In April 1997 Jon James and girlfriend Camilla Carr left England to set up a childrens center in war-torn Chechnya. The country was in ruins with over half a million people displaced and thousands dead. However, a fragile cease-fire allowed Jon and Camilla to help local children recover from the war. But within months their dream became a nightmare. They were brutally kidnapped by Chechen rebels and spent 14 months in captivity, where Camilla was repeatedly raped. Their captors' demands started at one million dollars and as they became increasingly desperate, rose to four million. With their health failing, the couple resigned themselves to a brutal fate. However, in September 1998 they were unexpectedly freed after intervention by Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky.
