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Family awaits word on kidnapping

Abductors in Haiti lower their ransom demand to $10,000. The money is on its way.

By AMBER MOBLEY and DAVID ADAMS
Published December 7, 2005

TAMPA - He did it for the children.

Despite government warnings telling Americans not to travel to Haiti, Daniel Thelusmar took the risk, traveling to his native country to deliver supplies to an orphanage.

Now his loved ones fear for his life.

Men, at least one armed with a shotgun, abducted Thelusmar, 26, on Saturday in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, shooting the orphanage's Canadian director in the arm, said Dottie Ryman, wife of the Zephyrhills man who helped found the orphanage.

The kidnappers made Thelusmar call his wife in north Tampa to inform her that if they didn't get $100,000, they would decapitate him.

Since making first contact, the kidnappers said they would settle for $10,000 but that they had to have it soon if Thelusmar is to live.

By early Tuesday, Ryman said, the money had been sent. Nelson Ryman, the orphanage's co-founder, left for Haiti on Tuesday. A friend of Thelusmar's in Haiti was negotiating the ransom exchange.

The State Department was not aware of Thelusmar's abduction, said spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus. If the department verifies the abduction, it will be at least the third that Hironimus has handled in Haiti in about a week.

"It's dangerous down there," Hironimus said. "That's why we have a travel warning out."

The travel warning urging Americans not to visit Haiti was issued in November.

On average, three people are kidnapped a day in Haiti, according to Corwin Noble, an American security consultant in Haiti.

"They are going for easy targets," Noble said. "The foreigners who come here don't realize how dangerous it is. It's not politically motivated anymore. It's strictly a business."

Security has been dicey since the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year. More than 7,500 U.N. peacekeepers and police are in Haiti, but they barely patrol some of the most dangerous slum districts where gangs hold sway.

Dottie Ryman said her husband wishes to help the wounded orphanage director, Ed Hughes, who lost half his arm in the shooting when Thelusmar was abducted.

Nelson Ryman also hopes to assist with Thelusmar's return, and take care of the orphans at the Tytoo Gardens orphanage.

Located north of the capital in a village, the center houses more than a dozen orphans and feeds about 150 more, Dottie Ryman said. With Hughes in a hospital, they have no one to care for them.

As of Tuesday evening, Ryman was waiting for news on Thelusmar's whereabouts.

[Last modified December 7, 2005, 00:32:06]