I read about this at Opfor but had not linked it until now do to a lot of other blogging activity. Major Jill Major disappeared in Kyrgyzstan three days ago while out on a shopping trip. She had become separated from the rest of her group and simply vanished.
Maj. Jill Metzger, a personnel officer, was last seen at a Zum shopping center in Bishkek, according to the Air Force.
In response, 22 OSI agents have been dispatched to Kyrgyzstan to aid in the search. Col. Joel Reese, 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Commander, has sworn "not to rest" until Maj. Metzger is found.
Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, is 75% Muslim. It's also infamous for the brutal tradition of "bride kidnapping," where brides are kidnapped and forced into marriage by Kyrgyz men.
The Air Force maintains a refueling and airlift base (Manas AB) in Kyrgyzstan which supports operations in Afghanistan.
They asked for prayers for her. The prayers must have worked. The Associated Press is reporting that Major Metzger knocked on the door of a civilian house and told the people she had been kidnapped by three young men and a woman in a minibus. It is not clear how she got away from her abductors.
Maj. Jill Metzger, who went missing Tuesday, knocked on the door of a house in a town outside the capital early Saturday morning and told residents she had been abducted, Deputy Interior Minister Omurbek Suvanaliyev told The Associated Press.
Metzger said that she had been seized by three young men and a woman in a minibus and held in a rural area 30 miles from the Central Asian nation's capital, Suvanaliyev said.
Thanks for praying for her.
UPDATE: ABC News is reporting that Major Metzger was beaten. She is undergoing physical evaluation right now. She is reported to be coherent.
Air Force Maj. Jill Metzger, who vanished Monday in Kyrgyzstan, has been found and now is back in Air Force control, ABC News has learned.
"We are elated to have Jill back with us," said Air Force spokesman Col. Scott Reese. Local police notified U.S. officials that she had been found at 1:15 a.m. local time in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Air Force officials say she was found alone and appears to have been beaten. Officials say she is "coherent," in "relatively good condition" and is talking to investigators. She is also undergoing medical evaluation.
Officials would not comment on the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and said the investigation is ongoing
The news brought elation to Metzger's family.
"It's a dream come true. The most significant event of our lives," said Kelly Mayo, Metzger's father-in-law. Mayo said he has not spoken to Metzger yet, but believes she had been kidnapped and "whoever had her dropped her off on the side of the road."
(I typed an initial reaction to this particular news, then decided I had better wait until it was confirmed.)
Yes! As the parent this past year of a Kyrgyz exchange student in CA, my first reaction to Jill’s going missing was “bridal Kidnapping — a cultural indignity that her own sister endured several years ago (but which she could have objected to had she said “no” to the family her abductor-groom took her home to.) More scary is how an Kyrgyz/US emigre ffriend here cautioned me about sending our own 17-year-old daughter to visit her exchange sister in Bishkek last month brecause of the kidnapping risk. I poo-poo’d the possibility because our daughter is a US ciitizen and, thus, not eligible for marriage in K. She said that made little difference to either the “legitimate” kidnappers or the criminal types; they look, they see, and they grab, was her message. So please to continue to pursue this possibility and female-offensive practice whatever the bottom line is on Jill’s story.
The thing I cannot comprehend about Jill’s behavior, that she has refused to cooperate with local police to give details about her abductors.
On the day of alleged abduction, she took a taxi to Surgery Clinic, acorrdingly to taxi driver’s testament. Security cameras picked her up taking a taxi, and deliberately separating her from her group at TSUM. Her photo was placed on national television, and eyewitnesses told to police seeing at payphone making a call to someone.
She is claiming that she was in trance and cannot remember anything. Several days after, she’s been found near Russian military base with her hair dyed dark brown. She would not remember who kidnapped her. And she is not willing to cooperate with local police at all.
Was it an alien abduction, gypsy hypnosis, or psychiatric disorder?
The latter might be the case!
I remember a case of one guy, who was a latent schizophrenic. He had a top marks at university, was a brilliant student, accomplished guy, but one day, he disappeared. Police was searching him all over the places.
One day he was found, totally insane, in the woods. He tried ty bite policeman. Police asked one of my mates to calm him. But he was totally nuts. Police restrained him, and shipped him back home, to Armenia. And this case went totally confidential. No information leaked to local papers. Local journalists were informed that the guy just got lost in unfamiliar place.
Does this story sound anything like the runaway bride story of last year?
There is something odd about the whole situation, but everybody has suddenly clammed up.
I know Maj Jill Metzger; a woman of sound mind and judement. Although her return from “Missing” status has generated many unanswered questions, we (previous co-workers within her Air Force Family) are grateful that she is “Found, Alive, Safe and a Survivor.”
There are just a lot of weird conflicts in the stories – whatever, I am also glad she is safe.
I am sorry…but the whole thing is totally fishy. Wait till the details are sorted out.
This is a personal feeling based on nothing more than instinct: She’s lying.
To all those with “I have known Jill for a long time. And she never farted once†agenda.
No surprises if Jill will be booted off and sent to jail soon. Her story is complete BS.