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Ex-Hostage Stansell Arrives In Florida

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By Todd Ruger

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: July 13, 2008

LAKEWOOD RANCH — After almost 51/2 years as a hostage of Colombian guerrillas, where he was forced wear heavy chains around his neck while marching for hours and while sleeping, Keith Stansell is finally home.

He arrived on a private jet from San Antonio, where he and two other men who were also hostages had been receiving medical care after their daring rescue two weeks ago. He spoke briefly to the media in Texas, asking for another six weeks of privacy.

"Today, for the first time, we're going home," Stansell, 44, said. "There's family members waiting for us. Let us go home and be family men again."

The lives of Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes were put on hold Feb. 13, 2003, when their drug-surveillance plane crashed in the Colombian jungle. They were captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which viewed the Americans as among their most valuable bargaining chips.

Stansell and his two colleagues from Northrop Grumman Corp. had been the longest-held U.S. hostages in the world. Officials say military spies tricked rebels into giving up 15 hostages -- the Americans, French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 11 Colombians -- without firing a shot.

Stansell told the media in San Antonio that they were thankful to their rescuers and their company, but wanted the spotlight on the hostages still in captivity.

"Please remember the hostages that are left behind," Stansell said. "Right this minute, they're in chains, looking for food, and they're on the run, and their families haven't seen them in 10 years."

San Antonio became the place where Stansell was reunited with his family and reacquainted with American life, including his children from a previous marriage, Kyle, 16, and Lauren, 19, who are both from Sarasota.

His Colombian fiancee traveled to meet him in Texas along with their 5-year-old twin boys, Nicolas and Keith, who saw their father for the first time.

Patricia Medina was pregnant when Stansell's plane crashed. He later learned in captivity that she had given birth to twins. She told Colombia's RCN Radio in a broadcast interview that she and Stansell plan to get married.

Former Colombian Sen. Luis Eladio Perez, who was freed in February, said he relayed Stansell's marriage proposal to Medina back then, and she accepted.

Medina met Stansell in April 2002 while working as a flight attendant on an Avianca flight.

During his father's five-year captivity, Kyle Stansell had moved from Georgia to Indiana to Sarasota, growing from a thin 10-year-old to a 6-foot-4-inch forward on the Cardinal Mooney basketball team.

Lauren Stansell had competed in beauty pageants and graduated from high school, and is studying to be a dental hygienist like her mother.

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