Pod Insights Real Survival Stories Aid Worker Kidnapped: Held Hostage in Haiti (Part 1 of 2) About this episode An American humanitarian worker falls prey to a ruthless gang. In April 2023, Jeff Frazier is running a relief programme in Haiti - a beautiful Caribbean nation which has, in recent years, struggled terribly with extreme poverty and crime. One day, during his work, Jeff is suddenly taken hostage. From a heavily fortified compound, he will embark on a terrifying ordeal; negotiating with his captors and praying every day he will eventually make it home to his family…
A Noiser production, written by Joe Viner.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:02 John Hopkins? It's April 2023, on the outskirts of Porto Prance, Haiti. A white SUV speeds through a maze of narrow, twisting streets. It bumps over potholes and screeches around hairpins, black smoke sputtering from the exhaust, tires splashing through brown puddles. Stray dogs scamper out of the road as the SUV plunges deeper and deeper into this dense, shanty town. On the backseat, Jeff Frazier cannot see. The brim of his cap is being pushed down over his eyes by an aggressive hand. He tries to peek out from beneath this makeshift blindfold.
1:45 John Hopkins? Down to his right, he can make out a pair of skinny legs in scruffy, ripped jeans, and the jet black muzzle of an assault rifle laid across them.
1:57 John Hopkins? The masked men who have hijacked this vehicle are taking Jeff and his two security guards to an unknown location. Jeff counts the left and right turns, trying to commit the route to memory. He attempts to stay calm, but his heart is pounding as the car starts to motor up an incline.
2:19 Speaker 04 As you go higher up the hill, in this area, you're going deeper into gang territory. And so when we're headed up that hill, I know that we're being kidnapped.
2:30 John Hopkins? He soon loses count of the endless zigzag turns. Wherever they're going, it's deep inside a part of the city that humanitarian aid workers like Jeff normally avoid, a place governed by gangs who trade in human lives.
2:47 Speaker 04 It is so frightening. It's a strange realization to go from free to captive and to not only be captive, but to think that your life is in jeopardy. You know, I've been through scary situations in the past, but none of that compares to this situation.
3:17 John Hopkins? Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice?
3:26 John Hopkins? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives.
3:41 John Hopkins? In this episode, we meet 45-year-old Jeff Frazier. Jeff is an aid worker who runs food distribution in Haiti, a beautiful, culturally-rich Caribbean nation which has, in recent years, struggled desperately with extreme poverty and crime.
3:59 John Hopkins? In April 2023, Jeff is in Haiti to facilitate a relief program when he is taken hostage by one of the gangs who have taken over swathes of the country. Trapped in a fortified compound, Jeff must negotiate with his captors and forge bonds with his fellow hostages, praying every day that he will eventually make it home to his family.
4:23 Speaker 04 About 20% of kidnapping victims are killed in the process. You hope that the calculus plays out in your favor so that they see you as more valuable alive than dead. But how certain are you that they're going to do that math?
4:39 John Hopkins? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Network, this is Real Survival Stories.
5:10 John Hopkins? It's April 2023 in the town of Jacmel on the south coast of Haiti.
5:17 John Hopkins? Jeff Frazier reaches into the back of a delivery truck and pulls out two sacks of rice.
5:24 John Hopkins? Heaving them onto his broad shoulders, Jeff carries the food into a large warehouse, where more humanitarian volunteers sort the sacks into separate piles.
5:34 John Hopkins? The six-foot-two American then heads back out to the truck and hops up into the passenger seat, grateful for the cool blast of air conditioning. It's early, but already swelteringly hot.
5:47 John Hopkins? As the truck pulls away onto the next food distribution site, they pass the crowd of hungry, impoverished people forming outside the warehouse.
5:59 John Hopkins? The work he does here is not for the faint-hearted. It requires dedication, emotional resilience, and a resolute sense of purpose. These days, Jeff possesses all those qualities. But by his own admission, he wasn't always this way.
6:16 Speaker 04 I was a pretty troubled teen. Didn't do well in school, barely graduated high school. And luckily, joined the Army at about nineteen, twenty years old, the US Army. And that straightened me out. I always joke, it took a literal Army to get me on the straight and narrow, but it worked. I came out the other end, pretty tough to beat. I could withstand a lot of pressure. And that hit every edge of my life. Everything that's hard in our lives, whether it be emotionally, or physically, or financially, all of those things require grit and toughness. It was fundamental for me and became a tool that I leveraged forever after that.
7:00 John Hopkins? Jeff left the Army and went into tech, building a comfortable life for himself and his family. But throughout his time in the private sector, he maintained a strong social conscience. As a devout Christian, this impulse to help others is rooted partly in his faith. It also stems from a tragic loss that Jeff suffered following his parents' divorce.
