Kidnap victim freed in Mexico

After family members paid a ransom, kidnappers on Wednesday released a former LDS temple president who played a role in then-church President Gordon B. Hinckley's plan to build smaller temples — a plan that launched an extraordinary construction program to double the number of the faith's holiest buildings in 39 months.

Meredith Irvin Romney was kidnapped Monday afternoon while leaving his ranch outside of Janos, Mexico, with his wife and grandson. A vehicle cut off Romney's truck, and gunmen shot out the truck's tires.

Romney is a cousin of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and president of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee who ran for president of the United States last year.

The gunmen forced Romney into their vehicle and sped away.

"I'm worn out," Romney told the Deseret News over the phone Wednesday evening. "They were pretty good to me except for hitting me over the head a few times to get me in the car. But honestly, I was just glad they didn't take my grandson."

Romney was released by the kidnappers at about 3 a.m. Wednesday, about an hour after a family member dropped off ransom money for the kidnappers in a nearby town. Romney said his brother, who handled the negotiation with the kidnappers, would not tell him how much they paid in order to set him free.

After picking up the money, the men took Romney from a cave in a canyon where he had been held about four hours away from his home, and helped him climb up a nearby mountain where they had promised Romney's family they would leave him, he said.

Romney, who is diabetic, said the climb in the middle of the night was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do. He had low blood sugar, little energy, and could barely see a few feet in front of him, but the men told him they had promised to leave him in a certain place, and they did just that.

They took his handcuffs off and left him with a flashlight, a granola bar and a cigarette lighter so he could make a fire. It was there that Romney waited until about noon Wednesday, when he saw the pickup truck of his stake president, who was part of a large search party looking for Romney in the mountains.

Romney said his kidnappers were three men in their 20s, who he called "just young kids." Romney guessed that the men most likely had worked at some point in lower levels of the drug cartel, but they told him that he was not the first person they had kidnapped.

"They said they had been watching me for about a month," Romney said. "Looking back at it I had seen their car go back and forth in front of the ranch a few times, but I didn't think anything of it at the time."