Campbell student and mother abducted in Philippines

Published: July 16, 2011

LYNCHBURG --

Brookville Middle School teacher Debbie Lester remembers telling her students to be safe and make good choices, as she said goodbye for the summer.

Now, one of her students faces a danger she never imagined.

"You don't ever think, when you think, 'be safe,' that something like this would ever cross your path," she said. "What can you say, it's horrible beyond words."

On Tuesday, Kevin Lunsmann, who graduated from the school in June and is a rising freshman at Brookville High School, was kidnapped in the Philippines along with his mother, Gerfayeatths Lunsmann, and another family relative.

Back home, the kidnapping has opened up a world of worry.

"The B.M.S. community is hoping for the swift and safe return home of Kevin Lunsmann and his mother," read a message running across the top of the school website.

"Our thoughts are with their entire family during this difficult time."

On Friday, the U.S. government made a formal call for the release of the Campbell County mother and son amid news reports that the gunmen who took them have made no ransom requests.

"There is no contact, and there is no demand," said a local official, according to Agence France-Presse.

Gerfayeatths Lunsmann, 50, is a native of the Philippines. A gang of armed men abducted her and her 14-year-old son early Tuesday.

According to Philippine news reports, the Americans had arrived about two weeks ago and were staying at a resort near Basilan Island, where they are believed to have been taken.

Agence France-Presse reported that the island is "a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a small Islamic militant group blamed for previous abductions of foreigners."