7:25 Speaker 04 Unfortunately, my mom remarried an abusive guy who eventually killed her when I was fourteen. The more that I look back on my challenges growing up, particularly the trauma around losing my mom, I think there was a deep scar there that made me really hate that I wasn't able to save her from him. And produced this, what I'll call a hero complex that I have now, that really drives me to want to help those who can't help themselves.
8:08 John Hopkins? About a decade ago, Jeff began volunteering with an anti-child trafficking organization.
8:15 John Hopkins? Like his transformative experience in the army, the work was an eye-opener.
8:20 Speaker 04 It's one thing to recognize people have need. It's another thing to realize that you can't with fairly significant ease meet that need.
8:30 John Hopkins? When he sold his company in 2019, Jeff felt inspired to roll up his sleeves and dedicate himself full-time to humanitarian work. He decided to focus his attention on Haiti, where foreign aid has long struggled to make a lasting impact and where human trafficking is a major problem.
8:49 Speaker 04 Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere by a wide margin. Probably half of the country is in acute starvation, maybe more than half of the country is in acute starvation. So you're looking at about five or six million people in acute starvation.
9:05 John Hopkins? In recent years, natural disasters and political instability have brought Haiti to a crisis point. Following the assassination of the president in 2021, the political vacuum was swiftly filled by criminal gangs. The presence of these groups makes the work of humanitarians not only logistically difficult, but dangerous. Jeff's NGO, StimPAC, does intense work on the ground.
9:32 Speaker 04 We just started gathering food and water and going down there and getting it to the people that needed it the most. So we would partner with the World Food Program to go into areas that they couldn't get into for safety reasons. So we would make deals with these gangs to go behind enemy lines, so to speak, and go do these food and water distributions.
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11:03 John Hopkins? It's mid-morning on April the 12th.
11:07 John Hopkins? Jeff sits in the back of a white SUV as it drives east through the outskirts of Porte Prance. He has finished his food drops for the day and is now headed back to his hotel in the capital. His two Haitian security guards, DJ and Reggie, sit up front.
11:26 John Hopkins? They are driving through the sprawling district of Martisson. Once a semi-rural neighborhood on the leafy southern slopes of the city, Martisson is now considered a no-go zone due to gang violence.
11:40 John Hopkins? Ordinarily, Jeff would hire a small Cessna airplane to make drops like this, but due to the political instability, most of the pilots have shut down operations.
11:51 John Hopkins? Unable to fly over this dangerous neighborhood, Jeff has to drive through it.
11:57 John Hopkins? Still, Jeff isn't naive. He understands gang politics and has established relationships with community leaders who act as mediators between him and the criminal kingpins.
12:10 John Hopkins? Through these contacts, Jeff has an agreement in place. To travel through Martisson safely, they just need to grease a few palms.
12:18 Speaker 04 We'd made the deal with this gang to pass through this area called Martisson, which is a known area. I'd been there many times before in previous years when it was safer and the gangs weren't in charge. But now they had this toll booth where they sit in the middle of the road under a blue umbrella with AR-15s and AK-47s and you have to pay them their toll.
12:43 John Hopkins? Jeff watches from the backseat as one of the guards manning the toll booth stands up and slopes over to the SUV. He approaches the driver's window and eyeballs the passengers, his gaze lingering on Jeff, who glances at the rifle resting on the man's hip.
13:02 John Hopkins? After exchanging a few words with DJ, the guard takes the envelope of cash and motions for them to carry on.
13:09 Speaker 04 And we drove through, we kind of waved, "I'm in the backseat of the truck with the windows rolled up, and my security team is in the front with their windows rolled down, because if you have your windows up in this kind of area, they assume you're a threat and so you'll get attacked."
13:25 John Hopkins? A few weeks ago, still at home in Florida, Jeff read a story in the Miami Herald about two American visitors to Haiti who were kidnapped here in Martisson. The news wasn't exactly a shock. Abductions have become a regular occurrence in the country, a grim reality of life under the gangs.
13:48 John Hopkins? They drive on for a while longer.
13:52 John Hopkins? Soon, the stretch of disputed territory marking the border between Martisson and Port-au-Prince comes into view.
13:59 Speaker 04 We're almost to safety. There's a no man's land in between Martisson and Port-au-Prince proper, and just as we're maybe a couple hundred yards away from safety, motorcycles roll up alongside us and they start to realize, you know what, this is not good.
14:20 John Hopkins? It all happens so quickly. A door flies open, and a masked, armed hijacker jumps in alongside Jeff. Another man opens the driver door and forces DJ to scoot over.
