Dateline: Heart Of Darkness - What happened to Gerfa and Kevin Lunsmann? Details explored

The Dateline episode titled Heart of Darkness showed the harrowing case of a Filipino-American teen and his mother, who were abducted by Muslim militants while vacationing in a beach cottage off Zamboanga City in July 2011. Along with them, a Filipino relative of theirs was also kidnapped.

All three of them, however, eventually returned safely as Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, the mother of Kevin Lunsmann was freed by the captors themselves in early October and Kevin escaped the abductors almost after five months of being held. Their relative, Romnick Jakaria also escaped in November.

In 2015, these abductors, who were identified as part of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, were given life sentences. Let us now explore the details of the kidnapping of Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann and her son as presented in Dateline.

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Gerfa and Kevin Lunsmann were kidnapped while holidaying in the Philippines as shown in Dateline

As shown in Dateline, back in 2011 when Gerfa and Kevin had set out to spend a few peaceful days in the Philippines, they had no idea what nightmare was awaiting them.

While Kevin was enjoying his vacation to the fullest with authentic Filipino cuisine made by his distant relatives from his mother’s side and soaking up the beach and the sun, things became ugly when the mother and son were taken from their huts by men with arms and kept in a remote location.

As they were taken hostage and kept in a forest, the abductors demanded money. When Gerfa’s family called Heiko Lunsmann, the father of Kevin and husband of Gerfa, to give him this news, he was shocked. Sitting in Virginia, there was not much that he could do.

However, the kidnappers called him and demanded some $10 million as ransom. Since there was no way Heiko could arrange that huge amount of money he kept spending his days in helpless tension and hoping for some miracle.

Also Read: Dateline: The Feud - 5 harrowing details about Tim Newman's murder, explored

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Gerfa and Kevin Lunsmann returned home safely

Fortunately, after some amount of money was sent to the terrorists, Gerfa was freed and she reached home. However, Kevin was not so lucky and he was kept hostage. However, the brave boy had his own plans and he attempted to escape when he got the chance and luckily, he was successful.

As reported by ABC News, Kevin while talking to his father for the first time since his abduction had said,

"I did it on my own, Dad, they didn't release me, I did it."

Heiko was naturally happy and said,

"I'm so proud of my son, he's a hero, he wandered two days through the jungle. That was a tough time, it was tough five months. I only know he is a hero and I'm so happy he escaped."

Kevin had told his kidnappers that he was going to take a bath in the nearby stream but then he decided to make a run. As he ran, he ended up in a village, tired, lost, and without any shoes. While the villagers tried to help him, he initially thought they were enemies too and tried to run away.

However, the villagers eventually convinced him that they were there to help and after the police got involved, Kevin was able to come back home.

Dateline can be streamed on NBC.

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