What I survived

In August 2008, Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan travelled to Somalia on assignment. It would be the last decision he made as a free man for nearly a year and a half. Within days of arriving, Nigel and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were ambushed on the outskirts of Mogadishu and taken captive by members of a militant group. What followed was 462 days of unimaginable physical and psyc...

In August 2008, Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan travelled to Somalia on assignment. It would be the last decision he made as a free man for nearly a year and a half. Within days of arriving, Nigel and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were ambushed on the outskirts of Mogadishu and taken captive by members of a militant group. What followed was 462 days of unimaginable physical and psyc...

In August 2008, Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan travelled to Somalia on assignment. It would be the last decision he made as a free man for nearly a year and a half. Within days of arriving, Nigel and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were ambushed on the outskirts of Mogadishu and taken captive by members of a militant group. What followed was 462 days of unimaginable physical and psyc...

In August 2008, Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan travelled to Somalia on assignment. It would be the last decision he made as a free man for nearly a year and a half. Within days of arriving, Nigel and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were ambushed on the outskirts of Mogadishu and taken captive by members of a militant group. What followed was 462 days of unimaginable physical and psyc...

In August 2008, Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan travelled to Somalia on assignment. It would be the last decision he made as a free man for nearly a year and a half. Within days of arriving, Nigel and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were ambushed on the outskirts of Mogadishu and taken captive by members of a militant group. What followed was 462 days of unimaginable physical and psyc...

Born in 1968, the daughter of a former pilot who became a Gurnsey newspaper editor, Annie won a scholarship to a private school and would go on to study at Britain's elite Cambridge University. In 1990, Annie sat a Foreign Office examination in hopes of becoming a diplomat but instead would receive a rather obscure letter suggesting there might be other careers that would suit her better...

Born in 1968, the daughter of a former pilot who became a Gurnsey newspaper editor, Annie won a scholarship to a private school and would go on to study at Britain's elite Cambridge University. In 1990, Annie sat a Foreign Office examination in hopes of becoming a diplomat but instead would receive a rather obscure letter suggesting there might be other careers that would suit her better...

David McMillan has lead a life that is almost unbelievable, its like something out of a Hollywood crime thriller. Born in the UK to Australian parents David would travel back and forth between the two countries a few times until at the age of 10 his parents divorced and he, his sister and mother made the permanent move to Melbourne. David was always different as a kid, he was expelled from school...

David McMillan has lead a life that is almost unbelievable, its like something out of a Hollywood crime thriller. Born in the UK to Australian parents David would travel back and forth between the two countries a few times until at the age of 10 his parents divorced and he, his sister and mother made the permanent move to Melbourne. David was always different as a kid, he was expelled from school...

David McMillan has lead a life that is almost unbelievable, its like something out of a Hollywood crime thriller. Born in the UK to Australian parents David would travel back and forth between the two countries a few times until at the age of 10 his parents divorced and he, his sister and mother made the permanent move to Melbourne. David was always different as a kid, he was expelled from school...

Christopher Douglas Emms is wanted for allegedly conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Specifically, conspiring to violate United States sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK” or “North Korea”) by working with an American citizen to illegally provide cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to the DP, Its quite the mouthful....

Christopher Douglas Emms is wanted for allegedly conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Specifically, conspiring to violate United States sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK” or “North Korea”) by working with an American citizen to illegally provide cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to the DP, Its quite the mouthful....

Once one of America's most wanted men, Wild Bill, as he's been called by authorities, was arrested as he attempted to make his way into Nicaragua via Costa Rica on July 26, 2010. Bill was accused of the murders of 5 people, murders that he would later confess to. Bill says he worked in Panama as a gun for hire, a hitman, for a cartel of sorts. He says he was driven by greed and a severe lack of an...