14:33 John Hopkins? Within seconds, the SUV has been turned around and is heading back towards the toll booth.
14:41 Speaker 04 I was hopeful that when they jumped in, that it wasn't what it looked like. I was thinking, maybe we just have to go to the toll booth. Maybe they want more than what we've paid. And I had about $4,000 US on me for the Food Discretion Project because we buy all kinds of stuff while we're doing that. So I was hopeful that I could just buy my way out of the problem.
15:02 John Hopkins? But when they reach the checkpoints, the SUV doesn't stop. Instead, the driver turns left and starts speeding uphill through a labyrinth of tight, twisting alleys.
15:13 Speaker 04 As you go higher up the hill in this area, you're going deeper into gang territory. So imagine in a military environment, high ground is advantageous. So we're going to high ground. And I imagined that we were going to where the gang kingpins are.
15:36 John Hopkins? Clearly, this is no ordinary shakedown.
15:41 John Hopkins? When the hijackers first stop them, Jeff instinctively threw his cellphone onto the floor at his feet. Now, the man next to him is demanding he hand it over. There's a pile of bags in the middle seat, partially obstructing the hijacker's view.
15:58 John Hopkins? Using this to his advantage, Jeff reaches down and pretends he's looking for his phone on the floor. In fact, he's trying to sneak out a text to his contact, a local humanitarian coordinator named Bill.
16:11 John Hopkins? With the hijacker barking orders at him, Jeff frantically taps out the letters on the touchscreen. But before he can send his message...
16:20 Speaker 04 I'm reaching down, trying to get a text out, and I just can't do it in time. And he kind of, within maybe 30 or 45 seconds, realizes that he needs to work harder to get my phone. And so he starts moving luggage around. And there's no way for me to pretend anymore. So I have to give up my phone.
16:39 John Hopkins? The hijacker snatches Jeff's cellphone from his hands. Then he reaches over and yanks the brim of Jeff's baseball cap down over his eyes.
16:51 John Hopkins? Unable to see where they're going, he tries to commit the route to memory, but it's impossible to keep track.
16:59 Speaker 04 I know that we're being kidnapped, but I'm also very optimistic that I can get out of it. Because I feel like I know enough guys who know these gang leaders at the highest levels that they're gonna say, no, no, no, he's one of our guys that does food distributions in our area. We want to protect him, you know, let him go.
17:20 John Hopkins? Eventually, the vehicle comes to a stop.
17:24 John Hopkins? Jeff is bundled out of the SUV and marched towards a low slung brick building.
17:30 John Hopkins? They appear to be in some kind of gated compound, surrounded by 15-foot walls topped with razor wire. It's surprisingly lush, with tall, leafy trees casting dappled shade. There's a handful of outbuildings, all spaced generously apart, in contrast to the cramped, shanty town beyond the perimeter wall.
17:53 John Hopkins? Armed guards in basketball jerseys and flip flops watch them from their posts.
18:02 John Hopkins? Before he can take in any more of their surroundings, Jeff is pushed through a low doorway.
18:08 John Hopkins? He, Reggie, and DJ are led into a dark, cramped cell, about 10 by 14 feet, empty, except for two bloodstained mattresses. A mouse darts out from behind one and scurries across the concrete floor.
18:26 John Hopkins? The guards pat Jeff down, taking his watch, passport, credit card, and driver's license, before leaving the room and locking them in.
18:38 John Hopkins? In hushed, frightened tones, Jeff consults with Reggie and DJ. They reassure him that Reggie knows one of the gang members. He'll be able to pull some strings and get them out of their pronta.
18:52 John Hopkins? A few moments later, the cell door opens and a different guard comes in, brandishing a pistol.
18:59 Speaker 04 A guy comes in and inspects one of my security guys. And he finds some rings, some jewelry in his shoe that he had obviously been hiding. And then he begins to beat the heck out of this, this guy. Just of course startling because I was, I was hopeful for a fairly civil business-like, you know, ability to kind of negotiate my way out of this. And all of a sudden I, I realize I'm in a very different environment.
19:28 John Hopkins? The shocked, dazed Reggie lies on the floor and Jeff and DJ quickly attend to him. But it's not long before another gang member in a mask strides into the cell.
19:42 John Hopkins? This man is well dressed in crisp white jeans and a counterfeit designer T-shirt. Gold rings gleam on his fingers. He must be a higher ranking officer in the gang, a chef, as they're known in the local parlance. The chef looks around at the three prisoners, pausing when he sees Jeff.
