Woman rescued from human traffickers

Troop Edmonds and his wife Ravina didn't know what was happening to their niece, Lannie Ejercito. But they knew she was in trouble. The pretty 22-year-old had taken what she thought was a legitimate job as a singer in Malaysia.

But, in fact, she'd been lured in by human traffickers who were demanding a ransom to free her. She was being forced to sign an eight year contract.

Troop Edmonds: She was scared. She wanted out of there. She's stuck in a situation that she has no control over and she doesn't want to spend eight years of her life there.

As it began to dawn on them that Lannie could be in the hands of some pretty dangerous people, they tried redialing the number of the cell phone used to make the ransom call. Maybe they could get a fix on where she was. It didn't work.

Chris Hansen: You know she's in Malaysia.
Troop Edmonds: Uh-huh (affirm).
Chris Hansen: You've got a phone number that doesn't appear to be good.
Troop Edmonds: Right.
Chris Hansen: That's all you got.
Troop Edmonds: That's all I got. But then I call my friend Jerry up.

Jerry is Jerry Howe, who spent 26 years as an FBI special agent working everything from counterterrorism to organized crime to nearly 100 kidnappings. In fact, he worked the notorious Patty Hearst kidnapping case.

Jerry Howe: He said his niece had been kidnapped and he wanted to know if I could trace the phone number in any way.

Troop Edmonds: Jerry says, "Yup. No problem. When we going?" I go, "Oh no, not you, too." So he was going.

Going to Asia, that is.

Whoever had Lannie probably never imagined what was headed their way as this pair of 60-somethings were about to launch an improbable rescue mission halfway across the globe.

Chris Hansen: Here you are, a retired agent. You've got your buddy Troop, and you guys just going to go over there and get her?
Jerry Howe: Basically. Everybody asks me for a plan. From having to write these scenarios for undercover operations for the FBI, they-- it's-- it's kind of like a waste of paper. It's a-- what you want to happen but never does.
Chris Hansen: So you guys were pretty much going to figure it out as you went along.
Jerry Howe: That's really the only way you can do it.

Having worked the Hearst case, Jerry was especially worried that Lannie's captors might brainwash her during the eight years she would be "under contract."

Chris Hansen: What does that say to you? Eight years?
Jerry Howe: They'll own her in eight years. I mean, psychologically she-- they-- they start immediately. So she is subservient to them. And after eight years, she'd be a robot.

A number of former CIA and FBI officials pitched in and supplied the pair with everything from handheld global positioning units to gyroscope-stabilized binoculars.

The plan -- to the extent there is one -- sounds pretty straightforward: zero in on Lannie's location, create a ruse to separate her from the traffickers, even kick in some doors if they have to. Whatever it takes to get her out of Malaysia as quickly as possible.

Chris Hansen: What did you think the chances were of actually finding Lannie and freeing her?
Troop Edmonds: Maybe ten percent.
Chris Hansen: Ten percent.
Troop Edmonds: Yes. There's a chance. It wasn't hopeful.

After all, the men were traveling 8,000 miles from home to a country of 27 million people in hopes of finding one girl.

Troop Edmonds: I was just worried about the flight home without Lannie. Then breaking my wife's heart. She told me not to come back without her.
Chris Hansen: What made you apprehensive about going on this trip?
Troop Edmonds: You're dealing with bad people. And they all usually have guns. And they all-- and they're bad. I mean, really bad.

Finally, the mission is launched and we're invited along.

Because the two Americans don't know where Lannie is being held, they start in her hometown of Cebu in the southern Philippines.

In her home in this squatters' village, Lannie's mother tells the searchers how it all started.

In early October 2006, she accompanied her daughter to this church, where Lannie and 15 others were told to gather for their trip to Malaysia.

They were met by a woman named Rachel Sabal. She had recruited Lannie and the others, promising them high-paying jobs as singers in Malaysia. For Lannie's rescuers, it's the first big lead.

Jerry Howe: Lannie's mother recognizing and knowing who Rachel was, was the key.

Jerry and Troop pass the name to police who check travel records and quickly discover that a 'Rachel Sabal' has recently returned to the Philippines.

It's a lucky break -- she's still nearby.

Detective Jacob Macabali: She just arrived from Kuala Lumpur four days ago.

Jerry and Troop ride along as detectives go looking for Rachel.

Detective Jacob Macabali: Well if there is a written complaint we can go and just--
Troop Edmonds: --arrest Rachel.

When they do find her, Rachel is defiant, insisting that Lannie and the others went to Malaysia of their own free will and are being treated well. But the cops aren't buying it.

Troop Edmonds: They sweet-talked her and her father into the police station. And then they bilked her for information. And she was getting confident. She was pretty confident--

So confident is Rachel that she's done nothing wrong that she provides police with a crude map showing where she claims Lannie and the 15 other Filipinos are living. It’s 1500 miles away, in the Malaysian city of Penang.

By this time, it's clear Rachel is in some hot water. She's given a crash course in Filipino law.

Officer: ...the recruitment and transportation of persons by others using violence or threat of violence...

Rachel calls her sister, who we learn is in Malaysia keeping watch over Lannie and the others.

Jerry and Troop discover that the number Rachel has dialed is the same one Lannie's captors used to make the ransom call.

Troop Edmonds: They had a district attorney-type thing who came and was going to try to check out everybody's story. And he went in and had one talk with her and he told us, "Book her. She's the most blatant human trafficker I've ever seen."

Troop Edmonds: And then they threw her in the clink and she fell apart at the seams.

Rachel: (crying and screaming at the same time)

While this is all going on, Rachel's cell phone rings -- and you won't believe who's on the other end. It's Lannie.

But it's like she's a different person than the one who called Oregon in a panic only weeks earlier. She tells her mother things are fine in Malaysia and that she wants to stay. Her uncle Troop doesn’t believe it, fearful that somone else is putting those words in her mouth.

Troop Edmonds: I just told her, Lannie, we are coming for you. And we're coming now.

And as quickly as they arrived, Troop and Jerry depart the Philippines for Malaysia, unsure of Lannie's precise location.

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