Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 8, 1990 TAG: 9006080428
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PEORIA, ILL. LENGTH: Medium
Inside, Roy and Marge Heimdal huddled with their two daughters as friends and strangers alike scrambled to gather the $60,000 ransom they hope will save the Heimdal's 27-year-old son, Scott, from South American kidnappers.
"This is for your son," the woman said as she quickly handed over the money.
"Can I get your name?" Heimdal, 52, asked the woman.
"It doesn't matter," she responded.
The Heimdals hoped to wire the money to Ecuador by today to make the kidnappers' Monday deadline. The money will be given to an unidentified intermediary who will carry it into the jungles along the Ecuador-Colombia border, where their son disappeared April 28.
Scott Heimdal, an engineer for a gold-mining company near Quito, Ecuador, was in a boat ambushed by Maoist insurgents who killed its pilot, wounded a passenger, and kidnapped Heimdal and an Ecuadoran student.
They subsequently released the student with two letters from Heimdal, one to his family and the other to his company, Iminco Co. The letters' contents were not revealed.
Marge Heimdal, 47, said the kidnappers, reportedly members of a Colombian guerrilla group known as the Popular Liberation Army, have threatened to "show us where his body is" unless they get paid.
The manager of the mining company where Heimdal worked said Thursday that the kidnappers and representatives from Heimdal's family have met five times, and he said without elaboration that negotiations were going well. He showed a color photograph of Heimdal sent by the kidnappers to show he is alive.
In Illinois, Roy Heimdal said Thursday night the family had received 10 photographs of his son recently, and speculated the photo released in Ecuador could have been from the same roll of film.
He said about $35,000 had been raised after the family made a televised plea for help.
U.S. and Ecuadoran officials would not comment on negotiations between the kidnappers and family.
On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Dave Denny said the family was advised not to pay any ransom, in keeping with U.S. policy, "but families are free to do what they must do."
"It's not easy to strip your soul in front of the whole country," Marge Heimdal said.
Since the Heimdals went public, the people of Peoria and elsewhere have been offering help.
Steakhouses, taverns and sandwich shops have joined the cause to raise ransom money. Nursing homes have held bake sales and waitresses have donated their tips.
For the Heimdals, the kidnapping is just the most recent in a string of personal problems.
In 1981, when Peoria's economy plunged into deep recession, Roy Heimdal was forced to leave the real-estate business, his line of work since 1969. The family moved to Chetek, Wis., opening a cabinet business and flower shop.
Then in 1983, Marge Heimdal was critically injured in a wreck with a drunken driver. She suffered head and back injuries, and was hospitalized for most of two years.
Medical bills surpassed $300,000, and when their insurance ran out, the family was forced to sell everything to pay the bills.
"I can't remember my kids as babies, and my speech was affected," Marge Heimdal said. "We sold everything and moved back to Peoria in 1988."
The family maintains faith that their son will return home safely.
"My dream is coming home on a plane with Scott and being met at the Peoria airport by hundreds of people and all of them holding yellow ribbons," Marge Heimdal said. "Scott belongs to this community now. They are fighting for his life, just like we are."
by CNB