Now that U.S. officials have verified the beheading of U.S. photojournalist James Foley by the terrorist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), attention has turned to another American journalist being held by the group.
His name is Steven Sotloff, 31, and his roots are in South Florida. He hails fromPinecrest, where his parents still live.
In fact, Sotloff's last Twitter post from August 2013, just days before ISIS kidnapped him in Syria, asked about the upcoming season for the Miami Heat.
How much of an impact with big man #GregOden have with #MiamiHeat next season?
— Steven Sotloff (@stevensotloff) August 3, 2013
Sotloff calls himself a “stand-up philosopher from Miami” on his Twitter profile. He attended the University of Central Florida in Orlando from 2002 to 2004, and UCF Vice President Grant Heston says the former journalism student is in an “unspeakably terrible circumstance.”
Sotloff is a freelance reporter who is based in Libya and writes for media like Time magazine and the Christian Science Monitor.
In a video, an ISIS militant said they would execute him as well if the U.S. doesn't stop its bombing campaign against the group.
His family is not speaking publicly about his abduction or ISIS’s threats to kill him. One of his former editors says things are “too delicate at this juncture.”
