The State - News from June 27, 1988

Twin brothers from Pleasant Hill escaped from Indonesia to Singapore in a small boat over the weekend after 96 days under house arrest, their brother said. “It has been a three-month nightmare,” said Rick Lanham of San Francisco. Bob and Bruce Lanham, 34, were detained in Jakarta on March 22. Armed Indonesian soldiers boarded their ship in the South China Sea, claiming they and nine others on a sport-diving trip were violating the country’s economic zone, according to the Lanhams’ brother. Four Southern Californians with the group had escaped earlier. Lanham said his brothers decided to flee when it appeared certain that they would be held there for many more months before the case was resolved. Rick Lanham said the family wired the brothers $2,500 through the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, and they arranged to buy an open 14-foot boat and a used outboard motor to make the five-hour trip to Singapore. Though under arrest, the brothers were free to roam the island.