All language subtitles for Miracle.Fishing.Kidnapped.Abroad.2020.PROPER.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

♪

[static crackling]

♪

[birds chirping]

♪

I'd been over visiting
a classmate of mine

from Spanish class
on a Friday morning.

And I returned
to our condominium

and outside, I saw a van.

And I thought, "Oh, good,

they've come to change
my satellite service."

I wanted to get CNN

because the O.J. Simpson trial
was gonna be on

and I wanted to be able
to watch it.

But when I went in,
the guard stopped me and said,

"There's someone here
to speak to you."

And as soon as I saw him,

I knew he was from the company,

and I just went up and said,
"Is my husband dead?"

And he said, "No, no, no."

They told me
not to tell anyone,

and then they left.

And so I called Claudia
immediately and told her.

I could tell from her voice

that there was really something
very, very urgent.

♪

She was sitting on the porch,

and she put out
glasses of sherry,

and she said,
"Drink that first."

And then she told me,

"This is going to be
a long, long trial."

♪

I was actually in Egypt
when I heard about it.

It didn't seem like
this could possibly be real.

I thought that there
must have been some mistake.

I didn't understand
how this would work.

I didn't understand
what that meant,

what the future held.

And I remember being
very scared about that.

♪

♪

In 1992, my family set out
on a new adventure,

to a place few foreigners
were visiting at the time:

Cali, Colombia.

We'd lived in the Philippines
for 19 years,

so we were enthusiastic
about getting to see

a new part of the world.

I thought it would be great.

We'd be closer
to the United States.

My children were gonna be
graduating from school

and, you know,
a different country.

♪

My mom had lived
her whole life overseas

and had always loved it.

Adapting to new cultures
was part of her DNA.

That's me, Miles.

♪

That's my brother, Tom G.

We call him Geddie now.

My brother and I loved
everything about Colombia.

♪

We made friends there.

♪

And it was
a very interesting lifestyle.

People were always
into having fun,

and it was kind of
an exciting place to be.

My dad was
in his element there.

His calling was
the Green Revolution,

a worldwide initiative
to prevent mass starvation

in developing countries
through agricultural research.

My name is Tom Hargrove,
I'm from West Texas.

This is the world's largest
library collection of rice.

His passion for high-yield rice

was only overshadowed
by his love for travel.

Yes.

That's why he jumped
at the chance

to work as
a scientific journalist

for an agricultural nonprofit
in Colombia.

♪

He embraced our new life
in Cali wholeheartedly.

♪

My mom, on the other hand,

was worried
about the drug cartels.

Now that the head
of the Medellín drug cartel

is under arrest in Colombia,

a rival gang
from a rival Colombian city

is trying to take
over the cocaine market

in the United States:

the Cali Cartel.

A sophisticated organization
that's brutally controlled

from Colombia by a small group

of wealthy
and powerful individuals.

Their share of the U.S.
cocaine business alone

brought in about $13 billion
last year.

That's more than the profits
of Exxon, Ford,

and IBM combined.

[indistinct chatter]

Living in Cali
was living on the edge.

There's just
no getting around it.

One day, Tom called me
from work and said

that he thought that there was
a dead, burned body

out in the driveway,
but everybody told him

it was a mannequin.

And I said, "No,
it wasn't a mannequin.

Mannequins cost money.

It had to have been a body."

♪

The undercurrent of violence
was everywhere.

I mean, Time magazine
would have a picture

of Rodriguez on it
and Santacruz.

They were our neighbors.

♪

The boys went off
to university,

and here I was
an empty nester,

I guess they call us,
and I felt

that the danger in Cali
was escalating.

You were hearing
about the FARC around you.

The news about kidnaps
was increasing,

kidnaps on roads where
we had gone out to restaurants

in the mountains,
and I wanted to leave.

And so, I told Tom
I want him to find another job,

and he had agreed
that he would do it

after the summer vacation,

that he was going to look
for another job.

[ringing]

♪

[ringing continues]

Running late for work,

my dad was faced with a choice.

