that theyt( just become almostt infatuated with -- with the man, with the legend, with the myth, and for me that was5a never th case. it was about the challenge, it was about the hunt. 4

shares her drama story. how she helped secret agents hunt down her captor. >> this allñiñi plays like a to clancy thriller. >> absolutely. >> the setting, a perfect island paradise. the plot, a daring undercover sting. >> you were supposed to get -- >> ñiyes. ív. >> what did they give you? ív. >> $10,000. n"t work. >> face to face with her kidnapper at last. >> i just broke down. >> it's still harñçó for you. >> this is real life, like pain. >> would she get justice? >> i got the courage in that moment, and i said, '

>> hello and welcome to "dateline." amanda lindhoutd.çm a fearless young journalist willing to brave the +world's most dangers hot spots. then oksuddenly, she became a story, kidnapped by rebels in somalia. c hands of her captors nearly destroyed her. what happened after she was freed was almost just ase1 terrifying. here's kate snow with "the capture."e1 >> mom. >> e1amanda. amanda, i love you. >>i] imagine being the motu on

intertwined. amy >> my head is pulled back and then there was ae1 serrated kni. >> and her mother, lorinda stewart. did youk keep it together? >> i did. i had to be strong for her.çót(d >> driven by strength, i]courag and endurance, these women would not onlynb survivei] this orde but their determination in a completely new chapter of their story would ultimately lead them to triumph over one of 6t men who had terrorized them to brutally. and it would take like somethin a movie. >> it does. we always refer to this operation as the all of that, t q>s)y begins in a small town in

western canada where a young w for a world beyond here1 hometown. >> one constaas go to every countryfáe1 in the world. >>i] ama6d dreams of s world in the '90s. at 19, she was off to venezuela. >> we're driving in the back of a pickup truck away from the village back to theñr town of santa elena. >> the whole world was open to mexd at that time. >> so open, she kept moving forward. >> going from indiañi tolp paki, it did feel like a big deal. it was something i really wanted to do, and then i did it. and afghanistan wasçó right nex door. >> momq lorindaxd grewe1 concer especially as her daughter trekked into active war zones. she tried to talk amanda out of those trips, butçó she said her

daughter was çóxdheadstrong. and the more amanda traveled, the more she began to see a path to something else. >> she thought, wow, you know, ó would love to write about the peoplexd that i'm meeting. >> she resolved to turnó[ herj wanderlust into a journalism career. shejf wanted to get moret( experience but also cover stories she cared about. you need to get out there and go somewhere where you cane1 get a break. "->> i'm also starting t little bit further out onto the horizon. >> how far? one of the most dangerous places in the world. >> what othert( stories are out there that i feel passionate about? at the top of my list wast(t(fr somalia. >> amanda knew she had to tell her mother lorinda about hert( plans. and you're thinking, what? >> i would really rather she didn't go. >> do you think maybe you were, to use your mom's word, a littl1 headstrong? >> yeah, i was headstrong, and d don't think i had spent enough time thinking about what would happen if something did go

wrong. >> soon enough, she wouldjf fin out just how wrong things could go. on the plane intow3 mogadishu, e remembers a fellow passenger turning to her and her colleague nigel99 wiun a stern warning. >> he said to me, your head, your head alone, is worth half a million dollars in mogadishu. be careful. >> as amandañi left the airport the capital city wasx [ sound ofok gunfire ] >> back at home, lorinda worried about her daughter. >> i just made sure every time i talked toq her that i told her loved her. >> amanda managed toxd tamp dow her nervousness and got to work. on her third day in somalia, she was a car with nigelt( chasing story. >> the vehicle started to slow down, and ie1 looked up. about a dozen armed men were emerging from where theyq had been hidden,t ak-47s. next&k%ing i knew, my door was

