Search for Hostage

I would like to commend The Times for writing about the travails of Spokane schoolteacher Jane Schelly as she once again ventures to India to find her husband, Donald Hutchings, abducted three years ago in Kashmir (July 20).

It’s an important story. In the summer of 1995, I began to explore the Kashmir ordeal for a book about kidnapping in the post-Cold War era. I spent long hours with negotiators at the FBI and Scotland Yard, getting behind the scenes in an effort to understand why four governments could not gain the release of these hostages. I flew to Norway to spend time with the family of the decapitated hostage, Hans Christian Ostro, and to England to gain the perspective of the families of the British hostages. I spent many days with Jane.

I eventually chose the story of Jane and Donald as the main narrative of my book because the case showed so dramatically how harrowing and complicated the kidnappings of foreign citizens can be. The families effectively become captives themselves in a never-ending drama of uncertainty and fear. It has been my hope that the description of this ordeal would help to debunk two myths that Americans hold so dear: It can’t happen to us, and, if it does, our government will get us out.

ANN HAGEDORN AUERBACH

New York City