This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Guatemala City • Guatemalan authorities say two female Mormon missionaries were kidnapped for two days before being freed by a special police anti-kidnapping unit helped by the FBI.
Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla says three kidnappers were captured during the rescue of the 22-year-old missionaries, one from the U.S. and the other from Ecuador.
He said the two were taken Wednesday and held in a house in the town of Escuintla, about 30 miles from the capital. The kidnappers had demanded a $5 million ransom.
Lopez said the women had no obvious injuries or signs of ill treatment. He added that two of the kidnappers were Nicaraguan men and the other was an 18-year-old Guatemalan woman.
Guatemala has one the world's highest rates of kidnapping.