Jeff Woodke spoke to ABC News after being freed in March.
Jeff Woodke and his wife, Els Woodke, are seen in an exlusive interview with ABC News.In his first television interview, an American missionary is revealing for the first time the full story of his capture by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Niger and how he managed to persevere through a harrowing 6 1/2 years as their prisoner.
"I tried to say stop, but they just kept beating me. And I figured, 'Yeah, I hope the helicopters come and get us and blow up the truck because I don't want to be a hostage. They got me up into Mali, and I was lost," Woodke said.Jeff Woodke is seen alongside his family in Niger in this undated photo."I don't want to put my family through this. Really? No, that's not good," Woodke said of his thinking at the time.
"At Jeff's birthday, I would plan tulips on his -- the amount of his years, and always trusting or hoping that he would see the bloom in the spring. So for me, I was never hopeless. How strange that sounds but I was never without hope," Els Woodke said."They broke my hope. I was in that box for two months, I disassociated numerous times. I thought I was dead.
Jeff Woodke recounts his October 2016 capture in Niger in an exclusive interview alongside his wife, Els Woodke.Then one day shortly before his release, Woodke says he received a letter from "the big boss" that said, "In a week, you'll be with your family." "And then he said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jeff, we're going out. We're going home. You can go ahead and eat,'" Woodke said.
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