DAMASCUS, Syria — A Missouri man found in Syria told NBC News on Thursday he spent months in a Syrian prison after crossing into the country on a “pilgrimage” to Damascus. It was not widely known that the man, who identified himself as Travis Timmerman and went missing in Hungary in May, was in Syria.
His discovery came as a shock to locals and journalists as thousands of detainees emerged from jails after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend.
Timmerman, who initially identified himself only as “Travis,” was first seen in a video that emerged overnight that led some to misidentify him as missing American journalist Austin Tice, 43.
Surrounded by reporters while leaning against walls with flaking paint, Timmerman, 29, said he was stopped by Syrian officials earlier this year after crossing into the country on foot.
“I was on a pilgrimage to Damascus,” he told NBC News in a building on the outskirts of the capital. He said he had spent three days living in a mountain area around the border between Lebanon and Syria “without food and water” before he was spotted by a border guard and detained.
Timmerman said he was imprisoned by the regime for months during which “I was fed well, I always had water, the only difficulty was not being able to go to the bathroom” regularly.
He was then released by rebel forces as they broke into regime prisons across the country to free detainees.
Timmerman said he had spent the past few days wandering the streets barefoot, sleeping outside and in an abandoned house. He was then found once again by a local he asked for water, subsequently appearing in the video that quickly spread across social media and drew the media’s attention.
After being located by NBC News and other outlets in Dhiyabia, Timmerman said he had “been reading the scripture a lot” before deciding to cross the mountains from Lebanon into Syria. He appeared calm.
When one man repeatedly offered to put him in touch with U.S. officials, he replied that he was “okay for right now.”
He later told NBC News that he felt his imprisonment was “actually good for me,” describing it as “a time of solace, of meditation and I’m stronger for it.”
He said he now planned to go to Jordan before attempting to return to Damascus and would look to get in touch with his family, whom he said he had not spoken with yet.
A U.S. official told NBC News that Washington was “aware of reports of an American found outside of Damascus and seeking to provide support. Out of respect for his privacy, we have no further information to provide at this time.”
Timmerman said he had been in Europe prior to embarking on his pilgrimage.
Authorities in Missouri and Hungarian capital Budapest had earlier this year put out missing person reports for a man named Pete Timmerman, with Hungarian police identifying him as “Travis” Pete Timmerman.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a public awareness bulletin that Timmerman had gone missing from Budapest, Hungary, on May 28th, just under seven months ago.
Timmerman had been identified by authorities in Budapest in a request for information as “Travis Pete Timmerman.” They said he was last seen at a church and had since “left for an unknown location, with no sign of life.”
Matt Bradley and Richard Engel reported from Damascus, and Chantal Da Silva from London.
Andrea Mitchell and Abigail Williams contributed.