He could turn left and take
the nerve-racking drive

through suburban Cali,

or he could turn right
and take the longer

but traffic-free route

through the beautiful
Colombian countryside.

He turned right.

It would be the last decision
he'd make for himself

for a very long time.

♪

Roadblocks were a part of life
in Colombia.

The military and police
set them up everywhere

as part of their ongoing war
against the drug cartels

and the rebels,
so my dad thought nothing of it

when he came across one
in the sugarcane fields.

A teenage soldier
with a Galil assault rifle

pulled him over.

A man with a ski mask
waving a .45 automatic

motioned for him
to get out of the car.

He spoke rapidly
to another man with an AK-47.

My dad could make out
only one word: "gringo."

The group was part
of the Sixth Front of the FARC,

the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia,

the largest guerilla army
in the Western Hemisphere.

They were conducting
an operation

known in Colombia
as "pesca milagrosa,"

or "miracle fishing,"
where they set up a trap

in hopes of catching
anything of value.

That morning, it was my dad.

♪

[static crackling]

[flapping]

My brother and I
dropped out of college

to go to Colombia
to be with our mother.

It put us into
a whole new world,

a world that we decided
we would find out

everything we could about.

He was on a little road that
skirts the side of the city...

We read everything we could,

we talked to everybody we could

about who the FARC were,

about the civil wars
there had been in Colombia.

[gunfire]

The guerilla organizations
in Colombia,

the FARC, the EPL, and the ELN,

all have their genesis
in the mid-'60s.

They all had
Communist tendencies.

You can trace one group
to the Maoists.

You can trace another group
to Stalin.

But shortly thereafter,

they convert to basically
organized crime in Colombia.

They're engaged
in criminal activity,

they're engaged
in narcotrafficking,

bank robberies,

anything that results
in generating funds

for the operation.

♪

We assumed that once the FARC
realized the nature

of his humanitarian work,
helping the very people

that they claimed
to represent,

that they would let him go.

♪

My dad's work had gotten him
out of trouble before

during the Vietnam War,
when he helped spread

a revolutionary
new variety of rice

in the Mekong Delta.

When he returned to Vietnam
20 years later,

former Viet Cong told him
that they were watching him

during the war,
but that they didn't kill him

because he had brought
the new rice seeds.

We could only hope that FARC
would be as sympathetic.

♪

We got our answer 29 days later

when a package arrived
at my dad's company.

♪

♪

[static crackling]

♪

The proof-of-life video,

that was a new term we learned,
"proof of life,"

was almost comical
except that it was

actually my husband
sitting there

with a gun pointed to his head.

♪

And with this video
came a demand for $6 million.

It was almost surreal.

♪

It was, uh,
it was overwhelming.

♪

Miles was having
a very difficult time,

and I said to him, "You know,
I know you can't write,

I know you're too distraught
to do that...

♪

...but you can film this.

So why don't you video
what's happening,

and you can prepare
a little thing for your dad

so that when he comes home,
he'll know what has happened."

♪

[birds chirping]

♪

I was handling extortions
and kidnappings

of U.S. citizens as an agent

out of the legate office
which is the FBI overseas,

and I was assigned to assist
with the Hargrove incident.

My initial response

to Thomas Hargrove's kidnapping

was that it was
going to be well-handled,

that there would be
a negotiation,

and that, most likely,
a ransom would be paid,

and that he would be released.

At that point,
I thought that Tom's company

would be managing
the negotiations.

♪

Oscar Tejeda,
who was a Texan,

he was from El Paso,
and he became my lifeline.

He helped us understand
kidnapping in Colombia.

In the mid-'90s, we have
about 1,800 kidnappings a year.

That number skyrocketed

between the Gaviria
administration

into the Samper administration.

The last years
of the Pastrana administration,

there were 3,700 kidnappings
in this country,

the majority of which
were Colombians.

♪

The victims of kidnappings

and the families
that have suffered

are thousands in Colombia.