20:04 Speaker 04 He yells loud, "Blah!", which is kind of hard to translate. It literally means white, but it really means foreigner, right? And, and he's talking to me, right? And he's, he's gloating, he's, he's excited that, you know, he's caught me, he's caught a big fish. I do speak some Krail, but he gets in my face and, and starts speaking Krail to me. And, and I'm just not understanding, he's got a mask on, so I can't see his mouth. And he's using a lot of slang, a lot of gang slang that I don't really understand, a lot of cursing that I don't understand. And so I look over at one of my security guys to translate.
20:41 John Hopkins? Jeff looks over at DJ, but he's got his head down, staring at the floor.
20:47 Speaker 04 He's pretending to not speak English. So he's already, my security guy is already positioning as a poor helpless Haitian. And if he speaks English, he's essentially saying, "I have money and I can pay a healthy ransom."
21:03 John Hopkins? DJ is thinking ahead, focusing on his own self-preservation. And as the gangster looks Jeff up and down, it becomes clear that he will have to start doing the same thing.
21:21 John Hopkins? It's around midday, an hour after their arrival at the compound. Jeff is being moved to a different cell. Why, he doesn't know, but for whatever reason, his captors have decided to keep him separated from Reggie and DJ. They march him down the corridor to a nearly identical second room.
21:42 John Hopkins? There are more prisoners inside this cell, two young men and a woman. They watch the tall, blue-eyed American with furtive, bloodshot glances.
21:54 John Hopkins? A string of blinking red and blue fairy lights hangs from the ceiling. At the far end of the cell, a small adjoining bathroom contains a toilet and a bucket.
22:06 John Hopkins? When the guards leave, Jeff introduces himself to his fellow captives.
22:11 Speaker 04 To my amazement, two of them, actually all three of them, speak English, but two of them are actually Americans. And I got to know their names, and I said, "Wait a second, I know this story. I read about this in the Miami Herald a couple of weeks ago."
22:27 John Hopkins? Jeff is stunned. The smiling faces he remembers from the pages of the newspaper look back at him now, haggard and drawn.
22:38 John Hopkins? They introduce themselves as Abigail and Jeanne Dickens Toussaint, a couple from Florida. They were passing through Matosan on a bus on their way to visit relatives when they were abducted at gunpoint. That was a month ago.
22:53 John Hopkins? The other prisoner, a young Haitian man who introduces himself as Curvin, has also been here for several weeks.
23:02 John Hopkins? Jeff's new cellmates proceed to tell him all about the gang's methods and motives. Evidently, this is a kidnap-for-ransom operation. The Toussaints have a negotiator on the outside who is speaking directly with the kidnappers, trying to reach an agreement. Jeff sits down on one of the filthy mattresses and leans his head against the painted cement wall.
23:27 John Hopkins? Being trapped here for a night would be bad enough, let alone a whole month. But he's still got a potential get out of jail free card in the shape of Bill, his colleague with connections to the gang leadership. As soon as they let him place his first phone call, Bill will come to the rescue.
23:51 John Hopkins? Later that afternoon, the Toussans sit up, suddenly alert. A month in confinement has sharpened the couple's senses.
24:00 Speaker 04 They could detect so much with just their hearing alone. And so when they kind of got their eyes big at some of the sounds, they said, "What's going on?" They said, "More people." I said, "What do you mean, more people?" They're like, "Like you, right? New kidnappies, new victims," is what they were trying to say to me.
24:18 John Hopkins? Sure enough, moments later, the cell door squeaks open.
24:23 Speaker 04 The new victims start piling into the room. There's five of them, two females and three males, all come flooding into the room.
24:33 John Hopkins? The new prisoners are all young Haitians. Shortly after their arrival, the three men are taken into the first cell, where DJ and Reggie are being held. The two women stay here with Jeff, Kervin, and the Toussans. Their names are Sarah and Stephanie. They're coworkers who were kidnapped on their way home from the office. The two women sit down on a mattress against the opposite wall.
25:00 John Hopkins? Jeff looks around at the faces of his fellow prisoners. He doesn't know these people, but there is an instant, profound sense of solidarity among the hostages.
25:11 Speaker 04 It's important to understand how important your fellow captives become to you and your survival. I remember, I think it was on probably day one or day two, somebody made the comment, "Well, we're gonna know each other for the rest of our lives now." Right? Because of how unforgettable that trauma is.
25:37 John Hopkins? That evening, a guard enters the cell and tosses Jeff his cellphone. He's allowed to make one call.
25:47 John Hopkins? He dials Bill.
25:53 John Hopkins? By now, through the course of his conversations with his cellmates, Jeff has worked out that he's been kidnapped by a local kingpin called Tilapli. He communicates this intel to Bill, but with the guard listening in, he has to tread lightly.
