A Daughter Opens Up About Her Fathers Death At The Hands Of ISIS

Twelve years after this photograph was taken, Bethany Haines lost her father in the most horrific way imaginable. He was beheaded by ISIS and the video of his murder was released for the world to watch. How does that feel? Here, for the first time, she explains...

- Catriona Innes

I know you… I’ve seen the video of your dad being killed.” It’s Saturday night and I’m at a party. A stranger has just introduced himself, not by asking my name but by letting me know he’s watched my dad be brutally murdered by terrorists. The music seems to stop, the twinkling fairy lights freeze. And I know I can never forget or move on. Everywhere I go, someone reminds me who I am and what has happened to me – I’ll receive taps on my shoulder in my local shop, followed by, “You’re that girl from the paper,” or I’ll be trying to have fun with friends when I see someone staring at me, deep pity etched across their face. It’s been almost three years, but those orange jump suits, the desert, Jihadi John’s face cloaked in black, machete in hand: those images are embedded deep within the minds of millions across the world.

When I was told my dad, David, had been kidnapped, I laughed. It was the day after my 16th birthday and I was sitting on my mum’s sofa. I hadn’t heard from him in weeks – he was an aid worker and lived in Syria – but wherever he was, he always found a way to get in touch. We were close that way – despite the fact my parents had split when I was 12 and he had since moved to Croatia with my stepmum. We’d spend hours on the phone, and whenever I had a problem, whether with boys or school, he was the one I’d turn to. I knew it was dangerous out there, but kidnapping was not something that even crossed my mind – who gets kidnapped? It didn’t feel like a real thing to me.

Mum told me that no one knew where he was or who had taken him – and that we weren’t allowed to tell anyone what had happened. It would put his life in even more danger if we did.