
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 10, 1990                   TAG: 9006100178
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-18   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PEORIA, ILL.                                LENGTH: Short

RANSOMED MAN EXPECTED BACK AT WORK

An American miner kidnapped by South American guerrillas will be released and plans to continue working in Ecuador, his employer said.

Jeff Fino, a 39-year-old Pennsylvania native who moved to Ecuador three years ago to work a gold mine, said he expects the guerrillas to honor their word to return Scott Heimdal of Peoria after receiving $60,000 in ransom Friday. Fino also expects Heimdal to be back at his job.

Heimdal was taken during an April 28 ambush in an Ecuadoran jungle that left one man dead and another seriously wounded.

His family raised Heimdal's ransom through a public appeal capped by a flurry of donations in the last few days. His parents, Roy and Marge Heimdal, wired the $60,000 to a bank in Quito, Ecuador, just before a deadline of noon Friday.

Fino said the group has promised never again to harass employees of Iminco, Fino's mining company. He said they have also promised that no other guerrilla groups will harass the company's operations.

The kidnappers, members of a Colombian group known as the Popular Liberation Army, have made similar promises in the past and kept them, he said.

by CNB