
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 7, 1995                   TAG: 9508070078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA                                LENGTH: Medium

TANZANIA HOSTAGES RELEASED

Bandits who abducted five Americans in a national park drugged them unconscious before dumping them in the bush and driving off with their car, U.S. Embassy officials said Sunday.

The Americans - including a Richmond, Va., woman and her daughter - were found semiconscious but healthy Sunday morning by a search party of Tanzanian police and park rangers, said embassy duty officer Charlene Lamb.

The motive for the kidnapping was not immediately known, but the bandits may have wanted their four-wheel-drive vehicle, a prized item in a country with extremely bad roads.

Four gunmen abducted the Americans on Saturday in the Mikumi National Park, about 110 miles southwest of the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam, Lamb said.

The Americans were identified as Sandy Harrington, 35, of Richmond, and her daughter Christine, 10; David and Millie Moreland, 50 and 43, of Monroe, La.; and Joanna Giddens, 10.

Joanna is a friend of Christine's whose parents are missionaries in the northeastern town of Moshi, near Mount Kilimanjaro, said Mark Kelly, a spokesman for the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, based in Richmond.

The Americans had stopped their vehicle - a white Nissan - briefly when the gunmen emerged from the bush, Lamb said. Harrington's husband, William, had gotten out of the car and was not abducted.

The bandits commandeered the car and drove off with the five Americans inside.

Kelly said the bandits forced the Americans to take a powdered drug before driving off. Lamb said they were given a liquid drug. Neither knew what kind of drug was used.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Harrington flagged down another vehicle and gave chase, but could not catch up. Lamb said he reported the abduction to Tanzanian authorities, prompting the search.

After abandoning their captives in the bush, the bandits drove away in the Nissan and apparently crashed, Lamb said. One of the robbers was found dead in the wreck. No arrests were immediately made.

by CNB