gerfa was her aunt. kevin, gerfa's 14-year-old son. they were due home from a philippine vacation. instead, they were in the clutches of something horrific. >> i felt like i was in a dream like it wasn't real. >> and i just was thinking, "what?" >> reporter: gerfa's husband, heiko lunsmann, had stayed behind in lynchburg and was at work when he heard. >> you must have been terrified. >> yes. it was impossible to think about it. but pictures don't lie. >> reporter: they didn't. there they were, on philippine television. incomprehensible images, gerfa's and kevin's passports, their half-packed suitcases. the stricken relatives they'd been visiting on tictabon, a small island at the tip of the southern philippines. gerfa, kevin and one of gerfa's young cousins, said the news reports, kidnapped by boat in the dead of night. >> i was thinking, no, that doesn't happen to us! >> well, nobody thinks it's going to happen to us, right? >> yeah. but my wife's heart is in the philippines. that's her family. >> reporter: gerfa was born in the philippines, had always felt safe there. her older s