DAYTON, Ohio — Neighbors, acquaintances and former classmates are puzzled by the decision of a West Carrollton, Ohio, man to visit North Korea, where he was detained by authorities for allegedly breaking that country’s exceedingly strict laws. ADVERTISING DAYTON, Ohio
DAYTON, Ohio — Neighbors, acquaintances and former classmates are puzzled by the decision of a West Carrollton, Ohio, man to visit North Korea, where he was detained by authorities for allegedly breaking that country’s exceedingly strict laws.
By many accounts, Jeffrey Fowle, 56, was not the type of person you would expect to be at the center of an international incident.
The 1976 Beavercreek High School graduate was a member of the photo and chess clubs and was active in the school’s Bible club.
After graduating from Ohio State with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Fowle accepted a job with the city of Moraine in the late 1980s and has worked in the street department ever since.
In April Fowle traveled to North Korea on vacation as part of a guided tour because he loved to travel and experience different cultures and see new places, an attorney for his family said. The father of three young children previously had trekked across the globe to visit war-torn areas and to court the Russian native who would become his wife.
U.S. citizens who have visited North Korea as tourists tell this newspaper they were lured by the chance to see one of the most secluded societies on earth.
But some academics and foreign-policy researchers said North Korea is the last place Americans should set foot, since it is full of perilous pitfalls.
“I would indicate real concern with the decision to go, not only because it’s not safe, but also because the North Korean regime uses this for their own propaganda, and it helps to prop up this regime, which is the most brutal dictatorship, almost in human history,” said Mitchell Lerner, director of the Institute for Korean Studies at The Ohio State University.
Fowle, born in Winter Park, Fla., in 1958, attended Beavercreek Elementary School and graduated from Beavercreek High and OSU.
On his job application, Fowle described himself as reliable, dependable, thorough, honest, friendly and a quick learner.
He also said he was familiar with Spanish, German and Russian, and he held a pilot’s license.
His Russian helped him in his romantic pursuits. In the 1990s, he began communicating with women overseas, connections that he made by perusing ads in the back of singles magazines.
Fowle traveled to Russia to meet a young woman named Tatyana “Tanya” Shoom. He returned for a second visit not long after.
Tanya accompanied Fowle to the United States, and they married on Sept. 20, 2000, Montgomery County records show. Tanya gave birth to their first child, Alex, in 2001. They had a second child, Chris, in 2003, and a third, Stephanie, two years later. Tanya works as a cosmetologist.
Fowle owns a farm house on 4000 block of Soldiers Home Road in a rural part of West Carrollton. He bought the property in August 2010. Before that, he lived in a more modest home on the 3500 block of Beechgrove Road in Moraine.
Fowle reportedly was detained by North Korean officials in mid-May as he was wrapping up a two-week organized tour.
Japanese media outlets reported that North Korean authorities claimed to have found a Bible Fowle left behind in his hotel room, which led to accusations of Christian proselytizing, according to The New York Times.
Religion, including Christianity, is outlawed in the authoritarian state. In describing the country, the U.S.-based Cato Institute said the North Korean communist system is considered holy like a church, and the totalitarian rulers are secular saints.
Family members have said little publicly about Fowle’s trip and confinement. Limiting publicity is a wise strategy to aid his return home, according to experts in political affairs.
But the family’s silence has fueled speculation about Fowle’s motivation for visiting a nation ruled by one of the world’s most oppressive regimes. Local residents said it is hard to believe the quiet and reserved man they knew would want to visit such a place and act in ways that would lead to his captivity.
“He’s quiet, keeps to himself, never hurt nobody,” said Terry Beasley, 26, who grew up down the street from Fowle. “He wouldn’t hurt a flea.”
Fowle was kind of nerdy and quiet, but always friendly, said David L. Stephens, 36, who lived just a few blocks from Fowle’s old Moraine home.
Fowle was well-respected in the community, and neighbors would undoubtedly band together to help him and his family out if they knew how they could, he said.
“A lot of people would put up money if there was a jug at the market,” he said.
Tanya had tried to keep her husband from going to North Korea, a family friend said.
“She tried to tell him not to go because it was too dangerous and something might happen, and he didn’t listen to her and he went ahead and went anyway,” Jeff Seidel said.