Kidnapping here became
a cottage industry.

♪

Kidnapping in Colombia was
very long and time-consuming.

The victim was not
usually killed,

but they weren't taken
very good care of.

And it wasn't for ideology.

It was for money.

♪

There had been a kidnapping
of two New Tribes missionaries

out of the city
of Villavicencio

here in Colombia.

These New Tribes missionaries

were the second group
of New Tribes missionaries

to be kidnapped in Colombia,

but the New Tribes Missions
had made a decision

that they were not gonna pay.

We felt really badly
for the New Tribes Missions.

We knew early on
that a rescue attempt

was not something
that we wanted to happen.

We knew that the chances
of success

would not be very likely

because hostages
are typically held

deep within
guerilla-controlled territory.

It's the old story,
if you have control

of the high ground,
you can see what's coming.

♪

We knew we had to negotiate,
and we knew we had to pay,

and that was the only way
we were gonna get Tom out.

♪

We didn't go back to America
very much

when I was growing up.

But when I was about 12,
we went back to Rotan, Texas,

my mother's hometown,
to stay for about six months.

♪

My grandmother, Miss Empress,
was a schoolteacher.

And the first day of school,
Empress asked me

to tell the class
about my life.

♪

And, so, I started talking,

and the class started laughing.

♪

I was later told
that they were laughing

because I talked like a Yankee,

and it was hilariously funny
to them.

There was one boy in particular

who laughed so hard,
he fell out of his desk

and his glasses
flew across the room.

Well, that boy
was Tommy Hargrove.

♪

We became friends despite
our little rocky meeting,

and he kept in contact with me
through high school.

♪

And he told me then
that he would like

to lead the same kind of life
I had led.

♪

I have great memories
of the adventures that we had.

♪

♪

♪

[laughing]

♪

♪

You became the kidnap family,

and by that, I mean
you were kidnapped yourself.

You couldn't talk to anybody.

You know, how can you go out
to lunch and say,

oh, yeah, such-and-such
about your kidnap.

It would be all over town.

You had to be very quiet.

You had to keep to yourself,
to keep behind your walls.

It changed our life
dramatically.

And we became very close
and relied on our neighbors,

the Greiners from Germany,

Uli and Claudia
and Dina and Peter.

♪

I always thought
if I was kidnapped,

I would expect my friends
to do the possible

to get me out,
and so, of course,

I was always operating
like I had to.

I was taking the role
of the father

of the entire group, and
I even called the Hargrove sons

when I came home from work,
"Hi, son."

♪

By the time Tom was abducted,

we'd already formed
this really close relationship.

And that was the only thing
we could do,

just be on this experience
together and get through it.

♪

[telephone ringing]

About the middle of November,
Tom had apparently given FARC

the Greiners' telephone number
because Claudia got a call

from the guerillas complaining

because Tom's company
wouldn't talk to them.

♪

The company let it be known

that they were not
gonna pay ransom.

♪

[crackling, creaking]

♪

They asked for $6 million.

♪

They included times
and frequencies

on which to contact them
via radio.

♪

We were told
to basically use code names

and code words to communicate
with the FARC.

It was absolutely crazy.

♪

I was very aware
at that moment

that I had a decision to make,

that I was either
going to have a chance

in saving my husband
or let him die,

and I just--I'd known him
since he was 12 years old.

Um, I wasn't gonna let him die.

♪

Take a picture...

We have the demand,
we've made the decision,

and so we had to act on it.

The first question was,
how were we gonna pay for it?

From the very first day,

Raford, Tom's brother in Texas,

had been a part
of the entire kidnap.

We talked to him every day
on the phone.

And he said, "I will take care
of the finances.

You take care
of the negotiations."

That took a big weight
off of our back.

We were always concerned
about people listening in

on our phone lines.

The Colombian government
was aware of our plans

to negotiate,
but corruption was rampant.

We couldn't trust anyone.

We were really scared
that this information

would be shared with the FARC,
the cartels,

or even common criminals,

so secrecy was really a matter
of life and death.