pulled open, and i found myself .pspread eagle with a gun to th back of my head. >> terrifying. >> i asked, is this about money? and hefá said toe1 me, it might something her mother lorinda stopped hearing from her daughter. she began to fear the worst. she didn't want to be right, bun in somalia. you must have felt so helpless. >> i felt like we were so far apart, and we didn't know where our daughter was. >> i think i would have been a collapsedñr puddle on the floor >> well, i knew i couldn't. i couldn't. >> lorinda reached out to canadian officials, who told her this was, in fact, a kidnapping by islamic rebels, and they scrambled to set up a recording system in case the kidnapperslp called. my cell

phone rang, andq it was adam, wo was negotiator for the kidnappers. >> canadian investigators had lorinda lead the negotiations. but what she couldn't know then was just how much terror the man who called himselfe1q adamr bring into her life. >> there are two options. only to say, i don't want to any money. otherwise, to pay $1 million for your 5?1daughter. >> when this adam called lorinda on day four, he had ar&surpris. >> okay, lorinda. >> yes. >> talk to your daughter. >> amanda? >> mom?fá >> amanda, i love you, sweetheart. >> proof thatfá amandaw3 was al. >>e1 after the first couplee-m we realized that this might go on for longer thançó we hoped. >> on the other side of the globe, amanda couldn't know how longq she'd be held, but feared the worst. >> i was the only female innn group o,1 about 16e1 men.

so there was a lot of scarye1 thoughts. >> coming up, the danger and terror escalate. >> tonight they have broughtñi out to kill me. >> and later, a twist straight out of a hollywood çóthriller. >> you're an undercover agent. >> correct. >> can amanda help turn the tablesz( on her captor?xd >> my heart started pounding, and i fell to my knees, andxd i started crying. >> when "dateline" continues.

nearly a month after being

kidnapped, one morning the captors came for amanda and her colleague nigel. they were taken out of their room and marched outside. there he was, the man known as adam. >> we were terrified, and a small video camera was brought out. and we were told to beg for our lives. >> september 17th, 2008, lorinda turned on the tv in canada and saw this. a hostage video on al jazeera. she was crushed. it was the first time she had seen amanda, and she didn't look good. what are you feeling as you watch it? >> i just want to bring her home and never, never let her go. >> weeks turned to months, and then their captors separated amanda and nigel. why was that so important? >> that day and the days that

followed were among the very, very worst because suddenly i'm alone with my own thoughts and my mind. >> amanda's mind ran wild. she feared she would be raped. then one day, a captor entered her room. it turns out your fears were justified. >> he did cross that line, and my worst fears were realized. and my whole experience in captivity really changed. >> somehow, she held on. and then one night amanda was jostled awake and driven out into the desert alone. what happened next was terrifying. >> they had brought me over to an acacia tree. they my head is pulled back, and then there was a serrated knife. >> the ruthless kidnappers told a desperate amanda she only had three minutes to plead for her

life with her traumatized mother on the other end of the call. >> if you guys don't pay $1 million for me by one week, they will kill me, okay? tonight they have brought me out to kill me. >> amanda, amanda, stay strong. stay strong, hon. that phone call definitely made it harder not to let my imagine go. >> did you keep it together? >> i just felt like i had to, that i had to be strong for her. >> canada does not pay ransom to kidnappers, so if lorinda wanted to buy amanda's freedom, she was on her own. a world away in somalia, amanda and nigel, locked in separate rooms, had discovered something. if they each stood at their windows, they could hear each other. they began to hatch a plan.

