The parents of murdered American humanitarian worker Kayla Mueller gave media interviews on Sunday and Monday in which they thanked President Donald Trump and the U.S. military for tracking down and killing Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – the man who enslaved, raped, and killed their daughter.
The Muellers, who have long been critical of how the Obama administration handled Kayla’s captivity from 2013 to 2015, praised Trump for being more “decisive” than former President Barack Obama.
“What this man did to Kayla – he kidnapped her,” an emotional Carl Mueller told the Arizona Republic. “She was held in many prisons. She was held in solitary confinement.”
“She was tortured. She was intimidated. She was ultimately raped by al-Baghdadi himself. He either killed her or he was complicit in her murder,” Carl said, stressing a point somehow overlooked by certain media organizations.
“I’ll let people who read this article make up their own mind how a parent should feel,” Carl concluded.
His wife Marsha lamented that not all of the details of Kayla’s death have been revealed, including the precise circumstances of her death. The Islamic State claimed she was killed when Jordanian airstrikes on the ISIS “capital” of Raqqa collapsed the building she was held prisoner in, but the Jordanians and U.S. military officials disputed that account, and few would be willing to absolve ISIS and Baghdadi of full responsibility for Kayla’s death even if it was true.
“I still want to know, ‘Where is Kayla?’ and what truly happened to her and what aren’t we being told. Someone knows, and I’m praying with all my heart that someone in this world will bring us those answers,” Marsha Mueller said.
“We are so grateful for them,” she said of the American troops who carried out the Baghdadi raid and President Trump for giving the order. The Muellers expressed gratitude that no American soldiers were killed in the operation.
“I still say Kayla should be here, and if Obama had been as decisive as President Trump, maybe she would have been,” Marsha added.
“He knows her story. He’s been briefed on it, and he knows, and that’s important to me. I don’t think anything would have stopped him from getting this guy,” Carl said of Trump, expressing confidence that the U.S. military is “going to get them all.”
The Muellers were optimistic that the Trump administration would discover and reveal more details of Kayla’s captivity and murder.
“I think this administration truly might help us. I don’t think they are as closed about what happened,” said Marsha.
The Muellers expressed similar sentiments in other interviews on Sunday and Monday. Carl Mueller told the local CBS News affiliate on Monday it was a “shock” to learn of Baghdadi’s confirmed death at last after years of false reports about the elusive ISIS leader’s fate.
“One minute you’re sitting here watching a movie, and the next minute you get the news the man that raped and possibly murdered your daughter has been killed,” he said.
Marsha noted to CBS that Kayla’s remains have never been recovered, so she cannot help nursing the faintest hope that her daughter might still be alive and lost in Syria. In any event, she said the Mueller family hopes to bring Kayla home.
“Because of that one percent possibility, how do you completely give up until you have her home? We want Kayla home, and I know that sounds like an impossible task, but after what we’ve been through, the things that pop up and happen I believe we might just find her,” she said.
“We feel this is the moment,” Carl said. “[Baghdadi’s] been killed, some of his lieutenants have been captured, and who else would know what happened to Kayla but these people close to him? Somebody, and it may be one of these people who were captured yesterday, knows what happened and know who killed her.”
Marsha Mueller told CNN on Sunday she and her husband were “deeply touched” by President Trump’s statement on Sunday, which mentioned Kayla Mueller by name.
“We were grateful that they didn’t mess around and went right in,” she said.
“I just want to say how grateful we are to this administration, to the military, and to the special forces that went in. My hope is that this will help us get answers to what really happened to Kayla and get her home,” she said.
Carl told ABC News on Sunday it was “very touching” to learn the operation that took Baghdadi down was named after Kayla.
“President Trump mentioned her today in his statement and he mentioned that he deserved what he got for what he did to Kayla,” Carl said. “She’s not forgotten, and that’s important.”
The Muellers revealed during the ABC interview they once traveled to Iraq and met with Umm Sayyaf, the imprisoned wife of Islamic State financier Abu Sayyaf, killed by U.S. special forces in 2015.
“When we talked to Umm Sayyaf, we found we got more information out of her, not just us, the people backing us – they got information from her that neither the Kurds or the US government had got in the two days that we were there,” Carl said of the trip to Iraq.
“We learned from women that were ransomed out by their governments that she said she was held in many cold, dark places, she was raped by al-Baghdadi, we know that to be a fact. She was murdered by him or someone in his organization. That’s what we’re pursuing and that’s what we hope that President Trump will help us with,” he said.