♪

My uncle rented
a secure telephone.

We had to actually
obtain letters

from the state department
allowing the export

of this encryption device.

♪

The next thing on our list
was to find a voice,

someone to speak for us,

and it had to be someone
who was native to the country.

♪

[barking, chuckling]

Miles' best friend, Robert,

was half Dutch,
half Colombian.

His family had been
through kidnaps.

-Say "bye."
-Bye.

During that time,
I was just starting college.

And by day, I was a student;

by night, I was a negotiator.

I got asked if I could
get on the radio

to help them with this
and, of course,

I could not reject it.

All right.

♪

Even getting the equipment
was a real problem.

Uli found this guy
who ran a gas station

near our place.

One of his family members
had been kidnapped,

and they had purchased
this big radio

and this antenna.

And after his kidnap was over,
as a public service,

he would bring the radio
and the antenna.

♪

Everyone was extremely nervous

because we didn't know
what to expect.

We realized that we needed
professional help,

and so we started searching
for consultants

to help us with this process.

My background was in the police
in the UK,

and I was recruited
into a consultancy

that specializes
in kidnap, ransom,

and other types of extortion.

David goes out to begin with,

sets up the case
with the family.

Then I came out
and took over for three weeks,

and I would continue
with the negotiations.

David told us that even
if we had the $6 million,

that it was not a good idea
to offer anything

near their initial request

because if we could afford
6 million right away,

that would mean that we could
probably afford 10 million

with a little bit of pressure.

In Colombia,
there's an expectation

on the part of the terrorists

that they'll get
somewhere between 10%

and 20% of the demand,
so one would anticipate

that their expectation
in this case

was that of a million dollars.

If you make an initial offer,

you've got to make it
big enough

to preserve his life,

but small enough
to give us room

for various moves
like on a chessboard.

So we made--I think
it was an initial offer

of about $41,000,
which was very small.

I've never made
such a small initial offer.

[beeping]

[speaking native language]

♪

The situation was very unusual.

It was almost like
expecting Boy Scouts

to do a military job.

One doesn't usually
go into a kidnap case

with involvement of people
as young as that,

and particularly Robert.

Robert had been chosen before
we arrived on the scene,

and had we been asked
to advise the family

on the selection
of communicator,

we would not have suggested
somebody as young as he was.

♪

We had all the briefing
on what was the goal

of that conversation,
getting tips.

"Okay, try to say this
this way.

Soft with this.
Now be harsh on this."

And then, basically,
breathe deep

and get ready
for the negotiation.

The biggest problem
at the beginning

was to get that point across,

that you're not dealing
with a company.

♪

You are making a pact
with the devil.

You both wanted the same thing.

They wanted to sell him
and you wanted to buy him.

So you enter
into a relationship.

♪

The goal was to convince
the guerillas

that they had gotten
as much money out of us

as they could possibly get.

If the family gave in,
all you're doing

is encouraging them
to demand more money.

It's important
that they believe

they milked us dry.

♪

For Susan, the radio contacts
were the worst part.

-Or maybe ten minutes.
-Ten minutes, yeah.

Wait for some time.

♪

I couldn't keep my mouth shut,
and I would jump up.

I thought I was very cool,
but I wasn't,

so I was assigned
to my bedroom

with all the dogs.

♪

How do you translate that
to the family?

♪

But, um, always tried
to talk to them,

"Okay, okay, let's get real.

Let's move this through.

Only you and I can
make this thing move."

You'd feel relief that
they dropped a million dollars.

From six to five million
dollars,

it's still impossible.

Yeah, so I mean
we've got to be really careful.

You'd get the crude reality

that there's still
a long way to go.

And passive-aggressive.

[speaking foreign language]

[laughing]

I think for the first time
I felt good

about everything
that was happening.

We were talking
to the bad guys twice a week

on a regular schedule.

As long as we were
communicating,

we really felt that we were
getting something done.

