Missing Maryland writer spotted in Libya prison

SILVER SPRING, Md. - A Baltimore writer missing in Libya has been sighted in a prison in Tripoli, U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and the writer's mother said Thursday.

Matthew VanDyke went to Libya this winter to write about the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi. He was there about a week when he disappeared in March.

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Ruppersberger's spokeswoman Jaime Lennon said there have been two independent sightings of the 32-year-old in a Tripoli prison and that the State Department was working to confirm them. The State Department did not immediately return a call for comment.

"This is good news. It's a lead and we're hopeful," Ruppersberger said in a statement. "We'll do everything we can to bring Matthew home safe and sound."

The writer's mother, Sharon VanDyke, said she learned about the sightings Monday and alerted State Department officials, but wanted to give them time to start checking on the information before telling a wider circle of family and friends early Thursday. She said she was told her son was in good health, but declined to say how she learned of the sightings.

Previously she had heard from a friend of her son that an unnamed man told him Matthew VanDyke was in a prison, but there was no specific person that officials could check with.

"It's exciting, a real adrenaline rush," VanDyke said. "That's the best news that we've had and it's credible enough for the State Department to move on."

VanDyke traveled throughout the Middle East, including Iraq and Afghanistan, from 2007 to 2009. He visited Libya for six weeks in 2008 and had kept in touch with friends there, Sharon VanDyke said. He planned to be at home for a year working on a book on his travels, but he found himself distracted by the events in the Middle East, she said.

"My next thing is find him and get him home," VanDyke said. "At least now we know where he is."