The parents of an American man who was found in Syria after going missing earlier this year said they were relieved he was safe following a difficult seven months in which they feared “the worst.”
Travis Timmerman, 29, was discovered by locals as he walked barefoot in the streets of southern Damascus on Thursday. He said he was kept in prison for months after entering the country as a pilgrim.
“Tears, started bawling, it was so emotional,” Timmerman’s stepfather Richard Gardiner told CNN affiliate KYTV. “I’m thinking the worst, after seven months you just think he’s gone.”
Gardiner said he called Timmerman’s mother, Stacey Timmerman, to break the news. “I called her up and said, ‘It’s him, and he’s alive!’ So we both cried on the phone,” Gardiner said.
Thousands of people have been released from prisons across Syria this week, after rebels toppled the country’s longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking to CBS News, Timmerman said he had been detained in a Syrian prison after entering the country without permission for “spiritual purposes,” having crossed its border with Lebanon.
He said his cell door was broken down on Monday by two men armed with AK-47s, CBS News reported, and left the prison with a large group to try and reach Jordan.