♪

[static crackling]

♪

♪

[thunder crashing]

What do you think?

♪

Linda is a lifelong friend
of mine.

Her husband did the same thing
my husband did.

She had been in Africa
and in Taiwan,

in Washington, D.C.,
and was now living in Peru.

And she had offered to come up
to be with us

-during the kidnap.
-Hi.

I just felt so strongly
about trying to support Susan

and her family
in any way that I could

because I just thought,
you know,

this could be my husband,

and Susan would be
doing this for me.

But I had no idea what
that would entail, of course.

You know, I brought
lots of chocolate

and all my mysteries,

and was gonna take her
to lunch.

I mean, this is what I thought,

you know,
the situation required.

I had absolutely no idea,
you know,

what it really meant
to be kidnapped.

Claudia said to me,
"We're going to handle this

like the British.

We're going to have
a formal dinner every night.

We're going to have candles
and flowers and good food.

We're going to discuss
this case

and we're going to handle it
with a stiff upper lip."

We took it in turns
to prepare nice dinners.

One day, the Greiners
will cook.

The other day, I will cook.

The other day,
who knows who will cook?

-A mess!
-A mess that I'm gonna eat.

♪

We had formed a group,
Our Team Tom,

where we needed an area
away from all the trouble,

and that's when we established
our kiosko.

It was a whole other world
sometimes.

We didn't have to stay
in the house

seeing the radio and stuff,
and we could get outside

and, well, kind of enjoy
the time we had.

[laughing]

I couldn't believe
the way they lived their life.

Things were still funny
to them.

They could laugh.

[laughing]

♪

You can't be serious
all the time.

It just doesn't work.

You'll kill yourself.

♪

It was a very long month.

It was one of the few ways
that we could keep ourselves

from going insane.

[clapping]

♪

But it almost felt guilty

to know that we were
physically comfortable

and my dad probably was not.

♪

I have a great sympathy

for anyone who loses
a child or a husband

and they don't know
where they are.

♪

If you have death,
you have finality.

But not knowing
is just horrible.

And that's why I think I tried
not to think about him.

♪

I didn't want to think about
where he was,

what he was doing,

what kind of a life
he was leading.

It was really the only way
I could survive it.

I had one job to do
and that was to get him out,

and that's all I could do.

I just couldn't think

about what he was
going through.

♪

She had the attitude that,
"I will do everything

that I can do to get him out.

I will get him out."

She just was convinced
that she could do it.

She tried every possible route.

We met with some priest
who had done missionary work

in those mountains
where we felt

that Tom was being held,
and they sent

a priest up there
to try and see

if they could contact
the guerillas.

We got in touch
with a former kidnap victim

to see if he could talk
to the guerillas.

♪

Oftentimes, when we were
looking inside a box,

she would look outside of it,

and she was able to see
things differently

than we saw them.

♪

She really never gave up.

She was really
very, very strong.

And personally,
I learned a lot from her.

[indistinct chatter]

♪

Did it not work?

We wanted to ensure
that they didn't feel

that by punishing us
with the silence

that they would win.

We decided that we were
gonna be tough.

We were gonna demand
another proof of life.

♪

It's a rare family
who have the ability

to put up with the silence

and still come back fighting.

♪

What--what...

-Seventeen.
-Yeah.

Sixteen, actually, isn't it?

[static crackling]

♪

♪

We were really spending
a lot of money.

And people who helped us
secure more funding

are still in Colombia,

and they would be
at great risk

if we discussed
how we got the money

or where we got it.

So it's just gonna
have to remain a mystery.

♪

On the next radio conversation,

we increased, like,
two million pesos.

We really felt in our heart

that we were
close, close, close

to getting Tom out.

It was exhilarating.

♪

It was shocking.

He looked terrible.

♪

His hand looked like
it was broken.

And the difference between him

and the last proof of life
was just amazing.

♪

I saw how my mother
and Susan were so frightened

when they looked at the picture

and they looked into his eyes.

♪

I'll never forget the way
his eyes looked at us

or didn't even look at us.