>> nigel realized that we might have a chance to escape out that bathroom window, which at first seemed like an impossible idea. >> each time they used the bathroom, they chipped away at the mortar holding the bricks together blocking the window. then they would replace the loose bricks until one day, the hole was big enough, and they made a break for it. >> from the moment that i dropped down out of that bathroom window and hit the sand below, i knew that it was bad. >> they sprinted for a mosque, the one place where they thought they'd be safe. >> right before we stepped in, i looked back, and i saw one of our young captors. >> inside the mosque, one person stepped forward to try and help amanda, someone she'll never forget. >> it was the first woman that i had seen in about five months. and when she hugged me and held on to me, it was the first time

in that five months that i felt something akin to being safe. >> that feeling would be fleeting. >> i just clung onto her, and i started pouring out my heart to this woman, and she began pleading with my captors to let me go. >> her pleas were ignored. the kidnappers circled amanda, guns drawn, and began dragging her out of the mosque. >> that woman threw herself on top of me and was drug partway across the floor with me until she couldn't hang on anymore. and right before they pulled me out the door of the mosque, i looked back, and i saw her on the floor. she had tears pouring down her face, and she still had her hands outstretched to help me. >> you don't know whatever

happened to that woman? >> no, i don't. >> after the escape attempt, adam and the gang clearly grew frustrated, and adam took it out on lorinda. >> if i had the money, i would pay you. we are not playing games. it's you that are playing games. >> i am playing a game? you should see my game, how my game is. >> the escape attempt made things much worse for amanda. they tie your legs and pull your body up by ropes and leave you. >> yeah, it's very hard for me to go back to that and think about what happened to me during those three days. >> after that, adam forced her onto the phone again. it's one of the hardest calls to listen to. >> amanda -- >> mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy,

listen to me, please. please listen, okay? you need to pay the million dollars because they've started to torture me. >> the calls were agonizing. the families of both amanda and nigel desperate to have their children home eventually hired a private security company to help. months went by, and one night amanda's captors came to her room. >> they marched me outside and then had me sit down on the cement, and they produced a small saw and began sawing through the chains that had been on my ankles for ten months. >> amanda and nigel hadn't seen each other for months, but now they were thrown into the back seat of a car and driven into the dark somali night. >> we're both crying. guns surround the car that we're in. and i think this is it. ai the car's window. >> he says to me, why are you crying?

here, talk to your mother. and she said to me, amanda, you're free. >> amanda's mother, lorinda, had never stopped negotiating, and adam had agreed to accept $680,000 for both amanda and nigel. the captives flew out of somalia and landed in nairobi, kenya. they were whisked away to a hospital, mother and daughter finally reunited. >> i barely recognized her. it was relief. it was joy, and it was heartache to see her like that. >> i would not be here now if it was not for my mother. my mom gave me life, and she saved my life. >> amanda lindhout was finally safe, back with her family. but adam, the one who tormented them so much, wasn't finished with them yet. a single word from him would

bring it all back. >> coming up -- >> did your heart stop? >> it was sort of scary that he could find me. >> a facebook message from across the world and a daring undercover plan to catch a kidnapper. >> it sounds like something out of a movie. >> we didn't think it would work. >> when "dateline" continues. their only hope is a ship unlike any other. mercy ships. the largest floating civilian hospital in the world to bring free surgeries and care to people who have no other hope. only 62 cents a day. $19 a month will help provide urgently needed surgery for the world's forgotten poor. if you have ever wondered "how can i, just one person, make a difference?" this is your answer. so many are still suffering. so don't wait.

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amanda lindhout was back home in canada, struggling to move beyond the horrific events in somalia and trying to cope with the idea that the captors who so terrorized her might never be brought to justice. and as amanda tried to get her life back on track, there was an interruption. >> i had enrolled in a university program in eastern canada, and it was during a break between classes. i was checking, you know, my emails, and i saw that i had received a facebook message. >> one word, "hello." it was from the last person she ever wanted to hear from. >> it was a message from adam. >> did your heart stop? >> it was scary that he could find me even though i was safe and across the world and was at home. it was really disarming. >> that one simple message was about to launch a new and dangerous chapter of her story. the messages didn't stop there. lorinda heard from adam too, but

her communication with him extended beyond "hello." out of the blue you get this facebook message from adam. it must have been shocking. >> it was a total shock. it was kind of terrifying too because it just felt like it was right in my face again. >> adam taunted lorinda. he said he was reaching out because he had journals amanda had written in captivity, deeply personal writing that had helped her get through it all. >> what were you thinking? >> i was hoping that i could get him to send amanda's journals. >> but if lorinda wants those precious journals, adam said, she'd have to pay. >> for her daughter's kidnapper had tracked her down with more demands for cash. that's when she reached out once again to the royal canadian

