An American man found wandering the streets outside the Syrian capital of Damascus barefoot identified himself as Pete Travis Timmerman on Thursday. Timmerman was last seen in Budapest, Hungary, in June and had not been heard from in months.
He said he was detained while on a Christian pilgrimage that led him from Hungary to Lebanon, where he eventually crossed into Syria on foot illegally.
He was taken captive while the nation was under the rule of President Bashar Assad but freed when rebels overtook the city of Damascus. Early Thursday morning, a video circulated with Timmerman laying under a blanket on a mattress.
A group of men said he’d been treated well and would soon be freed according to reports from The Associated Press. Some mistakenly thought it was journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012.
However, Timmerman confirmed his identity in an interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic news channel, where he admitted he was not beaten but could hear others being tortured in neighboring cells.
His family called his release a “Christmas miracle” in a statement to NPR.
“At first, I was hoping it was him, but we didn't know if it was a scam or what. And then my daughter saw him on the news," Timmerman’s mother, Stacey Collins Gardiner, told the outlet. "Not him, but they were talking about Travis ... and I was so surprised. I was so happy, I cried too — happy tears."
She is awaiting his return home to Urbana, Miss., where he lived before his international travels, as reported by NPR. Timmerman is a graduate of Missouri State University and also has a law degree.
After working in Chicago for a few years, he went back to Missouri with a desire to serve abroad. He embarked on a journey across the world that he said would provide little resources for communication with his family back home.
Upon the discovery of her son, Gardiner said she is excited to reconnect with her son who she hasn’t heard from in months.
“I will hug him. ... And then I probably won't let him go," she said in a statement to NPR.
"I'll say, well, thank God you're still alive. And I'm so happy. Our prayers came true."
U.S. officials said they are now working to confirm Timmerman’s identity and are working to bring him back to America.
