RUSSIA KIDNAPPERS FREE MISSIONARIES

MOSCOW (AP) _ Two Mormon missionaries kidnapped in southern Russia were set free on a country road Sunday, four days after their capture. Church officials said a $300,000 ransom was not paid.

“We’re just joyous about it,” said Meldin DuPaix, a Mormon official in Samara, not far from the site of the kidnapping. “It’s just a tremendous response to the prayers and fasting our missionaries have done for the past day.”

Andrew Lee Propst, 20, of Lebanon, Ore., and Travis Robert Tuttle, 20, of Gilbert, Ariz., were kidnapped Wednesday night in the town of Saratov, about 450 miles southeast of Moscow.

Donald Jarvis, president of the Mormon mission in Moscow, said the kidnappers drove them to the countryside outside Saratov and set them free early Sunday.

The two made their way into town and once in Saratov, contacted their local mission leader, Jarvis said.

Richard Hoagland, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, said the missionaries were in good condition but had minor injuries.

Probst’s father, Lee Probst, said from Oregon that each had “a bump on the head” from being struck at the outset of the kidnapping, and Probst had an injured finger from trying to ward off the blows. They also had sore hands from being handcuffed, he said.

Otherwise, they were fine, the elder Probst said. “They’re walking, talking and eating.”

The missionaries were taken to police headquarters in Saratov, where they helped officials with the investigation, Hoagland said. Russian news agencies said federal authorities were still hoping to find and arrest the kidnappers.

A spokesman for the Federal Security Service in Saratov said late Sunday that the missionaries had been debriefed and had left police headquarters. He did not know where they had gone.

There was no immediate information on who the kidnappers were. Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, who had followed the case closely, said he was told the kidnappers were young. He speculated that they might have been spooked by the intense interest in the case.

“They may have just got scared and said `Gee, we stirred up a much bigger hornet’s nest than we thought,”’ he said.

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $300,000, but Jarvis said the money was not paid.

“The abductors simply gave up on collecting the ransom,” DuPaix said.

Dmitri Akyatskov, governor of the Saratov region who is known for his sometimes flamboyant and sometimes confusing statements, said before the two were released that $300,000 had been collected to pay the ransom.

He did not say where the cash-strapped regional government had found the money, nor why it would consider paying it.

Hoagland said U.S. officials, who closely monitored the case, were not aware of any plans to pay ransom. “It’s American policy not to pay nor to cooperate with the payment of ransom,” he said.

There are about 500 Mormon missionaries in Russia among 57,000 mostly young men the Utah-based church has deployed around the globe. In Russia, as elsewhere, they are easily identifiable in their dark suits, white shirts and ties.

Mormon officials have said their Russia-based missionaries have been singled out before as targets for muggings or thefts, but this was the first serious crime reported in Russia in which they were victims.

Now hear the stories from their own mouths.