mounted police. in ottawa, a staff sergeant got a call from his bosses. >> we've become aware that adam's been in touch with her, and at that point my team was engages engaged to pursue that to the full extent. >> a 30-year veteran, he ran priority undercover projects for the royal canadian mounted police. his jñjñj>mission, find adam, was even his name. he reaches out on facebook, which means you have his facebook address, right? >> we do. >> you kind of know where he is. >> we know he's in somalia. >> right. >> we know -- we suspect that he's using an alias. so the principal course of action at that point is who is adam? and so to do that, we have to engage him directly through an undercover operation. >> an undercover agent? >> correct. >> is he going to start trying to get in touch with adam? >> yes. >> that's where this man comes in. he's a canadian investigator who we've agreed to refer to by his

cover name, a.k. right off the top, i just want to acknowledge we're hiding your identity. we've changed your look. >> yes. >> that's because you're an undercover agent. >> correct. >> a.k. reached out to adam first by phone. the undercover agent told him he was a media consultant for amanda's family. amanda didn't know about a.k. or what he was doing. all she knew was that adam's facebook messages had triggered some kind of investigation. >> i didn't really know what was going on. i knew that there was the hope to catch this guy. >> a.k. and adam communicated on and off for years. it was slow work, but a.k. knew pushing too hard could crater the operation, and patience paid off. >> one day i received an email from him, which was scanned copies of 16 letters. >> they looked like letters, but they were actually pages ripped from amanda's journals. adam had originally asked for thousands of dollars for them,

but now -- >> i call him up, and i ask them about this. he says, yeah, i've sent you the letters. i don't need any money for them. the relationship evolves to the point where he trusts me enough now. >> and then adam shared a new idea. he told a.k. he was a scholar and wanted to write a book, a history of somalia. as implausible as that sounds, to investigators, it was an unexpected gift, a way to get adam on the hook. you're telling a kidnapper -- >> yes. >> -- who you believe was involved in this really major kidnapping and a lot of crimes, that you're going to help him publish a book. >> yes. >> it sounds like something out of a movie. >> it does. we always refer to this operation as the hail mary play. we didn't think it would work. and as it was continuing, we were surprised ourselves. >> you didn't think he would actually say, yeah, i really want to write a book? >> no. >> and i'm going to pursue this with you. >> no. he convinced himself that he wanted to write this book and

that he was able to write this po book. >> that's your in. >> how are we going to gather evidence because ultimately that's our goal, gathering evidence and maybe one day bringing him to justice. >> money, fame. to amanda, it was just the kind of bait that could trap her kidnapper. >> it totally fits in line with what i knew out of this man. he struck me as the kind of guy whose ego was so big, of course if somebody told him he's capable of writing a book, he would think that. >> the hail mary play was in motion, but investigators knew they needed more than phone calls and emails. their next move, get adam to meet in person. >> coming up -- >> we need to see him to identify him fully. >> a meeting in a perfect island paradise. undercover agent and unsuspecting kidnapper

dangerously face to face. >> can you believe he's saying all this? >> it was amazing. >> when "dateline" continues. flea and tick protection. frontline plus. trusted by vets for nearly 20 years. all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. frontline plus. oh, that's a good one. wait, what's that? that's just the low-battery warning. oh, alright. now it's all, "check out my rv," and, "let's go four-wheeling." maybe there's a little part of me that wanted to be seen. well, progressive helps people save when they bundle their home with their outdoor vehicles. so they've got other things to do now, bigfoot. wait, what'd you just call me? bigfoot? ♪ my name is daryl.

