WASHINGTON — The family of Kayla Mueller had been in contact with her ISIS captors for months and praying she’d be freed, but the US decision to swap five Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl dashed their hopes for Kayla’s survival.
“That made the whole situation worse,” brother Eric Mueller told NBC’s “Today” show. “Because that’s when the demands got greater, they got larger. They realized that they had something (of value). They realized if they are going to let five people go for one person, why won’t they do this?”
Kayla’s father approached President Obama on why he’d back Bergdhal’s release in May 2014 but not negotiate a similar deal for Kayla’s freedom.
“I actually asked the president that question when we were in the White House. That was pretty hard to take,” Carl Mueller said.
View videoIn their first interview since receiving proof from ISIS that Kayla had been killed, the Mueller family detailed the 18 months of angst of trying to free their daughter while dealing with a US government that bans paying ransoms and viewed ISIS as “thugs.”
Passionate about international causes, Kayla went to Turkey to help Syrian refugees in the spring of 2013. Her family didn’t even know she went to Syria in August with her Syrian boyfriend, who was called to help out at a hospital in Allepo for Doctors Without Borders.
They only found out when they got the call at 5 a.m. Aug. 5, 2013, that their daughter had been kidnapped. The Muellers kept the secret of their daughter’s captivity in hopes they could win her freedom.
“They not only took our daughter but they took a year and half — 18 months — of our life,” Carl Mueller said.
“I really feel that we had a chance to get Kayla out because we were in communications with them, unlike the other families,” Carl Mueller added. “But how do you raise $6.2 million and pretty much made it impossible. We feel they really did want to release Kayla.”
The family couldn’t meet the increased demands and were barred by US policy from paying ransom to terrorists. Asked whether the US government did enough, Kayla’s mother, Marsha, had mixed reactions.
“I think they wanted to, but I think, again, it’s the (no ransom) policy,” Marsha said. “I don’t think anyone had any idea this group would be as powerful as they were. We let them get too powerful. They just thought of them as a gang, or thugs.”
“JV,” Carl Mueller said, referring to President Obama’s early characterization of ISIS.
“Yeah,” Marsha said. “But again, it goes back to we are so isolated in America, we’re so in our own little area, that we don’t see what’s going on over there.”
Now her family is dedicated to continuing Kayla’s work by helping the people of Syria.
“That’s where Kayla’s heart is right now,” Marsha said, in announcing a new foundation called Kayla’s Hands.