Posted on 09/09/2006 7:55:49 AM PDT by Mr Rogers
A U.S. Air Force officer found alive three days after she went missing near the Kyrgyz capital was abducted by someone who put a purported bomb object in her pocket, a top government official said Saturday.
Maj. Jill Metzger, 33, disappeared Tuesday from a department store in Bishkek while on temporary duty there from her base in Georgia.
Shortly before midnight Friday she knocked on the door of a house in Kant, a town about 22 miles from the capital, and told its residents she had been abducted, Kyrgyz Deputy Interior Minister Omurbek Suvanaliyev said.
Metzger told Kyrgyz law enforcement agents she had been seized by three young men and a woman in a minibus and held in a rural area about 30 miles from the capital, Suvanaliyev told The Associated Press, citing local police in Kant.
She was exhausted and her hair had been dyed, he said.
Metzger's disappearance had baffled investigators, and the military had 22 special agents looking for her.
A Kyrgyz police official, Kemilbek Kiyazov, said Metzger told police that while she was in a popular department store someone placed an unspecified object in the rear pocket of her trousers. Writing on the object said it was a bomb.
The message also gave detailed instructions telling her where to go in Bishkek, which she followed, Kiyazov quoted Metzger as saying. "Metzger stated that it was as if she were in a trance," he said.
She was then met by three men and a woman who put her into a vehicle, took her to a residence and placed her in a dark room. According to Kiyazov, Metzger managed to escape after an abductor brought her food and she struck him.
Kiyazov, who personally saw and talked to Metzger, told the AP her hair had been dyed dark brown and her hands were stained with dye.
This account differed from one given by Metzger's father-in-law, Kelly Mayo, who told The Associated Press in Colorado Springs that the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations said she was found on the side of the road with her head shaven. He also indicated she had been kidnapped and beaten.
"I know she's coherent, and whoever had her let her go," Mayo said. "We've got her back. Praise the Lord."
It wasn't immediately clear why the two accounts differed.
Capt. Anna Carpenter, a spokeswoman at the U.S. air base at Bishkek's Manas airport where Metzger had been temporarily stationed, said Metzger was in "stable condition." She was taken several hours later to another base in the region, Carpenter said, but declined to give the name of the base. Manas is the only U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said in a statement that "it now appears that Major Metzger had been abducted," but added that she was now "safe" and thanked Kyrgyz officials for their efforts and close cooperation.
Mayo said Metzger's husband, Air Force Capt. Joshua Mayo, was overjoyed when he was told Friday that his wife had been found.
"I can't even describe it. He's just beside himself, just unbelievable joy," Mayo said.
Metzger was serving a four-month stint at the Bishkek base with the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing. She had been scheduled to return to her U.S. base in Georgia on Friday.
Military officials said Metzger was a newlywed and was to travel with her husband to Jamaica for a belated 10-day honeymoon after she returned to the U.S.
The U.S. military has maintained an air base at Kyrgyzstan's main civilian airport since 2001, backing operations in nearby Afghanistan.
"It wasn't immediately clear why the two accounts differed."
Because it's a hoax. Older freepers or students of history will harken back to Aimee Semple McPherson, radio evangelist and founder of the Four Square Gospel church.
Aimee disappeared from a beach in Southern California. She was feared drowned until she walked out of the Mexican desert unsunburned and unscratched.
Aimee claimed to have been kidnapped by a man and a woman with the romantic-sounding names of Steve and Rose. She was, she claimed, kept prisoner in a Mexican shack.
Later, people came forth with claims Aimee had been seen intra-kidnapping at various lodgings in California with her radio engineer.
This has similar made-for-romance-magazine earmarks, including the head shave and dying. Why dye what you're going to shave? Notl the mention the ridiculous bomb scenario,
" Hmm, is it how the U.S. Air Force officers should be?'
Listen, I got well acquainted with a Navy aeronautical engineering officer. In her words, "Yes, I really am a rocket scientist." She also got, post-service, sucked into a nutball Christianist group and had as much common sense as a ten-year old. It not only happens, but happens all the time.
I don't know what happened to this AMERICAN OFFICER but we owe her some grace......
if it turns out she just had had it and took off, well, she's not the first American to do that...panic a little before coming to their senses.....
glad she is safe .....
I read the story in this morning's paper. The whole thing doesn't add up. Smell something false here.
Everyone is glad she is safe.......
First reports are always inaccurate......
Let's see what develops......
