A mother’s vigil

Matthew VanDyke’s disappearance threw his mother, a retired Baltimore school principal, into a vortex that involved State Department officials, middle-of-the-night overseas phone calls and a trip to Turkey to press for answers from representatives of Moammar Gaddafi’s government.

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Nov. 6, 2011

Matthew VanDyke, at his mother's home in Baltimore, Md., unpacks mementos from Libya, including a poster from Moammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte.

Tara Bahrampour / The Washington Post

Nov. 5, 2011

Sharon VanDyke reacts as she sees her son Matthew, who spent more than five months in Libyan prisons before joining rebel forces who opposed dictator Moammar Gaddafi, arrive on a flight at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport.

Patrick Semansky / AP

Nov. 5, 2011

Matthew VanDyke, who spent months in Libyan prisons, embraces his mother, Sharon, after arriving on a flight at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport.

Patrick Semansky / AP

Nov. 5, 2011

Matthew VanDyke speaks with reporters after his flight arrived at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport.

Patrick Semansky / AP

Nov. 5, 2011

Matthew VanDyke talks with his girlfriend, Lauren Fischer, upon his reunion with family.

Patrick Semansky / AP

Oct. 6, 2011

Matthew VanDyke, who is from Baltimore, works on the front line in Sirte, Libya, after joining the rebel fighters. VanDyke was freed from Libya's most notorious prison in August during the turmoil of the uprising against Moammar Gaddafi after his capture in March by government soldiers.

Manu Brabo / AP

VanDyke, left, before he was captured. He says he went to Libya with the intention of joining friends in the fight against Gaddafi.

Matthew VanDyke

Aug. 27, 2011

VanDyke, in front of the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, said he thought he was going to die when a crowd wrestled open his jail cell, where he had spent six months in solitary confinement. Instead, he was freed.

Francois Mori / AP

Aug. 25, 2011

Lauren Fischer and Sherry VanDyke were relieved by the news that Matthew VanDyke had been released from the notorious Abu Salim prison in Libya.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Aug. 25, 2011

Sherry VanDyke, mother of Matthew VanDyke, and his girlfriend, Lauren Fischer, look at binders of information Sherry compiled about her son.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

February 2011

Matthew VanDyke, show in February, had been in Libya for about a week when he disappeared in March.

/ AP

Aug. 17, 2011

"The way [Matthew] was brought up, where everything was done for him, I slowly and not so subtly made him realize that that's not okay," Lauren Fischer said of her boyfriend. "It's not normal for your parents and grandparents to bring you groceries or clean towels."

Whitney Shefte / The Washington Post

April 2, 2011

A child in Benghazi, Libya, looks at portraits of some of the 1,200 victims of the 1996 Abu Salim prison massacre by the regime. Matthew VanDyke was freed Aug. 24 from the Tripoli prison.

Odd Andersen / AFP/Getty Images

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