Parents of Woman Held by ISIL Plead for Contact

The parents of 26-year-old Kayla Jean Mueller released a statement in which they said they are hopeful she is still alive and urged militants who abducted her to contact them directly.

Mueller, an American aid worker, has been held hostage by ISIL since August 2013. However, ISIL recently claimed that she was killed in a Jordanian air strike on their positions in Syria. Jordan has refuted the claim.

In their statement, her parents Carl and Marsha Mueller admitted to sending ISIL leaders a “private message” and noted they refused to talk to media or release her name at the request of the militants.

“To those in positions of responsibility for holding Kayla; in adherence to your warnings and out of concern for Kayla's safety, we have been silent until now,” they said. “After going to extraordinary efforts to keep Kayla's name out of the media for so long, by securing the cooperation of journalists throughout the world, her name was released today.”

As for the private communications, they told the militants “We know that you have read our previous communications; John Cantlie made references to them in October,” referring to a British journalist currently held captive.

“You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest," they said. "As your guest, her safety and well-being remains your responsibility."

Jordanian authorities called ISIL’s claim that Mueller’s was killed in an air strike a “PR stunt” designed to “drive a wedge between the coalition.” Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said they could not confirm ISIL’s claim.

In her home state of Arizona, Mueller worked in an AIDS clinic and volunteered at a woman's shelter. She graduated from Northern Arizona University and traveled to South Asia and the Middle East. Later, Mueller joined the humanitarian organization, the Danish Refugee Council and Support to Life and traveled with them to Syria where she was taken hostage in 2013.