In 2019, one of Sam Goodwin’s last tastes of freedom in Syria came in the form of shawarma. He wasn’t expecting disaster. He was just a tourist enjoying Middle Eastern street food. After the meal, he Facetimed his mother to let her know that he had arrived safely in the country.
But as he turned the camera to show her the northeastern town of Qamishli, a soldier grabbed his phone while another demanded his passport. Within a minute, a pickup truck pulled up, and Goodwin was detained and driven to Branch 215, a prison in Damascus notorious for mass torture and execution nicknamed the “Branch of Death.”
“I was stunned and in disbelief about what had happened in just a few short hours, my life had spiraled out of control in the most terrifying of ways,” Goodwin told St. Louis on the Air.
That year, Goodwin traveled to Syria as part of his quest to visit every country in the world. He details the story of his nine-week captivity in his new book, “Saving Sam: The True Story of an American’s Disappearance in Syria and His Family’s Extraordinary Fight to Bring Him Home.”
“Learning about everything that happened on the outside while I was trapped on the inside has been overwhelming, and five years later today, as I've written this book and reflected and met a lot of these people— I'm still saying thank you to people,” he said.
While he was stuck in solitary confinement, on the other side of the world, his family in St. Louis was building an international network of people they thought could help get Goodwin back home.
The book, written by Sam and 10 of his family and friends involved in the case, describes the challenge of getting him out.
“This was a situation where the FBI, the CIA, President Trump, the Pentagon, Pope Francis was involved, Russian intelligence, Middle East NGOs were all struggling to be effective,” Goodwin said.
U.S. officials estimate there are half-dozen Americans still captive in Syria. In May, the family of American psychotherapist Majd Kamalmaz, who disappeared seven years ago in the country, got news that he had died in detention.
Goodwin said his release was miraculous. Five years later, he doesn’t feel survivor’s guilt but a sense of responsibility to support other families coping with a relative being captive.
Part of that responsibility is sharing lessons of resilience and gratitude that he learned from his prison mates.
“These men truly were a remarkable display of humanity, and frankly, reinforced some of the most significant things that I had learned through my travels, one of them being [to] never judge people by the actions of their government,” he said.
For the full conversation with Sam Goodwin about how he maintained strength while stuck in confinement, the many ways his family fought to get him home and the lessons and friends he gained from prison, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Ulaa Kuziez, Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