They were without hope.

They were just
not his eyes anymore.

♪

Susan and I were very concerned

because, you know, the children
were gonna do this,

and it was incredibly scary.

I mean, we thought,
"God, you know,

it shouldn't just be the kids."

So, you know, we talked
to David about it.

We said, you know,
"We just think

there should be some adults."

And he says to me, "Yeah,
well, maybe you ought to go.

You know, you're old

and you wear
all that leopard stuff.

Nobody is ever gonna think
you're carrying ransom money."

So I went.

♪

It was very scary.

I mean, there were police
and army all over town,

and they were cracking down
on all the drug dealers

and looking for money
besides the fact

that they were
also looking for us

because they'd been tapping
Susan's phone.

♪

We wanted to make sure
there were two cars

to bring the money
to our house.

We had a lead car and a car
that actually held the money.

I was driving the lead car,
and we had the money

in the second car.

We had radio communication
with the other car,

so we could always tell
the guys in the other car

if there was anything
suspicious on the road.

[honking]

♪

[honking]

♪

♪

The relief that I felt
when they returned home

with the money
was replaced with fear.

Here we were sitting
in an unguarded compound

with all this money.

♪

Five and ten.

♪

We had to face
a high probability

that our money delivery
will be caught by police

in one of those roadblocks.

And, so, we thought about,

"How can we hide
this money in the car?"

We wound up to put it
into wooden pallets

so it looked like
a normal Colombian delivery.

[speaking native language]

♪

♪

♪

-Shit.
-Yeah.

♪

[sighs]

Okay.

♪

I was afraid that maybe somebody
who came out of the restroom

could be one of those people
who had gotten Tom.

I think if I would've been
the mother,

I wouldn't have let me go there
and pick it up.

♪

[chatter]

[birds chirping]

What's this?

♪

♪

♪

♪

[barking]

[snoring]

♪

♪

-No!
-No!

[singing in Italian]

[operatic singing]

♪

Finally, the phone rang

and there was this man
at the other end.

♪

He gave me the instructions

that they were supposed
to pick up a message

from the bakery, La Sultana,
in downtown Cali.

♪

♪

♪

♪

We went into the bathroom

and, behind the toilet,
there was the envelope.

♪

I don't know why they always
have to hide that stuff

in toilets,
but it stank terribly.

It was so awful.

♪

[groaning]

It was a map written by hand,
and it had instructions

on which turns to take,
which roads to take.

I knew a little bit the area,
so I told them,

"Okay, it's just an off-road,
a long off-road

up in the middle
of the mountains."

It was very scary
because it was near a farm

that I used to go a lot
with some friends.

I'm like, "Okay, never going
back to that area again."

[laughing]

♪

We knew it wasn't
a smart idea to send

any of the family members
to drop off the money

because of the possibility
of them taking

a second family member.

When the payments
needed to be made,

obviously it needs to be made
by someone

of the utmost confidence,
who is trustworthy,

that you know will take
this money, make the payment,

and who isn't gonna abscond
with the money themselves

and then come up
with some stories.

Oscar found a drop man
for a sum of money

who would go to the mountains
and take the ransom,

and Uli had found an old car

and someone
who was willing to drive.

It's always best
to have two people,

each who have
their specific role,

especially when they don't know
one another.

You can now pretty much trust
that it's difficult for them

to collaborate
and come up with some plan

about how we can steal the money
and keep it for ourselves.

♪

The moment the two cars left

was a big very moment
for all of us.

We were standing there
and seeing how the two cars

and all the money
just drove out of our compound,

and we just hoped
that the right people

would get the money
and that we would get Tom back.

[gate rattling]

♪

♪

And here's...

♪

Of course, we begin
to think the worst,

that perhaps we paid
for a dead person,

that we paid the wrong people,

or that what Oscar
and the Davids

had warned us about, a double,

where they take the money
and say, "Thanks for that,

but we want more."