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hello. i'm cori coffin. here's what's happening. big crowds in myrtle beach, south carolina, on the fourth of july despite the area being a covid-19 hot spot. 350 new coronavirus cases were reported in horry county saturday. it in washington, d.c., president trump and first lady melania trump enjoyed a fireworks display over the national mall. the event happening despite warnings from d.c.'s mayor who told residents to stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm craig melvin. amanda lindhout was working to move past the trauma from her kidnapping. meanwhile, investigators had hatched a daring plan to snare one of her captors, a man who

called himself adam. after years of phone calls and emails, an undercover investigator had earned adam's trust. now it was time to tighten the net. continuing with "the capture," here's kate snow. >> as the hunt for her kidnapper progressed, amanda continued to recover and heal. part of that journey included sharing her story with the world. four years after being freed, she released her memoir "a house in the sky." it became a best-seller. >> in my own life, friends, family, book club people, have you read this book? you've reached a lot of people. >> most people have never been kidnapped, but people know pain and loss and adversity that they don't think that they can get through. and so what i feel people find in the pages is, you know, inspiration and a reminder that they are strong too.

>> her strength would become crucial to the operation now under way. investigators knew they had her kidnapper, adam, on the hook. they also knew that in order to get justice for amanda, they needed more than long-distance conversations. >> we need to see him. >> we need to see him to identify him fully. >> whose idea was it to meet face to face? >> it was his idea. >> imagine the opportunity to meet with one of amanda's kidnappers face to face, but where in the world to do it? somalia, too dangerous. canada, too risky. how about paradise? mauritius, four hours away from the kidnapper's homeland of somalia, this island gem with its pristine beaches, crystal-clear waters, beautiful mountain vistas, and luxury resorts. a.k. convinced the kidnapper that he would serve as his book agent and invited adam here to talk about the project.

adam lives in mogadishu in a really difficult place to live, and you're bringing him to a place where europeans come on vacation. >> i think what it did do was it solidified my status as an international businessperson, somebody who had the means to get him what he wanted, which was essentially a book contract. >> adam took the bait. here he is in mauritius with a.k. did you ever get nervous that adam was figuring out who you were? >> i did initially. then we were walking around the resort. he turned to me, and said, what did you think of me? i buttered him up a bit. i said your establish wnglish w. you're come from such humble beginnings. then i said wharks did you think of me? he said, first i thought you were intelligent. now we are brothers. >> against a backdrop of serene stillness and beauty, the brothers continued to talk and even relaxed. they each had something to gain in this face to face meeting.

he had one objective, getting that book deal. >> he did. >> and it seemed you had one objective. >> oh, definitely we had one objective. >> the objective was to see him, confirm that adam was indeed the man who had terrorized amanda and lorinda. next they wanted him to admit his involvement in the kidnapping. that's where the phony book deal came in. >> we knew he was interested in writing a book. we brought props and one of them was a book cover that we had designed. i was going to sign a contract with him that laid out his and my relationship vis-á-vis the publisher. >> the contract had a trap buried in it. adam would have to disclose any wrongdoing in his past. >> it had a special paragraph in it that we had inserted, a disclosure paragraph to encourage him to tell us his story. >> he signed and incredibly he told his story, including details of his involvement in the kidnapping. can you believe he's saying all this out loud?

>> in my head i was dancing. it was amazing. you couldn't ask for better evidence. >> he even described his role in one of amanda's worst days, that hostage video on al jazeera. >> i showed him a video that had aired on al jazeera television, and he pointed to himself as if he was really, really proud of this. he said, i'm the one who shot that video. >> amanda vividly remembers that video and adam that day. >> adam was now manning this and setting the stage for this video. i would say there was a great deal of excitement among all of them that they were going to be doing this little video and, you know, in their mind because it was getting attention and money. >> in mauritius, investigators accomplished two things. they had identified adam as the kidnapper and got him to admit his crimes. but after all that work, it still wasn't enough to arrest adam. maherishen law prohibited a.k. from recording the confession.