26:08 Speaker 04 So I send that message to Bill over the phone. I coded it. So Tilapli means little rain in Kral. And so I translated that as small precipitation. Said, "A, a small precipitation has captured me. Do you get my meaning?" He's like, "Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. I know where you are."
26:28 John Hopkins? There's little else Jeff can do. The word is out now. He just has to pray Bill comes through for him.
26:36 John Hopkins? He slumps against the wall and pulls his knees up to his chest.
26:41 John Hopkins? As his fellow hostages lie down to sleep, Jeff sits there, wide awake.
26:47 Speaker 04 It is so frightening. It's a strange realization to go from free to captive. And to not only be captive, but to think that your life is in jeopardy. I know kidnapping, about 20% of kidnapping victims are killed in the process. For whatever reason, the families don't pay enough ransom, or something goes awry. And the gangs have to keep up their reputations in order to get people to pay ransom. And so they have to kill some of them. And so you know that going in, and you hope that the calculus plays out in your favor so that they see you as more valuable alive than dead.
27:30 Speaker 04 But how certain are you that they're gonna do that math?
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28:40 John Hopkins? It's three days later. Jeff paces restlessly around his cell, listening out for approaching guards.
28:49 John Hopkins? The last 72 hours have been deathly monotonous, a nightmarish blur of little sleep and less food. There have, however, been some positive developments. Firstly, the Toussans have been released.
29:05 John Hopkins? Two days ago, a guard came to tell them that a ransom had been agreed, and they were being driven to the designated location to make the exchange.
29:14 John Hopkins? Assuming the gang is true to their word, the release of the Toussans gives Jeff reason to hope.
29:21 John Hopkins? Plus, with the money they received in exchange for the couple's freedom, the gang has provided the remaining four prisoners with a few modest creature comforts.
29:31 Speaker 04 They bought us a fan, which was great, and gave us fitted sheets for these nasty, bloody, bug-infested mattresses. So it felt like we were headed to relative luxury.
29:45 John Hopkins? Jeff has also been able to speak to his wife, Mary.
29:49 John Hopkins? She was notified of his kidnapping by the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, who Bill must have contacted on day one. Mary is, of course, beside herself with worry, but Jeff has tried to reassure her, saying that he's coping and will try to be back with her and the kids soon.
30:05 Speaker 04 And so I was able to communicate that to my wife, like, I'm okay. Right? I'm not strapped to a torture chamber.
30:14 Speaker 04 I'm okay, right? I'm gonna be fine. And I was trying so hard to communicate that to my wife, but she wasn't buying it.
30:24 John Hopkins? As well as speaking to Mary, Jeff has been back on the phone with Bill. But their last conversation wasn't comforting. Bill sounded shifty and evasive, as if the influence he claimed to have over the gang leadership wasn't quite as clear-cut as he promised. Bill has given Jeff another phone number. Somebody he says will be able to negotiate his release.
30:50 John Hopkins? But after calling this number repeatedly, he hasn't been able to get through.
30:55 John Hopkins? He's running out of patience with Bill, and soon, the gang will run out of patience with Jeff.
31:01 Speaker 04 I realize he's not going to be able to help me. That he's given me this contact that's not answering the phone, and it's just breaking down. And so I realize that my get-out-of-jail-free cards have failed, and I need to find a new negotiator.
31:18 John Hopkins? But who could that be?
31:21 John Hopkins? Jeff needs a negotiator who is well-versed in Haitian gang culture. They should be able to speak some Creole, and they need to know the logistics of conducting a ransom exchange. There is only one person he knows who meets all these criteria.
31:36 Speaker 04 I just didn't know anyone like that, except me. I was the most qualified person I could imagine on how much I would need to pay, and to whom, and how to logistically make that happen. I am the most qualified operator on all of those things that I know. So why don't I just negotiate for myself?
32:00 John Hopkins? Later that day, Jeff asks his captors if he can barter on his own behalf. They agree.
32:08 John Hopkins? On the afternoon of his fourth day in captivity, a guard escorts him from the cell.
32:15 John Hopkins? As he follows the man down the corridor, Jeff has to suppress the urge to make a break for it.
32:21 Speaker 04 It's hard to quantify how powerful the drive to get home is, to get home to your family. Like, you have to be talking yourself out of attacking these guards often because they come into the room and they're tiny. And I have a lot of military training. These are not trained individuals. I'm, at that time, was probably 250 pounds and six foot two, and these guys are 135 pounds. But you have to really suppress those thoughts because that's obviously a terrible idea. Yeah, you, you can get through that guard, but then there's 200 soldiers within a mile of this place that are all armed. Where are you going to go? Yeah, you can get outside the building, but then what?