♪

That was very hard
for everybody to hear,

but it was the voice of reason
based on prior experience,

hoping--quite honestly, hoping--

that my negative assessment
was incorrect.

♪

[dog barking]

[clock ticking]

♪

♪

Okay, um...

♪

♪

That night, I couldn't sleep,
and I started thinking

about what Tom looked like
in his picture

and that he was up there
by himself.

♪

I thought that we had raised
our children,

they were adults,
we'd raised them well,

and they could survive
without us,

but Tom needed somebody
to come and help him.

So, very early in the morning,
I got up and packed my bag.

♪

I like to read,
so I took my Bible,

which I'd never read,
and a book on astronomy.

I thought that
would keep me busy.

I don't know,
it was just ridiculous items.

♪

And I wrote a letter,

and I woke up Linda
and gave her the message,

and then I got in the car
to leave.

♪

The next thing I know is,

Geddie is downstairs
going, "Mom, Mom,"

trying to get me
to be reasonable.

I kept on telling her
that it didn't make sense

what she was saying and what
she was attempting to do.

It was something
that was absolutely crazy,

that it wouldn't have
any net positive effect.

About this time, Geddie brought
me out a piece of cheesecake

with a cherry filling top,
and I ate that,

and that kind of calmed me down
a little bit.

[laughing]

♪

About a month after we made
the payment,

we were having dinner
in the kiosko,

I think it was maybe
a Sunday night, I'm not sure,

and Oscar called,
and he told me

it was a melancholy day

and told me to go in
and turn on the TV, which I did,

and Miles and I sat there
in absolute horror.

♪

The hostages
from the New Tribes Mission

were killed
at point-blank range

by the guerrillas
during a rescue attempt.

♪

To hear about these people
that we don't know very well

but we've met some
of their family members,

that was
an extremely depressing day.

♪

I went and recovered the bodies
of the two missionaries.

Yes, I did.

♪

It was--it was just devastating.

They had been kidnapped
for a year and a half,

and now they were dead.

It was a moment we decided
that we had to do something now.

We had to make another effort.

♪

My mother was the one
who really decided

to do something
against the advice

of the professionals.

We pleaded for the guerrillas
to release my father.

We thought
that this might help pull

at their--whatever human side
that they had.

I think that was
a brilliant move.

Not one I would have thought of,
not one I would have encouraged,

and they got
an almost immediate response.

[plastic crinkling]

♪

Once we received the double,

we felt that it was,
in many ways, a good thing

because the alternative was that
something had happened to him.

We decided that, this time,
we were just gonna try

to turn this thing around
as quickly as possible.

One thing we decided was that

we were gonna move around
the living room

so that the room became
sort of a war room.

♪

They put maps on the walls,
they put the radios out.

Now there was just no doubt
in anyone's mind

of what that room was.

♪

Oh, God!

[laughter]

[laughter]

But I found the morale
of the Hargrove family was good.

They knew where they stood.

They didn't like
where they stood,

but the previous week,
we didn't even know

where we stood or whether
we were standing or sitting.

After about a month,

the guerrillas agreed
to a sum to be paid

for the second time
for Tom's release,

and we went
into the payment mode again.

♪

♪

[horses whinnying]

[dog barking]

♪

We don't know what logistical
problem they were having

with the proof of life,
but it was scary for us.

[static]

We were interested
in getting the payment made

as soon as possible,
but all of a sudden,

nothing was happening.

The kidnappers
weren't responding to us.

We didn't get the sense that--

it wasn't that they didn't want
to talk to us.

We got the sense
that there was something

that was preventing them
from doing so.

[engines rumbling,
tires screeching]

♪

[chatter]

There's a big push
to identify

the Cali Cartel members.

There's all kinds of operations
to locate and arrest.

So, all of the city of Cali
is basically under siege

by Colombian National Police,

by operatives
of the U.S. government,

but not so much dedicated
to helping Tom Hargrove

get released.

♪

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

[static]

♪

In the last several months,

we've had more major
drug dealers arrested

than in any previous similar
time in our history, I believe,

and we're on the verge
of breaking this Cali Cartel.

