Kidnaped Fluor Employee Freed from Colombia

Colombian terrorists have released a Fluor Corp. construction worker kidnaped last December, but a second worker taken hostage at the same time died in captivity, officials of the Irvine engineering and construction company said Tuesday.

John Geddes, 56, who was freed Monday, reported that fellow hostage Edward M. Sohl, 62, a construction superintendent for San Francisco-based Bechtel, died of a heart attack on the night of May 17.

Geddes, an eight-year Fluor employee, was in good health when released, and he has already returned to the United States, Fluor spokesman Rick Maslin said. The company did not disclose where Geddes lives.

The two men had been working on a pipeline Bechtel is constructing for Occidental Petroleum through the Colombian jungle. The two men were captured on Dec. 10, during a terrorist raid on a remote section of the pipeline, said Al Donner, a Bechtel spokesman.

Neither company would disclose details of the negotiations with the terrorists, which Donner described as “frustrating.” He added that although Sohl died in mid-May, company officials did not learn of his death until Geddes’ release.