# Female US Air Force Officer missing in Kyrgyzstan



## Cloud Cover (8 Sep 2006)

Fingers crossed.

From CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/07/missing.woman.ap/index.html

Case of missing Air Force woman called 'worrying'

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) -- Kyrgyzstan's top police official said Thursday he does not believe a U.S. Air Force officer who disappeared in Bishkek two days ago was kidnapped, but an Interior Ministry official called circumstances in the case "worrying."

"I rule out the theory that the U.S. citizen may have been kidnapped," Interior Minister Murat Sutalinov said Thursday.

However, Capt. Anna Carpenter, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan where Metzger is stationed, said "nothing has been ruled out."

Sutalinov said that police had received no ransom demand for Maj. Jill Metzger, 33, who disappeared Tuesday after being separated from a group of U.S. military personnel while visiting a department store in Bishkek.

Sutalinov said someone believed to be Metzger was seen at a bus station in Bishkek, making a call from a public telephone soon after her disappearance.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Nurdin Jangarayev, said that Metzger and another U.S. servicewoman were recorded on a security camera on Tuesday afternoon as they entered the TsUM department store in central Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital. She separated from her companion three minutes later, he said.

Over the next three hours, two calls were placed to her cellular phone but neither was answered; records show that the phone was in the area of Bishkek's bus station when one call was placed, but was in another neighborhood for a later call, Jangarayev said.

"This is worrying because it could mean that her phone was in someone else's hands or that she was unconscious and could not reply," he said. The ministry, which oversees the police, is also trying to establish the holder of a phone she called about 45 minutes before she was last seen," he said.

Bishkek police chief Moldomusa Kongantiyev said Wednesday that Metzger had been expected to return to the United States by the weekend.

A group of 22 U.S. military investigators and logistics officers along with Kyrgyz police are involved in the search for Metzger, who was stationed at the air base near Bishkek with the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing.

She was dressed in civilian clothes at the time of the disappearance, according to base officials.

Carpenter, the base spokeswoman, said Thursday that "there has been a lot of progress" in the investigation, but could not discuss details.

The Pentagon on Thursday formally declared Metzger missing, a status officially known as "duty status whereabouts unknown," and disclosed that her normal duty station is Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, as a member of the 347th Mission Support Squadron. It said she was on temporary duty in Kyrgyzstan but offered no other details.

Metzger's father, John, said in a telephone interview from his home in Henderson, North Carolina, that the family was waiting and praying.

"We've got a prayer chain all the way across the nation, and it's our hope that God will return her safely," he said.

In 2003, Jill Metzger was stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany when she won the women's division of the U.S. Air Force Marathon, The Henderson Daily Dispatch reported at the time. She was a member of the Air Force-Europe team.

Metzger had run in every Air Force marathon since its inception seven years earlier, the newspaper said, and had run marathons in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.

In Kyrgyzstan, base officials announced new travel restrictions Thursday, barring all off-duty personnel from leaving the base until Metzger is found.

The U.S. military has maintained an air base at Kyrgyzstan's main civilian Manas airport since 2001, backing operations in nearby Afghanistan.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


----------



## tomahawk6 (8 Sep 2006)

Been watching this story from day 1. Funny how the media didnt pick this up until recently. Despite what the locals are saying no question that she has been kidnapped. Hope she can be found.


----------



## Cloud Cover (8 Sep 2006)

Scary stuff and serves as a warning to Canadian soldiers overseas taking leave outside of theatre - you are a high value target.


----------



## tomahawk6 (8 Sep 2006)

It certainly should tell one and all not to go into town alone.


----------



## tomahawk6 (8 Sep 2006)

USAF just reported that Major Metzger has been found alive. She is presently being debriefed.


----------



## armyvern (9 Sep 2006)

Link to the article:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/08/missing.major.ap/index.html


----------

