holding her daughter. But it was impossible to know what was going on with the Beatles. The emails from them had stopped arriving in the Muellers in-box. Even so, Carl and Marsha kept sending out pleas to the email address that had worked before. Their messages did not get bounced back. So the line was alive. Hopefully, ISIS was reading them.

Zorka knew the time had come for Marsha to speak directly to ISIS. And not to the Beatles. Rather, directly to al-Baghdadi himself. Carl and Marsha recorded a video, and sent it to the only ISIS email they had on file. But they asked Kayla’s captors to share it with their leader. Carl spoke first, plainly and firmly.

CARL: My name is Carl Mueller. This is my wife, Marsha. This is a plea for Kayla’s life. We are asking for your mercy for Kayla, as we believe you are the only one who can grant us this. I beg you not to harm our daughter, and I appeal to you to use your authority to let our innocent daughter go. We have no influence over the government. The government will not help us. Our hands have been tied in trying to raise money. Yet we continue to do everything within our power to work toward securing Kayla’s freedom.

In the video, Carl and Marsha sat side-by-side in front of closed curtains. Carl’s gray hair was parted to his side and he had a goatee. He wore a brown button down shirt. Marsha wore a black scarf that covered her hair and shoulders. What she wanted to say would be difficult to get through. She took a deep breath.

MARSHA: Sir, I am coming to you with a mother’s heart for the love of her daughter. Please, I ask for your mercy. All people are precious in Kayla’s eyes. All God’s creation is precious to Kayla. Kayla is not your enemy. Kayla loves the people of Syria. She was learning Arabic and the culture of your lands. Please, show mercy and use your power to free our daughter. Kayla, we love you. We know God is comforting you and strengthening you. I wish we could see you. Just know we are doing everything we can to get you home. God willing, we will be together soon.

It worked. Days later, ISIS responded saying that Kayla’s release was still possible if the money demand was met. And this email had an extra demand: the immediate halt of all U.S. military activity in Syria.

The FBI got on the phone with the Muellers. This call in particular had a lot of agents on the line. Marsha knew something had happened. She soon learned what.

MARSHA: It’s October 2014 … and the Yazidi girls who were with Kayla escaped.

Two of the Yazidi girls had crawled through a window and ran. Once they reached safety, they met with American officials in the U.S. Operations center in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Yazidid girls confirmed they’d been with Kayla and mentioned she had a small tattoo on the side of her rib.

Marsha remembers the day she first saw that tattoo. Kayla had recently graduated from college.

MARSHA: I remember her being in the bathroom, and I thought she had a bruise. … It looked like a bruise to me.

It was a little owl feather. Kayla’s college graduation gift to herself. Because she loved owls. Now, that owl tattoo proved that as of October 2014, Kayla was still alive.

The Yazidid girls said Kayla considered trying to escape with them, but in the end, Kayla decided not to go. Again, it’s hard to understand why. Perhaps Kayla was scared if she was caught, she would be killed. Or if she did escape, other hostages left behind would be punished. Also, the success of the escape would certainly have been harder if she’d gone. As an American, she would have stood out. Her skin was already pale and she hadn’t seen sunshine in over a year. Here’s FBI agent Zorka again:

MARTINOVICH: Realistically, the people in that community are not likely to help her to get all the way out. … And I think the Yazidis could more easily navigate, again, they speak the language, they blend in a little bit more easily. They might have a network of other Yazidis who could help them. I think even people with the best of intentions would be scared to help Kayla because of the consequences to them.

Zorka adds that Kayla was in the best position to know what to do. And she made the call to stay.

At the U.S. Operations center, the Yazidi girls gave a timeline of what had transpired after the ISIS Beatles started their killing spree of American hostages. Kayla and the Yazidi girls had been shuttled from house to house.

Marsha inquired about her daughter.

MARSHA: I asked how she was or something. They always kept telling us she’s a woman. She’s safe. They won’t harm a woman. And then I specifically asked how is she? And the agent came back and said to me, she’s relatively okay.

He went on to say:

MARSHA: She’s with a family. Well that family was Abu and Umm Sayyaf.

A family was all he said. It almost sounded humane. Marsha pictured her as a maid, maybe taking care of children. But the agent omitted who that family was until later.

MARSHA: Well, that family was Abu and Umm Sayyaf.

Abu and Umm Sayyaf. Husband and wife. ISIS leaders. Here’s Zorka again:

MARTINOVICH: Umm Sayyaf’s husband was one of the top leaders in the organization … He had like an executive level position in the organization.

Abu and Umm Sayaff now housed Kayla. She had become their slave. The ISIS Beatles had failed to obtain ransom money, so things escalated.

MARTINOVICH: Okay, we’re not able to ransom her out, or get anything of value for her. We’re not just going to let her go. So she then changes essentially how they look at her. … Kayla’s a young, attractive female. … It’s like, okay, now she’s going to be a wife, and she’s going to be a “wife,” slave, to the highest ranking person in ISIS.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Basically the Sayyaf’s kept Kayla for Baghdadi.

MARTINOVICH: He’s going to essentially take her as a prize.

SILLARS: Jenny Rough reported and wrote this episode, and I produced it.

Next time on Doubletake, the conclusion of The kidnapping of Kayla Mueller. And the good news is that you won’t have to wait a week for it to drop. It’s out right now.

I’m Les Sillars. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.

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