PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) – Kayla Mueller’s parents say they wanted their daughter to tell the truth, though doing that may have cost her a chance to gain her freedom from Islamic State militants.
The international aid worker and her Syrian boyfriend were taken hostage in August 2013. He was released but returned to Syria to try to free her by telling the militants that they were married. Kayla Mueller denied it.
Carl Mueller told NBC’s “Today” in an interview excerpt shown Tuesday that his daughter’s situation “could have gone even more wrong had she lied.” And Marsha Mueller said she wanted her daughter “to tell the truth.”
The Muellers also said they had no reason to doubt the boyfriend, Omar Alkhani.
“Throughout this whole ordeal, there’s very few people that we didn’t doubt at some point – very few that we didn’t doubt that they didn’t have some other motive or ulterior motive, but we know he risked his life to try to save her,” Carl Mueller said.