Christianity Today

Resolution as to the fate of three American missionaries kidnapped in Panama in 1993 by Colombian guerrillas continues to evade family and friends. The latest incident involved the discovery of bone fragments in northwestern Colombia, but Colombia's attorney general, Romulo Gonzalez-Trujillo, said that the fragments are not human remains. The clarification was given after Colombian television, citing anonymous military sources, indicated that the remains found the weekend of March 19 by the army were those of the missionaries.The remains were exhumed last weekend outside the jungle town of Acandi near the border with Panama where the missionaries disappeared. Gonzalez-Trujillo said that three bags of bone fragments were taken to a medical institute in Medellin for examination.The missionaries, Richard Tenenoff, David Mankins and Mark Rich of the Florida-based New Tribes Mission (NTM), were kidnapped in 1993 from their mission station in Panama and were held in the Colombian jungles before they were reportedly killed. The men had been working with Kuna Indians in the region.Last October, the FBI joined local military groups and government officials in a massive search of a riverbank in the jungles of Colombia's Choco province to search for the bodies of the three men. A guerrilla defector had told authorities that the missionaries were killed and buried along the river. Over 600 holes were dug, but no remains were located. The town of Acandi where the three sets of bone fragments were recently found is also in Choco province.NTM officials have reported no verified contact with the missionaries' captors since a year after their disappearance. However, unconfirmed reports of sightings of the men have kept hopes alive."We have ...

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