[shouting, honking]

It's really frightening
to be in this country

that was just going to pieces.

♪

Uh, okay.

♪

[doors closing]

♪

Yeah.

♪

It was just too much too fast
to absorb.

We weren't ready for this kind
of thing to happen.

What are we going to do?

Are we going to accept
these letters

as a proof of life?

That was taking a big, big risk.

♪

I tended to believe
what they said was true,

and if we were ever gonna have
a chance, it was then.

♪

Someone had to make
the decision,

and I realized it was me.

♪

This time around,
one of the conditions

that we negotiated
was that the drop team

would drop off the money
in one location

and that a second team
would pick up my father

at a different location
shortly afterwards.

♪

Yeah.

[indistinct chatter]

What?

[indistinct chatter]

Thank you very much.

[groaning]

[indistinct chatter]

♪

We were still
a little bit hopeful

that this would
actually happen,

and we sent out someone
to pick him up.

♪

He came back to our house

and, uh, Tom never showed up,

and he was as upset
as any of us were.

It was a very emotional time.

♪

We were so hopeful and really,
at the bottom of our hearts,

convinced that this was
the right decision

that we had taken
of the second payment,

but there we were,

and we didn't really have
another contingency plan.

♪

We'd been duped again,

and now things were
just so desperate.

[thunder crashing]

♪

[cat meows]

[laughing]

[power saw whirring]

[dog barking]

He's here!

[dog barking]

He's here!

Mr. Hargrove is here!

Tom is here,
Tom's here, Tom's here.

[sobbing]

Yeah, he wants to know
about the news.

[dog barking]

[barking]

Can't believe it.

♪

We had this sense
of something else,

that something bigger
had happened.

This relief that something
had been taken off of our backs.

[laughing]

And the world felt lighter,

and it just felt...

like a much better place
all of a sudden.

[laughter]

Huh?

I got on the phone
and called Oscar,

and I said, "Tom was released,"
and he started crying.

And I handed Tom the phone
and said, "It's Oscar.

You've gotta talk to him
and tell him you're okay."

Probably the phone call
that I received

on August the 22nd of 1995

from a gentleman
I'd never met before,

Thomas Hargrove, saying that,
"I don't know who you are,

but Susan says
I have to call you,"

was probably
the most fulfilling

of my 20-some-odd years
in law enforcement.

♪

I think Robert Clerx,
I think he as much as anyone

was responsible for the--

well, the smooth running
of the case.

It might not have seemed
too smooth at times,

but it was smooth.

Tom wasn't mutilated,
Tom wasn't murdered,

and we only paid
about five percent.

That, my friend,
is pretty smooth.

Well, you can see your
cheekbones in that photograph...

I know that it's supposed
to be a Hollywood ending

with the music,
and this was wonderful.

You smell like a campfire!

The way I'd survived
this whole thing

was never listening to anyone
or reading anything

about what they did
to the prisoners.

Anytime anybody who had been
a prisoner and been kidnapped

tried to talk to me about it,
I just wouldn't listen.

I was really dreading

Tom telling me
what had happened to him.

[laughter]

♪

I think as a team,
we...we pulled it off.

And that night should have been
just absolutely glorious.

♪

But it had a great deal
of sadness with it.

♪

By that point,
we were so worn out

that, uh,
it was almost too much.

♪

At least for me.

♪

And I think we were very sad

because we knew that that was
the end of our group.

[shouting, laughing]

Is that unbelievable or what?

I wish I had that on...

[laughter]

♪

♪ Happy birthday, dear Dina

[laughter]

♪

We'd had a mission,
and we'd accomplished it.

And I think, many times,
people who have a mission

feel that way
at the end of it.

We had formed a platoon
to rescue Tom, and we had.

So there was great satisfaction
in that, but it was very sad.

I knew we would be leaving
Colombia

and leaving our friends.

♪

No kidding.

[airplane whirring]

♪

♪