A scruffy, bearded man who identified himself as missing Missouri resident Travis Timmerman was found in Syria Thursday — and said he was imprisoned after traveling to the country “for spiritual purposes.”
Timmerman, 29, said he had spent more than half a year in the government prison when he was freed by rebel fighters armed with AK-47s on Monday as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell.
Travis Pete Timmerman, a US citizen who went missing in Syria, speaks to the press after being found following the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 12, 2024.
“My door was busted down, it woke me up,” Timmerman told CBS.
“I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the warfare could have been more active than it ended up being … Once we got out, there was no resistance, there was no real fighting.”
Video of Timmerman posted Thursday by Turkish news agency Anadolu had initially sparked speculation that he could be American journalist Austin Tice, who vanished in 2012 while covering the anti-Assad uprising in Damascus at the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
Timmerman said he was detained seven months ago after entering Syria without permission when he crossed the border from Lebanon.
Timmerman said he had gone to Syria “for spiritual purposes.”
He had traveled from Europe to Lebanon for “spiritual purposes” — and described himself to NBC News as a religious “pilgrim.”
His experience in one of Syria’s notorious prisons “wasn’t too bad,” he said.
“I was never beaten. The only really bad part was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted to. I was only let out three times a day to go to the bathroom,” he told CBS News.
Timmerman said he was detained upon entering Syria without permission seven months ago after spending a month in neighboring Lebanon.
He was found by journalists walking barefoot in the town of Dhiyabia outside the capital on Thursday as he headed toward Jordan.
Timmerman told CBS he had the chance to speak with his family on the phone three weeks ago while in prison.
Finally freed, he said he’s having more difficulty now trying to find a place to sleep at night in the streets, but people have been more than willing to assist him.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a public awareness bulletin that Timmerman had gone missing from Budapest, Hungary, on May 28.
“I’m feeling well. I’ve been fed and I’ve been watered, so I’m feeling well,” Timmerman told CBS.
Earlier this year, authorities in Missouri and Budapest, Hungary, put out missing persons reports for a man named Pete Timmerman, whom Hungarian authorities identified as “Travis” Pete Timmerman, NBC reported.
The alert from the Missouri State Highway Patrol said Timmerman vanished in Budapest on May 28.
Budapest police said he was last spotted at a church and had “left for an unknown location.”
US officials are aware that Timmerman has been found and are working to provide support, CBS reported.
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