Missing Md. Writer Escapes Libya Prison
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Maryland journalist held behind bars in Libya for nearly six months is free. Matthew VanDyke made contact with his mother for the first time Wednesday afternoon.
Meghan McCorkell spoke with his mother and has new information about what happened to VanDyke.
Matthew VanDyke was held in two prisons in Libya in solitary confinement for nearly six months. He says he can't even remember being captured.
With just the prison jumpsuit on his back, Matthew VanDyke escaped from behind bars.
"He told both of us he sat and stared at a wall," Sharon VanDyke said.
For five months, Matthew's mother and girlfriend have fought to bring him home. Wednesday, they got the call they'd hoped for.
"So I answered the phone," said his girlfriend, Lauren Fischer. "And I heard his voice. He said my name and I just started bombarding him with questions."
VanDyke was captured in the city of Brega but has no memory of his arrest.
"Next thing he knows, he was in prison. He told me he woke up to the sound of someone being tortured," said Sharon VanDyke.
For months, he feared the worst. He told his mother and girlfriend that he heard men in the hallway and thought he was about to be executed. But those men were fellow inmates who helped him escape.
"It's great news that we are going to bring Matthew home so he can hug his mother," said Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger.
Ruppersberger has been working with the State Department to secure VanDyke's release.
Wednesday, the State Department said, "We are diligently working through a variety of contacts, including the Hungarian embassy in Tripoli, which serves as our protecting power to provide assistance to those who may require it."
Matthew's mother is looking forward to having her son back on American soil.
"He said he wanted to see history in the making and I said he was right smack in the middle of it," she said.
VanDyke says he was not injured or tortured. Now he is at a secure compound in Libya.
He went to Libya to document the uprising there. He plans to write a book.
