O.C. Couple Hid Out for Months

The latest hostage family from Orange County to be freed from Kuwait is expected to return here this weekend after appearing on ABC’s PrimeTime Live on Thursday night.

Michelle and John Richert, both 31, came out of hiding last week after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s decision to release all Westerners.

The Richerts left the country over the weekend for Baghdad en route to Frankfurt, Germany, and then Washington, according to Michelle Richert’s father, Fullerton computer consultant Bill Weller. They became at least the fourth family from Orange County known to have been freed from captivity in the Middle East since October.

The couple had moved to Kuwait from Fullerton in July, 1987, when John Richert, an engineer who had worked for Unocal here, took a job with the Santa Fe Co. to work on a government project.

In an interview Thursday night, John Richert recounted the couple’s experiences after the invasion.

“There were many Arabs who helped us survive and put their lives on the line,” he said. “We know of some Kuwaitis who lost their lives because they provided shelter to Americans.”

For their four months under siege, the couple stayed in hiding in Kuwait, moving four times in that period among various apartments and friends’ homes to avoid capture by Iraqi troops. Life then became much like the existence of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl whose diary detailed how her family hid from the Nazis in the Netherlands.

“We kept absolutely quiet during the days,” Richert said. “That was when the Iraqi soldiers would come out and storm and kick in doors whenever they heard noise.”

The Richerts taped blankets on their windows to prevent whatever light they had from leaking out and exposing them. The couple lived on cans of tuna and rice, which they rationed.

During their captivity, the Richerts celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on Oct. 19 by allowing themselves extra rations to eat.

“They stayed literally seconds ahead of the Iraqi troops at times,” the father said. “They never stayed in any one place all that long.”

Weller said his daughter refused to come out of hiding even after Hussein agreed to release all women and children earlier this fall, because she was afraid of what the Iraqi troops might do to her husband.

Weller said he was unable to talk to his daughter after the invasion and saw her for the first time in more than four months in Washington on Monday after the couple’s arrival.

“Everything just fell into place,” he said of the reunion. “All the emotions of four months, of knowing that they were safe now and could not be harmed.”

Despite the ordeal, Weller said his daughter told him the couple still plans to return at some point to Kuwait and help to “rebuild” a country that they have adopted as their own.

Meanwhile, they will be resting and trying to put their lives back together in Orange County after their return Saturday from Washington.

John Richert said the couple’s home in Kuwait is gone. Now he and his wife will have to start their lives over again.

“We miss having our home,” he said. “We don’t have a permanent place any more. We left all our memorabilia. Everything has been looted or dismantled. All we have left is what we have in our suitcases.”