Ben Knight reported this story on Monday, August 25, 2014 12:10:00

ELEANOR HALL: On the day that James Foley's family was holding a memorial service to honour the journalist who was beheaded by Islamic extremists, news broke of another US journalist being held hostage in Syria.



But this time, the news was good.



Peter Theo Curtis was released after nearly two years being held by the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda offshoot not connected to the Islamic State group that murdered James Foley.



Members of the Curtis family say they're not aware of any ransom being paid.



North America correspondent Ben Knight has the latest.



PETER THEO CURTIS: My name is Peter Theo Curtis. I'm a journalist from the city of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Today's date is June 30th 2014.



BEN KNIGHT: This is Theo Curtis speaking just a few months ago in a video made while he was still a captive of the Nusra Front. This video wasn't made public at the time, because the entire story of Theo Curtis' kidnapping was being kept secret by his family, and the US government.



Now, almost two years after he went missing, it's become public because Theo Curtis is heading home.



When the story broke there was confusion, no one it seems had heard of a journalist called Theo Curtis. In fact he wrote under the name Theo Padnos and was well known, had extensive experience in the Middle East and spoke fluent Arabic. He most famously documented a journey in Yemen in his book Undercover Muslim.



In the June video, he said he was being treated well by his captors - had food, had clothes, even had friends, but another American journalist who escaped from the Nusra front last year told of very different treatment.



Here's Matthew Schrier speaking with the US 60 Minutes program.



MATTHEW SCHRIER: All I knew was that people were getting tortured, because my second day there that's when I started hearing people screaming. And you'd hear whack, (pounds fist) and they enjoy it. One of them said, "It gets me closer to God."



BEN KNIGHT: Matthew Schrier was tortured himself after an escape attempt. Here he describes meeting Theo Curtis for the first time.



MATTHEW SCHRIER: This guy shoots up and his beard's out to here and he's dirty and he's talking to Mohammed in Arabic like "dah dah dah" and Mohammed's just like, "Americi, Americi like you."



And I was like, what are you talking about? I didn't believe him because the guy was speaking Arabic, you know, and he looked like - he had the beard and everything.



So I looked, and I was just like oh my god, he is an American.



You know, it was a curve ball, like I didn't expect this at all. You know, like one of the first things I said is like, "Oh my god, they're collecting us."



BEN KNIGHT: Matthew Schrier says Theo Curtis helped him to escape but couldn't fit through the window of the basement cell himself and had to stay behind. Now Theo Curtis is free.



In a statement, his mother Nancy said, "We are so relieved that Theo is healthy and safe and that he is finally headed home after his ordeal, but we are also deeply saddened by the terrible, unjustified killing last week of his fellow journalist, Jim Foley."



Nancy Curtis says she's become close to the parents of James Foley, the American journalist who was executed by Islamic State that was shown in a gruesome video released last week.



In a poignant twist, the news of her Theo Curtis's release came just hours before James Foley's family held a memorial service in New Hampshire to mourn the murder of their son.



(Extract from memorial service)



PRIEST: We pray to the Lord in gratitude for Jim's life and the strength to carry on his legacy of love into the world, we pray to the Lord.



PARISHIONERS: Lord, hear our prayer.



(End excerpt)



BEN KNIGHT: British papers have a identified a man they say is the main suspect in James Foley's murder - the notorious man in black.



They say he's a former rapper, Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, aged 23, who left London for Syria last year.



The British government won't confirm that, but does say it's close to identifying the masked man who beheaded James Foley.



Peter Westmacott is the British ambassador to the United States.



PETER WESTMACOTT: We're not yet in a position to say exactly who this is but there is some very sophisticated voice identification technology and other measures that we have got which should allow us to be very clear about who this person is before very long.



BEN KNIGHT: But bringing him to justice will be a far more difficult task.



This is Ben Knight in Washington reporting for The World Today.