Could be. More likely he had some kind of chip on his shoulder, and was flying off the handle at anyone and everyone since I never said anything "obnoxious and unfounded" about "the major."
I agree with what you said. Being a retired Air Force enlisted puke, I would substitute Officer with Service Member. I can't help being a bit skeptical about the story, however, and the more I find out about it, the more skeptical I become.
It is amazing to me that most of us are aware that the media does not always report the facts, distorts the facts, and in fact lies in many articles about many things. Yet when something like this happens so many are so quick to make judgements based on media reports.
I think this woman should get the benefit of doubt on anything odd in this article. She chose to serve in our military and that alone should be enough for us to support her and her family and try to be patient and wait for more information.
I have no idea what happened to her or why, I do send my thoughts and prayers to her and her family and I will not leap to conclusions about her based on what is reported in the media.
I would imagine the Air Force and her family are keeping a lid on facts and evidence until more is known. There is an ongoing investigation. I suspect the military and her family are not telling the media much at all- I have noticed when that happens some pretty strange stories come out. The media is not above making things up when no one is talking. We have seen that happen over and over with the high profile murders.
Please give this woman the benefit of doubt until more is known, that is just the classy thing to do.
I agree with you 100%. I think this woman has earned the benefit of doubt by serving in the military if for no other reason. Where is all the freeper support of the military where this woman is concerned?
I agree, something does not make sense here.
But, hypothetically speaking, if this turns out to be a hoax don't you think she will have earned criticism, whether she wears a uniform or not?
Exactly. I've been criticizing Jack Murtha for four months because he made false statements about the Haditha Marines on false accounts by the media of what took place. I will not lower myself to his level and accuse this officer of anything, she deserves our support as a member of our military.
I am taking the reactions to this story pretty personally and I don't know this woman. I am taking the reactions pretty personal because she is serving in our military. That fact alone should be enough for people to give her the benefit of doubt until more is known.
I am embarrassed that so many are not willing to show support of someone serving our country and not willing to wait until more is known before trashing her reputation on the internet.
Maybe some of you will understand when the moonbats start using some of your quotes as part of their propaganda against the military in general. I have seen some doozies posted lately on FR not just about this, but other military members that would make a moonbats day.
You don't suppose he was speaking as a father about his daughter that he has known all her life? I doubt he really thinks of her as a military officer. I doubt he really knows that side of her.
I know a former Marine drill instructor pretty well, but I doubt my description of him would equate with the description of his personality that many Marines that know him would give.
We haven't heard her story yet. We have only heard the MSM version and I noticed there was little of substance in any of the stories I have read. I am betting the military is keeping a lid on this story, there is an ongoing investigation. I have noticed before when the MSM is given little info they tend to write strange stories.
If this turns out to be a hoax there will be plenty of time after that is determined for all these comments. If it is not a hoax there will be no way to really take back the nasty comments I have seen on these threads. I see a reputation of someone serving in our military being gleefully trashed and that genie will not go back in the bottle if it turns out this was indeed a tragic incident.
I would like to note, the sources of most of these articles are local law enforcenment in a foreign country. I would guess there is somewhat of a language barrier and I would also guess that they put things differently than perhaps we would. I think that fact alone could explain many of the odd parts of these articles. I also wonder if the local authorities have an agenda- I'm sure it makes their country look better if she is seen as a kook than it would if it seemed something bad happened to her on their watch. Just a thought.
Oh come on. One of the mosy enjoyable parts of this site is the opportunity to hypothesize on stories like this. I applaud her service- but now I'm gonna give you my theory. She just got married for heaven's sake. And then she suddenly disappears? And then she comes up with this half baked story?
Luckily for her she didn't stay "disappeared" too long and this might just blow over. Obviously, this poor young lady has some major issues. But she wasn't kidnapped and they'll figure it out with her cell phone records.
She's been married since April, how does THAT make her a "runaway bride?"
I suspect something did happen to her and she actually was kidnapped - the story is almost too strange to be anything but true. Kidnapping is a major activity in the Stans and even in Russia, often carried out by criminal groups for relatively small ransoms, or for payment from someone else seeking to threaten or get revenge on the kidnapped person. I wonder if someone she knew had something against her and paid for this (or if, even more bizarrely, it was a case of mistaken identity and the kidnappers got the wrong person).
If it's a hoax, of course she deserves criticism, but I found the tone of yesterday's discussion pretty disgusting, mostly because it seemed laden with contempt for women in general and for female military members in particular.
Is related to famous former Pravda translator lady?
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