33:06 John Hopkins? Like it or not, Jeff is going to have to play by the rules.
33:13 John Hopkins? The gang member takes him into a kind of kitchen area, stripped bare, except for a small formica table and a couple of chairs.
33:22 John Hopkins? All this time, Jeff has been anticipating a business-like negotiation. He'll say a number, they'll go and run it by their boss, then come back and counter, et cetera.
33:33 John Hopkins? But he soon sees the naivety of that assumption.
33:38 Speaker 04 What really happens is they come with chalk treatments and they've, they got packing tape that they're going to take me up with and they set it on the counter and they're, you know, they're buzzing the taser, you know, which is a really loud scary noise, right? While negotiating with me.
33:54 John Hopkins? The gang member aggressively demands $2 million, a ludicrously large sum.
34:01 John Hopkins? He's probably just highballing, setting the ceiling absurdly high to force Jeff to cough up more. So he counters. Maybe he can scrounge together 30,000? The man fixes Jeff with a menacing glare, then motions again towards the taser and packing tape. Jeff quickly blurts out another offer, 50,000. This is met with another shake of the head, another sinister stare.
34:30 Speaker 04 Eventually, I say something like, you know, I think I might be able to scrape together 100 grand. And that's the number that they kind of glom onto. Like, if you can come up with that number, we won't torture you and we'll let you go.
34:46 John Hopkins? The gangster hands Jeff his cellphone. Time to start gathering the money. As he dials, he kicks himself over his negotiating tactics. He gave away too much too soon. But there's no going back now.
35:01 John Hopkins? The first person he calls is a security contractor in Haiti who Jeff calls Gunny. When he picks up, he already knows about Jeff's situation. Evidently, Mary has been phoning around her husband's contacts, mobilizing a support team.
35:17 John Hopkins? Jeff is gonna need to wire the $100,000 from his American accounts across to Gunny's Haitian bank account. He agrees to withdraw the cash and act as courier.
35:28 John Hopkins? Next, Jeff calls his brother-in-law, Aaron.
35:32 John Hopkins? Aaron has handled investments for him in the past and has access to his finances. Jeff asks him to wire the cash to Gunny. He thanks his brother-in-law and hangs up the phone.
35:44 John Hopkins? Having placed his calls, Jeff is led back down the corridor. And returned to his cell.
35:55 John Hopkins? He drops onto the mattress and stares at the wall, replaying the events of the last hour.
36:02 John Hopkins? $100,000. Transferring such a large sum of money internationally won't be instantaneous. It will be flagged and reported, and Aaron will have to explain everything to US Customs. This will take time.
36:18 John Hopkins? The fan in the corner oscillates slowly, pushing a weak breeze through the warm, stale air. Jeff closes his eyes.
36:29 John Hopkins? His freedom is now in the hands of others. He trusts his people, but communication is going to be fragmented and frustrating.
36:39 Speaker 04 It began a massive amount of confusion between me and my team on the outside. It was so hard for us to communicate clearly one with another. They presumed that I was always under duress, meaning at gunpoint, being forced to say certain things, because that is the case in many kidnapping scenarios. But that was not the case here because they didn't speak English and none of my gang captors spoke English. I was essentially able to speak freely the whole time that I was there, but my team never believed that.
37:13 John Hopkins? In hostage negotiations, the protocol is to assume any communication with the captive is being monitored or controlled by the kidnappers. That's the assumption Jeff's team on the outside is making. They're doing things by the book. It's the only way.
37:31 John Hopkins? A few days after first speaking to him, Aaron breaks some bad news. He can't get hold of the 100,000. All they can scrape together is a relatively meager 13 grand.
37:44 John Hopkins? Jeff places more frantic calls to other contacts, but again, communication breaks down. Nobody believes that he is literally asking for $100,000. They assume they're negotiating with criminals and they won't simply concede to their first demand. But Jeff tries to make it clear that the gang isn't making empty threats.
38:07 John Hopkins? After his own negotiation, he witnessed the torture of his fellow hostage, Stephanie.
38:13 John Hopkins? The threat of more pain hangs in the air. The gang is deadly serious. If his team can't secure the ransom, Jeff's options are running thin and he may have to go down a different, rather more drastic end.
38:36 John Hopkins? Jeff is now well over a week into his captivity. By this stage, he knows every corner of this cell inside out. In terms of security, it's not exactly Fort Knox. The ceiling is a grid of interlocking T-bars and lightweight panels, easy enough to remove. Trouble is, the roof itself is made of corrugated tin sheets bolted together. Trying to climb across them would be extremely precarious and noisy.