so you have no video or audio of what he's saying? >> no. correct. >> investigators wanted to have the strongest evidence they could against adam in order to prosecute him under canadian law. you're leaving mauritius with a success, but you need more. >> yeah, we do. >> how did you feel when you left here? >> conflicted. >> you're leaving him, watching him go back to somalia. >> yeah. it was -- as investigators, we'd succeeded in getting the evidence. we'd succeeded in getting the identity, but we had to let him go like a catch and release program. >> in order to catch adam and bring him to justice, they were hoping they could lure him even farther from home, a place where they could control the setting a, all the way to canada. but how on earth would they convince adam to do that, and how long would it take? while you want justice, this is dragging on for years. >> as the years passed, i

started to think the likelihood of that would diminish. >> coming up, investigators set a trap. >> i'm the spokesman. >> it played out like a movie. >> i answer the phone, and my heart started pounding. >> when "dateline" continues. network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com. ♪ ♪ no matter how you stay fit keep it light with light & fit's rainbow of delightful, protein-packed flavors. ♪ ♪

amanda lindhout knew

investigators were doing their best to bring her kidnapper to justice, and she did her best to help them. >> every couple of months, i would have in-person visits with the rsmp. during these meetings they could never tell me enough, but enough confidence to tell me they might be able to pull this off. >> a.k. and his team considered the undercover operation in mauritius a success, but it wasn't enough. they wanted to get amanda's kidnapper to confess his crimes on canadian soil. why did you need him to go to canada? >> we didn't want him to be arrested overseas, so we wanted him in the country so we could deal with him in the most efficient way possible. >> in order to grab adam in canada, they had to get him there. a.k. truly had to convince him the fake book deal was real. so he thinks you're his book agent? >> i'm his book agent. so we had now got to the point

where he was going to meet the publisher, so it was my job then to send him a plane ticket, which is difficult to do if you want to fly somebody out of somalia. >> difficult would be an understatement as it turned out. you're going to bring an international kidnapper into canada? >> correct. >> that doesn't sound easy. >> well, the dichotomy of it is that we're usually in the business of keeping terrorists outside the country. >> coordinating and planning an itinerary for a kidnapper would take time and threaten the operation. once again, a.k. played the long game. >> i kept on putting him off saying we'll be meeting with the publisher soon. then at one point i had to fake a heart attack. >> i'm sorry. you had to fake a heart attack? >> i had to fake a heart attack and that was the way we were able to put him off for a while. >> finally after years of hard work and delays for amanda and her mother, everything was in place, and adam was on a plane to canada.

>> he arrives at the airport and comes in and there's big hugs. we sit down, and we talk about the impending book deal, the publishing deal that was about to be signed. >> adam was looking forward to a different kind of future. little did he know that is precisely what he would get out of this deal. >> i go into the room with adam first. we have a boardroom set up for our meeting, and then the book publisher arrives, knocks on the door, comes in. him and i are allegedly old friends. >> this is my star. >> nice to meet you. >> actually both undercover agents. >> both undercover agents. we have a bit of chit chat and then we sit down and go over the contract. and then adam, as we had done in mauritius, he goes over everything he had done. >> so you would be the negotiator between the people who had amanda and nigel and who else? >> and i told lorinda they accepted the thing. >> right. >> i'm the spokesman.

>> right. >> i'm intelligent person. >> it played out like a movie. >> he's actually confessing to you his crimes. >> yes. >> so after the three months, then, as far as i understand it from what lorinda had told me, you were still the person on the phone. >> yes. i'm working. i want to get the benefit. >> you were supposed to get some money. >> yes. >> do you know how much? >> no, i don't know, but i was expecting more than what they gave me. >> after that meeting you walk out. >> we sign the contract. everybody's very happy. we were walking out because i had told him we were going for a tour of ottawa. >> you were both arrested. you were arrested too because you're still undercover. >> uniformed police handcuffed us both. >> adam must have been totally shocked. >> he was. you could see in his face he was clearly thrown by this. and i had to play up, get your hands off my compliant. what are you doing here?

