The release of Trevor Reed from a Russian prison last week was cause for unadulterated celebration for his family. For Elizabeth Whelan, the experience was far more bittersweet.
When Whelan learned in an early-morning phone call from U.S. government officials that Reed was on his way home but that her brother, Paul, also imprisoned in Russia, was not, she says she uttered words that “cannot be repeated," threw her phone onto the sofa in exasperation and knew she'd have to call her parents — in their 80s — to break the difficult news.