39:07 John Hopkins? The cell door is flimsy wooden balsam, but again, there's no way to break it down quietly. And the guards' living quarters are just beyond it, where they spend all day blasting music and drinking.
39:20 John Hopkins? As for windows, there are three: two in the main cell, one in the bathroom.
39:27 John Hopkins? After discussing various options with his fellow prisoners, Jeff concludes that if he's going to break out, then one of the three windows presents the likeliest route.
39:36 Speaker 04 Those windows are covered in bars, both horizontal bars and then diagonal bars that kind of create these trapezoidal shapes. It was good, well-made bars. And so I was gonna have to figure out a way to bend those bars.
39:52 John Hopkins? Jeff closes his fists around the iron bars and gives them a strong tug.
40:00 John Hopkins? They hold firm, barely a millimeter of give. But at least now he has a problem to solve, something to keep him occupied. Over the course of the next few days, Jeff workshops various solutions to the problem. Then, one afternoon, while staring at the defunct ceiling fan, he gets a brainwave.
40:23 Speaker 04 On the inside of that fan, they've got copper coils, you know, that make it spin. And that idea of those, the copper coils wrapped around and around and around, having greater strength, got my brain thinking, okay, if I could just find some sort of a rope... I knew the copper wouldn't work because copper breaks really easily. But if I could find something around to make rope out of, then maybe I could exert enough force on these bars to pry them open.
40:53 John Hopkins? He starts looking around the cell for makeshift solutions.
40:57 John Hopkins? His gaze falls on one of the mattresses on the floor. Specifically, the length of nylon ribbing stitched along the utmost edge. Maybe by looping the nylon string around the bars and twisting, he could exert enough pressure to bend them.
41:14 Speaker 04 I cut the nylon ribbing off and I pull it and it rips, which was super disappointing. It killed my plan.
41:21 John Hopkins? The brittle fibers come apart in Jeff's fingers. He drops them onto the floor, his great escape in tatters. Then, his eyes shift across to the other mattress. This one notably newer and less frayed than its counterpart. It's worth a shot.
41:44 Speaker 04 And so I pulled that nylon ribbing off and tried that and it was much stronger. Like, okay, this might work. And so, one day, like the guards were away, I snuck into the bathroom and took my nylon, my new nylon rope, and wrapped it around those bars and then stuck a piece of metal that I had, it was a curtain rod that I stole from another one of the windows, and was able to twist it like a tourniquet in order to pull the bars close together. And it worked.
42:18 John Hopkins? Jeff rotates the curtain rod, winding the nylon rope tighter and tighter, until the iron bars flex under the pressure, bending inwards like a bow tie.
42:30 John Hopkins? Pleased with his handiwork, Jeff lets go.
42:37 John Hopkins? He doesn't want to reshape the bars too much, or the guards will notice. He just wants to establish that it's possible. That if desperate measures are required, at least he has a backup plan.
42:51 John Hopkins? At this stage, negotiating his release is still Plan A. He's continuing to communicate, albeit sporadically, with Aaron, Mary, Gunny, and others on the outside, hoping that someone will come through with the money.
43:08 John Hopkins? For their part, Jeff's team has started urging him to employ an outside negotiator, an experienced professional, who can perhaps bring the ransom price down. Because, as Jeff approaches the two-week mark, the gang remain resolute in their demands. And if he isn't able to meet those demands, then he will eventually become less of an asset to them and more of a burden. For now, he's still more valuable to his kidnappers alive than dead. The question is, how much longer will that be the case?
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44:46 John Hopkins? Jeff lies on his side, facing the wall. His stomach growls with hunger. His mouth is parched, and his teeth feel rough from weeks without brushing. As he enters his third week in captivity, there is still no sign of the $100,000. His team are resisting, and Jeff has begun to understand why.
45:11 John Hopkins? It's not that they're being careless with his life. It's that the professionals who Mary and Aaron have consulted have all advised a tougher negotiation. By giving the gang what they want at the first time of asking, there's every chance they'll refuse to release Jeff and demand more money.
45:29 John Hopkins? Eventually, he decides to trust the team that his wife has assembled.
45:34 Speaker 04 I had said before that I could only imagine myself being qualified to negotiate and understand the the dynamics of Haiti and the language and how to to logistically move money and how to safely actually do an exchange and all of that. I couldn't imagine other people knowing how to do that. Well, my wife had put together a team of people more qualified than me to do that very thing. I start to figure it out, like, hey, I think this team she's putting together might be pretty good, might be qualified to take this off of my shoulders so I don't have to be this idiot on the inside.
46:12 John Hopkins? Jeff finally agrees to turn the negotiations over to his outside team.
46:19 John Hopkins? When the guard next brings him his cellphone, he speaks with Gunny, who introduces him to a local negotiator named Billy, who seems well-equipped to handle the gang.