this is ridiculous. they handcuffed us both and went in different directions. i went for a beer. he went to jail. >> it had been several years since amanda lindhout had been chained in a squalid cell in somalia, terrorized and tortured by her kidnappers for 460 days. now adam was in chains himself. amanda was home when she got the news. >> i answered the phone, and i was home alone. and my heart started pounding. and he said, we've arrested adam. and i fell to my knees, and i started crying. and the next day i woke up, and if was my 34th birthday. and on the front page of every newspaper in canada was his face, a face that i hadn't seen in over five years. >> i came in right after, and she was crying. she said, they got him.

they got him. they got adam. >> and what were your feelings? >> i was crying, and i couldn't even speak. >> and immediately my mind went to, well, there's going to be a trial, and i will have to testify in that trial. and the weight of that and what that really meant to me and would mean to my life became real. >> amanda is about to take the witness stand and come face to fmichaelsont( wasxd the lead

prosecutor. what were the biggest challenges? >> one was the magnitude of the file.ok my recollection was more than 700 emails between a.k. and adap

alone. >> the man known toónamanda and lorinda for so long as adam was actually a 40-year-old somali national named ali omar ader. he pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping. on october 5th, 2017, the trial began in the kidnappingfá of amanda lindhout. >> this is like the biggest day of my life. >> "dateline" was with her that morning as she made her wayq to was going through your head? what were you worried about? >> in those momentsçó before en ring the courtroom, i wondered if i could do it. i was so afraid to see this man again, and the thought of seeing his xdface. but i gathered myself. i needed to do that as much forf myself as anything. >> i just saw you gather yourself just there when you it. it's still hard fori] you. >> it isiñi i expect it always will be.w3 you know, this is real life like

pain. and then the doors opened, and i walked into the courtroom, and adam was sitting directly in front of qme. and i kind of crumbled. >> now came the moment forxd amanda to testify agaik gaik gai kidnapper. can you describe it for me? >> she was qñicrying. she was upset. she was afraid. and then she swung her head over, and she lookedha% adam in the box, and she stopped crying and gave him a look like, i would never want anyone looking1 at me like that. >> whatc kind of a look? >> it was a6jñ >> seeing him sitting across from me as a prisoner in that box, that was also the truth now. >> it's a reversal. >> exactly. and he looked so small in a way sitting in that box. >> in her testimony, amanda spoke openly about how adam terrorized her. she was on the stand for one

long day. but her mom, lorinda, spent three days in court listening to the phone calls that would prove yushl to the case. >> i am not lying to you. >> you don't want amanda to be harmed. if you don't, you should bring the money. >> again, you have to relive it. >> yeah. it was empowering. the truth was being told. and there was a small part of me that actually felt sorry for him. >> compassion for him? >> yeah. >> adam's defense was that he, himself, had been taken hostage, and they had threatened him. >> in the end, his defense didn't work. the man known as adam was found guilty of kidnapping. for his crimes, he was sentenced to 15 years in a canadian

prison. victory for amanda lindhout. amanda read a victim's impact statement at sentencing. in it she addressed adam. "i am the victim. i am also the survivor," she said. "i'm the one who will go out and live the lessons of this. i choose to lean into the lesson and challenge of finding forgiveness, compassion, and peace." those words bringing to a close not one but two improbable stories, amanda's kidnapping and the years spent in pursuit of justice. ten years of your life. >> ten years, yeah. five years for the undercover operation, ten years until conviction. >> worth it? >> absolutely. >> he's sitting in prison right now in this country. do you think about that ever? >> it's justice. i don't take joy in any suffering of any other human being. >> have you forgiven adam?

>> i can't say yes or no to that question because it's not a forgiving because adam deserves to be forgiven. but i deserve to have the freedom in my life of not being full of that anger all the time and keep pointing my feet towards forgiveness. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. how is this happening? keep praying. >> that's all