Once one of America's most wanted men, Wild Bill, as he's been called by authorities, was arrested as he attempted to make his way into Nicaragua via Costa Rica on July 26, 2010. Bill was accused of the murders of 5 people, murders that he would later confess to. Bill says he worked in Panama as a gun for hire, a hitman, for a cartel of sorts. He says he was driven by greed and a severe lack of an...

Once one of America's most wanted men, Wild Bill, as he's been called by authorities, was arrested as he attempted to make his way into Nicaragua via Costa Rica on July 26, 2010. Bill was accused of the murders of 5 people, murders that he would later confess to. Bill says he worked in Panama as a gun for hire, a hitman, for a cartel of sorts. He says he was driven by greed and a severe lack of an...

Once one of America's most wanted men, Wild Bill, as he's been called by authorities, was arrested as he attempted to make his way into Nicaragua via Costa Rica on July 26, 2010. Bill was accused of the murders of 5 people, murders that he would later confess to. Bill says he worked in Panama as a gun for hire, a hitman, for a cartel of sorts. He says he was driven by greed and a severe lack of an...

This is part three of the TikTok fugitive. I was alerted to Chad's story when I was tagged in his TikTok, the TikTok fugitive. I was intrigued by his story and just had to know more, so after getting InTouch we arranged to sit down for an interview. Chad is a former high level Microsoft employee and a WANTED man, wanted by the FBI for apparent international kidnapping. He's accused of kidnapping h...

This is part two of the TikTok fugitive. I was alerted to Chad's story when I was tagged in his TikTok, the TikTok fugitive. I was intrigued by his story and just had to know more, so after getting InTouch we arranged to sit down for an interview. Chad is a former high level Microsoft employee and a WANTED man, wanted by the FBI for apparent international kidnapping. He's accused of kidnapping his...

First of all, thank you so much for the incredible support of the new series What I Survived. I'm currently working hard on Season 2 with some incredible survival stories on the way. For those of you who are new to my work, I thought I'd introduce you to another series I created a few years ago. 'Wanted' tells the stories of men and women who are, or who have been, wanted by authorities. From inte...

"Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane." After 12 weeks in Taliban captivity, Sean Langan had learned to manage hope. Ransom negotiations were happening—somewhere, with someone—but he had no control over them. Every day brought the possibility of release. Every day also brought the possibility of execution. This is the final chapter of Sean Langan's survival story: the chaotic las...

”Sean were dead!” Sean Langan and his fixer are no longer documentary subjects gathering footage. They're captives. Accused of espionage. Held by the Haqqani Network in Pakistan's tribal regions with no guarantee they'll make it out alive. This is where survival becomes psychological warfare. How do you prove you're not a spy when your captors are already convinced you are? How do you stay sane wh...

He Went Back to Meet the Taliban. This Time, He Wouldn't Leave. It's 2008. The War on Terror is in full swing. Pakistan's tribal regions—the lawless frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan—have become one of the most dangerous places on earth for Westerners. And Sean Langan is heading straight into them. He'd met the Taliban before, years earlier, and walked away. But this time was different. Po...

Kidnapped by the Taliban: How Documentary Filmmaker Sean Langan Was Taken Hostage in Pakistan British documentary filmmaker Sean Langan had covered war zones for years—Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria. He was no stranger to danger. But in 2008, when he set out to make contact with the Haqqani Network in Pakistan's tribal regions, he was walking into something far more dangerous than he realized. This is t...

Barry Hulse was living an ordinary life as a factory worker and father in Salford, Manchester, with one extraordinary passion—his love for Goa, India. He visited the coastal paradise so often that he and his mother pooled their money to buy an apartment there. It was his slice of heaven, thousands of miles from home. But in 2006, during what should have been a routine trip with a friend, Barry's l...

On September 5, 1986, Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan, by four armed terrorists from the Abu Nidal Organization. What followed was a 16-hour ordeal of terror that would end with 20 passengers dead and more than 100 injured. Michael Thexton was on that flight, heading home after the devastating loss of his brother Peter, who had died weeks earlier on a Broad Peak cl...