46:28 Speaker 04 I quiz him a little bit on his background and become convinced, okay, I think I've got a qualified team. And he says, okay, let me have the ball. Stop screwing around, Jeff. And I said, okay, but you got to understand I've committed to this 100K number.
46:45 John Hopkins? Billy tells Jeff that he'll handle it. He'll inform the gang that US Customs have blocked the 100,000 from getting into Haiti. If they want their payday, they'll have to agree to a lower amount. Jeff agrees to the new strategy.
47:02 John Hopkins? When the guard comes back, Jeff tells him that from now on, his negotiations will be handled by others. The guard snatches the phone from his hand and stalks back out of the cell.
47:14 John Hopkins? The next few days are an agonizing wait for news. Over the course of his three weeks in captivity, Jeff has been able to observe certain patterns in the gang's behavior. He's reached a point where he can predict their next move.
47:30 Speaker 04 I've seen this cycle that happens with the gangs, where they get money from a ransom payment, and they're thrilled, and they use the money, and they buy bullets and drugs and food, and then it runs out, and then somebody else gets out, right, somebody gets released, and they get more ransom money, and there's this pattern. And it was about a week at a time, it's like they wanted weekend money, right?
47:57 John Hopkins? A couple of weeks back, Curvin was released. Then, about a week ago, a ransom was agreed for the release of Sarah.
48:06 John Hopkins? If the pattern that Jeff has observed is correct, then another hostage release should be imminent. It's just him and Stephanie left now. He spends each day pacing the cell, his heartbeat increasing every time he hears a guard's approaching footsteps. Could it finally be his turn? Then, towards the end of his fourth week in captivity.
48:30 Speaker 04 Sure enough, that pattern comes up around day 26, day 27, and my team gets an agreement.
48:44 John Hopkins? The next day, a guard comes to tell Jeff that his courier is bringing the ransom.
48:50 John Hopkins? Once they receive the cash, they'll drive back up to the compound to release him.
48:55 John Hopkins? Optimism builds. The nightmare appears to be ending.
48:59 Speaker 04 So my team came and they did the drop, they made the payment, and the normal MO is for, once your courier drops the cash to the gang, they then take that money back up the hill to the fort, and they count the money, and they decide whether or not they're gonna let you go.
49:17 John Hopkins? Jeff spends the morning of day 28 in a state of high alert and heightened anxiety. He listens out for vehicles, but nothing comes for hours. Until, eventually, the door flies open and several guards barge into the cell. Jeff jumps to his feet, shoes on, ready to go. If he had a bag, it would be packed. But something is clearly wrong. The guards appear to be angry, agitated. They're shouting and gesticulating with their guns.
49:51 John Hopkins? Slowly, a new possibility presents itself. Perhaps the guards aren't angry. Perhaps they're excited.
50:01 John Hopkins? Slowly, Jeff manages to piece together what they are saying.
50:07 Speaker 04 They're yelling. I was having a hard time following it, but they essentially said, "We got the money, but we're not letting you go." I said, "Wait, wait, wait. Didn't you have an agreement?" They said, "Yeah, we had an agreement. We had an accord." "Did they pay the amount that you agreed to?" "Yes, but it's not enough. And we're gonna beat you and torture you until you pay the 100,000."
50:33 John Hopkins? The guards leave the cell.
50:36 John Hopkins? Jeff collapses onto an upturned bucket and stares off into space.
50:41 John Hopkins? Sitting on her mattress across the cell, Stephanie watches him with sympathy in her eyes. Perhaps the only person in the world right now who can understand his despair and disappointment.
50:55 John Hopkins? Jeff looks back at his cellmate. Her hair, matted and disheveled, bruises on her arms. Then Jeff turns his head and points his gaze towards the bathroom window.
51:09 Speaker 04 I was sitting on a bucket right by the door and I looked across at that western window that I was planning to escape from and decided right there that, I guess, if we're not going out the door, we're going out the window.
51:31 John Hopkins? Next time, we return to Jeff as he prepares to make his daring bid for freedom.
51:37 John Hopkins? In the dead of night, with the guards distracted, he'll commit to the prison rink. But even with careful preparation, it seems cursed from the outset. Can he overcome the many obstacles in his path and escape into the jungle? Or will he be caught? And if so, what punishment awaits?
52:01 John Hopkins? That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen to part two of Jeff's story right now without waiting a week by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Click the link in the episode description to find out more.
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Previous Clinging to a Mast: Boat Going Down Next Aid Worker Kidnapped: Daring Bolt for Freedom (Part 2 of 2) Page updated November 5, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated