Hostage’s Wife Cannot Confirm Grisly Videotape
WASHINGTON — The wife of kidnaped Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins watched a videotape from Lebanon showing a hanged man today, but said she was unable to determine whether it was her husband.
“Needless to say, the news from Beirut is not pleasant,” Robin Higgins said in a statement. “I must, however, await confirmation. I have seen the reports and have not reached any conclusion myself.”
Mrs. Higgins is a major in the Marine Corps.
In a statement issued by family attorney Gregory Craig, she appealed to the captors of hostages in Lebanon “to put an end to this needless cycle of violence and victimization by releasing my husband right now and sending him home.”
Higgins, 37, who works as a public affairs officer at the Pentagon, monitored news reports from Beirut most of the day from a private Defense Department room, along with experts on Lebanon.
She left the Pentagon for her suburban Virginia home at mid-afternoon after viewing the videotape from Beirut showing the body of a hanged man that pro-Iranian extremists said was that of her husband.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said Higgins’ statement that she “has not reached any conclusion” was drafted after she viewed the videotape and felt that she could not confirm that the hanging man was her husband.
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