Editorial note: this is the latest in a series of articles related to the KSL Podcast, “Hope In Darkness.” Find all of our episodes and coverage here.

RIVERTON — Laurie Holt, the mother of a Utah man who spent 23 months in prison in Venezuela, first learned about her son’s arrest through a cryptic Facebook message from his mother-in-law. But it was weeks after that message before she actually got to speak to Josh Holt himself.

"She hit rock bottom pretty bad when — I mean, obviously — when Josh was gone. But what parent wouldn't?" said Derek Holt, Josh Holt's older brother.

In 2016, roughly 20 other Americans were being held by other governments — people like Josh Holt found themselves in the custody of Iran, North Korea and, yes, Venezuela. But because the government keeps the information classified, there is no way to know the exact number of Americans held by hostile foreign powers.

Laurie Holt: A mom on a mission

Immediately after learning of her son’s arrest, Laurie Holt sprang into action, though she felt out of her depth.

"There's no book," Jason Holt said in episode six of the podcast detailing his son's ordeal, Hope In Darkness: The Josh Holt Story. "It's all trial and error as you go. You learn to fly or learn to swim — or sink."

Jason said his wife started working the phones.

"You know, we rattled every cage we could, and we had some contacts throughout the country and throughout the world, really," Jason Holt said.

But nothing they did could help them reach Josh himself — until the night a fellow inmate at Venezuela’s El Helicoide made contact through the cell next door.

A borrowed cellphone

A few weeks after Josh Holt arrived at El Helicoide, he saw hands in the opening of the wall high above his bed on the floor of a solitary cell. In the cell next to his, another inmate stood on the back of a friend to be able to talk to him.

“Are you the Gringo?” he asked.

Yes, Josh Holt answered.

The man on the other side of the wall asked whether Holt’s family knew where he was.

"And I said, 'No. They don't know I'm here,'" Holt recalled.

The other man asked if Holt would like to call his parents.

"'Of course I would like to call them. 100% yes!'" Holt remembered answering. "He said, 'OK, at night, when all the guards go to sleep, I'll pass you a phone and you can talk to 'em.'"

Something only Josh would know

As it turned out, talking would have to wait. On the borrowed phone, Holt found he could not call out to the United States, but he could send a text message. He typed out three letters and held his breath.

"I just said, 'Mom?' And I sat there, waited and waited, and she said, 'Who is this?' And I said, 'It's Josh.'"

Worried about someone trying to trick them, Laurie and Jason Holt hesitated to answer. They wanted to think of something they could ask that only Josh could answer. They settled on the nickname of his first car, a beat-up red pickup truck nicknamed "The Burrito."

"And we texted back and we made him say, 'If this is Josh, what was the name of your truck?'" Jason Holt said.

Josh typed the answer and hit send.

"And (my mom) was like, 'Oh, my gosh, Joshie! How are you? I love you, I miss you,'" Josh Holt said.

Allies on Capitol Hill

Every single person interviewed for Hope In Darkness described Laurie Holt's tenacity in her son's case as the driving factor that ultimately resulted in his safe return to the United States — that includes Mia Love, the former 4th District representative for Utah, and now-retired Sen. Orrin Hatch.

"Laurie Holt was scary to me, in a sense," Love said. "I wanna explain what that means. It's that, most of these situations, you look at them and you think, you know, this couldn't happen to me. ... This happens to other people. But Laurie Holt was, in essence, the mother next door."

Love saw something of herself in Laurie Holt. She realized what happened to the Holt family could have happened to anyone.

"She was just this ordinary mom that all of a sudden is fighting for the life of her son," Love said. "She was relentless."

During the 23 months Josh and Thamy Holt spent at El Helicoide, Hatch released video updates periodically on YouTube and other social media channels. He asked for prayers for the young couple, but also for their families.

"She never gave up. She was the true Mama Bear," Hatch said. "And I miss her now that she has passed. I think of her often. We all could use a mother like that, let me tell you."

He talked about how hard it was to watch the Holts endure their separation from Josh and Thamy in another video.

"I've gotten to know Josh's wonderful family, and it's been painful to watch them go through this terrible ordeal," he said in the video. "I will not stop until we have Josh back."

"She was so compelling that she made her member of Congress and her senator 100% committed to getting Joshua out. And I just kept saying to her: We are not going to give up until he comes home," Love said.

In May 2018, both Love and Hatch were on hand when Laurie Holt finally got to give her son one of her famous “Mama Bear” hugs in person, after his release from prison.

Hope In Darkness releases new episodes weekly on Wednesdays. Subscribe free on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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