WASHINGTON — Two American contractors kidnapped in Iraq more than a year ago have been found dead, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday, only days after the severed finger of one of the men was sent to American military authorities. The F.B.I. said that the remains of Ronald J. Withrow of Roaring Springs, Tex., and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo., had been found, and that relatives of the victims had been notified. The bureau did not say when and where the bodies were found, or anything about their condition.
Mr. Withrow was one of five kidnapping victims whose fingers were sent recently to the military in Iraq. The fingers of three other Americans — Mr. Young not among them — and an Austrian were also received. DNA analysis confirmed that the fingers were from the missing men.
Mr. Withrow was working in Iraq for the information technology company JPI Worldwide when he disappeared on Jan. 5, 2007. Mr. Young worked for the Crescent Security Group under contract to Italy when he was seized in an ambush on Nov. 16, 2006.
Mr. Withrow’s mother, Barbara Alexander of Afton, Tex., told The Associated Press that the F.B.I. had delivered news of her son’s death on Sunday night. “I know he’s safe from all harm now,” she told The A.P. “We’re bringing him home. That was what our main concern was. And that they’re not going to hurt him anymore.”
Mr. Young’s mother, Sharon DeBrabander, told The A.P. that the F.B.I. had requested her and other relatives not to comment.
The recent delivery of the severed fingers, while shocking to relatives of the missing men, at least gave them hope that they might be alive — hopes that were dashed for the kin of Mr. Withrow and Mr. Young.
“The men and women of the F.B.I. wish to express our deepest sympathy to the victims’ families,” the bureau said. “We understand that this is a very difficult time for all the families involved, and the F.B.I. will continue to provide any assistance it can.
“This is an open investigation, and the F.B.I., working with its partners in the Hostage Working Group in Iraq, will continue to aggressively investigate every available lead in order to identify, apprehend and bring to justice those responsible for this heinous criminal act.”
The men still missing, who were seized around the time Mr. Withrow and Mr. Young were abducted, are Paul Reuben of Minneapolis; Jonathon Cote of Getzville, N.Y., near Buffalo; Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif., and Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria.