One man from the Ozarks could soon be returning home after he spent seven months in custody in Syria.
According to a report released earlier this week, southwest Missouri native Travis Timmerman was among thousands of people released from several prisons across Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.
Timmerman says that he was on a Christian pilgrimage earlier this year in Budapest, Hungary and had travelled to Zahle, Lebanon when he illegally crossed the border into Syria and was detained.
He spent some seven months in Syrian custody, where he says that he was given food and water, and treated fairly well all things considered.
There were initial reports that Timmerman was Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria over a decade ago, but that rumor was debunked.
A timetable for Timmerman’s return to the United States, and ultimately back to the Ozarks, has not been released.
