EXCLUSIVE: The parents of slain American aid worker Kayla Mueller, Carl and Marsha Mueller, have written an emotional open letter to President Donald Trump, asking him to use his upcoming meeting with Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to bring their daughter’s remains home 10 years after she was killed by ISIS.
The letter, shared exclusively with Fox News Digital, comes just days before al-Sharaa’s first visit to Washington since taking power following the collapse of the Assad regime. The Muellers called the encounter “a providential opportunity” to close one of the most painful chapters of the war in Syria.
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“Ten long years have passed since our daughter’s body found its resting place, unmarked and unknown, somewhere in the crimson folds of Syria’s hills,” the Muellers wrote. “Kayla’s body has not been returned home to us; her story remains incomplete.
Kayla Mueller was a 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker from Arizona who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2013 while helping Syrian refugees near the Turkish border. She was enslaved by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who reportedly abused and murdered her in 2015. Her body was never recovered.
The family’s letter recounts how, in 2019, Operation Kayla Mueller — ordered by President Trump — led to the death of al-Baghdadi in northern Syria. Standing with Trump at the 2020 Republican National Convention, the Muellers credited him for “delivering the iron fist of justice against unspeakable evil.”
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With Assad’s ouster and Syria now under an interim government, the Muellers say the political landscape has shifted dramatically. They praised growing regional cooperation to locate missing Americans and cited Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., who has personally visited Damascus to advocate for her return.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Hamadeh said, “I was sworn into Congress with my hand resting on Kayla Mueller’s Bible, with my family and Kayla’s parents standing by my side. I vowed to them that I would do everything I could to bring her home. In their letter to President Trump, Kayla’s parents wrote about how Kayla was killed attempting to ‘bring light to the darkest corner of the earth — and in her own darkest hour her spirit refused to break.’ That is why I refuse to give up on bringing this remarkable young woman home to her family.”
“The Assad regime has fallen, and with new leadership brings new opportunity to write the final chapter on Americans still missing in Syria,” the Muellers wrote. “Through your leadership, we believe the torch Kayla was forced to drop has roared back to life.”
The Muellers described Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa as a defining moment — both for U.S. foreign policy and for their family’s decade-long quest for closure.
They ended the letter with a plea: “Your meeting is sure to inspire real hope across Syria’s war-torn streets. Bringing Kayla’s body home will do the same for every American heart, and together we will slam shut the era of terror’s reign in Syria and finally bring closure to Kayla’s story. This is a moment to reaffirm America’s resolve: that we never abandon our own. One more push could bring Kayla home.”
