Taken in the jungle
Sunday June 16, 2013
Reporter: Rahni Sadler
Producer: Alex Hodgkinson
On a guided tour up the Amazon, a young Australian woman is kidnapped at gunpoint, marched through the jungle and raped.
Along with a British tourist, she’s forced to hike towards the Colombian border, where authorities suspect they’ll either be held for ransom or sold into the sex trade.
This isn’t a Hollywood movie script but an incredible true story of survival and courage by one remarkable woman, Fiona Wilde, who took on her captors and won.
When the heavily armed kidnappers ambushed Wilde’s tourist group as they canoed towards an eco lodge in Ecuador it was the beginning of 30 hours of terror for the Sydney based forensic scientist.
Fiona and 28-year-old British accountant Katy Cox went to hell and back but, through their own resourcefulness, lived to tell the tale. Eight months after their dramatic escape Sunday Night returns with Fiona to Ecuador and the story takes an astonishing twist when she agrees to risk her life again to testify against one of her kidnappers.
Rahni Sadler is with her every step of the way to bring us this exclusive report.
Katy Cox has penned a letter for Sunday Night about her ordeal with Fiona and their resulting bond. Here is an extract:
Fiona was incredibly strong during our ordeal; I genuinely don't know what I would have done without her. Once we had been rescued and were in the hotel in Quito, I spoke to Fiona's sister briefly and told her how proud she should be of Fiona. I meant every word. She was so brave when faced with kidnappers, tarantulas and angry cows; the only thing that made her shriek was the ice-cold shower at the military base.
Even once we were safe we still supported each other during a very overwhelming time in Quito and have stayed in touch ever since. Fiona has already visited me in the UK once (and plans to again later this year) and I visited her in Sydney when I resumed my travels in December. I think it is fair to say that neither of us have lost our appetite for travel so I'm sure we will have many more opportunities to see each other in the future.
Our friendship is my silver lining to our experience in Ecuador.
CONTACT SUNDAY NIGHT
