A Kayla Mueller video sent by ISIS as "proof of life" of the now-dead American aid worker abducted in Syria has surfaced as President Barack Obama's administration fights off suggestions that it paid ransom to free other U.S. hostages.
The 10-second video clip, which had never been seen in public before, will air Friday in the ABC News "20/20" broadcast of "The Girl Left Behind."
Mueller's family and the Obama administration confirmed her death last year, said The Associated Press.
The Mirror in Britain said the Islamic State's second in command was reportedly killed with Mueller in an air strike near Raqqa in Syria in February 2015. She reportedly was forced to marry ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and was tortured and constantly raped before her death, said The Mirror.
Mueller, 25, from Prescott, Arizona, was taken hostage by the Islamic State militants on Aug. 4, 2013, when she was grabbed from a Doctors Without Borders vehicle near a hospital in Aleppo, said ABC News.
In the video clip that was sent to a friend of hers, Mueller identified herself and asked for help.
"I've been here too long, and I've been very sick," she said before the video abruptly cuts off. "It's, it's very terrifying here."
The FBI sent the video to the family on Aug. 30, 2013, after the person who received it turned it over to the agency.
"I saw how thin she looked, but I saw that her eyes were very clear and steady," Mueller's mother, Marsha Mueller, told ABC News. "It broke my heart, but I also saw her strength."
Mueller's parents had hoped to get help from the nongovernmental aid organizations their daughter worked for, but got little assistance, reported People magazine. The parents charged that Doctors Without Borders didn't reveal a crucial ISIS email addressed to them until two months after receiving it from workers who had been freed from captivity.
The family also received an audio clip of their daughter after starting negotiations with ISIS via email in May 2014, said People.
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