14 DAY TRIAL // As I reported last week, a couple from Oakland went missing while on a cycling trip in Peru at the end of last month.
As they stopped communication on Facebook and didn't access their bank accounts, 25-year-old Garrett Hand's mother became alarmed, and prompted a national manhunt through the jungles of Peru for them.
Francine Fitzgerald had reason to worry, as local authorities had issued a kidnapping alert for U.S. tourists at that point, but one might say she overreacted a bit.
Residents' accounts revealed the pair were traveling on a boat, but she wasn't convinced and she demanded “proof of life.”
“Let me reiterate, until we have PROOF OF LIFE, we cannot celebrate these rumors and sightings. Proof of life is my son's voice on the phone and a picture of him holding the missing poster,” she wrote.
Her alert managed to force the Peruvian government to spend a lot of money for this “rescue” operation. They sent in a hydroplane to find the young couple, videotaped them and made Hand call his mother.
Gawker relays a more recent message she posted on Facebook, confirming that she was, in fact, worried for nothing.
“I am so happy today that my son is well. Now our family will have to process all of this, and I think this will take some time. I can't wait to see Garrett and Jamie walking off the plane and into my arms,” she says.
The young couple's photos were even featured on the official Facebook page for Peru's tourism ministry.
“These two young people have fallen in love with Peru. They have visited off-the-beaten-path places and it seems like they're having a blast — so much so that they have forgotten to communicate with their families,” adds Peruvian minister of tourism and commerce, Jose Luis Silva.